I’m enamored with frittatas.  Not only do you get all of the possibilities of an omelet, but you don’t have to worry about flipping it at the end.  Whatever you happen to have hanging out in the fridge or the pantry is fair game, work is minimal and the result is good hot from the oven or at room temperature. Frittata can be breakfast, brunch, an appetizer, a starter or the main course of any dinner, they are that versatile.

While all frittata recipes are similar, each variation has its own special little variations, which is why you’ll see so many different recipes for this dilectable dish out there.  This one came from two distinct needs.  The first was to get some food in me because I was starving.  The other was to find a use for some bacon left over from some wraps I whipped up the night before. In both cases this dish was imminently satisfactory.

If you’ve never thought of pairing eggs with broccoli, give it a whirl!  Broccoli and cheddar frittatas are one of my go-to early morning meals, both because I love them and because they can be baking away while I deal with morning dishes and my son’s breakfast.  By the time I’m done, breakfast is ready for Dad as well.  You can’t beat that for simple and convenient.

Do you have a favorite frittata recipe? If so, why not share it in the comments, there’s always room for another great frittata recipe.

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© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Broccoli, Cheese, eggs, frittata, Italian, Recipes

If you’re looking for something a bit different, completely savory and sumptuous and more than a bit over the top, this is the meal for you.  Preperation is relatively simple and the flavors are something that most only experience in high-end establishments, thinking that something of this calibur could never be prepared in a home kitchen.  While there is a bit of long-term preparation involved the process really isn’t all that hard, it’s just the big fancy name that makes it sound daunting.

To quote the Grand Dame of the American Culinary Revolution:

“Noncooks think it’s silly to invest two hours’ work in two minutes’ enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet.” ~ Julia Child

For most people, confit automatically brings to mind images of something cooked in duck or goose fat.  While this is the current trend, confit is actually a much simpler premise than that.  The definition of confit is quite simple:

Confit: [kohn-FEE] A meat slow cooked in its own fat with spices. Or a jam-like sweet spread.

In using this definition, anything cooked in its own fat is a confit, and to be tied to only using duck or goose fat would be a crying shame, since chicken confit is probably the simplest of all to make with just ingredients from your local BigScaryMegaMart, namely chicken leg quarters.

You know the ones.  You’ve seen them before.  They sit in the poultry section in a forlorn ten pound sack, partially packed in an impotent brine. These are the byproducts of the American love of the boneless-skinless chicken breast, cast off to obscurity because someone convinced an entire nation that white meat was the best meat.  In this case their loss is our gain.

The chicken sold in bulk bags is mostly from roasting chickens.  Roasting chicken are larger birds with a higher fat to body mass ratio and because of this have become less popular in todays marketplace.  Bulk chicken is also not trimmed for excess fat, it’s just sold by weight, meaning that the producers are not interested in making it look pretty.  It’s perfect for confit and it usually costs around $4.00 for 10 lbs of chicken!  The rest is almost blissfully simple.

So step out of your comfort zone for a moment and take a journey with me to the land of gourmet, where with just a bit of time and effort the most humble ingredients transform themselves into something more than you could have ever imagined where flavors and aromas transcend the parts that make up the whole and become something entirely wonderful.  The experience may only last a few moments, but it is very much worth the effort.

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© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2008. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Broccoli, chicken, mushrooms, Pasta, recipe

If you’re looking for a quick, simple pasta recipe that won’t let you down, this is the one you’ll want to keep handy. We used gemelli for this dish, but it would work equally well with rotini or any other full bodied pasta.  Gemelli just happens to be our recent new favorite, os we’re doing a lot of experimenting with it.

This particular recipe came about from the need to get something on the table quickly. my wife called and announced that she would be coming home for lunch on this particular day, even though she was supposed to be having a lunchtime meeting.  The result…  Well, in a word it was fabulous.  Or to quote Billy Crystal as Fernando, it was “Simply Maaaahhhvelous”.

This recipe is also my entry for the ninth edition of the Frugal Fridays food blog event, where myself and several other very talented people, including Ben, from What’s Cooking?  There are others working on the project with us, but I’m not at liberty to discuss them just yet.

The purpose of Frugal Fridays is for foodies or food bloggers to create a recipe that costs $10.00 US or less that will feed a family, and this recipe falls so squarely into that category that it really should be a crime.

But without further discussion or ado, I present to you…

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© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2008. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Broccoli, Ham, Pasta, Recipes, Tomatoes

I made this particular dish to participate in the “day that really Schmecks, part 2” event from Confessions of a Cardamom Addict. I found the idea of checking out some Mennonite cooking very interesting to say the least, and I even managed to find a recipe that fit my “Cook don’t bake” strategy to kitchen life. (Not easy since I don’t own any of Edna’s books, and with a deadline of the 29th of January I decided to use the Sausage and Vegetable Bake recipe I found at Loving Spoonfuls.In very un-seat of my pants manner, I followed the recipe to the letter, not allowing myself to deviate or get creative in the slightest. This was, after all, a tribute to Edna Staebler, author of Food that Really Schmecks, and a tribute to Mennonite cooking in general. For once, I was going to do what I was told on the page. No changes, using just the highest quality ingredients I could lay hands on. … [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2007. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blog Events, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Potatoes, Sausage

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2007. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Broccoli, Pasta, Sausage