The Chicken and The Egg

I've been a slacker this week. I cooked last night and didn't blog right away and this morning, I made breakfast and didn't share right away like I usually do. But, don't worry. I'm done procrastinating!

Let's start with dinner last night. I've been wanting to try to roast a chicken like Mrs. Ina Garten did on her show, The Barefoot Contessa, since it looked delicious AND beautiful. Knowing that I can't eat an entire chicken, I invited my neighbor, Caiti, over to partake in the bounty...and what a bounty it was! OOH boy! We had Baked chicken, carrots, roasted rosemary red potatoes, cheddar bay biscuits and an apple bake.

Mrs. Ina's recipe is but, I changed it up just a tad bit.

The only major thing I changed was that I used fresh rosemary instead of the thyme. I also just spread the butter all over the chicken without melting it. You know I like to do things different! It was such a beautiful chicken. See for yourself...

The carrots and apple bake, I've posted on here before, but I'll share the roasted red potatoes with you today.


You'll need:
6 red potatoes/new potatoes
1-2 sprigs of rosemary
2-3 table spoons olive oil
salt and pepper--just a couple turns of the grinders will do

Preheat oven to 450

1. Wash the potatoes and cut them into 1/2 inch chunks. Then put them into a medium baking dish.
2. Pour olive oil on the potato pieces. Add salt and pepper. Toss together.
3. Chop the rosemary into small pieces and add to the potatoes. Toss potatoes again.
4. Bake for 40-45 minutes, stirring or tossing them every 10 minutes or so. You don't want them to stick to the bottom of the pan...that leaves all the good parts in the pan!

You want to bake them until they're tender. The red potatoes are a little more sweet and delicate than if you roasted a russet potato. They were so good!!

Forgive the blurriness of the picture, but here's what it all looked like...phone camera...sorry...

With a good glass of wine, we were set for a great dinner! The chicken was perfectly moist and the carrots and potatoes were just right. And the apple bake was the best I've made, so far!



Now...the egg. I guess in this case, the chicken did come before the egg...ugh. horrible joke. my bad.

Alright so I watched the movie, Morning Glory, the other day and Indiana Jones (yes I know his name is Harrison Ford!) was a lead character in it. He ends up showing this young, ambitious girl that he is fond of her by cooking on television, which is not news and something he swears he will never do. Anyways, I wanted to look into the Frittata since he makes one on the movie...GOOD CHOICE AMY!!!

Wikipedia says frittata is a derivative of "to fry" which makes complete sense, seeing as you how it's cooked. See, its kinda like an omelette, but the ingredients are all mixed in, not just wrapped up in the middle. And, you are supposed to stick your whole frying pan in the oven to cook it all the way through. Here's what I did...


You need:
2 eggs
salt and pepper
1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
1 table spoon butter
1/4 cup of meat-I used to strips of bacon and chopped them up. I think next time I'll try ham, just for fun.
2-3 tablespoons diced tomato
3-4 sprigs of parsley, roughly chopped


Preheat oven to BROIL

1. Beat the eggs together with the salt, pepper and cheese.
2. In a frying pan or omelette pan, melt your butter. Then add your tomato and bacon. Cook them together for 3-4 minutes.
3. Add the eggs to the pan and stir with a rubber spatula. Let the eggs cook in the pan for 3 minutes or until the egg starts to set up some.
4. Before eggs are completely cooked, top with parsley and place in the oven (set to broil) for about 5 minutes. You want the eggs to finish cooking and get a little bit crispy on the edges.
5. Take it out of the oven (dufus-pot holders!)and top with a little more cheese, just for fun.

(yes, my parsley may be a little crispy...my bad. DON'T JUDGE ME, MONKEY!)


Now, here's the problem I had. You're supposed to do this in a frying pan....but I didn't want to find out the hard way that my frying pan wasn't oven safe. When I looked it up later, it was only oven safe to 450....but my oven doesn't tell me what temperature I get to pick to broil at. It just does its preset temp and makes the heat come from the top, not the bottom like usual (which is what broiling is...cooking from the top heating element instead of the bottom.)

SO what I did instead, was used my handy-dandy pyrex dishes on my burner instead of the frying pan, and then just put the whole thing in the oven. Yes, my frittat came out rectangle instead of the ideal round. No, the frittata police have not contacted me about this. If you don't hear from me for a while, though, I'll be needing bail money to get out of frittata jail...


The frittata was so fluffy inside! It was amazing! It was so light, and airy in comparison to scrambled eggs or an omelette. I am now a major fan and I might be looking into getting a new pan for making frittatas!


Go out and get some of these ingredients so you can make something yummy for yourself. And, if you want to help me keep cooking, click on a link to an advertiser when you're done reading. It's like giving away someone else's money so that you can read about my crazy cooking hijinks!

Love one another and Happy Cooking!

amy

ps...my little dog, Buddy, is using the sad puppy eyes on you....click the ads so he can get a table scrap or two. Please, sir? May I have some more? haha