Tomorrow is a big cooking day for a lot of us. Here is an idea I picked up from the pros. Put a lid on it. That is how the pros get all that wonderful individually prepared food to the table still warm and tasty. I had to use this trick myself last Sunday when my wife invited our neighbors and friends over for breakfast. Apparently Sharon, my wife, was going on about my omelets to our neighbors when they admitted they had never had omelets prepared the way I fix them. Sure enough she suggested they come over Sunday morning and try one of my omelets for themselves. She didn’t even ask me if I wanted to cook for 4 people; just committed me to cooking breakfast for the whole damn neighborhood.
Now the truth of the matter is that I enjoy cooking and love to show off my culinary skills and my wife knows this. What she didn’t know or take into consideration is that omelets are individually prepared; meaning you have to cook and serve just one omelet at a time. Meaning by the time the last person gets his meal, the first person has finished his or her breakfast. To me this defeats the purpose of having a meal with friends. Unless of course you want 3 people to sit around and watch one person eats. That is not very neighborly if you ask me. This also brings up another point. Should I put all 8 eggs in one bowl at the same time then ladle out 4 servings or only mix up 2 eggs at a time? The things my wife gets me into.
Getting all 4 omelets to the table at the same time, making sure they were still warm but not soggy, was only my first challenge. What was I going to serve with the omelets? When the wife and I eat we generally do not have side dishes. I had no problem cooking up a mess of grits, firing up some home fries or hash browns with or without onions, or even slicing up some fresh fruit or tomatoes. But how much food can 4 people eat? That and the fact that Sharon and I usually only have a one egg omelet with a cup of coffee; no side dishes, no toast, and of course nothing to brag about either, or so I though. Dag-nab that woman, why didn’t she brag about my meatloaf, my chicken alfredo, or even my spaghetti?
Here I am cussing my wife out when it was she that came to my rescue. I said something to her about how omelets should be individually prepared. She suggested keeping them warm in 200 degree oven until ready to serve. The pros sometime use heat lamps to keep their food warm don’t they? This got me thinking in a new direction about my problem. I remembered back in Jr. High, we didn’t have Middle School back then; I had a friend whose father would make pancakes every Sunday morning for his family. Pancakes are another meal served individually. He kept his pancakes warm by putting them into a pot with a lid on it. He was then able to serve everybody hot pancakes and sit down to eat with the rest of the family. All I had to do was put a lid on my individually prepared omelets and everybody at my table would get a hot omelet and I could even join them.
With that out of the way I was able to think clearly about my other challenges. I boiled up some small potatoes for dinner Saturday night making sure I boiled extra potatoes for our Sunday morning breakfast. When it came time to start cooking Sunday morning I cubed up my extra potatoes and fried them up with a few cut up onions. While the potatoes and onions were cooking I took out a monkey dish. If you do not know what a monkey dish is it is a small one serving size bowl. If you ever ordered extra lemon for your ice tea in a restaurant they more than likely brought it to you in a monkey dish. Now you know. Anyway I cut enough onion to fill a monkey dish. I did the same with a bell pepper, some mushrooms, and chopped smoked ham. I placed each of these ingredients into a larger bowl and added that bowl into a large fry pan with a drizzle of olive oil that I had preheated to medium low. After I got everything coated in oil I put a lid on it to trap in the moisture escaping from the vegetables. I prefer this method of cooking vegetables as apposed to just frying them. The outsides are moist and tender while the insides have a slight crunch.
When my potatoes and onions were done I put them in a small mixing bowl and put a lid on it. In this case the lid was a bread plate. My side dish was now cooked and could be served warm when I was ready to serve them. I did much the same thing with onion, peppers, mushroom, and ham mixture. They were now ready to use and would remain warm until I was ready for them. All I had to do then was to wait for our guests.
When they arrived I started my omelets while Sharon and our neighbor’s wife made the toast. I can’t be bothered with something as trivial as toast. I had decided on 6 eggs instead of 8 because Sharon and I really only wanted a one egg omelet. So with 2 eggs in a bowl I added a teaspoon of sour cream, a splash of 2% milk, a sprinkle of parmesan grated cheese, and a shot of hot sauce. Then I whipped and whipped until frothy. This I poured into a frying pan and put a lid on it. That way the center of my omelet cooks faster. It is kind of like frying and baking at the same time. Once the egg liquid gets firm I add in one large spoonful of my vegetable and ham mixture along with a good hand full of graded cheese right from the bag and put the lid on it again. I wanted the cheese to melt a little before I fold over my omelet which I then slide onto a plate and put a lid on it. This not only keeps my omelet warm but also will help finish cooking the middle of the eggs. To cover the omelets on the plate I happened to have several 3 qt sauce pan lids but I have been known to use another dinner plate as a lid. That was one down and 3 more omelets to go, thanks to my lids.
Once we were all done eating and everybody was full and happy we all went our separate ways for the day. I had fun cooking for more than just my lovely wife. The neighbors got a free meal out of the deal. Even Maggie the dog was happy, because she got two extra plates to lick up. I didn’t tell you, Maggie is our pre-wash plate cleaner. Bon Appetite’
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