I skipped yoga this morning based on the thin excuse that there was too much snow for me to drive. Since I live in Maine and we've had about 30 feet of snow this season already, this is especially weak, but my husband was being sweet and it was my son's first day of swim lessons - how could I abandon them for a sweaty mat and some hip opening contortions?
So, instead, I made them omelets. Recently I read this article in Gourmet about one man's obsessive crusade to make the perfect omelet. I had never thought much about how to make an omelet but now I view it as a work of great art. My first, by the way was a dud, but the second one was much improved.
The real highlight of breakfast wasn't the omelet. It was the cleaning of the omelet pan. Not the inside - that part is Teflon and cleans in a snap. It was scrubbing the bottom. I'm not quite sure how this particular pan had gotten so nasty but it was dark and various shades of dark brown to black. I went in with a vengeance with my new-found-love the Brillo Pad. My mom used to always have some on hand and I remember the joy of getting hard to clean pots clean. This past thanksgiving my sibs and I stayed in the home of a fellow clean freak and discovered her stash of the Brillo. Oh, the joy! I forgot about this ingenious cleaning tool for I had been toiling away with the green scrubby for most of my adult life. I spent a good fifteen minutes putting serious arm muscle into the job, mindful to keep my shoulders relaxed, my hips aligned and my jaw relaxed. I went in circles this way and that and in this cleaning trance, the shiny, gleaming lovely All-clad omelet pan revealed itself to me. I saw my reflection in the bottom and as it happened, Krishna Das was chanting from the stereo. I had found my yoga moment after all.
3 comments:
nice arc to this story, emily. cooks illustrated has a couple recipes for how to make a basic, yet perfect omelet. I tried finding a link online, but you have to be a member/subscriber. I like the seeing of your reflection as krishna das was playing. i like how you told yourself to keep your jaw loose and your hips square.
But I've heard so many conflicting stories about using brillo type substances on beautiful new (wedding registry) type stainless pans. Or is yours not stainless. I even think I read in the initial instructions of my Caphalon (wedding registry) pans that scratchy cleaning products like Brillo are a no-no for the sleak layers of the pan designed to cook to perfection. What to do??
Sorry for the delay in the reply:
re. Brillo and Caphalon. You are right, they don't mix.
However, pans that are just stainless are fine with Brillo. My pans are all stainless - they are sans a coating to keep things from sticking, so the steel wool is fine. The Caphalon refers to a coating that won't respond well to the brillo.
I guess you're stuck with actual yoga for your zen moment.
xo.
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