…in a world without eggs

Tuesday
Just back from four days in Reno to an “empty” refrigerator. Not empty, of course, but no “meal” food. We just drove for five hours and I took the car for a wash, so I’m not in the mood to expend energy making dinner. “Order a pizza,” is an obvious choice. But then I said to Carol, “I could get a jar of canned tomato sauce from the cellar, make some spaghetti.”
“There’s a beef patty left from last week’s sliders,” said Carol. Sounds like a plan.

The tomato sauce consisted of a pint of “Early Girl Raw” from last November. (Raw is when you have a few tomatoes, run ‘em through the food mill without cooking and can ‘em. I got that idea from the A16 Cookbook. They use “raw” San Marzano sauce for their pizza.) The raw sauce will take a little flavoring. Rough chop a shallot, two little carrots and a couple whacks of celery; put em in the mini-processor and chop fine. Saute that in some olive oil, until soft. Chop half the frozen patty, now almost soft, make a space in the center of your skillet, add the meat and brown. Mix that up with the vegetables, add a gurgle of red wine and cook until the wine is almost gone, add the sauce. Cook for a while, maybe 15 – 20 minutes to reduce and thicken. Meanwhile, get your spaghetti water going and cook the spaghetti. Get Carol to make a salad. Open a bottle of Cline California Zinfandel. Now that’s a damn fine and easy dinner. C said I should have added Italian seasoning. She’s probably right.

But that’s not what this is about. This is about Wednesday’s breakfast. Breakfast again? Yep… seems like that’s where I throw stuff together and invent. I’m not a milk and cereal guy – just put breakfast in the “search” box to check out previous breakfasts.

After my walk I opened the refrigerator. No eggs. I could mix up some Greek yogurt and Emerald Breakfast-on-the-go!, but that is not appetizing just now. In the fridge is the last of the grits, and beside them, some leftover grilled swordfish and green beans. Tomato sauce would be nice, but I used all of last night’s sauce. Wait! I have a can of Amy’s Organic Chunky Tomato Bisque in the drawer. That’ll work.

swordfish and beans, grits, tomato bisque

Just heat everything in my little skillet. On the plate, fish on top of grits, green beans beside, 2 or 3 tablespoons of tomato “sauce” spooned over. Now that’s a damn fine and easy breakfast.

breakfast without the sauce

with the sauce... looked so good, I already ate half

Later, I went to Whole Foods to get squid for dinner, but I forgot to get eggs. DUH! So I’m in the same boat for my Thursday breakfast. I took a similar route… Still scraps of leftover swordfish – cubed that. Still a few green beans – chopped those. I have the leftover Amy’s Organic Chunky Tomato Bisque in the fridge. A good start.

Thursday’s cubed fish and chopped beans

I cubed my last Purple Viking potato and boiled it, added a couple whacks of celery halfway through the boiling.

fish and vegetables in the pan

I added about half of that to my fish and green beans and into the frying pan and spooned Amy’s tomato soup over that. Now is that a soup, or fish and vegetables with a sauce? Clue: I ate it with a fork.

That was good, but I’m definitely going to get some eggs today at the Thursday CUESA Market while I get something for dinner today and tomorrow.

For Friday’s breakfast, I took the leftovers from Thursday dinner and put a flipped egg over it. It’s amazing how much richness and wonderfulness an egg can add. And I only use one.

Thursday dinner: summer squash saute, Burgers’ Smokehouse Pork Rope Sausage, beans with tomatoes. For Friday, I used 3 slices of sausage, about a quarter-cup each of squash and beans… and that egg.