It was a heartbreaking day when the last strip of Calvin and Hobbes ran. For years, Calvin provided daily humor, a reminder of the richness, excitement, wonders and terrors of childhood, instructions for crafting the perfect snowball, and more than anything else a message that felt personal and came in the form of quotes like this one below, spoken from Calvin to Hobbes while reviewing his personal appearance at bath time:
“If your knees aren’t green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously reexamine your life.”
That’s what the picture of Molly above reminds me of.
Green knees, juice-stained hands.
We got blackberries this week from the CSA along with sweet/sour cherries, a TON of chard, 1/2 lb of basil leaves and some big golden beats. We’re heading out of town for a wedding tomorrow, so I wanted to tackle a bunch of the chard tonight.
Enter the omelet and the frittata. Along with wraps and stirfries, they are at the top of our list for sheer ability in using up any leftovers, happily welcoming bits of vegetables and protein to the party.
In this case, I opted for a frittata and it wasn’t left over vegetables, but fresh chard. What follows is a description of the process, more than a recipe. The basic plan can be followed with all sorts of items in different quantities. Just don’t lose the onions or the herbs (um, or the eggs). They would be upset with you.
Throw in some toast, and you’re all set.
Chard Frittata With Fresh Herbs
- Heat an oven-safe pan over medium heat. Preheat oven to 350 (or use the broiler, but keep the rack towards the middle of the oven).
- Melt a couple TB of butter in the pan. While it’s melting, separate the stems and the leaves of the chard and thinly slice a small onion. Chop the stems thinly also and add the onions and stems to the pan along with a big pinch of salt. Cook for several minutes, until soft.
- Shred the chard leaves, add them to the pan with more salt and stir them in. Cook until tender.
- Beat 6-8 eggs (depends on how much other stuff you’ve got in there) with some cream/milk, salt and pepper. Add a bunch of minced fresh herbs – I used a little mint, a little more chives, and a lot of parsley.
- Add the eggs to the pan and tilt it to spread them around. Cook until the bottom is set, using a spatula to pull in the sides, allowing some of the uncooked eggs on top to move around.
- When the bottom is set and it appears to be cooked about halfway through, put the pan in the oven and cook until it’s done – you want the eggs somewhere between runny and overcooked. They will fall apart and get all watery and that would be bad. Better to take it out a little sooner than necessary. It can always go back in.
…
I don’t think Calvin would have anything to do with a frittata…
