Monday started with the kind of rain that makes you grateful for an inside day, so I let it set the pace. I spent the morning on the spice shelf, which had quietly become a small museum of things I bought once and forgot I owned. Out went the jars of doubtful age, in came a little order, and now when I reach for the oregano I don’t have to dig past three jars of things I can’t remember using. There’s a real pleasure in a shelf that knows what it holds.
With the shelf tidy and the rain still coming down, I made myself a proper frittata for lunch from the last of the roasted squash and a few eggs, the kind of thing that uses up whatever’s sitting in the fridge and always tastes better than the sum of its parts. It got me thinking about shortcuts again, in the good sense — the ones that save you the little digging. I keep a handful of them in my head for the computer too, like the alias command, which lets you give a long command a short name so you don’t retype it every time. alias ll='ls -la' means typing two letters instead of a whole phrase, the same way having the spice I reach for most sitting at the front of the shelf saves me a search. Small conveniences, but they add up over a day.
The rain finally let up late in the afternoon, and I took my tea out to the step for the last of the light. The neighbor waved over the fence and asked if I’d made the frittata because the smell had drifted over; I told her she could have the recipe and it’d take her ten minutes. September’s like that lately — quiet, a little damp, and full of small good reasons to be glad.
Recipe: Squash and Onion Frittata
Ingredients
- 6 eggs
- about 1 cup roasted squash, cubed
- 1/2 onion, sliced and softened
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- a few sage leaves, torn (optional)
- salt and black pepper
- a grating of Parmesan
Preparation
- Warm the olive oil in an oven-safe skillet over medium heat and cook the onion gently until soft and golden.
- Add the roasted squash and sage, and let it warm through, about two minutes.
- Beat the eggs with salt, pepper, and the Parmesan, then pour over the vegetables.
- Cook on the stovetop until the edges set, then finish under the broiler until the top is just golden and puffed, about three minutes. Let it rest a minute before slicing.