A Little Taste of Home: Onions and Eggs

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Gran Fran made me onions and eggs on our most recent visit.

We visited for a little over two weeks, and returned home just before school started. What a good time we had. Tons of good food at every turn, with these onions and eggs as one of my favorite simple meals we were served.

These eggs are great served at room temperature, too. You could easily pack this in a container for a nice hearty lunch. It's also excellent with some cheese added in at the end of cooking, or better yet, some bacon. The little bit of sugar in the mix just heightens  the flavor of the onions.

Make this easy, four ingredient dinner for dinner, serve it alongside a salad and toasted baguette and you've got yourself a great meal.

Onions and Eggs

Ingredients:

  • 2 pounds Vidalia onions, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • Good dose of kosher salt
  • Freshly ground pepper to taste
  • 8 large eggs, beaten just until blended

Method:

  1. Heat large skillet; add olive oil; heat oil over high heat.
  2. Add onions; reduce flame to medium; sprinkle with sugar, salt, and pepper.
  3. Saute about 20 minutes over low heat---or until golden and reduced by at least half.
  4. On medium heat;stir in eggs; allow to set for three minutes or so.
  5. Stir and fold eggs until they reach desired consistency; serve.

Sweet Peppers, Oven Roasted

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Take the time to make these roasted peppers. Super simple, delicious and versatile, these peppers can served as a side dish or in a salad. I served them on top  broiled salmon and quinoa.

Delish!

Oven Roasted Sweet Peppers

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 sweet peppers sliced into rings
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced into small pieces
  • Salt to taste

PREPARATION

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Pour the olive oil onto a rimmed baking sheet
  3. Place the hot pepper rings onto the baking sheet, turning over on the pan to coat with the olive oil.
  4. Throw the garlic cloves into the pan.
  5. Sprinkle with coarse salt .
  6. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes. Check on them every five minutes or so to ensure that the peppers aren't browning too quickly. If they are, lower the heat to 400 degrees.
  7. Remove from oven and pour the rings and oil into a glass jar or bowl.

Excellent in egg dishes, pasta salads or mixed into a green salad with nuts and cheese.

Grits, Fried Green Tomatoes and Bacon: The Perfect Meal

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Grits, fried green tomatoes and bacon were the first combination that came to mind when I started work on this installment of our Cook The Book project.

We are covering cereals from Marion Cunningham’s The Breakfast Book. There are six of us participating in the project: Rachel of Ode to Goodness, Sammy of Rêve du Jour, Emily of The Bon Appetit Diaries, Aimee of Homemade Trade and Claudie of The Bohemian Kitchen.

I've never made either of these dishes before. Both turned out to be very easy and very satisfying. I was surprised at how much I loved the grits. They are a cross between traditional polenta and a warm grain cereal, like cream of rice or farina. Those were two of my favorite warm cereals growing up, so it makes perfect sense that the grits made me so happy. It's such a filling dish that I think I can get six to eight servings out of each batch.

The recipe said you could serve the grits as a sweet dish with milk and sugar. Savory breakfast is more my taste, so I tried the grits two ways: one just with butter and one with black truffle oil and bacon.

The black truffle oil was my favorite, but way too rich to eat very much of it. The fried green tomatoes were nice and crispy, as an alternate cornmeal texture against the smooth silkiness of the grits. I have plans to make a ton of this, and will likely experiment with some other combinations.

Good Grits

adapted from Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book, copyright 1987, Alfred A Knopf

Ingredients:

Method:

  1. Bring the water to a boil and add salt. slowly stir in the grits, and stir for a few seconds more.
  2. Turn the heat to medium-low (closer to low than medium on my stove) and cover the pan.
  3. Cook, stirring once or twice for five minutes (I left it for up to 10 minutes).
  4. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter or the black truffle oil.
  5. Serve hot.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Ingredients:

  • 4 small hard green tomatoes cut into slices
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt (you may want to add more at the end depending on taste)
  • 1 to 2 eggs, whisked until yolks are incorporated with the whites, in a shallow dish
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup cornmeal, on a small plate
  • Tobasco or Chalula sauce for serving.

Method:

  1. Heat a skillet over high heat.
  2. Place the tomato slices in the egg wash, turning to coat them completely.
  3. Transfer the egg-coated tomato slices to the cornmeal and coat them completely in corn meal.
  4. Add the olive oil to the hot pan, swirling it around to cover the entire surface of the pan.
  5. Place the tomato slices in the hot oil and cook for four minutes, or until the coating on that side has browned well.
  6. Turn the slices over and cook for an additional four minutes on the second side.
  7. Remove the slices to a paper towel lined plate, sprinkle with salt and serve.

The Best Pesto: The Italian Pantry

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I've posted this pesto recipe before. It's Gran Fran's famous pesto and it cannot be beat.

Click on over to her site, The Italian Pantry to read her memoir relating to this lovely pesto.

Classic Pesto

original recipe courtesy of Fran Claro of The Italian Pantry

Ingredients

  • 3 cups basil leaves
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, roughly grated (I omit the cheese when I make this and it's fine)
  • 1 to 1 1/4 cups extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2   teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • Dried red pepper flakes to taste

Preparation

  1. In blender or food processor, pulse all ingredients, until sauce is thick and creamy.
  2. Add more oil if necessary.
  3. If you are storing this for later use, put a few tablespoons of olive oil in the jar after you’ve filled it with the pesto to keep it fresh and green.

Yields approximately 2 cups Prep time, 15minutes; cook time 0

Cook’s Notes: Serve on top of pasta, as a pizza sauce or as a spread on your favorite sandwich. Great with mozzarella and tomato in a salad.

Roasted Vegetables: Beets, Potatoes and Zucchini

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 I know it's really hot outside, but if you can deal with it, you need to make some roasted vegetables. There are many great choices at the farmer's markets right now:  beets, potatoes, zucchini.

 The best part is, that once you make it through the roasting, you'll have plenty leftover for upcoming meals. You can serve these veggies as part of a green salad, as a pizza topping, or just on their own, cold with some salt and pepper.

Roasted Vegetables: Beets, Potatoes and Zucchini

You can cook all the veggies at once, but I prefer to do them individually so that they each keep their own flavor.

Ingredients:

  • 4 to 6 zucchini sliced into rounds
  • 8 to 10 beets, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 10 yukon gold potatoes sliced into rounds
  • 3/4 cup olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and place an empty jelly roll pan in to heat up at the same time.
  2. Once the oven has preheated, carefully remove the tray from the oven, pour 1/4 cup of the olive oil onto the tray and place the zucchini on top.
  3. Turn the zucchini slices over several times to coat in the oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  4. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, until the pieces have browned and softened.
  5. Repeat this process with the beets and the potatoes.

Fourth of July: Vegetarian Grilled Fajitas

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Simply put, you need to make these grilled vegetable fajitas for Fourth of July. Because they are made up of many different grilled veggies, your guests can pick and choose what they want to include on their fajita. Which will leave you with plenty of time to enjoy the festivities.

I grilled everything on my stovetop in a grill pan. If you have a BBQ grill, that'll make things even easier, especially clean up. You can char the peppers, instead of slicing them up and grilling them, to make them more like a roasted pepper. And to make this completely vegan, use Vegannaise instead of mayonnaise. Of course you can go the meat route just by adding some grilled steak or chicken to the topping options. You will not be disappointed.

Happy Fourth of July!

Vegetarian Grilled Fajitas

as featured on The Fruit Guys website.

INGREDIENTS 2 bell peppers (any color), de-seeded and sliced in strips 1 onion cut into strips 1–2 zucchini (or other summer squash) cut in lengthwise slices 1/4-inch thick 3/4 cup olive oil 1/4 teaspoon dried cumin 1/4 teaspoon chipotle chili powder 1 teaspoon smoked or sweet paprika 4 tablespoons mayonnaise, Vegenaise, or sour cream Flour tortillas

PREPARATION

  • Heat up 1/4 cup of the oil in a heavy bottomed skillet, preferably a grill pan.
  • Place sliced bell pepper and onion in the pan and cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  •  Stir in squash slices and cook another 5 minutes or until squash begins to soften and just turn brown.
  • Remove from the pan and set aside.
  • Mix together mayo/sour cream, cumin, paprika, and chili powder.
  • Spoon veggie mixture onto well-heated tortillas, roll up, and top with a dollop of the dressing.

Serves 2. Prep time, 5 minutes; cook time, 20 minutes.

Cook’s note: Try adding sliced grilled mushrooms and/or eggplant, and topping with guacamole or fresh avocado slices. Heat tortillas in grill pan, or wrap in aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes at 350°F.