Recipe:The Frittata

The other day Mark was giving me a bad time that I had so few recipes on the blog. So in an effort to make him happy I decided to post some of my favorite breakfast dishes. One of the B's in B&B does stand for breakfast!

A Frittata is an Italian omelette that is baked in the oven. Some call it crust less quiche which is also especially correct. The following is the one I make regularly. You can substitute and fillings you like just watch that your choices don't add to much liquid to the mix.

Preheat oven to 375 F
Ingredients:

6 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
garlic, fresh basil, oregano, salt and fresh ground pepper ( don't be shy with the seasonings)

1/2 cup grated cheese blend - I tend to use mozza, provolone and cheddar but you can use what ever your tastes run to
crumbled bacon, chopped cooked spinach, diced onion, diced tomato equaling about 1 1/2 cups

procedure:
whip eggs and cream together  then add remaining ingredients. Spray or grease an oven proof casserole dish big enough that the mixture will fill 1/2 to 2/3 full but make sure the pan not more than 2 1/2 inches deep. ( the Frittata will take too long to bake and become too brown on top otherwise)
Bake until the center is just set anywhere from 30 - 45 mins.

Serve with hash browns or if brunch a nice greens and tomato salad.

The Garden Part 2

Well you got to love the weather in the Crowsnest Pass. Last week end saw me happily working away in my garden , cleaning and planting and getting everything ship shape for the summer season. Then the weatherman hit with his news * SNOW* freezing temperatures etc. etc. etc.  There should be a law against weathermen changing their minds. When I planted all those flowers there wasn't a temperature lower than 6 C predicted. Then  it changed. So out came the tarps and the plastic and all the flowers got covered or brought in the house.

   The little guys look like they made out ok but time will tell. The forecast now is looking better so maybe the tarps can come off today. It's the end of May for god sakes!

On a better note the green house is doing well. Had the first salad from lettuce grown there earlier this week. What a great taste. Soon the watercress and spinach will be usable. So things aren't so bad.

The Garden

Getting ready for the summer season means many things around here- spring cleaning, painting, repairs of winter damage , etc etc etc, My favorite is  cleaning and planting the flowerbeds and planters. After looking over the forecast for the dreaded frost and snow I decided the time had come. To my delight the weather cooperated and  yesterday morning was sunny and warm. Now I really like trips to the green house and earlier this month I couldn't wait any longer so I picked up a few annuals and planted some baskets. Because of our late spring I had been keeping them in my little green house across the ally and they where doing really well.  But yesterday was different it was the BIG trip. Off I went to Spring Break garden center in Hillcrest. Val and Rick have worked hard since early spring growing all the little plants and I found a wide selection of flowers and greenery to fill my garden with. They have gone very pink this year to help out The Pinkest Little town in the West group and I love pink flowers anyway so I was very pleased with the variety I could get. I made my selections, green things ( I'm lousy with the names- oh my grandfather is so disappointed ) and petunias and lobilia and stuff, all pink and white and very pretty. 2 new rose bushes for the big pots and I was all set.

Once home the work started. Cleaned out the beds and weeded them all, got all the pots and planters out and started deciding what to put were. I'm not one of those gardeners that have a plan to what is going where before I even go to the green house, I just place the pots around the deck where they will stay for the summer and then set the new plants out, redistribute them until I get some thing that looks good and then plant. Well things went well and now I've planted them all and they are settling in. I need to get a few more for the planters out front but thats todays mission.
My neighbor stopped in during all this and started asking questions about what he should plant and mentioned he needed to get out and clean up the beds at his place. Then off to work he went ( long weekends are busy for real estate agents) Feeling a little sorry for him I went over and cleaned out his beds too. I was on a roll. When he got home he was very grateful that the garden fairy had been by and when he heard I was off to the green house again today he asked if I wanted to get some plants for his box too. How could I say no? A green house trip I don't have to pay for.  What a great week end.