Kitchen Wench

• 10 eggs
• 4 slices of bacon, cut into 1″ pieces
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 small Yukon gold potatos, chopped into 1″ cubes
• 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup finely grated aged cheddar cheese
• 1 teaspoon Penzey’s Country French or other French herb seasoning
• 1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
• Salt, pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Cook bacon over medium heat in either a 10″ cast iron or non-stick skillet. When bacon is crisp, remove from pan and allow to drain on paper towels.
3. Pour off all but 2 tbsp of bacon fat from pan. Add onions, garlic, and potatoes and cook until onions are translucent and potatoes have softened. (Add more bacon fat if needed.)
4. Break eggs into a large bowl. Add milk, salt, pepper, and herbs. Whisk until yolks and whites are well combined. Stir in grated cheese.
5. If your pan is oven safe: After potatoes and onions have softened, stir bacon bits back in. Pour egg mixture into the pan and cook until the sides of frittata have started to set, 8-10 minutes. Once sides have set, place pan in the oven to continue cooking.
6. If your pan is NOT oven safe: After potatoes and onions have softened, pour them into a 10″ greased baking dish. Add bacon bits and pour egg mixture on top. Place dish in the center of your oven. You will need to increase the baking time 5-10 minutes.
7. Bake frittata until top is set but the middle is still runny – approximately 10-12 minutes. Open oven and sprinkle breadcrumb mixture on top of frittata. Continue baking until puffed and browned on top, another 10-12 minutes.
8. Slide a butter knife around the edges to loosen. Cut and serve. I paired this frittata with a salad of mixed greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, and cornichons in a red wine vinegarette. (Add some of the pickle vinegar for an extra kick.)

A note on cookware: Cast iron skillets are great for this sort of thing, but are verboten for folks (like me) that have a glass top range. They will scratch the surface. Non-stick cookware is a good alternative and makes removing the frittata very easy. However, not all non-stick cookware is oven safe. Check the manufacturer’s information first. I use a Calphalon non-stick pan and it is oven safe to 450 F.

[Photo from Indradi Soemardjan/Wikipedia]

On Friday, Lee and I went out to eat Malaysian food at Penang in Bethesda. Penang is actually a small chain, and I’ve eaten at their restaurants in Chicago and New York. One of my favorite Malaysian dishes, which I first sampled at Penang in Chicago, is hollow vegetable (also known as water convolvulus) stirfried with chilies and shrimp paste (kang kung blachan). After some coaxing, Lee agreed to forgo beef in favor of this unknown vegetable.

However, when we attempted to order it, the waiter informed us that they didn’t have any hollow vegetable. We would have been satisfied with that answer, but the waiter went on to explain that kang kung has actually been banned in the US, which is why they don’t serve it anymore. Banned?! How can this be??? We ordered the beef rendang instead, and it was good, but no substitute for my beloved hollow vegetable. After dinner, I hit up the Google to find out if our waiter had been telling us the truth. Read the rest of this entry �

Let me begin by saying that I really wanted to like Cake Love. Before eating there, I did my research and sort of fell in love with the whole Cake Love story. It describes founder Warren Brown’s climb up the ladder of higher education, all the while secretly nursing his passion for baking. However, after selling his soul to the legal profession, he gave it all up to open a fabulously successful bakery and cafe in the trendy U St. corridor.

Today, Cake Love has two more locations in the DC metro area (Silver Spring, MD and Arlington, VA) and Warren has his own show on the Food Network, called Sugar Rush. It’s the quintessential foodie Cinderella story–who doesn’t dream of quitting their day job and turning a hobby into a successful business? By the end, I had decided that Warren Brown might be my hero and/or my black, male alter ego. Then I actually walked to U St and ate one of his cupcakes. Read the rest of this entry �