Breakfast is supposed to be the most important meal of the day. Yet John and I rarely eat it. Our schedules just don't allow it. When you get up and immediately go to the gym, you don't want a heavy breakfast and when you go from the gym to work, you can't really take along scrambled eggs or oatmeal. So I've been pondering what I could make for breakfast that would be portable, have a good mix of protein and carbs, and would work for John. Hence... frittata-a-go-go, or Muffin MacEggs, or OmFins, or Scrambled Quickfins, or Atkins Muffins (we had trouble coming up with a name).

Ingredients

• 7 eggs
• 1 cup sauteed mushrooms
• 1 1/3 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 4 slices of bacon
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 diced red bell pepper, sauteed
• 1 bunch green onions, sauteed
• Salt and Pepper
• Crushed red pepper

The eggs were local, from Skagit River Ranch. If you're in the Seattle area and want eggs from Skagit, you need to get to the farmers markets early, especially in the summer. There is usually a line for their eggs. During the winter though, they can usually be had relatively easily. The mushrooms, bell pepper, and green onions were organic, but I'm not sure any of them were local. The crushed red pepper came from a bottle and was definitely neither organic, nor local. The cheese was Dubliner Irish Cheddar. The bacon was also from Skagit. We bought the raw milk from Sea Breeze Farms.  I used to be hesitant about buying and using raw milk. I don't honestly like milk, and raw milk made me nervous. But the more I read, the more comfortable I become with the idea of raw milk.

As I pulled this recipe out of thin air, I didn't have any instructions and had no idea if these would even work. John cooked up the sliced mushrooms and the diced pepper and onions. I mixed all of the ingredients together in the KitchenAid and filled our greased muffin tin with the result. This recipe made 12 muffins.

We baked them for about 25 minutes at 375. Here's the result.

So, how did they taste?

I would call these a success. I had a cold one for a late breakfast today and it was good. I couldn't really taste the cheese, but I could taste the bacon and the red pepper flakes. John doesn't like eggs, but even he was willing to eat these. Though we both agreed that they needed a little tweaking. We'll try them again this weekend and make the following modifications.

• Grate the cheese finer and use half of it to line the muffin cups, creating a cheesy "shell" for the frittata.
• Use a stronger cheese.
• Mix in some ancho chilies in adobo sauce (pureed).
• Switch to 6 eggs and 3/4 of a cup of milk.

Nutritional Information:

• Calories: 175
• Fat: 13.5 grams
• Carbohydrates: 1.5 grams
• Protein: 9 grams
• Sugar: 1.05 grams

Other notes... using skim milk and a lower fat cheese would definitely help here. In fact, here's the nutritional analysis with skim milk and reduced fat cheddar cheese.

• Calories: 134
• Fat: 9 grams
• Carbohydrates: 2.25 grams
• Protein: 9 grams
• Sugar: 1.3 grams

Are you afraid of chickens? I don't mean the squawking, feathered, alive variety, I mean the whole, ready-to-cook variety.

I was afraid of chickens. Well, to be fair, I probably would have backed slowly away from the live variety too, but for years I've been wary of cooking a whole chicken.

I can hear you now. "But... you cooked a whole turkey for Thanksgiving! How can you be afraid of chicken?"

The short answer is that I don't know. It's poultry, not four pounds of nuclear waste. The first time I tried using a whole chicken after moving to Seattle, it was a catastrophic failure. I attempted to make some sort of Orange Chicken in the crock pot. It was almost inedible. In fact, I think we threw the whole thing out. So you can imagine my trepidation when I saw this post by The Amateur Gourmet.  

The chicken was beautiful. What's more, it required only the barest minimum of preparation. What could be easier than rubbing some spices over a bird and throwing it in the oven?

The answer? Not much.

The recipe called for 1 teaspoon crushed fennel seeds, 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, and 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper. We rubbed the spices over the chicken and stuck it in the oven for an hour at 400 degrees.

The result? Well, here's the visual proof. (Since this is a local blog, I should mention that the mug in the background is from Fuel Coffee. They're a great local coffee shop with two locations. If you're in Seattle, I highly recommend them.)

So, on to the local part of our program.

The chicken came from Sea Breeze Farms. We've been thinking about trying their chicken for a few months. We picked it up at the University District Farmer's Market. It was fresh (not frozen) and weighed about 4 pounds. It was a little pricey ($20), but well worth it for a cage free, organic bird. Since it was fresh, we could buy it and cook it the same day. That was an added bonus.

If I've held your interest this far, you know that the chicken was easy, appears very appetizing, and local. But how did it taste?

I have a confession to make. I don't like chicken skin. This isn't all bad, as chicken skin is primarily fat. I don't much care for the taste, and I hate the fatty mouth feel. About the only time I like it is on Kentucky Fried Chicken. I love the very edges of the crunchy fried skin. Seriously, don't get in between me and the edges of KFC chicken skin. But otherwise? Not-so-much. Since this chicken looked so crispy and tasty, I had to try a bit of skin. It was good. I only had about half the top skin on the drumstick, but it was crispy, salty, and relatively thin (so not overly fatty).

The rest of the chicken was excellent. The meat was moist and had a decent texture. The drumstick was very good, but the breast was better. Of course, I've always liked light meat over dark, but even the dark meat on this bird was very good.

We'll definitely make this again.

Hi everyone....

This is the other half of Cook Local (I guess you can call me Local, and she's Cook ) here and, as you may know, I recently came into a whole bunch of free time by way of the early ending of a contract gig I was working at Microsoft.

So, since I'm at home, I figure I should be doing some cooking and, in doing so, expand some of my horizons.
Cue up the way too many blogs I read, most notably, What We're Eating and their particularly scrumptious looking Chipotle and Blue Cheese Souffle.

Patricia and I have been on a bit of a blue cheese kick lately, so this recipe seemed right up our alley (or down our gullet, as the case may be).

This recipe is not without its hurdles for me, most namely that I really don't work well with eggs.  And I'd never made a souffle before.  And I'm not much of a baker.

Making this dish, which calls for 4 eggs total, I used 6.  First one I crushed in my own hands trying to bread, the fourth or fifth I managed to tear the yolk wide open.  That isn't to say the others were 100% either.  I managed to rip two of the yolks and my egg whites were a little yolky, and I'm sure my yolky was a little white.

All in all, tho, it seemed to work out in the end, but before we go to the digital proof...

Lets look at the local-ness of the ingredients.

Butter - Organic Valley, like Horizon, does get some bad press for being such a large organic farm and being too corporate.  I half agree with it and generally try to buy some other brand... Mother's Choice I think.  But overall, I just keep getting tempted to make my own butter.  It seems pretty easy, really.  Here, go see for yourself:  http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article.php?id=113&title=Making+Butter. 

Milk - Sea Breeze Farm, Vashon Island.  Local and Raw.

Sharp Cheddar - Tillamook Cheese, Tillamook County Oregon.  We generally like much less mass produced cheese, but, sometimes cost comes into play.  At least Tilamook is right down the road, more or less.

Blue Cheese - Wisconsin.  No, it isn't local.  Which is sad, since Oregon has such a nice selection of blue cheeses, but 2/3rds of a cup is a pricey proposition, and it might be a waste of a good cheese.  But, on the other hand, for some recipes, the quality of ingredients make for a much better dish.

Pureed Chipotle in Adobo - Ok, this was really not local, it was from a can.  If we end up needing more of this, we'll learn how to make our own.  Peppers are pretty plentiful over the summer at the farmer's market.

Green Onions, Cilantro - Organic, yes.  Local, not a clue.

Parmigiana - I wonder if there is even a local source for parmigiana.

Eggs - Skagit River Ranch.  They sell us meat, they sell us eggs.  Luckily, during the winter, the eggs are plentiful.  Over the summer, you need to get there and line up before the market opens to get the eggs.

Flour, Cream of Tartar, Salt and Pepper - Not a clue.

Now, all that said, lets look at the photographic evidence of my souffle mastery.  Unfortunately, I didn't actually do photographs for the whole process.  I was a bit rushed and nervous.  Next time I won't be cooking it alone and I'll have some help... and a new camera.

Before we put it in the oven:

And lo, they are risen!

First, the 'in the oven' shot.  We were a bit worried they'd fall fast, so P grabbed a shot before even pulling it out.

But the fears were unfounded, they lasted to the stove-top:

Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close ups!

That second one was one of my favorites, along with the other back one which looked similarly craggy, but the front one looks..... well, it looks like a biscuit topped pot pie, funny enough.

You know, I wrote this entire post and never even stopped to think about talking about how they tasted.  They weren't 'Oh. My. God.' level, but, they were good.  The insides are... well, I'll be honest, this is the second souffle I've eaten in my life, and the first was a dessert, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  The insides are... well, if you would almost think it wasn't cooked, it isn't exactly soupy, it isn't solid.  It is almost like oatmeal, but a little thicker.

But, over all.  It was good.  We will make these again.

This is another Skagit River Ranch recipe that's a definite keeper.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 4 lbs of boneless pork shoulder
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 3/4 cup cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup catsup
• 1/3 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
• 1/4 cup light molasses
• 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• salt and pepper

Cut the pork into three equal pieces and head the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Brown the pork on all sides, about 10-12 minutes. Transfer the pork to the slow cooker.

Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of fat from the frying pan. Note: We had to skip this step. There was almost no fat in the frying pan. Oh how we love Skagit's meat. Return the pan to medium-high heat and add the onion. Saute for about 5 minutes until the onions are golden in color. Add the vinegar and use it to deglaze the pan, scraping up any browned bits of meat. Add the catsup, brown sugar, molasses, red pepper flakes, Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, and some salt and pepper. Cook until the mixture begins to bubble, stirring occasionally.

Pour the sauce over the pork, cover, and cook on high 4-5 hours or on low for 8-10 hours.

When the slow cooker is done, transfer the pork to a dish and shred the pork using a pair of forks. Discard any large pieces of fat. Skim off any excess fat from the sauce (we had none). Return the pork to the sauce and stir. Serve over rolls.