If you’re like me (and a lot of other people), the smell of onions cooking verges on intoxicating.  So many delicious dishes start this way that most of us have accumulated years and years of positive associations with the smell.  Needless to say, a pan full of onions caramelizing over a low heat was a doggone good way to start out this week’s Dark Days Challenge.

See how pretty and sweet and brown they are becoming?  That’s what happens when you are armed with patience, a good pan, and some clarified butter.  It’s only my second time caramelizing onions, but I think I’m becoming addicted.  I have a love affair with a lot of the allium family, in fact.  Garlic, onions, shallots, chives…mmmm…  Some stinky things are just so dadgum tasty!

Things are busy around here, as you may have surmised from the less-frequent postings.  That’s a combination of work deadlines and Christmas rush, though I’m starting some classes next week as well.  It’s hectic, but it’s good.  In any case, that busyness is what led me to choose something quick and easy for this week’s challenge.  It doesn’t get much easier than an omelet.

We almost always have local eggs on hand, thanks to Josh’s Foraging Fowls in Wilcox.  True confessions time: For the past several years, I struggled with buying eggs in the grocery store because many of the labels such as “free range” or “vegetarian feed only” on the eggs are often meaningless.  Chickens might have access to a dirt patch, or they might just have a “doggie door” to a dirt patch for a few hours a day and earn the label “free range.”  Many of them are still packed in over-crowded conditions with less-than-ideal lives.  While I always made sure to buy eggs from vegetarian-fed hens (not wanting them to be fed rendered animal parts, since such practices have been the cause of prion disease transmission in sheep and cows), I know that hens are happiest when they aren’t vegetarian.  Chickens like grubs and grasshoppers and all sorts of creepy crawlies.  I want chickens to be able to live like chickens as much as possible, with dust baths and grasshopper snacks and space to flap for all.  This, of course, meant that store-bought eggs posed a lot of problems, and for the last several years, I was not living close enough to a farmers’ market to make a go of things that way.

Fortunately, Mr Josh and his foraging fowls stepped in to save the day.  If he had a website, I’d link to it, but instead I’ll just sing his praises.  We have the pleasure of being able to order eggs from him once every six weeks through our CSA with Crooked Sky Farms. As many of you may be aware, the intensity of the color in egg yolks is determined by diet.  Foraging or pastured hens tend to have vibrantly yellow or orange yolks.  Josh’s eggs are electric, as you’ll see in the photos of the omelet.

Enough about eggs.  What was I going to put in that omelet?  Not surprisingly, my first instinct was to see what odds and ends were hiding out in the fridge.  I had some leftover CSA sweet potato from another apple and sweet potato bake I’d made up this week, a tiny slice of goat milk brie, and a half a CSA onion left over from earlier in the week.

These things work together, I figured.  Maybe with a dash of nutmeg and some salt.  Fearless in the face of kitchen experimentation—that’s me!

Once the typical omelet egg-milk-salt-pepper mix had set up in the pan, I added some dollops of brie, chunks of sweet potato, the caramelized onions, and a fine grating of fresh mutmeg along with a dash of salt.

Once eveything was cooked through and toasty warm, we served it up.  The verdict?  Good.  Warm.  Mild.  The onions were especially nice.  However, both the Unicyclist and I tend to like bolder flavors, so I doubt this will make it into our regular rotation.  Still, not bad for a Sunday, especially when topped it off with a cinnamon roll from the local bakery.

Yum.

So, what’s new in your kitchens?  Got any killer omelet ideas to share?