My Ninety-eighth - Omelette -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Ninety-eighth  - Omelette -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

Half the fun of an omelette with cooking it.  Most of the horror of an omelette is cooking it.  There is definitely a technique for cooking a fluffy omelette.  This is the wrong article to learn how to make an omelette.

For the purpose of a puree and omelette is basically scrambled eggs with stuffing.  This is one reason it has taken me so long to add this to the list of pureed recipes.  Also, the traditional 3-egg omelette is too large for people who are eating via a tummy tube, or sipping one cup of food and calling that a meal.

A 3-egg omelette needs a starch to keep the egg solids from sinking to the bottom of the blender.  Whether you add a piece of toast, hash browns, home fries, or English muffin, you are still making 6 cups of puree.  That is a lot of puree.  Most omelettes are pretty mild in flavor which make them perfect for a person who's stomach is upset with most spicy foods.  BUT NOT THREE MEALS IN A ROW.  When I was a lip sipper, that would make it 6 meals!! That is a lot of the same ol' same ol'.

My recipe for Sloppy Joe, gave me the inspiration for how to add omelette to my recipe list - SHARING.

RECIPE FOR TWO CUPS OF PUREE
center 1/3* cup of the omelette including stuffing
One toast, English muffin, or "like-size" cooking potato
one cup warm liquid like water or coffee

ADDITIONAL
extra butter
black pepper

FULL BATCH
Yea, six cups to too much to make and save in the refrigerator. SO make an Omelette that two people can share.  Cut the center out and puree that section.

SCRAMBLED EGGS
Yes, this is basically one scrambled egg, one piece of breakfast meat, toast, and/or cheese.  If you still want to make a meal, but don't want to go through the hassle of making a 3-egg omelette - cook the stuffing, and then drop an egg on top and scramble it up. 

DENVER OMELETTE
When I make an omelette my favorite is a Denver omelette with peppers, onion, and ham/bacon (and a dash of sherry).  If I am out of meat, I will make an omelette duxelle +/- the spinach.  

If you add spinach to your Denver omelette you will end up with green eggs and ham . . .  :)

CHEESE
OK, I didn't include cheese in this recipe. WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?  Of course any cheese is good whether it is Havarti, Jarsberg, Cheddar, Brie, Velveeta, Emmental, Bleu, Feta, Stilton, Lancashire, Gruyère, Roquefort, Queso Blanco, Colby-Jack, Monterey, Cremoso . . . I'm starting to feel like Pvt. Benjamin Buford 'Bubba' Blue. 

MORE THAN ONE SERVING
If you decide to go the route of more than one serving, I recommend adding a flavoring to additional servings.  If I am having a potato omelette puree, I will add Ketchup to the second puree.  If I am having toast with the second puree, I with add grape jelly or orange marmalade.  If I am having a English muffin omelette I would have made a Eggs Benedict (just being straight with you here). 

Fresh eggs matter

* Proper answer (with much love) according to my son in college: The case for an unfolded omelette, that is, a circular omelette, is analogous to the folded case excepting for the form of the description of the height gradient. For an unfolded omelette of uniform height, each cut has to have volume of pi r squared h divided by 3. To find the length of the circle segment, one solves a pretty basic integral, which is a form of Kepler's equation. That gives a length of the circular segment of 0.73, or about 3:2:3 ratio. So, for a perfectly even omelette, it's 1/4. If you make the omelette fatter in the middle, this ratio becomes smaller. The answer is closer to 1/4.

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My Ninety-Seventh -Sloppy Joe -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Ninety-Seventh -Sloppy Joe -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

One of the biggest issues with enjoying food while going through cancer treatment, is sitting at the table with the family and having a meal.  We just don't eat at the same pace as everyone else.  We might not be hungry at that time.  We have a ton of reasons why we can't.  And it is hard to share the same meal that the children enjoy

Sloppy Joes are a kid favorite, and easy enough to share at the same time as your kids meal time.  Extra Sloppy Joe can store easily in the refrigerator. Most important of all, it fills the air with the scent of family and nostalgia. 

I can remember playing a game out on the city street with my friends (Yes, I'm that old), and when mom called us in for dinner, that smell of Sloppy Joe was the smell of heaven. Now when I say "us" I mean myself and +/- four brothers.  Fierce badminton in the yard would include +/- three additional sisters.  Of course there could also be the additional neighborhood children.

I grew up with Sloppy Joes made with a packet of McCormick Sloppy Joe Seasoning. So it made it a dump-and-cook-in-one-pot recipe.  However, when I just looked up the McCormick recipe online, I discovered that it was missing two important ingredients from my mom's recipe - fresh onion and fresh bell pepper.

ground beef
chopped white onion
chopped bell pepper
McCormick seasoning
small can of tomato paste
water

RECIPE FOR TWO CUPS OF PUREE
1/2 cup Sloppy Joe
1/2 Hamburger bun
1 cup warm water

FULL BATCH
Yea, this recipe does not scale down from a full pound of ground meat very well.  You have to remember to make this when you are feeding an squad of children.  

GROUND MEAT
No, I have not tried a vegetarian version.  No, I have not tried a ground turkey version.  No, I have not tried a ground bison version (that would be like cheating on my chili).  But I can imagine having an issue with feeding an army of children with only one ground meat option. ::SIGH::

BELL PEPPER
OK, the fact that I just finished grilling orange and red peppers in February was the trigger that made me remember Sloppy Joes.  Although I hardly buy green bell peppers anymore, this recipe is fine for green ones, because there are so many red spices in this meal, that there is little worry in turning the puree camo green.

FRESH ONION
I always has an assortment of large onions in my pantry.  My mom traditionally bought large white onions in a large bag.   But remember back then you bought what was ever available at the supermarket or PX. Vidalia onions used to have a short season.

Go with the onion type that your family likes best.

TOMATO PASTE
I grew up on tomato paste.  Many people use tomato sauce instead, and reduce the amount of water in the recipe. Go with what your momma says to use . . .

I buy is by the case.
One of the few canned items I'm allowed to buy.

COMMENTS
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My Ninety-Sixth - Sausage and Pate: The Spice from Heaven -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Ninety-Sixth - Sausage and Pate: The Spice from Heaven  -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

WARNING
Just to get it out of the way . . . a lot of people view nitrites as a health issue.  I'll just leave that here.  I view food as one of the joys of life. I'll just leave that here.

Just four days ago, I posted on Facebook that I was craving pate', especially a country-style pate' but I had no idea where to purchase it as my favorite place went out of business.

On Thursday, I visited my son at Brandeis University, and for lunch he wanted to introduce me to one of his favorite places on the main drag - Moody Street, Moody's Delicatessen & Provisions.  I had my portable blender in my backpack so I was ready for a little adventure.  Little did I know, I would discover the place that I felt I could cross off an item on my bucket-list.

Now, growing up my mom tried to serve me liverwurst - sorry not a fan, and always thought that anything that looked like liverwurst tasted like liverwurst. YUCK!  It wasn't until I worked at the Versailles Restaurant in Lexington, that I discovered that country-style Pate' is fabulous.  Add a little brown mustard on a baguette . . . YUM!

So as my son and I were walking to Moody's, he was telling me about the fabulous selection of meats they prepare and everything is made right there.  When we walked in, his voice disappeared as I had found heaven on earth.  The front chilled case was filled with an assortment of New England Charcuterie prepared meats - BEEF SALAMI, BOURBON & BACON, CHORIZO SECO, FINOCCHIONA, GENOA, HOT SOPPRESSATA, PEPPERONI, SAUCISSON AU CIDRE, SWEET SOPPRESSATA, BRESAOLA, MAPLE BREAKFAST LINKS, CURED PORK SAUSAGE, BIERWURST BIERC, SMOKED CHORIZO, KIELBASA, BOHEMIAN PÂTÉ, PORK & RABBIT PÂTÉ, BEEF BACON, SMOKED BEEF BRISKET, OMG I'M SCREAMING LIKE A LITTLE FAN GIRL. RABBIT PÂTÉ!! DID YOU SEE THEY HAVE RABBIT PÂTÉ!!!

OK, Jeff get a hold of yourself.  I'm sure my son said a number of other wonderful things, but I knew I had to drop some serious coin here. He ordered "the Katz" (a pastrami or rye).  I thought "SKIP IT".  I'm just going to order some hunks of meat, and head back to my son's place and properly prepare a puree.  You can't fit a whole pastrami sandwich in a portable blender.

So now that I've whetted your appetite, let's talk a little bit about using sausages and pate's in a puree.

Don't view them as proteins.  View them as spices.  All of these ground meats puree very well.  All of these meats are powerful flavors, and bring back a lot of memories, so they are an excellent option for people who are trying to rekindle their love of food.

Except for a Pastrami sandwich, which should be piled high with meat, most sausage and pate' recipes add just a dash of meat to flavor and not over power the dish.  A pepperoni pizza is not completely covered in pepperoni. No one ever scooped up a huge spoonful of chopped liver and dumped it on their appetizer plate.

So go light on the meat.

BREAKFAST SAUSAGE
I typically add about one paddy, or one small link to every four cups of puree.

DRY SALAMI
1/4" to a 1/2" of meat is all that is headed for four cups of puree.  I give a range because some salami's are far more powerful than others.  I also view salami like "hot peppers"  some people grow accustom to the flavor, so you need to add more.  The best thing about dry salami is they store well in the refrigerator, so you can use a little at a time over a long period of time.  You can also keep two or three, and rotate the use of them.

PATE'
For me, Pate' is all about the after-taste.  Not for nothing, but a good pate' burp a couple of hours after the meal, is pure joy.  I also like my pate' with brown mustard, so about 1" cube is all I need.

FRESH SAUSAGE
Now you are in the realm of my Fenway favorite Sweet Italian Sausage.  The favor is milder, so I typically had a 6" link to my 4 cup puree.

FOUR CUPS
Nothing special about four cups.  It is just my typical size.  I usually get two two-cup servings.  I have six servings a day - 2 for breakfast, two for lunch, and two for dinner.  I'm a couple of years out of Cancer Treatment, so I can tolerate larger meals.  If you can hardly get a cup of puree through your mouth, think of your meat portion as the size of two pieces of pepperoni.

This picture of Moody's is courtesy of Star Chefs

Don't even get me started on the cheese selection . . . 

COMMENTS
Please add your comments and suggestions to my blog.  Nice to see people from around the globe reading my blog.  Please follow you want the latest recipes.

FACEBOOK
I have created a companion page on Facebook called: 100 Meals Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer Survivors.  Sometimes it is easier to share a FB page than send a blog address.