(Above photo from STEEPED book shoot)
When spring semester finals are done, and grades are turned in, and all the students move out of the dorms and go home, the real work starts. Sure, the school year is busy, but that's just sort of day-to-day busy-ness, filled with things like teaching and admin. Summertime is when most academics (at least, at research unis) do the lion's share of what our jobs are about: busting our asses to get research going, writing grants, writing papers, revising papers, exploring new data, re-exploring old data, crunching through analyses, reading all the papers, setting up labs and experiments, all the things.
Sure, it's nice that there are fewer daily constraints on time (i.e., I don't have to be in class at x time or at a faculty meeting at y time), but I honestly feel like the hours fill up faster during the summer. There's never enough time to get what needs done done!
But, quick breaks are necessary for sanity, so when my little chamber music trio--made up entirely of swamped summertime paper-writing academics--had an uncharacteristic mid-week rehearsal recently, I pressed pause on the paper-writing to make sure we had a yummy but quick lunch to go along with rehearsal.
Lately, since I get to work from home a bit more during the summer, eggs have been my lunchtime jam. They're super easy and satisfyingly filling, and I find the blank canvas of egg dishes to be really exciting creatively. This time around, I decided to go with one of my favorite, easy-but-impressive make-ahead dishes: the frittata, which can be made the night before amd either served cold the next day or re-warmed briefly with great results. This pencil asparagus frittata is a simple but elegant affair, with thin pencil asparagus roasted to a savory crisp, embedded in a fluffy kefir and asiago cheese frittata, and flavored with just a dash of Worchestire and sumac. The top of the frittata, after it comes out of the oven, is sprinkled with lemon zest for a bright burst of summery freshness.
Okay, that was a quick update, but paper deadlines are once again looming. Back soon!
P.S. Want more Desserts for Breakfast? Come say hi on the new tumblr companion blog, for more frequent, quickie updates!
Read on for recipe...
