A Little Bit of Egg on a Sunday

Today will be a recipe. Which doesn't happen very much anymore. But this was tasty...very tasty. And a riff on something I do regularly. So don't just pay attention to the recipe, pay attention to the meta. Take some things, do this to them, add that to them, cook them this way, present them that way...

To begin with, my desire to get up early was thwarted. You know, have breakfast and then do stuff and then have lunch and do more stuff and head to Dad's for dinner.

That did not happen.

Instead, I gloriously ignored my alarm and was well-rested enough (and hungry enough) to get into THIS little lovely for brunch.

First, of course -- and I mean of course not as a literal use of the phrase but as a sarcastic device to tell you that no, I do not in fact do what I write afterwards -- I put a pot of collard greens on to simmer.

After that and a first slug of Zeke's coffee to really and truly wake up, it was eggs and veg time. As my photos of said eggy creations may or may not have told you, I tend these days to saute up a bunch of stuff, throw eggs and cheese over it, let the bottom set, and then finish it off in the oven. No flipping required. The un-Frenchification of the omelet but not quite the real Spanish-ification into a true fritatta.

Today was a 'get rid of last week's bell peppers' moment. Oh, and use those cremini I saved from the baked ziti w/ sausage/eggplant/cremini from last night. I think like that. If I save a couple of these, then I can use them in the next thing too. And if I'd made the ziti AND the posole yesterday I'd have been out of jalapeno. And that would have been a tragedy.

1/2 cup diced cremini mushrooms
2 diced scallions (1T green parts reserved)
1 jalapeno diced (half of seeds and membrane removed)
1/3 cup diced yellow bell pepper (4 thin slices and 1T dice reserved)
1/3 cup diced red bell pepper (4 thin slices and 1T dice reserved)
2 t tomato paste
1 egg and 2 egg whites
2 T milk or cream
3 T shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees
Burner to medium/medium-high
In a non-stick omelet pan saute the cremini over medium heat in oil until mostly soft (3 minutes)
Add whites and most of greens of scallions and all of japapeno and saute until soft (1 minute)
Add the tomato paste and saute until combined and hot through (1 minute)
Add most of the bell pepper and saute until just hot (1 minute)
Salt and pepper
Stir eggs, egg whites, milk and cheese and add to pan and cook until the bottom just begins to set
Arrange slices of pepper in a star on top of the just setting eggs/cheese and place into oven
Bake until the eggs are totally set and the cheese has melted completely (about 12 minutes)
Plate and sprinkle w/ reserved peppers and scallions

If I had realized I was going to do the slices of pepper thing, I would have sliced one of the cremini and put the slices between the spokes of the pepper before I put it all in the oven.

As I type this I'm listening to the Papa John's commerical talking about their 'fresh' ingredients...yeah...I'm gonna go with my 'fresh' here...