Recipe Blog

I'm going to start this blog with the very first thing that I ever cooked by myself when I was 11 years old, an omelette.

When I was a child, my mother would make the most delicious, fluffy omelettes for me.  Sometimes she would include american or cheddar cheese, sometimes just herbs with butter.

It didn't matter, that fluffy yellow concoction was pure joy to me.     It generated feelings of love and security back then and still does today when I make my own.

So back to being 11. My grade school friend Erika had a summer house up in Watertown, New York. That's way upstate near the great lakes.

I don't remember much about it, but I do remember that it was an old country farmhouse, set near the woods. Then there was a long dirt path leading from the house, through some woods, ending at the family's own stretch of sandy beach on Lake Ontario.

I used to love going up there with her family. It was a long six-hour drive, which seemed to go surpisingly fast, considering how old we were then. We would sing songs to pass the time, play word games and eventually fall asleep as it got darker.  We always arrived there at night.

In the morning, we would get up earlier than her parents, make our own breakfast, then put on our swimsuits and head to the lake for a morning swim.

We were so independant then, I can't imagine many of today's parents letting their kids go off swimming in a lake by themselves, but it was different then, I guess. 

Plus there were four of us; myself, Erika and her 2 younger sisters, Britta and Ingrid, so there were plenty of eyes to keep track of each other and we didn't really swim that far out. 

Lake Ontario seemed as placid as a giant warm bathtub. It was amazing stepping into what seemed like the ocean. It was so vast, you couldn't see the other side.  There were no waves, no briny saltwater and no other people anywhere.  It was like having the

ocean all to ourselves.

One morning I was tired of eating cold cereal, so I announced I was going to make an omellette. The other girls lined up in the kitchen to see if my culinary concoction would be a success or if I was going to set fire to the kitchen.

It wasn't hard. I remembered my mother's steps in the kitchen back home, because I had watched her many times.

So I followed them myself, from memory. Even though it ended up being more scrambled eggs, then omelette, it was still edible.  As I bit into the overly peppered eggs, I was more proud of myself for making them, than the actual taste.

So while omelettes sound intimidating to some, they are basically one step away from scrambled eggs.



PLAIN OMELETTE

2 Eggs

Butter or Olive Oil

Dash of salt & pepper

2 Tablespoons of water or milk

Using a fork, mix the eggs with the water/and or milk.

Heat a medium to small skillet, adding about a tablespoon of olive oil or another cooking oil.

Some people use butter here, but I prefer oil.

Make sure the entire bottom of the skillet is coated with the oil, as well as the sides up to about 1/2 inch.

When you see tiny bubbles in the skillet, pour in the egg mixture.

Allow the eggs to set, watch as bubbles develop along the edge of the mixture as it cooks.

As the eggs cook, lift the edges of the mixture with a spatula, to allow the uncooked portion to flow underneath and cook.

Keep doing this until entire mixture looks fairly solid. You can also flip the omelette here if you prefer a more well-cooked version.

Sprinkle with a dash of salt and pepper.

When eggs are set, fold the omelette in half, by folding one side over onto the other with a spatula and slide it onto a plate.

Cooking time should run about 2 to 3 minutes.

Once you've mastered the plain omelette, you can begin adding ingrediants to fill it like cheese, vegetables, herbs and fruit.