Thursday, February 18, 2010

Omelette with green chiles

When I was one of the charge nurses in a teaching hospital ICU, I would sometimes write my favorite quotes on the assignment sheet to give the nurses something to think about during their 12 hour shifts. I liked , in particular, the gnomic words of Yogi Berra and Satchel Paige, but my favorite by far was Winston Churchill's immortal "Most of the world's work is done by people who do not feel particularly well". This describes the plight of the night nurse perfectly, for not one of us ever slept enough.

I worked last night and slept only 2 hours today. I was getting ready for work at 5pm when my supervisor called and offered me a vacation day. No cafetorium food for me tonight.No pre-cooked cheeseburger plucked from greasy warm water to be re-heated on the grill. No shells with tomato sauce. Now I had to cook, and I did not feel particularly well.

Two beaten eggs to the rescue. I put a pat of butter in a hot skillet,added 2 ounces of diced mild green chiles, a little salt, and a couple of splashes of Chipotle sauce to the beaten eggs. I poured the mixture into the very hot skillet, and swirled it till it covered the pan. Then I cooked it till the downside was blondish brown and the top was almost set. I folded it in half , and lifted it to my plate for its closeup. Photographing it took longer than cooking it, which I estimated took under 5 minutes. The perfect fast food when one is too tired to cook. I drizzled a little hot sauce on it, and declared it good!

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