Gruyere Omelete

Come on guys... PINK?! oh well...

The big trick with omelets is patience.

3 Eggs
2 tbs water
1tbs butter
1tbs olive oil
1 or 2 pinches salt
4 grinds from a pepper mill
1/2 c. Gruyere shredded
1/2 c. cleaned chopped button mushrooms
2 medium shallots (like garlic and onion all in one! mmm..)
1 splash of white wine
1/2 handful of chopped fresh dill
1/4 handful chopped parsley (for garnish)
1 cherry tomato (sliced thin for garnish)
2 slices of honey wheat bread (toast mmm)
2 dabs of orange marmalade (or whatever the hell you like)

OK - you'll need 2 pans for this. One omelet pan and another one to saute the mushrooms, shallots, etc...

In a bowl, crack the eggs, add in the water and 4 (or more) cracks of pepper and mix with a fork until the mixture looks homogeneous. It's important to do this by hand, don't want to murder the proteins. Then set it aside.

In the saute pan, get the olive oil in there and get it up to a good medium heat. Then add in the mushrooms. Saute 'em for a few minutes until they start to get soft. Flick 'em around the pan with a wooden spoon or whatever. Then add in the shallots. Flick them around a bit. Once the shallots start to soften, add a tbs of white wine. Then add half of the dill and then add a pinch of salt and turn off the heat. Continue to use the wooden spoon or whatever until the heat dissipates. Cover it, remove from the hot burner.

Meanwhile, get that other pan and get it going to medium heat with the butter. Once the butter is melted (but before it burns! yuck...) pour in the eggs and cover. And wait! Don't peak! Unless you have a clear lid, of course.

After 2 minutes, take a peak. If the eggs still look a little runny, it's OK. It just needs maybe another minute. Once the eggs look like they're mostly congealed, put half of the Gruyere cheese in the kinda left-ish middle of the pan, then add half of the saute mixture, use a normal spoon and put it right on top of the cheese. Cover! 30 seconds! Now is a good time to burn some toast.

Open the lid and add in the remainder of the cheese, saute and fresh dill left over from earlier. Slide your spatula under the right side of the pan and gently flip it over the stuffing. Use 2 spatulas if you want. Sometimes I just use my other hand. Burns a little though.

Once, it looks like an omelet in the pan turn off the heat, wait 30 more seconds with the lid on. Get your plate out. Slide that yummy omelet onto the plate. Fan out the 4 or 5 slices of the little tomato on top of the omelet. Sprinkle the parsley everywhere. Plate your triangle-cut marmalade toast (whatever) on the same plate.

Hey, if you made a little bacon or sausage while I wasn't lookin', toss it on. Pour a little french-press coffee (2 splendas w/ 2 moo moos, please) and a little glass of OJ. Turn on some Led Zeppelin and enjoy your morning, Billy-style. Oh yeah, get me some of that cayenne pepper sauce! Crystal, yup!

Omelets are cool because you can pretty much put anything you want in them. Just as long as the filling ingredients marry well. I try not to create omelets with too much going on. You can get one of those at IHOP, barf... Remember, less can be more if you think about the flavors. Try new things that you wouldn't normally try. Carrots and raisins, with eggs!?!? What?! Yup, throw in a little curry and brie and you've got a mouthful of Pakistan. Minus the dirt...

*Other omelet filling combos:

• Goat cheese, chive or dill, tomato
• Feta, spinach, scallion
• Cheddar, vidalia, diced ham
• Muenster, fresh basil, bourbon-ham (black forest is good, too)
• Swiss, steak, Shitake, shrooms, yellow onion, horseradish
• Monterrey Jack, Serrano Peppers (or Jalapeno), white onion