Frittata!

Frittata seems to me to be one of those words that needs an exclamation mark. Kind of like ole. Ole doesn't look right unless it's written ole! Am I right?

I'm tardy with Canada Day greetings but I have a good excuse. On Friday David and I completed our first (well - second) 10K. Our time was 1h3m but our goal wasn't a fast time, it was to run the whole race (no matter how slow) and to finish. Which we did! The course was a bit more hill-filled than the Terry Fox 10K we completed back in the Fall but we persevered. (I say this is our first 10K because when we did the Terry Fox run we didn't set out to do the 10K distance. It just sort of happened.) After our triumph we headed back to London (the 10K was part of the Highland Games in Embro) to meet up with family. And then we ate. And ate. And ate some more. My parents brought the food and when they bring food they mean business. Which means I have lots of leftovers. In particular lots of veggie leftovers since we had a large vegetable tray, many of which are of a type that never make it into my own grocery cart. (Such as radishes..what am I going to do with a half bag of radishes?) One of my favourite things to make with leftover veggies is frittata. It's so easy and perfect for a hot Summer evening. Here's how I made this one:

The veggies I was aiming to use up included a dozen mushrooms and half a yellow pepper. I also had some leftover chives. I always have eggs and mozzarella cheese on hand. (I considered the radishes and then decided this wasn't the time or place for that particular experiment.) So. What I did. I started by cutting up a small onion. About 1/4 cup worth. Then I sliced my mushrooms and diced my pepper. I heated some olive oil in a 10 inch skillet and once it was hot, added the onion, stirring for 1 minute, followed by the veggies for 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, I beat six eggs combined with a cup of mozzarella cheese and a handful of chopped chives. Once the veggies were softened I poured in the egg mixture. The whole shebang cooked on medium low heat for about 5 minutes. Then I transferred it to the oven to broil the whole works for another 2 minutes.

Voila. Frittata! All that is left to do is remove your frying pan from the oven with an oven mitt and put another oven mitt over the pan handle immediately. As in right away. Otherwise you might forget how hot the handle is, get out the toaster to make toast then grab the frying pan with your bare hand to shake the frittata onto a plate. Which will burn you. Don't say you haven't been warned.

So the basic idea here is you can make a simple dinner if you can find 6 eggs, 1 cup of cheese, a bit of onion and 1 1/2 cups of veggies. Or whatever you have in the fridge that seems appealing. I almost put in some leftover steak and roasted potatoes we had leftover from Sunday dinner but I decided to save those for David. He doesn't enjoy my frittata experiments as much as I enjoy them. And I just signed him up for another 10K run in the Fall so I need to show him some love. This particular frittata will likely be designated breakfast this week. A wedge served between toast is a great way to start the morning.