This recipe is a good example. Kale is first sauteed with onions and mushrooms, then the vegetable mixture becomes a base on which to fry some eggs.

Steam-Fried Eggs with Kale and Mushrooms

(Makes 2 servings)

1 to 2 tsp (5 to 10 mL) olive oil
2 tbsp (30 mL) chopped onion
1/2 cup (125 mL) chopped fresh mushrooms (about 5 or 6 medium mushrooms)
4 eggs
3 cups (750 mL) chopped kale (including chopped stems)
Grated Parmesan cheese
Freshly ground pepper

Heat 1 tsp (5 mL) oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Add onion and mushrooms and sauté over medium heat for 2 minutes.

If desired, add remaining oil. Add kale; sauté, stirring frequently, until the leaves brighten in colour and soften. (They’ll also diminish in quantity.)

Turn heat to medium-low.

Crack eggs over bed of kale. Cover frying pan.

Cook until eggs are done as desired, about 3 to 5 minutes.

Slide eggs and kale onto two serving plates.

Sprinkle Parmesan cheese and pepper over top.

Tips:
* Saute some minced garlic along with the onions, if desired.
* Instead of kale, substitute swiss chard, spinach or bok choy.
* Serve with salsa or hot sauce.
* For a heartier meal, serve with brown rice.
* Eggs can be scrambled instead of steam-fried. If desired, substitute about 1 cup chopped green beans, snow peas, asparagus or zucchini for the kale. Stir beaten eggs into kale or whichever vegetable is being used instead. Stir gently until eggs are cooked.

In one radio report I heard, Gretzky and eggs were mentioned in the same breath. The reporter was painting a picture of what was happening in the world the year Gretzky was born. Apparently in 1961 a dozen eggs cost 35 cents.

The song, Gretzky Rocks by The Pursuit of Happiness, makes no mention of eggs whatsoever, but is shared purely in honour of Gretzky’s half century milestone. The Youtube “slide show” below isn’t quite in sync with the lyrics it’s set to, but it’s entertaining nonetheless. If you don’t quite get all the words, here’s a link to the lyrics.

How many eggs would you have to crack to beat his record?

A mere 2,071!

And you’d have to crack those eggs using just one hand!

In fact, Blumer actually cracked 2,318 eggs, but there was broken eggshell in 248 of those eggs and they were disqualified. So, the record to beat is 2,070 eggs.

During the episode, which aired last night, Blumer experiments with a few different ways to crack eggs, talks to an organic egg farmer, visits an egg processing plant to see how machines crack eggs, and tastes a couple egg recipes.

He cracks the 2000+ eggs at the Giant Omelette Festival in Granby, Quebec.

Here’s the link to watch the episode.

Food and Drink magazine, Winter 2011 issue

Love crepes? Then pick up the Winter 2011 issue of Food and Drink, the complimentary magazine published bimonthly by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) and available in their stores.

In the current issue are three crepe recipes, each one paired with different ciders.

There’s Wild Mushrooms, Pear and Gruyere in Walnut Crepes; Caramelized Onions, Leafy Greens and Brie in Buckwheat Crepes; and Crepes Benedict with Slow-Poached Eggs.

You’ll find lots of drink suggestions and more recipe ideas in the magazine including Marmalade Cake; Sticky Oven Ribs with Smoky Roasted Sweet Potatoes; Slow-Roasted Rib of Beef with Sherried Mushroom Ragout; Roasted Pears with Dulce de Leche; Shrimp Risotto with Thai Flavours; and Triple Chocolate Brownies with Caramelized Pineapple.

If you don’t live in Ontario or there isn’t an LCBO store near you, the recipes from this Winter issue of Food and Drink will be on the LCBO’s website when the Spring issue comes out on March 9. In the meantime, visit the LCBO website to find other recipes for crepes, and much more!

One of our egg farmers has shared a favourite family recipe for crepes and we’ve posted it on our Egg Farmers of Ontario website. The Schenk family from Wyoming, Ontario love these “Dutch Pancakes”. Here’s the link for the recipe – Dutch Pancakes.

You’re probably thinking,”You’re kidding, right? Doesn’t the name kinda give that away?”

Yes, it does! Just checking to see how effective the name really is.

Bran, bananas and yogurt. A wholesome trio of ingredients that help make these muffins nutritious, moist and delicious.

The recipe is from Ontario pullet farmers Bill and Cindy Gysbers of Ilderton. (Pullet farmers raise the chicks that grow into the hens that lay eggs.)

This is a great recipe to make if you’ve got a few over-ripe bananas. “Over-ripe” means the peels or skins (however you prefer to call them) are well speckled with brown.

I used Kellogg’s Bran Original (the cereal that looks like little sticks) for the bran cereal called for in the recipe. You could probably use Bran Buds too.

Serve these Branana Yogurt Muffins for breakfast with fruit and and a hard-boiled egg, or for brunch alongside scrambled eggs and turkey sausages. You can also tuck them into a lunch bag or enjoy one as a mid-afternoon snack with a cup of tea.

If you give the recipe a try, let me know what you think.

I’ve heard this word pronounced many different ways including these creative “variations”:  Frateeta, Freheeta, Frejeeta, Faheeta, Fajeeta, Fritterita…..

Here’s how it should be said: Frih-TAH-tuh. Or Free-TAH-tuh (with a little roll of the “r”).

So now that we know how to say it, what IS it?

Check this out!

Veggie Frittata

Essentially a frittata is a round open-faced omelette. It cooks flat in the pan instead of being filled and folded like an omelette. The “filling” ingredients are typically cooked in the pan first, then the whisked eggs are poured over top.

If the non-egg ingredients are things that don’t need cooking, like cheese, herbs, or cooked meat or poultry, they can be combined with the whisked eggs and poured into the pan to cook together. 

Frittatas can be cooked on the stove-top or in the oven, or started on the stove-top and finished under the broiler in the oven.

A frittata’s texture will be firmer than an omelette’s since the frittata is cooked slowly over medium-low heat rather than quickly at high heat as you do for an omelette.

In order to cook a frittata all the way through, some people flip their frittata over in the pan. You can do this if you like living life on the edge and crave the challenge/excitement/theatrics, but you don’t need to! (I can hear the sighs of relief !) While the frittata is cooking, I like to poke through to the bottom of the pan in a few places to let some of the uncooked egg on top run down and hit the hot pan. This helps the frittata cook evenly and a little faster. Cooking it, covered, over medium to medium-low heat also helps.

Depending on its size, the cooked frittata can be served whole or cut into wedges.

If you’d like a recipe, try the one we received from Ontario egg farmers Mark and Joanie Hamel. The Hamels like to make a Veggie Frittata using onions, mushrooms and sweet peppers. You can use their recipe, but substitute the veggies of your choice. Click the link below for their recipe as well as others from Ontario egg farmers.

More frittata recipes can be found at these links:

Frankie’s Favourite Frittata

Frittatas and Omelettes

The Toronto Sun features Frankie’s Favourite Frittata recipe (it’s made with eggs, of course, and mushrooms, tomatoes and Cheddar cheese) as well as a mention of Harry Eisses, one of our egg farmers in Ontario. Turns out Frankie lives near Harry’s farm in Innisfil.

Sure sounds as though Frankie loves eggs!

Frankie is the weather and gardening specialist for Breakfast Television and Cityline on Citytv. You can follow him on Twitter @frankferragine.

Egg farmer Annie Schaeken contributed the pancake recipe. She sometimes likes to use raspberries instead of blueberries to make the sauce.

You can certainly experiment with other fruits as well. You might have to adjust the amount of sugar used or perhaps omit the cinnamon or try a different spice such as cardamom, nutmeg or ginger. Just start with a little of your preferred spice, then taste and add more as needed.

I’m thinking a little cocoa powder would be a nice addition to a raspberry sauce!

I also spoke to Yvonne Tremblay about using jam as a filling/sauce for the pancakes. She’s the author of 250 Home Preserving Favorites: From Jams and Jellies to Marmalades and Chutneys (Robert Rose, 2010) so she should know a thing or two about the many ways to use jam! She suggests warming your favourite jam or fruit spread briefly in the microwave or over medium-low heat on the stove top along with a splash of fruit juice to make the “sauce” the consistency you like. Then spread it inside or drizzle it over the pancakes.

As you can see from the photo, they’re not the typical thick fluffy pancakes served in a stack with butter melting over the top and maple syrup dripping down the sides.

They’re also not like thin crepes you roll up or wrap around sweet or savory fillings.

Instead, these pancakes, made with cottage cheese and lots of eggs, are tender and pliable enough to fold over a fruit sauce.

This recipe is from the Schaeken family, egg farmers in Glencoe, Ontario, and it’s posted on our website – www.eggfarmersofontario.ca along with a few other egg-cellent recipes from egg farmers in Ontario. Here’s the link to it – Fold-over Blueberry Pancakes – and to the delicious and easy-to-make Blueberry Sauce that goes with it.

Enjoy!

‘Start exercising’ and ‘Walk more often’ make it on to my list pretty much every year, but this year I’m actually doing something about it.

Apparently walking the dog doesn’t really qualify as great cardiovascular activity (although it’s better than doing nothing, I like to say!) so when a friend asked if I wanted to take a Boxercise class with her, I hesitated briefly, then said alright, with only a small amount of fear and trepidation.

The idea of boxing as a form of exercise isn’t really me (but then seriously, what kind of exercise is??), but the uniqueness of it and the desire to actually commit to some type of physical activity this year was what piqued my interest. Consequently, yesterday morning I found myself doing squats and sit ups, skipping rope, and punching the air with boxing glove-clad clenched fists in a class led by Fitz “The Whip” Vanderpool, former world champion boxer at his Boxing Academy in Kitchener.

Today, sadly, I’m moving less, as years of inactivity (not counting all those rather genteel walks with my dog) meant muscles that have mostly led a life of leisure suddenly found themselves called into action. I’m sure the aches and pains in my stomach, shoulders, legs and butt will lessen someday – hopefully before next week’s class.

At the end of class, Fitz instructed us to practice the stretches, push ups and boxing moves, and run (not walk! ) on our treadmills at least four times before our next class. I may be in traction by next week but hey, no pain, no gain! (Gain as in – improve my cardiovascular health, strength and flexibility, and maybe even lose a pound or two!)

Before I headed out the door to Boxercise yesterday, I ate a couple microwave-poached eggs*, a slice of toast, and a glass of orange juice. I don’t always eat eggs for breakfast; sometimes I like to have them in an egg salad sandwich for lunch or an omelette or scrambled eggs for supper. But I figured I needed every advantage yesterday morning! Protein has sustaining power and I didn’t want to pass out from hunger or lack of energy after doing a few sit ups and push ups. Okay, it would likely have been over-exertion and pain that could have done me in, but providing my body with the appropriate fuel it needed for activity was just the first of many smart moves yesterday.

* I use my microwave egg cookers for poaching eggs quickly in the microwave. If you don’t have a set of these, you can use a mug, or a small bowl like a custard cup or ramekin. To keep the cooked egg from sticking, spray the mug or bowl with cooking spray before cracking the egg into it. Pierce the yolk a few times with a fork (to prevent the yolk from bursting), then cook until the egg is done as you like, probably about 30 or 40 seconds. You may have to experiment a few times to get the timing right in your microwave.