One breakfast: National Egg Month, National Hot Tea Month, & National Oatmeal Month

 Inspired by having one dinner that celebrated multiple food observations, I decided to try a breakfast that did the same.  The result was the meal you see here.

To celebrate National Egg Month, I opted to make what I call an omelette.  It's amazing how many variations of omelettes there are and just how vigorously some people will argue over what exactly constitutes an omelette.  Apparently, even the spelling is up for discussion!  Omelette or omelet? 

Well, as with all my omelettes, it had veggies and lots of 'em.  I always keep a bag of frozen veggies in my freezer to add to dishes and omelettes are one of those dishes.  In addition to the standard mix that comes in the bag, I added mushrooms and celery leaves.  (What?  You throw those away?  They're perfect for soups and omelettes!)  I cooked those in the frying pan with no oil until they've thawed, added two beaten eggs, and then cooked it, flipping it once.  If you want fluffy omelettes, add oil, water, or milk when beating the eggs.  You can add anything to omelettes - vegetables, cheese, meat.  In fact, that's one reasons why omelettes are great for breakfast when you have picky eaters present - you can easily customise omelettes.  Sometimes, the omelette will stick to the pan or fall apart.  If this happens, don't worry - just mix it all up and call it a breakfat scramble.  Throw the mixture into a burrito and call it a breakfast burrito.

For omelette toppings, I opted to combine catsup and some Korean sweet and spicy sauce.  Normally, it's just one or the other but today I felt like mixing it up.  Other things I'll top my omelettes with?  Soy sauce, salsa, or bruschetta topping.  I've never mixed those together.

Since it's Oatmeal Month, I decided to have a bowl of one of my favorite oatmeals.  While making your own oatmeal is easy and super cheap, I do keep on hand some "Just Add Water" oatmeal packets.  Lately, I've been loving the oatmeals from BetterOats.  They have a few lines of oatmeal, most notably a line with flax seeds added.  The BetterOats brand oatmeals are a bit different than the other "just add water" oatmeals - these specifically come with the directions to use the packet as a measuring cup for adding cold water and then to cook the oatmeal in the microwave.  I've been eating this brand of oatmeal for a little while now.  The last place I lived, the directions were perfect.  The microwave in my current place must be set high as the first couple of times I made oatmeal, it exploded all over the microwave.  I now cook the oatmeal about 30 seconds less than recommended.  I also add cinnamon to oatmeal no matter what.

It's also National Hot Tea Month and I celebrate that pretty much every day.  I just haven't remembered to talk about it.  The other day, I had someone call me a "Tea Addict."  Granted, she called me that because I was on the third 16 ounce mug of tea she had seen that day.  (She didn't know about the 16ounces I had with breakfast.)

I know some tea purists sniff their noses at anyone drinking bagged tea.  While I wish I had the time to properly prepare loose-leaf tea everytime I drink tea, it's just not something I have the time to do with as much tea as I drink.  I always have both loose-leaf and bagged tea.  Loose-leaf is great for weekends when I'm not rushed and is wonderful because I can blend my own teas.  Bagged tea is great to keep a tea bag in my purse or for when I'm rushing out the door with my travel mug because I'm late for class.

The tea with breakfast was Teavana's Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls Green Tea.  I love green tea.  Black is okay if it has overtones of floral, vanilla, or orange.  White teas aren't bad either - I just think they're almost too delicate for me and I have  yet to find a red I like.  As for tisanes (herbal teas), I'll drink the occasional chamomile at night.  When drinking green, I add nothing.  Most black tea, I'll add a little sugar, sometimes cream.  Herbal teas, I'll add honey.

Also on the note of National Hot Tea month, I have to give a shout out to Teavana's Perfect Teamaker.  That's what I used to prep my tea.  I don't always use it for tea prep, but it is very easy to use and clean.  Plus, I always have fun watching the leaves unfurl and I don't have a glass teapot yet.

January 12: Curried Chicken Day

When I saw that today was Curried Chicken Day, I immediately thought, "Whoo!  I'll make Curry Rice and use chicken in my curry!"  Then I thought about it some more.  Curried Chicken Day.  Not Curry Rice with Chicken Day.  What the heck was Curried Chicken Day?  Was it just making curry with chicken and no veggies?  Could I rub curry spice on chicken, grill it and call it curried chicken?  What about quickly stir-frying some chicken and sprinkling some curry spice on it?

So I turned to the cookbooks.  I had picked up a recipe card from Penzey's Spices for "Curried Chicken and Vegetables" - nah, I'd have to buy a lot more spices.  Thumbed through Forever Summer by Nigella Lawson to "Chicken and Cashew Nut Curry" - again, don't have all the spices.  The American Heart Association cookbook has a Curried Pork recipe...nah, not interested. 

So I turned to friends.  Turns out, one friend swears by using Thai Kitchen's Curry Paste and the recipe that comes on the green curry paste.  So, I picked up some of the Thai Kitchen's Green Curry Paste and looked at the recipe. 

I didn't follow it. 

Oh, it was inspiration, but I didn't want to use my coconut milk (that's for when I make mochi!) and it still seemed more like a curry recipe than a curried chicken recipe.  So I did what I usually do - I improvised.  I threw a bunch of stuff together in a baking dish and tossed it in the oven...

and this is what came out!

Okay, so it looks a little bland, color-wise.  Next time I do something like this, I think I'm going to toss in some green peas to kick up the vegetable and color components.  Lack of color aside, it came out pretty darn tasty!  I ate half of it and saved the rest for tomorrow's lunch. 

Feeling like duplicating what I did?  Probably no, but in case you are, here's how my Curried Chicken with Onions came to be.

• Cut one chicken thigh into bite sized pieces.  Toss into a baking dish.
• On another cutting board (always use separate cutting boards) slice up one small brown onion.  Toss slices into baking dish.
• Scoop out some curry paste into dish.
• Splash some fish sauce into the dish.  Pause.  Look at stuff in baking dish.  Shrug and splash in some more fish sauce.
• Look at stuff in baking dish again and decide to sprinkle curry powder on chicken.
• Bake at 350 degrees Farenheit for 20 minutes, covered with lid for baking dish.  Remove from oven, stir everything together, replace the cover, and cook for another 20 minutes. 

I ate it with some rice (a brown and white mixture), kimchee, mixed vegetables, and a glass of almond milk.  Dessert was a small bowl of cranberry sauce. As I stated before, I think next time I'll add some peas.

January 7: Tempura Day

I'm not a big fan of fried foods.  Oh, I've attended "Fried Food" parties where we all brought stuff to fry in a deep fryer and I crave french fries about once a year, but for the most part, I tend to avoid fried foods. 

Except for tempura.  It's pretty much the only fried food I really like.  Tempura is simply an assortment of vegetables dipped in a batter and then fried.  You can dip it in soy sauce, ponzu, or a spicier dip of your choice.  Popular in Japan, tempura can be eaten as the main part of the meal, accompanied with a bowl of miso soup and a bowl of rice, or tempura can be used as a component of a meal.  For example, large bowls of noodles will be topped with various vegetables, fishcakes, and one or two pieces of tempura (tempura soba or tempura ramen).  Some Japanese restaurants will have "combo boxes" where tempura shares the spotlight with another main dish (like teriyaki beef or chicken katsu) with rice, pickled vegetables, salad, and soup on the side.

When I make tempura, I like to use a Japanese batter mix.  Occasionally, I'll make the batter from scratch, but I find using the Japanese batter mix is usually better because it's hard to find the right flour to use.  For the vegetables, I love using sweet potatoes, asparagus, onions, green beans, kabocha, and bell peppers.  I'll use shrimp sometimes, but I only ever need one or two so I hardly ever buy shrimp and just go vegetarian with tempura.

Topping noodles with tempura causes the tempura to end up a little soggy.  Normally, the minute a food gets soggy, I don't want to eat it, but tempura?  Still good.  Using cold, leftover tempura to top Okinawa soba is one of my favorites things to do.  Reheating tempura in the microwave?  Not so much.  Somehow, eating tempura cold and slightly soggy on top of piping hot noodles is just pretty darn good.