austin avocado omelet

Several years ago, I was checking out seminaries and spent a weekend at Austin Seminary.  While I didn't feel called to go there, I discovered something amazingly tasty in Austin: omelets with creamy avocado.  I also remember that the cafe had a carafe of coffee and mugs while you waited for a table.  That was especially fantastic.  After a wonderful week in Florida with my German friends the Kuhlas, I slept in and craved these omelets this morning.  They're especially good with a bit of turkey or ham in them, but I just used what I had: sharp white cheddar and avocado.  

 Simple egg prep stuff: s&p in two eggs.

 Whisk together and for a bit of extra flavor, add whatever herb you have on hand.

 (I used thyme.)

Heat a small nonstick skilled over medium-high heat.  Put some of this super-healhy delicious stuff in it. :)

  Add the eggs and cook until just set.  (When you add the eggs, pour them directly over the butter and it will spread out under them.)  Once they're set, flip it over gently, using a spatula.

Slice up your avocado while the eggs cook.  If you open your avocado and it looks as pretty as mine does, do a happy dance!

 My sweet dog really wanted a bite of avocado.

Grate some cheese.  I sort of have an aversion to bright orange cheese: this sharp white cheddar is the best.

 Please can I have some cheese?

After you flip the eggs, add a little cheese to one side, then layer the avocado on top and season well with salt and pepper.  Add more cheese on top and fold the omelet in half, cooking until the cheese melts.  

Slice some bread to toast if you like.  I'm infatuated with this honey brown bread.  If your omelet breaks a little, don't sweat it.  There are bigger issues in the world than broken omelets!  I make mine really thick, which is probably more Texas style than french style.  I'm sure Julia would reprimand me for this, but I love big, fluffy omelets.

Enjoy!  The creaminess of the avocado with the sharp cheddar and kick of pepper is just divine.

Bon appetit,
lilrevchef

My Favorite Meal, Ever.

I hope you're all having a deliciously wonderful Thanksgiving, y'all!  My family and I are doing the big feast on Saturday, but today began with something special: my Mom's breakfast casserole.  Which also happens to be My Very Favorite Food in the Whole Wide World.  Really, it is.  Once we had filled ourselves full of rich, hot coffee (as is our tradition)...

...we sat down to devour this amazing beauty.  The recipe's below.  You won't believe it only has 4 eggs in it!

Here's the recipe (which was served at my bon voyage brunch when I left for Belfast a few years ago).

 yum.

 Yum.

 YUM.

Enjoy your day, give thanks for the food you have to eat and the company you have to share it with (pet and otherwise).  I have so much to be thankful for, and breakfast casserole?  Well, that makes my coffee cup runneth over with gratitude.

Bon appetit!
lilrevchef

gravy train

Sometimes, one will have a simple bowl of fruit for breakfast.  

But not at my Grandmother's house.  Fruit is fine, but her gravy is fantastic!  She's made me biscuits and gravy when I've visited for as long as I can remember.

I'm not really giving the recipe here (because it's one of those recipes that goes more by instinct than measurement), but it's essentially bacon drippings, flour, milk, salt and pepper.  Just the best breakfast/dinner ever, made even tastier by all the memories of eating it growing up.

Also a tradition in our family: hot coffee, and lots of it.  All morning long.  My family likes to savor the coffee-drinking, paper-reading, life-pondering moments of the morning and rush the boring stuff like getting ready into as small a time as possible.  I'm pretty sure one of my earliest memories is the sound of these exact coffee cups clinking against the saucer.  

Thanks for your joy and hospitality, Grandmother.  And for that delectable gravy!

top o' the mornin' to ya

Breakfast of champions, indeed!

Hello culinary chickadees, how ya eatin' these days?  Are you enjoying the autumn fare as much as I am?  I'll be sharing one of my favorites soon (rosemary roasted butternut squash risotto!).  But in the meantime, I wanted to share a delightful cool weather (or let's be honest, in Texas, cool air-conditioning) breakfast.  I woke up this morning with a wee bit of a sore throat and so was craving some Irish oatmeal.  This gregarious grain takes a bit of time to make delicious, but I promise it puts that artificially flavored, fish food textured, instant oatmeal to shame.  You should be able to find this McCann's Irish oatmeal in a tin (that is, incidentally, wonderful for giving friends cookies in) in your grocery store.  If your grocery store doesn't stock it (Belfast folks, I'm sure you can find it!), you can also get it here.  And no, the McCanns are not paying me for this endorsement...yet.

It's steel cut, rustic, gorgeous.  I'm making enough for 2 people or 1 extremely hungry person who plans on skipping lunch.  Use 1/2 cup of oats.

 Add a pinch of salt...

 to 2 cups of boiling water.

Add in those outstanding oats... 

 and stir.  This oatmeal's a bit like risotto — you need to stir it lovingly to make sure it doesn't cling on for dear life to the bottom of your pan.  (That would not be pretty.)

(So keep stirring every few minutes or so.  It takes about 20 minutes if you like it with a little bite to it still like I do.)

In the meantime, read the sweet Irish blessing written on the tin.  Imagine patchworked fields, fluffly sheep, rain-soaked rock walls, St. George's Market in Belfast, elusive leprechauns (whatever strikes your fancy).

 (And then stir some more.)

 Here's my Irish oatmeal all divine and hearty and nearly ready to eat.

If you wanted to be extra healthy, throw in some nuts, dried fruit and maybe some (sinful) honey.  But if, like me, you like your oatmeal the way you've always liked it...

...add in a tablespoon of brown sugar, a tablespoon of butter and as much half and half as you like (fat free, which clearly makes up for the aforementioned butter and sugar, right?).

 Yum.  A decadent, hearty start to the day.

Hayden would really like some oatmeal, too.

Unfortunately, there wasn't any left.  Can't imagine how that happened.