Migas Breakfast

Love it when I wake up early enough to make a breakfast rather than just having a bowl of cereal. Recent kick: migas.

Take a couple corn tortillas, cut into strips, and toss into an omelet pan with a bit of olive oil. Add 2-3 eggs -- the ones from Common Good Farm are amazing right now that the chickens are eating all sorts of fresh greens -- and fry up. The beauty of having the tortilla in there is that making perfect over-easy eggs becomes almost too challenging to be worth it, and the whole mixture tastes great with the egg binding the tortilla strips together, so you just cook the mess until the eggs aren't too runny.

Serve with fresh greens -- mine are from Shadowbrook Farm -- cilantro, salsa, cheese if you like.

Delicious!

Joke

Mom took me to lunch at Maggie's yesterday before she headed to the Community Blood Bank. Ah, the retired life. Above, a delicious seasonal/local roasted veggie wrap. Below, gazpacho, also deliciously local.


When she dropped me off back at my office, I wished her luck with the vampires.

Elisabeth: Have fun with the vampires.
Jane: You know, it's something good I can do that doesn't require brains.
Elisabeth: Yeah, that's the zombies.
Jane: (pausing for a moment) (laughter) Good one!

Macro Food

I've been eating well recently...

Le Quartier pizza crust with a sautéed portabella & caramelized onions, fresh tomato, Parmesan & pecorino romano.


Strawberry from Princeton Produce, consumed with Le Quartier bread, Branched Oak Farm Quark, and Shadowbrook Farm pea shoots while watching the Capital City Criterium.


"Cheesecake" made with shortbread, sweetened quark, and fresh strawberries.


Roasted beet, arugula & chèvre sandwich with a cup of Cultiva coffee at thé Cup.

Slow Food Brunch 2009

Woke up to howling winds this morning, and I really had to work to crawl out from under the duvet. We missed the worst of the blizzard (allegedly, there are 5 foot drifts in central Nebraska), but the wind was gusting over 40mph, so I put on my trusty winter bike pants and headed into the wind and sleet down to Chez Hay.


The turn-out for this year's Slow Food Nebraska Eggstravaganza was great, despite the weather! Things I ate: spring greens, French toast, lots of cheeses, apple-cinnamon muffins, garlic scones, yogurt & granola, a mimosa, two different individually brewed cups of Cultiva coffee, including the exquisite Sidamo. Heaven in a cup.

It was hard to find a time when there was a gap in the line to get a shot of the spread.

Maggie & Pat rocking the made-to-order omelet bar. The line for this was always long.

Molly's about to dig in to a beautiful plate of food, accompanied by handmade coffee from Cultiva.

Triggertown did a lovely job of playing music. Nice to have such multitalented farmer/musicians in town!

Annals of Cooking for One: Feeling Local

I spent the day home & cleaning, ably assisted by bizarre weather (including, at one point, simultaneous tornado & winter storm warnings nearby) and good music. Breakfast was brought to me -- in bed, no less -- by my lovely honorary roommate Sally, who cooked up lemon-risotto pancakes with spiced apples on top. Delicious, and excellent motivational fuel for the cleaning activities to follow.

Midday, I made a scramble with spinach, mushrooms, parmesan & eggs from Common Good farm in Raymond, NE. And for a light dinner, I took the local to the max.


Steelhead trout (the non-pre-spiced variety) from Blue Valley Farm in Sutton, NE. Spiced with mixed pepper. I threw in half a bunch of red kale from Community Crops in Lincoln, NE with some fresh-squeezed lemon right at the end. The kale did a nice job absorbing the pan flavors while retaining its own bite.

Annals of Cooking for One: Hungry for Pizza

Pizza Night!
With 30 mph winds and the threat of rain (and snow??), I knew I wouldn't put in enough miles riding outside. A couple of aggressive young whippersnappers took all the fans in spin class for themselves, so I biked home sweaty without changing for the immediate air-conditioning effect into the south wind. I biked home hungry.
Started capturing a freelance project for my father, hit the shower, and then started the pizza preparations.

Whole wheat crust from Le Quartier, conveniently freezable so I could use but one of the three
Sauce
Spices, including oregano, basil, fresh ground mixed peppercorns, crushed red pepper
Fresh garlic
Oil-cured black olives
Anchovies and the capers they were wrapped around
Mozzarella (not pictured....yet)

Post-oven deliciousness

To accompany the nearly 3/4ths of this pizza I ate (with three pieces left for lunch tomorrow), I sliced up a watermelon radish from Shadowbrook Farm. Beautiful!

It's an heirloom variety of daikon radish, and one of a few local foods popping up so far this season. Speaking of which, this Sunday, April 5th from 11 AM-2PM is the 4th Annual Slow Food Nebraska Eggstravaganza. This year, it's being held at Chez Hay, and Triggertown will be playing live. RSVP to slowfoodnebraska@gmail.com.

Spring, sprung

Today makes it official, but last weekend felt like the start of spring. Belatedly posted, above, my newest riding buddy & finest of neighbors, Gina, in front of the sadly not open Roca Tavern. Below, my dad grills a leg of kid from Green Glade farm.

Dinner

Mega-local pizza for dinner:

Crust from Le Quartier
Bed of fresh tomatoes from Mom's garden
Garlic from next-door neighbor Rich's garden
Basil from my front porch
Fresh Mozzarella from Branched Oak Farm

not-so-local:
Grated Romano
Oil-cured olives
Spinach
Olive oil

Processed Food is Nasty

My friend Kat is up to something excellent...

grill skills

This was delicious. Red pepper, yellow zucchini and fresh oregano from Common Good farm, shallots, garlic, onion and freshly ground pepper.