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

the best chicken fried rice

1 cup cooked chicken cut into small cubes or shreds (use leftover roasted chicken or precooked chicken like from Costco.
4 cups cooked rice (either cook early in day or leftover from the day before)
1/2 c shredded carrots
3 green onions sliced thin (use green ends)
1/2 sweet onion coarsley diced
1 c cabbage coarsley chopped
4 T soy sauce
1 T sesame oil
4 T olive oil
1-2 garlic cloves minced
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 eggs beaten

heat 1 T oil in a wok or large frying pan, saute the onion and the cabbage. Add the shredded carrots and green onions and saute for a minute or two. Add 1 T soy sauce, and set veggies aside. Add frozen peas to the bowl to start the defrosting.

heat another T of oil and add the chicken and 1 clove of garlic, minced fine. saute until warmed and a little crispy, add 1 T soy sauce. Remove into bowl with veggies.

Heat 1 tsp oil, add beaten egg and cook until set. Flip, cook reverse. Remove from heat, roll and slice into strips, add to bowl with other stuff.

Add 2 T oil, swirl around the pan and add the rice, make sure to break it up with a spoon. Add 2 T soy sauce and drizzle 1T sesame oil over. Keep mixing and stirring until heated through. Add the bowl full of other stuff and toss to mix.

Serve immediately...yum, yum

My Favorite Chicken Fried Rice

4 cups of cooked rice
3 eggs
raw veggies cut up to make 3 cups.
2T sesame oil, divided
3T olive oil, divided
2T oyster sauce

Fried rice works best with leftover rice. You can use the stuff leftover from takeout or make some a day before you need it. I use a rice cooker and make 2 cups of dry rice, refrigerate overnight. Separate the grains into a bowl. Beat three eggs and add 1T water. Pour over the rice and stir well, set aside.

Chop a variety of veggies: broccoli, carrots, onion, cabbage, pea pods. I use about 3 cups. You can also add frozen peas if you have some.

Saute the veggies in a hot wok in 2T olive oil mixed with 1T sesame oil. Add 1 c cubed chicken. Remove from pan. Add a little more of each oil, add the rice. Saute until browned. add 1-2T oyster sauce. Add back the veggies and chicken. Toss all the ingredients together and enjoy.
My kids love this!