Hi everyone, I have some big Omelet King news! I am going to be making omelets on Good Morning America this Sunday! I will be on during the 7:00 a.m. hour (no matter where you live, I think). I know that I’m going to be teaching everyone how to make my famous 40-second omelet and doing an omelet cook-off with all of the anchors. I may even make omelet breakfasts for all of the crew and folks from other shows. I hope that you tune in! I’ll be sure to give my “full report” next week!

Here is the French Toast recipe that I talked about in my last post about being on the Martha Stewart radio show!

Makes 2 servings.

For the Strawberry Topping

• 1 pint strawberries, quartered
• 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar (to taste)
• 1 tablespoon Grand Marnier brandy

For the French Toast

• 6 eggs
• ¼ cup milk
• 6 slices whole grain or crusty French or Italian bread
• Softened butter (optional)
• Softened cream cheese

To Make the French Toast

• Mix together the ingredients for the topping and refrigerate for 2 hours
• Pre-heat oven to 500-degrees F
• Beat together the eggs and milk until well blended. Pour mixture into a 13×9x2-inch baking dish or pan.
• Place the bread slices in the egg mixture and let stand a moment. Turn the slices and let stand until the egg mixture is absorbed.
• Bake the bread in the oven for 6-minutes. Turn the slices. Spread the slices with softened butter, if desired. Continue baking until golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes more.
• Remove from oven and transfer bread to a plate. Spread each slice with a layer of cream cheese and layer 2-3 pieces on top of each other. Top with the strawberries.

…asked me to come on the “Martha Stewart Living Morning” show last week talk about Valentine’s Day recipes that convey amour. The recipes had to be so easy that even the most culinarily impaired person could fix it for his or her honey’s Valentine breakfast. The recipes I chose to talk about filled the bill. One of them, Sudden Quiche, has been a favorite of mine to demonstrate for my live audiences since the sixties when America got its first taste of quiche (remember the “real men don’t” stigma at that time?). If I’m not mistaken, it was only shortly before then that frozen pie shells were introduced which made the “sudden” part of the recipe possible. Anyhow, that recipe remains one of my all-time favorites and once a person does it in their own kitchen it becomes a major selection in their culinary repertoire.

My other recipe was for heart-shaped French Toast “iced” with cream cheese and topped with a strawberry/Grand Marnier sauce. Check out the video demo of this recipe, which I posted a week or so ago. My American Egg Board colleage, Elisa Maloberti, told me how these days French Toast isn’t made in a frypan, it’s baked in the oven. It was the reason behind that tip that consumed so much of my radio time. Turns out that when the French Toast is put in a frypan with butter, the butter begins to brown before the inside of the bread (the egg “custard”) is thoroughly cooked through. The cook, afraid of the butter turning black, then usually turns it over too soon and then doesn’t let it cook long enough on the other side to ensure there’s no food safety issue. All because the bread has got to get out of the pan before the butter actually blackens and leaves that residue on the bread. But beyond that black butter paranoia, baking the French Toast lets it cook under more even and more gentle heat and that allows the “custard” to cook thoroughly and you end up a with nice, evenly browned product. Plus, you can prepare more slices at one time. Another cool thing about this recipe is that you put the bread in a baking dish (6 slices at a time), pour the egg mixture over the whole thing and the bread absorbs the mixture right in the dish as it bakes. I’ll write out the recipe and post it soon!

This was the third time I was on the Martha Stewart airwaves with Betsy Keretnick, the host who, if I’m not mistaken, works at Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine. The show is broadcast nationally over Sirius Satellite Radio. Happily, Betsy asked me to come back on the show for a fourth time next month for more egg talk. “Of course,” said I. In the words of Sally Fields on the night of her Oscar win many years ago…They like me. They reeeeally, reeeeally like me. And I say that – uh – with all the modesty I can muster.

…fill the pasta pockets each with an egg yolk and serve it smothered in truffle butter. The first time I tasted this lavishly rich treat was at a NYC restaurant called San Domenico, the flagship of restaurateur Tony May. I went with Tina Ujlaki, the food editor of Food & Wine magazine, and Judith Hill who, at the time, was working on developing the ravioli recipe for publication. I later learned that the dish was originally conceived by Odette Fada, who is in charge of the restaurant and who is celebrated for bringing the best of modern Italy to New York.

One of the things I remember most about the dish was the menu sticker shock. As I recall, a single raviolo was served as an appetizer for about $40. More recently I learned that the dish was also being served at David Burke and Donatella Restaurant, so off I went with my American Egg Board colleague, Linda Braun, to taste that version. It was as lavish as my first experience with it. Here, though, it was available both as an appetizer – one raviolo for $40 – and as an entrée – two ravioli for $75 (a saving of $5). And to think that I promote eggs as being economical…hmm. Not here.

I recently asked Tina Ujlaki if she ever ended up publishing the recipe in Food & Wine and she said she didn’t. But she knew that Martha Stewart had Odette Fada on her television show recently. I went to the MarthaStewart.com website, clicked on “FOOD” then typed into the “SEARCH” space: Raviolo with egg yolk truffle butter — and up popped a recipe! You can view it here.

For the MarthaStewart.com recipe, Odette Fada added a mixture of spinach and ricotta cheese piped around the egg yolk inside of the ravioli. I think that the recipe is labor-intensive enough without that extra step. It seems to me that the spinach/cheese mixture would dilute the utter richness of the egg yolk, butter and truffle left by themselves. And, it may be the labor-intensiveness of it all that accounts for part of the dear menu price. But, if you’re a foodie where money is no object, this dish is for you.

Another Valentine’s Day idea! If you want to serve your Valentine dessert but don’t have time to bake from scratch, watch this video for a fun semi-homemade idea.

Here’s a romantic and delicious idea for Valentine’s Day breakfast that anyone can master… heart-shaped French toast with cream cheese and strawberries. Click on the TV below  watch the video.

With Valentine’s Day coming up on Thursday, I thought I’d film some videos with easy recipe ideas that are sure to impress that special someone. Click on the TV set to watch my first idea — a Hug… and a Quiche!

We make a nice couple. Our common interest is good food fast, so it’s no wonder our paths crossed. I learned, though, that they’d crossed before. Art Ginsburg (a.k.a. Mr. Food) reminded me during a recent taping of a Mr. Food TV segment at his Ft. Lauderdale studio that we had in fact worked together maybe 20 years ago when his studio was in Albany, NY. I’m not surprised. Our chemistry is terrific.

“Mr. Food” is a syndicated television “spot” airing weekdays in a huge number of cities. It’s unique in that each “spot” is only 3-minutes long! He’s been doing this gig for over 3 decades, so he’s a real master of fast food in the kitchen. Wherever I may be, if I stumble on his show, I stop to watch. It doesn’t take much time and I learn from him.

During the taping, I showed Art – and eventually his viewers – my 40-second omelet technique. When a show is as short as “Mr. Food,” you gotta be fast. I was allowed NO MORE THAN 40 seconds for my omelet because the total time I was on the air was under 2 minutes!

The omelet was important. But equally important was that this show was my first opportunity to announce the second “Search for America’s Worst Cook” contest, which will be hosted by the American Egg Board this spring. I love the contest – it will launch again this April, which is also when the Mr. Food segment will air. Last year’s contest was great and reading the entries was such a hoot. If you or anyone you know thinks they’re America’s Worst Cook, go to www.AmericasWorstCook.com and enter this spring! The winner and a guest get a trip to New York City to go to culinary school. The site also has lots of cooking info, recipes and demonstration videos starting… me!