After sleeping in today and then checking my daily feeds/tweets/email, I saw Chris had made an omlette, I got the hankerin' for one too. Besides, since Sean turned me onto the lightbox concept, any excuse to play with the camera is a good one.

A quick glance into the fridge, and I quickly assessed that a Greek omlette was in order. Feta cheese, red onion, kalamata olives, and spinach ( I passed on tomato), 3 free range eggs, a pat of butter and I was set.

I prefer to give my vegetables a quick sauté before starting my omlette. I've seen omlette's made a million ways, and more turn out to be a frittata than an omlette in my opinion, where the "filling" is cooked in the pan, the eggs poured over and cooked until set, and then just folded over. Again, to me that's not an omlette. Once the filling is cooked, I remove it from the pan, add the pat of butter until it melts and bubbles (this is the water and impurities, think of it as a quick clarifying). The next secret to a great omlette is to whip the eggs as much as possible. Some people add a bit of milk or cream, I tend to skip that step, but it doesn't hurt anything, and may help smooth out the eggs when whipping. I've even seen people put the eggs in a blender before making the omlette. The more you whip the eggs, the more air you incorporate, and the fluffier the omlette.

Once the butter is melted and stops bubbling, pour the eggs into the pan, and let set for a minute or two. The eggs should start to firm up on the edges. This is where the next trick comes into play. As the edges set, gently lift up on an edge, and tilt your pan so that the still liquid egg setting on top drains under the set egg. You can do this on several edges. This also helps get that fluffy omlette-ty goodness, vs the flat, dense thing you often get in road house diners.I failed to pay attention to the utensil I was using, so the big black spatula I was using doesn't show up well in the picture, hopefully you get the idea of lifting a corner.)

Once you've tilted and drained the whipped eggs as much as possible, you can now add your filling just off to one side of the pan. You don't want to put it in the center, as you are going to fold over your omlette, and you don't want it to break. You also want an even coverage, as folding it over will help warm your filling, finish cooking the little bit of egg that didn't set, and if using cheese, melt that too.

I like to let it cook a couple of minutes on one side, then flip it over and cook the other side a few more minutes, depending on the amount of filling, the size of the omlette, etc. If you don't have a big spatula to flip your omlette, a secret is to put plate over your pan, put your hand on top of the plate and hold it firm against your pan. You can then invert the plate and pan together, in essence "flipping" the omlette over onto the plate. You can then slide the omlette back into the pan to finish cooking. It may take some practice, and works best with smaller pans, but it beats trying to do it with a tiny spatula or flipping it in mid air if you're not practiced, and watching the whole thing hit the floor for the dog to eat up. Pour your self a big glass of Florida OJ, (heck maybe even make a mimosa) and enjoy.

Seems I forget to activate a plugin that would auto post my food links from diigo, so here's a quick wrap-up of recent links.

• Mr. Weber, Meet Mr. Brinkmann
• Mama Meera's Cookbook - a Mac OS X cookbook software project
• Rouxbe
• Food Blog Log

With my love across the Atlantic, I was slipping into bachelor mode – fast food, sandwiches, lots of eggs. So walking into the kitchen to make yet another sandwich, I fought the urge and fish stew quickly came to mind. I made a quick assessment of the pantry and fridge. Garbanzo beans, a can of whole peeled tomatoes, a bulb of garlic and not much else for such a dish, I decided to make a quick trip to the market to round out the ingredients.

A pound of firm white fish, a nice fennel bulb, a bunch of organic celery, a green pepper, sweet onion and a large can of whole baby clams later, I head home to throw together a big pot of fish stew to hold me over until the little lady returns, and stave off the fast food.

The baby clams were as much for background flavor as anything, certainly if you have some seafood stock stashed in the freezer (I have shells from shrimp and lobster in the freezer, just haven't made any stock yet and wasn't feeling that adventurous) certainly you could just use that. I've never had any luck with commercial fish bouillons, but if you have one that works for you, certainly that can augment the stew as well. Bottles of clam juice can be used in a pinch as well. Likewise, additional seafood could be added. Certainly shrimp or squid would lend themselves to the flavors of this dish as well.

I diced the onion, green pepper, half the bulb of the fennel, 3 stalks of the celery (including tops) and 4 cloves of garlic and tossed it all in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in my trusty enamel coated dutch oven. I big pinch crushed red pepper, and a few bay leaves round out the first phase.

Saute the vegetables over medium high heat until the vegetables are softened, but not mushy. Next add the tomatoes. I prefer to drain off the juice first into the pot, then crush the tomatoes by hand. I also like to add some filtered water to the can and swish it around and add that to the pot as well. Finally add the whole clams and their juice to the pot, as well as the garbanzo beans (I added roughly a cup and a half) bring to a simmer, cover and cook another 15-20 minutes to let the flavors develop and finish cooking the vegetables.

After 20 minutes or so, you can cut the fish up into chunks, depending on the type of fish, I tend to cut mine into pieces about the size of a die. This way, they will cook through, but hold their shape. I prefer chunky, and since it's more a stew, chunks seem more appropriate. However, again, we are improvising, and it's all about your tastes and preferences. There is no right or wrong. Just keep in mind, the smaller the pieces, the less time the fish needs in the stew, otherwise it will disintegrate anyway.

Before adding the fish, check for seasoning. Certainly salt and pepper, salt will be dependent on the type of stock, broth, bouillon clam juice, etc. I also like to add a little acidity to help round out and balance the flavors. A little dry white wine, or in my case, a few splashes of sherry vinegar, and some fresh ground pepper was all I needed.

Lower the heat on the stew, add your fish, and chop a few tops of the fennel, roughly 3 tablespoons, give or take depending on your tastes. I'm a fennel addict, and like the contrast of the slight anise flavor of the fresh tops, especially with tomato and fish. The bulb tends to sweeten as it's cooked, so the fresh tops round the flavors out nicely.

Depending on the size of chunks you cut your fish in, 5-8 minutes should be sufficient at low heat. Recheck seasoning, and your stew should be ready to serve.

A stew like this on a warm summer evening could certainly be served by itself, with a simple salad or some crusty bread, or some combination there of. If I were to pour a glass of wine, I'd probably opt for a viognier, or a light pinot noir.

These Wasabi Soy Almonds have to be the single most addicting snack I have come across in a long time. If you are a big sushi lover, and bastardize it like most Americans by mixing copious amounts of wasabi with your soy sauce before dunking your sashimi or maki, then you know this flavor all too well. I've long been a fan of wasabi peas, but this is just completely on another level.

And nutritionally speaking, they're not the worst ever, though the sodium is a bit high, however, compared to many other snacks, they aren't that bad. 115g of sodium per ounce of nuts (they say that's about 28), which is roughly five percent of an average daily allowance, so even if you eat a few handfuls, you'll be OK, plus the added benefit of a protein boost. Also, from my education, "good" fats like that found in nuts are a great hunger suppressant, so eating a handful or so of nuts is always better than scarfing down a big bag of chips, etc.

disclaimer - though the link is to their site to purchase a case of these, it's not an affiliate link or paid review, just the only link on their site I could find

Just about every website has jumped on the social network bandwagon, ala MySpace and Facebook, and now cooking and recipe sites are fully on board as well. Equally, there's no shortage of sites trying to be the Facebook of food, and these are just a few I've recently run across. I have not actually registered and tried to use any of these, so they are not full reviews, just first impressions based on having explored many of these types of sites.

First up is Group Recipes, in the mandatory beta status, sporting the very clichéd web 2.0ish diagonal stripped background, tags, and user profiles. From their about page they aim to be

world's neatest food site. From meeting other food lovers to nifty recipe predictions and taste compatibility, Group Recipes has your grub needs covered. The project's goal is to harness the tastebuds of the masses to create a really useful resource for food lovers.

One interesting feature is "Roger" the robot, that is supposed to analyze your recipes and tastes and make recommendations based on your profile. Also included is a recipe stumbler, for those with no clue what to make for dinner, which could come in handy on those nights nobody can make a suggestion for dinner.

Next up is , Family Oven also in the ubiquitous beta status, and honestly, my exploration was cut quite short by the overwhelming amount of adds on the home page. The goal appears to be to allow cooks of all skill levels to create a profile page (think food blog ala wordpress.com) to share their love of food and recipes, including having videos. They've also incorporated a digg like feature "chomp it" (lame, huh?) to rate recipes, as well the ability to save for later, and create shopping lists based on recipes you've collected. The overall UI leaves me with something to be desired, so perhaps a second run might sway my opinion.

Following up that is Open Source Food, from the same developer who brought us the now deceased 8apps. Also a way for users to share their recipes, Open Source Food seems to have a larger emphasis on photos with recipes. One very interesting element with the recipes is that you can license your recipes (Creative Commons seems the most popular, and there's a link to "blog this" for a recipe, which you can embed in your own blog.

Example

Definitely a neat feature, and one I may explore.

Another site I recently came across is Super Cook allows you to "finds recipes you can make with the ingredients you have at home." I haven't tested this site, but will keep it bookmarked for those I just don't want to head out to the market.

Finally, not so much a social food and cooking site is Culinary Seductions which aims to show "food is the key that unlocks hearts, minds and a whole lot more. Our mission is to entertain and educate all those who are interested in winning their dates over with food." Obviously aimed at the bachelor/husband looking to impress the woman in the life, this site's goal is to share seductive recipes and techniques to achieve these dishes.

If you've come across other similar sites, or have one of your own which you'd like featured here on Cooking With, leave a comment and I'll be sure to take a look and share my thoughts.