Chicken and Mushroom Frittata

A friend of mine, who is also a writer (and she knows who she is), was telling me that cooking is a way for her to clear her head and be thoughtful about what she is going to write.

For me, it seems that the food is the driving end of the bargain.

My life is filled with stories surrounding the food. Food seems to be the center of so much and is the cornerstone of many of my memories, especially distant ones from people no longer with me.

My mother was a meticulous cook with over 2,000 cookbooks in her personal library (more than the Betty Crocker library in Minnesota with a full time librarian, she liked to brag). She would spend time actually reading the books, from cover to cover and seemed to know just what book to grab to cook whatever struck her fancy. This was all before Google and the Food Network. Julia Child was her inspiration and we watched the show on PBS religiously. My mother experimented with Coq Au Vin, pate, trussing chickens and poaching fish--things that were not common fare on most of my contemporaries dinner tables. At a time when Campbell's Soup was the mainstays for most, my mother was making granola and whole wheat bread that made me wince when I found it in my lunch box. How I longed for the soft and squishy Wonderbread my school mates found for lunch.

There weren't a lot of repeat meals in our house. And no experiments... everything needed to follow a neat map of a proven recipe. I don't ever remember something that was a flop or inedible. Unlike at my house where I take 4 things and figure out how to put them together. I think the next food network star should go from kitchen to kitchen at 5pm and have dinner from what is there ready on the table by 6. Welcome to my life. I suppose if I spent the time to plan, that wouldn't be the way I look at things but then I wouldn't have that chef school market basket challenge to keep my brain cells alive, each and every day.


So for lunch today, I did a favorite go-to meal, a fritta. You can take just about anything and pour eggs over it, add a bit of cheese and broil it. Cut in slices with salsa, what more could someone need? (And we have some for tomorrow as well!)

Chicken and Mushroom Fritta

mixture of mushrooms, chopped coarsly (about 1.5 or 2 cups)
1T butter
1/2 small spanish onion sliced thin
3/4 cup cooked chicken, in small chunks
1/2 c mozerella cheese, shredded
1/4 c cheddar cheese, shredded
1 c broccoli florettes, broken or chopped into small pieces
5 eggs w 1T cold water beaten until a nice sunny yellow
Salt and pepper to taste

Saute the mushrooms and onions with the butter until the liquid is gone and there is a bit of brown on the mushrooms. Sprinkle in the broccoli and the chicken, cover to steam for about 2 minutes to give the broccoli a head start and warm the chicken.
Sprinkle the cheeses evenly over and pour the eggs over the top covering everything. Cook over low to medium heat until almost set. Place pan in the oven under the broiler and cook until puffed and golden brown on the top.

Remove from oven, let sit for a few minutes and then cut into slices and top with salsa if desired