Monochromatic goodness

I have rambled in the past about how parsley is good for more than just adding color to a blah looking dish. It’s good for deluding fools like me into thinking there are vegetables there with the meat and taters. Yeah, I know. It’s useless for nutrition, but it does add color.

Somehow this weekend, events conspired to create the most monochromatic dishes I have ever seen. I like to take photos of our food. I am gradually getting better with our overpriced, overpowering camera. I like plating dishes. I made Christmas wreaths out of jalapenos and kidney beans for goodness sake.

Still, Saturday morning found me looking at a plate that looked like Norm Abrams had hit it with a nice walnut finish. We loved Scott Peacock’s toad in the hole, so I made our own version. Mine is the same thing, only I used a regular slice of dark organic wheat bread, not the nice long, light Pullman plank he uses. I also made patties of the excellent venison sausage we have. Nice dark wheat toast (even with an egg embedded in it) and sausage patties do not exactly pop with color.

Sunday morning was an exercise in leftovers. I reheated the remainder of Mama Squirrel’s excellent St. Andre cheese grits from the night before. While that was going, I sauteed some diced onion in my favorite skillet. Next, I threw in the last of the uncooked shrimp from the night before. When that was about half cooked, I poured in beaten eggs, let them cook a bit, topped it with some mozzarella, and put it under the broiler. Voila! Shrimp frittata. Plate a piece of that next to a warm, cheesy serving of cheese grits, and you have, well, I’m not sure if the paint chit would call it canary or sunshine yellow.

So what is the point of all of this? Well, I guess the point is to make sure to have tomatoes or peppers (or parsley) on hand to brighten things up a bit. Then again, both breakfasts were delicious. They won’t hit the cover of Gourmet any time soon, but they certainly hit the spot. I guess that’s really the point.