Enjoying cooking

Before I talk about cooking, I have to share a funny story. I realize everyone may not find our child as amusing as Nick and I do, but we thought this was hysterical. This evening, Bella grabbed a Vegetarian Times from the coffee table and climbed up on the sofa to sit with us. She opened the magazine to an article on olive oil. Then she looked at a drawing of olive oil and bread, and pretended to pull some bread from the basket and eat it! She even shared with us. Then she moved on to dessert (mini moon pies). We knew she enjoys pretend cooking, but had no idea she was into pretend eating! Oh, and did I mention that one of her favorite words is "yum"?

As you can probably tell from the infrequency of my posts, I have not exactly been enjoying cooking lately. This is probably due to the fact that I haven't been enjoying eating. In fact, the last meal I really enjoyed preparing was the veggie pizza I wrote about. Good news: my appetite-- as well as the joy of cooking-- is returning! As I type, a frittata is baking and extra hashbrowns are browning. And I realized as I sprinkled thyme over the egg mixture that I was actually enjoying cooking again!

Frittata, which is basically quiche without crust, is definitely a go-to meal at our house. We almost always have eggs and potatoes, some sort of cheese, and fresh herbs. Of course, you can add vegetables or meat or change the combination of herbs... it's all about using what you have on hand.

The recipe linked below is a good basic one, and the photo in Barefoot Contessa Family Style always looks delicious to me. While looking up the link, I also found a Paula Deen recipe for hash brown quiche that looked pretty yummy.


Recipes and notes

I've recently discovered that this is even yummier when prepared in a cast iron skillet. I greatly reduce the ingredients in order to feed 2-3; tonight I used 3 eggs and some half-and-half, one medium russet potato, a couple of sprigs of thyme, and a little diced white cheddar.

http://foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/potato-basil-frittata-recipe/index.html