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I know that cooking dinner for my family is a good thing to do, and in the past I’ve enjoyed it, but recently I’ve suffered through a cooking slump (May I blame it on the 4 pm swimming lessons or is it just the human condition?)
When I think about cooking dinner, my negative thoughts include: it will take too long, the kids won’t like it, and I will have to clean up the mess. Eating has been the same way. Nothing appeals. Unfortunately, because I actually am hungry, I eat candy saved (stolen?) from my children and fast food. Yikes. Aside from the candy, my children aren’t eating much better.
I can do better. Tonight I did. At the last minute, it occurred to me that I wanted to offer my kids real food for dinner. I leafed through my favorite recipe binder and got nowhere. But then I searched the fridge and found that we had 1) lots of eggs 2) home-grown zucchini and 3) some bacon I’d already cooked. Lightbulb! I made a frittata for dinner. It was delicious. Everyone liked it. It wasn’t hard. It didn’t take long. It was real food for my family. So I’m writing this post to help me capture the “what was I dreading, I love to cook!” feeling. I hope to climb out of that slump one day at a time.
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4 Responses to “Cooking dinner is a good thing to do”
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I would love to see a photo of your dinner creation or at least hear how you made it.
I wish that I could post a picture because it was gorgeous. Unfortunately, by the time I thought of it, the frittata had been consumed in its entirety by my hungry crew. I followed a recipe by Pam Anderson (not the buxom one, the one who writes the great cookbooks and a helpful cooking column) in her book _How to Cook without a Book_. (It is a fabulous cookbook, full of building block formulas so that you can have dishes that turn out yet still use your own creativity or the ingredients that you happen to have on hand).
Anyway, it was super easy–although probably not the most calorie conscious choice.
I preheat the oven to 400. I seeded a big fat zucchini and then sliced it into 1/4 inch rounds. I sauteed them in my 12 inch skillet in 2 Tbsp olive oil. I added the bacon later. (The recipe said I could omit the olive oil and use the fat from the bacon to saute the zucchini, cooking the bacon and the zucchini at the same time, but I had already fried up the bacon a few days previously). When the zucchini was almost done and beginning to be lightly browned, I added three cloves of garlic that I’d pressed. Meanwhile, I beat 12 eggs with 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, 4 oz italian cheese (would have used straight mozzarella if I’d had it), and 3 Tbsp of parsley, and salt and pepper.
I tried to distribute the sauteed zucchini and bacon across the pan evenly, and then I poured the egg mixture over it. I let it cook on medium high for a couple of minutes and then I put it (the entire skillet) in my oven (previously preheated to 400). I cooked it for 10 minutes. Voila! I cut it up into pie shaped pieces. As I said, they were gorgeous. The kids asked for seconds over and over. I had forgotten how much they like eggs.
It’s summer…I always slump like that in the summer. The heat (and the humidity lately) makes everything seem blah. And 4 pm swim lessons are a really good excuse. I had the most dreadful time getting up the will to cook when we had ballet at 5 and karate at 6:30! What can you shove into their mouths in half an hour?
The frittata sounds delicious
Only a small piece was left when I got home
but it was delicious.