Chickpea Frittata with tomatoes, goat cheese and olives

I can’t remember how I happened on this recipe, but I found not only the chickpea frittata that was my breakfast this morning, but also recipes for chickpea flatbread – a soft flatbread.

By different names, these are sold fresh off or out of cast iron in at least Italy and France. There is a bit of variation in seasoning and how they are served and what they are called.

I am not found of the bean flours in gluten free baking mixes – they seem to impart an odd flavor to baked goods. But I love all kinds of beans, chickpea in particular so when I saw this recipe with only chickpea flour, I was gung-ho to try it. Since this is savory, a bean taste would be ok…but it did not taste “beany” to me.

Just out of the oven.

No egg or dairy in the recipe: chickpea flour, olive oil, salt, seasonings and water. But it bakes up with a custard-like consistency. I added cumin, black pepper and a bit of italian seasoning to my mix….

And topped with fresh tomatoes, goat cheese and kalamata olives. I liked!

The link to the recipe I started with: My Recession Kitchen’s Tuscan Chickpea Frittata

Kalyn’s Kitchen recipe for Socca has more info as well as a flatbread variation…my next try.

A sunshiny day

Moonshadows, moonset and sunrise…not a cloud in the sky…

Cold, but clear making a nice change from the gray, drippy days of the past week – a sunshiny day.

Moonset

This is what it looked like this morning – incredibly beautiful! I sat in the Jeep with Karl and watched for a bit.

However, for full disclosure… to get the above, I did more than my usual minor-tweaking in Photoshop.

Moon shadows

Yesterday evening, the temperature dropped and the sky began to clear. Karl’s and my last walk was my moonlight, albeit still cloudy moonlight.

I woke in the night to a moonlit house.

This morning, a moon so bright that even filtered through the trees in the woods, we walked over now crunchy snow and ground without house or flash light.

I took my first cup of coffee out to the chair and sat with Karl watching and listening to morning sounds. On moonlit nights, the wildlife feed all night. There is more movement, more sound, more life in the night and very early morning. The crack of a tree limb as the deer moved below us made Karl huff and briefly bark but then seeing that they were moving on and not across his yard, he quieted. A gust of wind rose in the pines and faded away. The air smelled clean – too cold to smell of pine, no smell of snow yet – just clean.

As I sat in the quiet, several decisions were made…or rather they “occurred”. Nothing monumental, just a few things that have been rolling around in my head with no resolution for some days. It was as if I tossed all of the pieces of a puzzle into the air and they fell to the ground all in their proper places. Inside, warming up with a second cup of coffee, I sat with Bob at my feet and felt great peace.

It is a new day, with new possibilities – started in the clear light of moon shadows.

Hot roast beef and roasted vegetables in a bread bowl

I visited Karen Cooks , blog of recent commenter Karen, and nearly fell into her clam chowder in a bread bowl – wow, a most beautiful food photo which does exactly what a food photo should…makes you want to dive in and eat it! I became obsessed with trying to make a bread bowl and putting something scrumptious in it.

I used the Portuguese Broa dough I have at the moment, shaped a round boule and put it on parchment paper in a small pyrex bowl to keep the shape. When baked, I sliced off the top.

I scooped out some of the insides which I spritzed with olive oil and garlic and baked those until crisp for croutons.

Also in my frig at the moment is beef tri-tip that I slow roasted and shredded. I added that, au jus and some heavy cream to a roast vegetable mix of red potatoes, carrots and cauliflower.

Hot roast beef and roasted vegetables in a bread bowl!

***The bread bowl was delicious but a bit soft.