Ah Sunday! I love Sunday…even though it’s Monday. We can still reminisce about Sunday! The one day I get to sleep in an extra hour or two! Sundays remind me of my childhood. When I was a kid the newspaper was delivered every day and on Sunday there was that big fat paper with all those great comics and a magazine. Back then, Sunday was the only day the comics were in color. If it were Easter Sunday that meant I had a fresh new batch of Silly Putty too! You could press the Silly Putty to the newsprint and when you peeled it off you would have a color comic on it. I don’t know why that amused me back then but it kept me busy for a bit. At least until breakfast was ready. Did you know that the silly putty trick does not work anymore? They changed the ink or something. Speaking of Easter Sunday, it felt like it was so early this year. It feels like I missed it somehow. It is only now that it is getting warmer outside. Last night, it was even unusually cold for this time of year. My heat even started coming on and it ran all night! The home heating oil god hates me apparently and wants me to burn as much of the stuff as he can produce before having to turn on the air-conditioners before summer hits. Wow! Where did that rant come from? It is Sunday, so let’s chill out with a big Sunday morning breakfast!

We have made pancakes, eggs, and omelets. What’s next? Mmm. Let’s begin by making some coffee, then a frittata. A frittata is only really a giant omelet, but it comes from the oven!

We will need a 9 inch by 13-inch glass Pyrex baking dish and a pan to make the bacon and or sausage in.

We will also need:

INGREDIENTS:

12 Eggs

1 TBLS. Milk

Hash browns or potato tots (defrosted)

One-pound cook Bacon (crumbled)

One package of breakfast sausage (Cubed)

8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese (one package)

1 Tablespoon Vegetable oil

A few drops of Tabasco (To taste)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom of your Pyrex baking dish with a little cooking spray or just a bit of canola oil or vegetable oil. Olive oil can be a little heavy tasting but if it’s all you have. Use a paper towel to swoosh the cooking oil around. You don’t need to swoosh the spray stuff. I am not really a fan of the spray stuff because I don’t know what’s in it. I own it. I use it on occasion, but I don’t like it when I do. Yet, easy is sometimes best! Now that the bottom has a nice thin nonstick coating lets add those store-bought home fries or tater tots. Why do I use these instead of making my own fresh? Mainly because I’m not masochistic. I could make them fresh sure but why do that today? Okay, here’s how.

Let’s peel and grate two or three large baking potatoes. Then get a large pan nice and hot. Add two tablespoons of vegetable oil or peanut oil (If you not allergic to peanuts, otherwise I guess use the vegetable oil). Now fry the potato up in the hot oil until it’s a nice golden brown on both sides. Drain the potatoes and cool them off. Now you can add them to the bottom of the pan. Most times, I use the ones I get from the frozen food section that look just like those hash browns from McDonalds. They work great once they are defrosted. I press them into the pan making sure they are placed next to each other and they are flat against the bottom. Then I pop the Pyrex dish and the potatoes into the oven for a few minutes. Check on them every five minutes. Take them out as soon as they start to get slightly brown and crisp up or begin to sizzle. In the meantime, while the potatoes cook, let’s make the bacon. If you have never made bacon before it takes practice to get it just right. Just don’t let your bacon burn or it will ruin your whole frittata. It is best to leave bacon out if it burns at all.  When done it should be a light golden brown so that it crumbles nicely. Please wait until its cool before crumbling. Otherwise you will need one of those Scouts I have mentioned in a previous post to preform first aid for the burns on your hands. See the how to make bacon lesson next.

Okay! Nice job on the bacon by the by! Now you can cook up all of those breakfast sausages in some of that bacon grease. I defrost it if its frozen, then I slice it. It is easier to slice cold sausages then hot ones. Do other cookbooks point these things out?

Have you been checking on your potatoes? If not, then they are plenty brown by now. Sprinkle the cooked sausage and the bacon across the potatoes spreading them across the whole dish evenly.

Now it’s time to break a few eggs into a large bowl. You can’t have a frittata without breaking a few eggs. Add a tablespoon of milk to the bowl with the eggs. Too much milk and the eggs won’t set. You can even add some Tabasco now. I like this stuff so I always add a little. Because we are using a dozen eggs, I would add about ten drops or five good shakes of the bottle. That is not even one-drop per egg. Most people don’t even notice the Tabasco if you don’t add too much! Next, scramble the dozen eggs using a wire whisk or fork from your flatware set. Do not add the cheese yet! This the same thing as adding too much milk. The eggs will not cook. You will have a cheesy custard casserole, ewe. Now pour the scrambled eggs into the pan filling it up ¾ of the way. Do not fill it to the top or it will spill over before it finishes cooking. Place the eggs in the oven. I hope you didn’t turn the oven off after taking out the potatoes. Bake for about 20 minutes. Check it after twenty minutes to see if it’s just set. If it is not done yet, then check on it every ten minutes after that until its set. Then sprinkle all that nice cheddar cheese on top! If you’re really a pro you grated a block of cheddar yourself. You saved money and hopefully your fingers too! Then place it back in the oven until it is all melty and yummy. Let it rest for only a few minutes and serve with fresh bagels, English muffins or toast. Add orange juice, tomato juice or pineapple juice. Add mimosas or Bellini’s or Bloody Mary’s if your home with friends and enjoy!

This recipe works in a cast iron Dutch oven as well. This will work if your ever stuck in the woods and need a good hearty breakfast meal in a hurry. To make it in a hurry you can precook the sausage and the bacon before the trip and bring it with you in a cooler with ice. You can even cook the bacon and sausage the night before while making dinner! Then just put it all in the cooler for the next morning. Dutch oven or Cast-Iron Pot cooking is a whole few separate lessons in themselves. In addition, you do not need water to clean a Dutch oven only coarse salt, oil and a $#@& load of paper towels! I will save that tip for the Scouts!

Next time we will cover poached eggs and Hollandaise Sauce for my favorite, Eggs Benedict. That’s all in our next Lesson…

Until tomorrow, stay awake, be happy and eat well.

The Drunken Chef (AKA Russ)

© Russ Ahrens and The Magic of a Perfect Pairing,2023