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Today's blog entry is brought to you by the letter F: Fringe, Frittata, and Are you effing kidding?
Missing Castle, I started watching the first season of Fringe last night. I'm up to the third episode, and remembering why I stopped watching when it first premiered. First of all, the junk science. Now, I am the first person on board with crappy science in novels and on tv. Give me spaceships or give me muppets that fart helium!
Yet the junk science in Fringe is so ridiculous and hard to follow that I am often flabbergasted. The big problem is not that it's stupid (even though it is). The big problem is that it isn't convincing. I'll believe a lot of stupid things in fiction -- if you can convince me that it makes sense in the world you're building. Fringe doesn't kick off with enough convincing world building!
Oooh, that's right, I said it. Fringe has crappy world building!
I'm still watching, though, because I am really bored with tv right now, and because I still have a crush on Charlie from The Mighty Ducks. (And, wow, helloooooo, Jasika Nicole!!! And Lance Reddick!! Yes, I am shallow.)
I find that Charlie-from-The Mighty Ducks and I often have the same reaction to things that happen on the show: Are you effing kidding? That's not how $THING works!
Normally I am okay with having someone in the thick of things telling the audience that they understand that the audience is annoyed by the weirdness and factual inaccuracies -- but in this show, I wish they'd've just tried a little harder to write a show that is either much much weirder, so that we can easily assume it is an alternate version of our reality, or a show that is slightly less weird, so that we can easily accept that it's just that weird things happen in our reality.
I'm sticking with Fringe this time, though, because so many people I know really enjoy how ridiculous it is, and I'm hoping that eventually I will too. I just hope (perhaps in vain) it kicks its world building up a notch or two.
(Second, I also hope that Charlie-from-The Mighty Ducks quits the way he talks to his father like his father is making a choice to be mentally damaged. Ugh. It really irks me.)
...Two of my favorite things are world building and cooking, and this blog entry will be about them both. Here is my recipe for making a delicious frittata, complete with pictures. Check out this picture: that is my new knife, a gift from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
perfectbound, which I am using for pretty much everything I possibly can. Need to cut up some pieces of celery? Whip out that knife! Need to slice eggs for egg salad? Where's that knife? The only thing I haven't been able to use it for so far is slicing bread.
It cuts the thinnest slices of tomato imaginable. Oohh, knife, be mine! Oh wait! You are!
HOW TO MAKE A DELICIOUS FRITTATA
Note: you will need a pan that can go on the stove and under the broiler.
INGREDIENTS:
Vegetables of your choice
5 – 8 eggs / 2 – 3 eggs worth of egg whites
4 oz of cheddar cheese
2 tbsp milk
olive oil
Pick your vegetables. Recommended combinations:
Cook your vegetables to how you like them.
My family's favorite frittata is caramelized onion, roasted cauliflower, and cheddar cheese.
I usually take a medium-sized head of cauliflower and chop it up (a medium-sized head will fill a half-sheet pan pretty full when uncooked), cover it with olive oil and cumin, and shove it into a 400F oven for about an hour. At 20 minutes, I stir them around (and add more oil if I think it's necessary), and then again 20 minutes later. I find that this gives me pretty crispy cauliflower that is cooked all the way through. Your oven may vary. It comes out looking pretty darn delicious. [img] If you are like my family and me, I suggest making two heads -- one for snacking on with kosher salt, and one for use in the frittata.
For the caramelized onions, I've come to the decision that even though they taste better when made in a regular pan, they are easier to make when in a non-stick pan. In a non-stick pan, if I don't get up to stir them every 2 minutes exactly, they will not burn. You don't get all the delicious fond (stuff stuck to the pan) that you get with a sticky pan, but you also (1) don't have to spend as much time cleaning the pan and (2) don't get burnt onions.
So take an onion. [img] Cut each end off, then cut it in half. Peel the skin off. (If you are saving odds and ends for vegetable broth, wash the onions before you do this, and stick the ends and skins into your freezer bag.) Then cut the onion into half-moons. [img] Do this for the second onion too, and then dump them into a pan. Cover them with olive oil [img], then add an extra glug. (I find this usually comes out to about 1/3 cup, but it might be more or less depending on how big your onions are.)
Cook, stirring occasionally, on med-high. When the onions start to get brown and caramelized [img], lower your heat to med or med-low and stay at the stove and keep stirring. If they burn, throw them out and start over.
Frittata proper:
In a bowl, mix 8 eggs (or 6 eggs and 2 eggs worth of egg white; don’t drop below 5 whole eggs, though). Add a splosh of milk (about 2 tablespoons) and 2 oz of shredded cheese. (I usually drop the cheddar cheese inside if I am using 6 or more whole eggs; it gets too rich.) Mix in the vegetables you're going to be using (or you can wait and mix once they are in the pan).
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter in your pan (or two tablespoons of olive oil, or two tablespoons of butter, or vegan Smart Balance or corn oil or whatever!; whatever makes you happy). Pour the "batter" and veg into your pan, and stir together. (For the best results, use a fork or a wooden paddle, but not a wooden spoon.) Keep this over medium heat and stir occasionally. It should look like half-cooked scrambled eggs.
Once it looks about three-quarters cooked, turn off the heat. Jiggle the pan until everything settles, then sprinkle cheese on top.
Put under the broiler until the cheese is browned and the eggs are cooked. (You will know the eggs are cooked because when you shake the pan, the eggs won’t jiggle.)
ENJOY.
I find the frittata to be particularly delicious with a side of roasted potatoes. [img] I like to use a 5-lb bag of baby red potatoes, skins on. Scrub them, cut them at angles (I move my knife 45 degrees with every cut) to give them the most cut edges. Mix them in a bowl with some olive oil (a few tablespoons) and some herbs (I like to use "poultry seasoning" with extra rosemary and thyme, and a little bit of kosher salt). Cover the bottom of a half-sheet pan with olive oil and let it get hot as the oven heats to 400F. When the oven finishes pre-heating, take the (very hot; be careful!) pan out and put the potatoes on it. Back into the oven. Pull them out and stir around at 20 minutes, then again 20 minutes later. I like to leave them in for about an hour, but you might like them more well done or less well done. They are good hot and cold and at room temp!
(And, hey, if you have any left over? Pull them out and fry them in some oil the next morning with onions for delicious homefries!)
Yet the junk science in Fringe is so ridiculous and hard to follow that I am often flabbergasted. The big problem is not that it's stupid (even though it is). The big problem is that it isn't convincing. I'll believe a lot of stupid things in fiction -- if you can convince me that it makes sense in the world you're building. Fringe doesn't kick off with enough convincing world building!
Oooh, that's right, I said it. Fringe has crappy world building!
I'm still watching, though, because I am really bored with tv right now, and because I still have a crush on Charlie from The Mighty Ducks. (And, wow, helloooooo, Jasika Nicole!!! And Lance Reddick!! Yes, I am shallow.)
I find that Charlie-from-The Mighty Ducks and I often have the same reaction to things that happen on the show: Are you effing kidding? That's not how $THING works!
Normally I am okay with having someone in the thick of things telling the audience that they understand that the audience is annoyed by the weirdness and factual inaccuracies -- but in this show, I wish they'd've just tried a little harder to write a show that is either much much weirder, so that we can easily assume it is an alternate version of our reality, or a show that is slightly less weird, so that we can easily accept that it's just that weird things happen in our reality.
I'm sticking with Fringe this time, though, because so many people I know really enjoy how ridiculous it is, and I'm hoping that eventually I will too. I just hope (perhaps in vain) it kicks its world building up a notch or two.
(Second, I also hope that Charlie-from-The Mighty Ducks quits the way he talks to his father like his father is making a choice to be mentally damaged. Ugh. It really irks me.)
...Two of my favorite things are world building and cooking, and this blog entry will be about them both. Here is my recipe for making a delicious frittata, complete with pictures. Check out this picture: that is my new knife, a gift from
perfectbound, which I am using for pretty much everything I possibly can. Need to cut up some pieces of celery? Whip out that knife! Need to slice eggs for egg salad? Where's that knife? The only thing I haven't been able to use it for so far is slicing bread.It cuts the thinnest slices of tomato imaginable. Oohh, knife, be mine! Oh wait! You are!
HOW TO MAKE A DELICIOUS FRITTATA
Note: you will need a pan that can go on the stove and under the broiler.
INGREDIENTS:
Vegetables of your choice
5 – 8 eggs / 2 – 3 eggs worth of egg whites
4 oz of cheddar cheese
2 tbsp milk
olive oil
Pick your vegetables. Recommended combinations:
- 1 onion & ½ container of mushrooms
- 1 onion, ½ container of mushrooms, and about 5 oz of frozen spinach (defrosted and drained)
- 2 caramelized onions and 1 head of roasted cauliflower
- 1 container of mushrooms and 5 oz of frozen spinach (defrosted and drained)
- 1 container of mushrooms and 1 diced bell pepper
Cook your vegetables to how you like them.
My family's favorite frittata is caramelized onion, roasted cauliflower, and cheddar cheese.
I usually take a medium-sized head of cauliflower and chop it up (a medium-sized head will fill a half-sheet pan pretty full when uncooked), cover it with olive oil and cumin, and shove it into a 400F oven for about an hour. At 20 minutes, I stir them around (and add more oil if I think it's necessary), and then again 20 minutes later. I find that this gives me pretty crispy cauliflower that is cooked all the way through. Your oven may vary. It comes out looking pretty darn delicious. [img] If you are like my family and me, I suggest making two heads -- one for snacking on with kosher salt, and one for use in the frittata.
For the caramelized onions, I've come to the decision that even though they taste better when made in a regular pan, they are easier to make when in a non-stick pan. In a non-stick pan, if I don't get up to stir them every 2 minutes exactly, they will not burn. You don't get all the delicious fond (stuff stuck to the pan) that you get with a sticky pan, but you also (1) don't have to spend as much time cleaning the pan and (2) don't get burnt onions.
So take an onion. [img] Cut each end off, then cut it in half. Peel the skin off. (If you are saving odds and ends for vegetable broth, wash the onions before you do this, and stick the ends and skins into your freezer bag.) Then cut the onion into half-moons. [img] Do this for the second onion too, and then dump them into a pan. Cover them with olive oil [img], then add an extra glug. (I find this usually comes out to about 1/3 cup, but it might be more or less depending on how big your onions are.)
Cook, stirring occasionally, on med-high. When the onions start to get brown and caramelized [img], lower your heat to med or med-low and stay at the stove and keep stirring. If they burn, throw them out and start over.
Frittata proper:
In a bowl, mix 8 eggs (or 6 eggs and 2 eggs worth of egg white; don’t drop below 5 whole eggs, though). Add a splosh of milk (about 2 tablespoons) and 2 oz of shredded cheese. (I usually drop the cheddar cheese inside if I am using 6 or more whole eggs; it gets too rich.) Mix in the vegetables you're going to be using (or you can wait and mix once they are in the pan).
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter in your pan (or two tablespoons of olive oil, or two tablespoons of butter, or vegan Smart Balance or corn oil or whatever!; whatever makes you happy). Pour the "batter" and veg into your pan, and stir together. (For the best results, use a fork or a wooden paddle, but not a wooden spoon.) Keep this over medium heat and stir occasionally. It should look like half-cooked scrambled eggs.
Once it looks about three-quarters cooked, turn off the heat. Jiggle the pan until everything settles, then sprinkle cheese on top.
Put under the broiler until the cheese is browned and the eggs are cooked. (You will know the eggs are cooked because when you shake the pan, the eggs won’t jiggle.)
ENJOY.
I find the frittata to be particularly delicious with a side of roasted potatoes. [img] I like to use a 5-lb bag of baby red potatoes, skins on. Scrub them, cut them at angles (I move my knife 45 degrees with every cut) to give them the most cut edges. Mix them in a bowl with some olive oil (a few tablespoons) and some herbs (I like to use "poultry seasoning" with extra rosemary and thyme, and a little bit of kosher salt). Cover the bottom of a half-sheet pan with olive oil and let it get hot as the oven heats to 400F. When the oven finishes pre-heating, take the (very hot; be careful!) pan out and put the potatoes on it. Back into the oven. Pull them out and stir around at 20 minutes, then again 20 minutes later. I like to leave them in for about an hour, but you might like them more well done or less well done. They are good hot and cold and at room temp!
(And, hey, if you have any left over? Pull them out and fry them in some oil the next morning with onions for delicious homefries!)