Easy Frittata



Photo by Rachel Dedrickson


What is your dinner ritual?

Growing up, Mom and Dad made a point to sit down with my brother and I at 6 pm every evening to discuss the day's events and enjoy a meal together.

What happened to that ritual? Well, I live on my own now and having a dinner plan every night is not so simple. It requires planning and energy, which I don't always have time for. In fact, it is not unusual for me to be pondering what I should make for dinner during my evening commute Monday through Friday.

On my way home from work last week, I settled on making a frittata for dinner. It fit the criteria. A frittata is fast, easy to assemble, and requires the eggs, goat cheese, spinach, mushrooms, and onions I already had readily available in the fridge (most of the time).

A frittata can be anything you want it to be. It doesn’t require a certain amount of flour or sugar or salt. A frittata can mean chicken sausage, red pepper, and feta cheese or it can mean potatoes, onions, and garlic.
What do you have in your fridge?

The frittata turned out fabulously. Since I'm not always inspired by the dinner hour, breakfast for dinner always seems to do the trick!

Photo by Rachel Dedrickson

Easy Frittata

Ingredients:
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp. butter or olive oil
1/2 an onion
1 cup of spinach
3 mushrooms, sliced
Goat cheese
Salt and pepper


Directions:
Preheat oven to 400º F. Heat butter in an ovenproof pan*. Sauté onions, spinach, and mushrooms until lightly brown, about 6-8 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the eggs over the vegetables. Sprinkle cheese and a bit more salt and pepper on top. Bake until the egg puffs up and browns to your liking, about 10 minutes.

*If you don’t have an ovenproof pan, transfer vegetables to an 8” or 9” cake pan after you are done sautéing them.

Brioche Bliss

Photo by Rachel Dedrickson

I have never been to France, yet I understand how a piece of brioche is something to covet. Brioche is sweet bread made with eggs and butter. It is somewhat cake-like. It's fluffy and buttery all the way through.

But brioche is not just bread. Brioche is an experience! Any decent brioche encounter incorporates honey or dab of raspberry jam and, of course, coffee or tea to wash it down.

Brioche also makes wonderful bread for French toast, which is a breakfast item I intend to tackle later this week.

There is not much else to say except...


Bon appetit!

Photo by Rachel Dedrickson

The Simplest Brioche

From La Tartine Gourmande

Ingredients:

8 3/4 oz (1 2/3 cups) all-purpose flour

2 3/4 oz butter, at room temperature

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 dose dry baker’s yeast (1 Tbsp)

2 Tbsp fine sugar

1/3 cup warm milk

1 pinch salt

1 egg yolk for glaze

Directions:
In a bowl, mix the flour with the yeast, make a hole in the middle.


Add the warm milk mixing with the tip of your fingers (if using a stand mixer, pour the milk slowly and steadily while mixing, with the hook attachment.)


Add the sugar and a pinch of salt, then add the soft butter, piece after piece, waiting each time that each piece is absorbed.


Then one by one, add the eggs, mixing well between each. Work the dough until it is elastic and detaches from your fingers more easily (or from the bowl of the stand mixer).


Cover and let rest in a warm place, away from drafts, for two hours, until it doubles in size.


Work the dough again for 10 min and divide it in four balls. Place them in a greased rectangular mold and cover. Let rise for an hour again.


Preheat the oven at 400 F.


Brush the brioche with the egg yolk mixed with a dash of sugar. With a pair of scissors, make small cuts at the top of each ball.


Place in the oven to bake for 10 min then reduce the heat to 350 F and bake for about 20 to 30 min.


Remove, unmold and let cool on a rack.


Enjoy!

Photo by Rachel Dedrickson