Our Neck of the Woods: Cleo's Frittata

Since it's nearing the end of the month for us (our next "fiscal month" starts on the 10th), I've been trying to use up all the groceries in the house so I don't have to spend any more of our grocery budget. Good thing, because I'm over $7!

On the way home I was brainstorming ideas for dinner, and decided to cook something with eggs in it because three of our hens are laying again (woohoo)! It's been a while since we had fresh eggs and they are such a luxury. My grandma says I've spoiled her and she can't eat store bought eggs anymore because eggs from our chickens taste so good.

I thought a frittata would be good, and I got started by caramelizing some onions. Now, if you've never had caramelized onions, you have no idea what you're missing. If you say, "Eww, I don't like onions," you've probably never had caramelized onions. Basically all you do is thinly slice a couple of onions (they cook way down so you need more than you think) and cook them in some olive oil/butter with lots of salt & pepper for about 45 minutes to an hour on low heat. Cooking brings out the natural sugars and turns the onions into something amazing.

This is what you start with...

And this is what you end with!

These onions are good on anything. Literally. I can eat them just like this!

Once I had the onions ready, I added some chopped mushrooms and a handful of spinach and let that cook down for a while. Then I grabbed the eggs.

These were all laid within the past two days. You can't really tell from this picture,

but the top right egg is green! It's from our Easter Egger named Cleo, hence Cleo's Frittata. :)

I scrambled up the eggs with about 4T of unsweetened soy milk (and lots of salt & pepper) and poured them in the pan over the onion, mushroom and spinach mixture. I let it cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat until it was set on the bottom, then put the pan under the broiler on low for about 2 minutes (watch it VERY carefully!). It's ready when the top is golden brown and bubbly, and the eggs are set all the way through. I plopped the frittata out upside down onto a plate so the bottom would be on top (looks a little nicer that way). Cut into little slices, and voila!

I've made frittatas before and wasn't very impressed, but I'm glad I tried again because this one was amazing. I think the key was adding the caramelized onions and cooking the eggs in the same pan the onions cooked in. The frittata had such great flavor.