Brunch Recipes #2: Skillet Taters and Two Fritattas

A. I never know if fritatta is spelled frittatta or fritatta. I'm going with fritatta. Both get little red mispelling lines underneath. But so does misspelling. haha.
okay, focus, miranda.



I had a great soux chef for our family brunch: my husband who was dear enough to travel 6 hours to meet my ENTIRE family and then help me stir potatoes for half an hour. What a guy. The potatoes were easy, just required a lot of stirring. You can sub any seasonings you like, add more oil, more onions, whatever. They're easy. I make fritattas about once a week or so, so i've gotten 'back of my hand' with them too, tossing in whatever i have on hand. The main thing to remember about the fritatta: 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, until bubbling, puffed, and fully cooked in the center.

I got to use my grandma's mother's cast iron pans, making the fritattas that much more special.

I cooked two, factoring my grandmother's inability to digest onions or garlic. I also made her her own little dish of onion/garlic free potatoes. Birthday girl gets a taste of everything!

Potatoes

• A bunch of local potatoes, red and purple
• Smoked paprika
• Chopped onion and garlic
• Fresh herbs: rosemary, sage
• Salt, pepper
• Whatever else you want!

Oil the pan and skillet fry those taters. It was more of a 'move and flip to cook evenly' than a fry - but you get the picture. I could have roasted them in the oven, but it was being used for muffins and fritattas. I think we cooked them for at least 30 minutes.



Fritatta 1

• 5-6 eggs
• Roasted pumpkin flesh
• Dash milk
• Fresh herbs: rosemary, sage, basil
• Local champagne cheese

Fritatta 2

• Maybe a full dozen eggs
• Splash milk
• Sauteed veg
• Broccoli
• Garlic
• Onion
• Fresh, chopped tomatoes (from my Austin garden)
• Herbs: rosemary, sage, basil
• Salt, pepper
• Sliced onion for garnish
• Local cheddar cheese

For both fritattas:
Microwave a big potato and slice very thin. Meantime sautee the onions, garlic with seasonings adding the broccoli last. Remove from pan. Grease pan(s) and lay down the potatoes evenly like a bottom crust. Whip up the eggs with their splashes milk and their veggies/ seasoning. Pour half over the potato crust, layer cheese evenly as a middle layer topping with remaining egg. Cook at 375 until done - the bigger one took about 30 minutes, the smaller about 20. I liked putting the cheese in a sliced layer instead of shredding into the egg mixture because you got a layer type goo yum instead of invisible cheese calories hiding in the mix.

Pretty easy and very delicious. I liked cooking the fritattas in the cast iron because it kept them fairly warm up til breakfast time. Test for doneness when you the center puffing up - they're done when they firmly resist pressure, or a fork peeked inside shows cooked egg with no goo (other than cheese goo).

I think i did a decent job putting together a fairly seasonal/locally sourced brunch menu. I did cook some ham that came from Kansas City, and the fruit salad was bananas and canned fruit :(   but the rest of the 'from scratch' goodies at least were as local as i could get.

What would you have made your family for a special birthday brunch?

Planning a Seasonal Menu From Out of State

We are headed out to lovey Montauk this weekend for my even lovelier Grandma Vivian's 90th birthday: way to go, Viv! I've been put in charge of organizing Sunday brunch, as it is well known that i love cooking and like the chance to try out my recipes on groups of people, especially groups of family members who are forced to try my dishes and respond honestly. ;)

The "Living Room" at our family's Montauk house

The difficulty in this situation is that i'll be planning the meal from halfway across the country, in a very different growing season. That being said, I grew up in Connecticut and should have some idea of what to expect, especially since i've been down here in Texas pining for apple season!

I plan on focusing on fresh, local ingredients with apples (Macoon please) from upstate NY (Thanks, cousin Jon!) and pumpkins and any other produce i find along our drive of Long Island at various market stands. I'll pack herbs and seasonings from my garden and pantry and might even mix up the dry portion of some muffin batter to bring along - cooking outside of your own kitchen can be confusing and distracting, so i want to bring as much with me as possible.

Apple orchard somewhere in the Birshire Mountains

The menu will need to feed brunch to 20 or fewer folks, accommodate vegetarians, children, yankees who can't take much heat, and a certain 90 year old lady who has some limiting dietary considerations (can't eat onions, too much iron, too many greens, chocolate, spice, really anything tasty - ha). This is what i've come up with from down South, i'll report upon my return how it turned out along with some recipes:

• Homemade Apple Butter/ Apple Sauce from local apples
• Spiced Muffins, or Bread Pudding with Roasted Pumpkin or Apples
• Frittattas with Roasted Pumpkin and Herbs (from my garden)
• Fruit Salad
• Roasted Potatoes with Smoked Paprika
• Sausage (if i can find some locally made)

Please feel free to recommend any North East seasonal items i should consider working into the menu. Dang, i'm hungry now thinking about sausage and fresh maple syrup, nom nom nom....... better go take the puppy for a walk to keep me out of the fridge, hehe.

Wow, ps - was looking through my Montauk visit photos from 2005 and found this shot- this is the Miranda my husband met and fell in love with, about 20 pounds lighter than she is today. Gotta love living your early twenties in a town that you can bike/walk for all your transportation... that and eating nothing but salad, apparently. Sigh.