Lunch: Eggs and greens oven dish

Last week I totally screwed up when preparing tortilla for 13 persons. I still feel ashamed. Especially because one of the 13 is a professional cook who said, when hearing I was going to make a tortilla for 13 hungry snowboarders: “Ambitious”. And I responded: “That’s how I like it”. How I was wrong. When you are tired from snowboarding in the Austrian Alpes, when the kitchen supplies are not what they are at home, when you want to impress a whole company of people, including a cook, don’t try to make tortilla without any quality pans, preferably with a proper non-stick coating. Just don’t. Take it easy on yourself.

To make things up with myself, I made a little eggs and greens oven dish for lunch today.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• A small handful of peas. Because of the season, I used frozen peas. I like the sweet taste of the peas, if you don't you might want to add less.
• 1 shallot, chopped and baked for a minute
• 2 spring onions, chopped
• A small bit of bell pepper, chopped
• Some paprika, I brought some from Hungary. It’s the best ever.
• Some oregano. I used freeze dried, since spring is still on its way here.
• Salt, pepper
• A little bit of grated cheese, preferably parmesan

Preheat the oven at 180 °C (356 °F). Take one of the lovely little oven dishes I bought at the thrift store last week, or something similar, and fill it up with all the vegetables. Add the two raw eggs. Top it off with some paprika, oregano, salt and pepper and the grated cheese. Place it in the oven for about 18 minutes (or until the eggs have solidified). Eat it with some bread.

About changing preferences

Is it age? Probably. I have always been quite specific about what I eat. As a child I was a parents horror. I didn’t like anything on my plate. Especially not if it had a scent of vegetables or fruit around it. Quite a harsh thing if your parents are fruit farmers and own their own grocery store. Strangely enough, I have always been a great fan of fish and shellfish. Raw or cooked, it made no difference to me. The only exception has long been sushi. Nice, to have a kid who is delighted to get a raw oyster or herring but just simply refuses to eat her pasta with sauce because it contained tomatoes.

Living in a student house kind of teaches you to stop fussing about food. First of all you just can’t afford to be peculiar when you live on a tight budget, second, it is a bit offensive to be fussy over food when your housemate just put his best effort in a nice dish. And, already then, I was a fan of cooking. I had two banana boxes of kitchen tools, which I kept save in my room, to prevent them from damaging by anyone else but me.

Now I eat about anything and I like it all. I have a few exceptions, for example I never really got to love braised endives. Although I have always liked raw fish and I like a nice liqueur late at night, until a few months ago, sushi and whisky were on my exception-list too. But strangely enough I suddenly love both. Isn’t it awkward how taste develops?

I’ll keep my fingers crossed about endives and Brussels sprouts. Maybe one day, my ability to love bitter tasting food will improve. And mum, I am sorry, I really am!

Me when I still was a devilish little creature in my families plum orchard

Thrifting blues

Everyone who frequently visits a thrift store probably recognizes this in some kind of way. When you enter the store, you see a certain item in the far back corner. It is just winking to you. See me, buy me, take me home. You dwell around for a bit. Try not to be too eager. Pick up some other items. Finally you get there. Pick up the item. Place it back again. Pick up the item next to it. Try to make up your mind. Do you really need this item, what would you use it for. In your head visions of the item in your house start to grow. Now you know, this item should be yours. Definately.

Then, suddenly, disaster strikes. Some kind of ugly witch turns up right next to you, graps the precious and runs to the cash desk. Too slow! Too much thinking! And although you have plenty of stuff, the loss of this specific item kind of ruins your day. Week. Month.

It happened to me on Tuesday. I saw the perfect, enormous oven dish, made of stoneware. I think it was Moroccan. In fact, it was used on an open fire, since it was blackened and burned on the bottom. Perfect for a big couscous dish, for paella or for being gorgeous in my living room. The patina was marvellous. I still blame myself for doubting, it would have been mine if I wouldn’t have. Maybe because I already spend more than I should on nice items this month?


 All that was left for me were three of these little versions. Nothing like the real deal, but they will come in handy for some bites or tapas. And I learned a lesson. Don’t doubt, run to the cash desk. As fast as you can!

Relaunch!

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