Fritatta a la Anna and Julia

This zucchini and pepper fritatta was inspired by a recipe in Anna Thomas's The Vegetarian Epicure Book Two, but due to my the chronic difficulty I experience when attempting to flip anything omelet like, it was served with a heavy side of Julia Child's "never apologize, never explain" attitude.

The Basic Ingredients
1 medium zucchini
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pepper
2 tbs of garlic
6 eggs
1/4 cup of water
3 tablespoons olive oil
pepper and cilantro to taste

If you want to conceal a little fritatta flipping damage...
2 to 3 slices of cheddar cheese
1 chopped tomato

Dice the zucchini and pepper and set them aside.  Add  the olive oil and the garlic to a large skillet and sauté the garlic until it begins to cook down.  Add the zucchini and peppers and fry them until they're just getting tender.  While you're waiting for that to happen, break six eggs into a bowl and whisk them together with the water, pepper, and cinnamon.  Pour this mixture on top of your zucchini and peppers, turn the heat down to "medium" and let cook for 15 to 20 minutes.

What Anna Says Will Happen:  "when the eggs are firm on top, loosen the frittata carefully by sliding a spatula around under it.  Then place a plate upside down over the top of a pan like a lid and invert it, dropping the fritatta out onto it."

What Happened to Me:  When the eggs were firm on top, I loosened the fritatta carefully as Anna specified, however a little of the fritatta must've caught on the bottom because when I inverted the pan and plate, a little drippy egg splashed out while the fritatta fractured a little but otherwise stayed put in the pan.  I turned the stove off, got a knife and a spatula, and cut the fritatta into four sections, carefully scooping them out of the frying pan and placing them on a waiting plate.  I then put them back into the pan, one at a time, and fried them until they were safe to eat.  I then put the sections on to two different plates, and covered the part that tore with cheese and tomato.

Spinach Enchiladas

After two weeks of really hot, appetite killing weather, we New Englanders have found ourselves experiencing some relatively cool weather.  


And why is it cool that the weather's cooler?  
Because we can now use the oven without heating up the entire house and bringing the wrath of our housemates upon us!


I've been dying to experiment with enchilada recipies for a long time.  This one came out great: comfort foody but with an undertone of pepper fire. 


The Filling

2 packages of frozen spinach
1/2 can pinto beans
3 cloves diced garlic
chili flakes to taste 
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 flour tortillas
4 slices of cheddar cheese


The Sauce

4 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 can pinto beans
3 tomatoes, diced
cilantro, garlic, and pepper flakes to taste

Fry the pinto beans olive oil until they become slightly paste like.  Add the tomatoes and spices and cook for three more minutes.  Pour the mixture over the burritos.   




Get a large skillet. Sauté the diced garlic and the chili flakes in the olive oil.  Defrost the spinach in the pan, stirring occasionally.  Bring the spinach mixture to a boil, and then cool.  Make two burrito wraps with the cool spinach mixture.  Get a greased, large, shallow Corningware bowl and layer those two wraps on the bottom of the bowl.  Cover with cheese and the sauce mixture.  Add another layer on top of the first.  
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.  

Watch This Space

I'm sorry!  I was so busy with everything: apartment hunting, starting a new job, having my car overheat and getting it towed, that I didn't have any time to write anything food-related or go to any restaurants that weren't the burrito place down the street.  I will cook this coming week!

Public Service Announcement

I'm running the Larry Kessler 5K AIDS run on Sunday.

If you'd like to donate, I have a page here.