16 July 2012

Pee Wee, Cowboy Curtis & Oeufs en Cocotte



Jambi: One pair of cowboy boots coming up! What size?
Cowboy Curtis: Uh, size 12, double E.
Pee-wee: Boy, big feet.
Cowboy Curtis: Well, ya know what they say.
Pee-wee: No. What?
Cowboy Curtis: For big feet, big boots!

I imagine most of you entitled snots were sitting on the floor in diapers with a piece of Zwieback sticking out of your drooling little mouth when this episode of Pee Wee's Playhouse aired back in November of 1986. I was in bed with a hangover and a woman old enough to be your mother. Not my mother. Your mother.

That's what some of your parents were doing in 1986. Laying in bed nursing hangovers and watching Pee Wee and Cowboy Curtis talk about wieners and big feet. I wonder how many obnoxious style bloggers were conceived during this episode? My spark was squeezed out while Jonathan Winters did 'Boys of Spring' on Jack Paar.



It's Saturday or Sunday morning. Hell, it can be Monday morning if you're highly evolved. You wake up with a throbbing head next to last night's first date. And lets say you wanna stay. It happens. You not only wanna stay...you want to make an impression. Especially if you didn't do so well last night. It happens...to you. Not to me.

Oeufs en Cocotte, my friend. It sounds (ee-noof en coe-kot) a helluva lot better than pancakes and bacon and it's a whole lot easier to make. Ask your host if they have any ramekins. Most women and all gay men have at least two. Four is better. Then tell them to go back to sleep.



If you find Stouffer's creamed spinach in the freezer then you're cooking with gas. That's an old expression, cooking with gas. You may be cooking with electric or, if you're Foster Huntington, with Sterno. Whatever, it's best to microwave the creamed spinach (4-5 minutes) then pour the whole bag into two (or four) ramekins. This is a real 'wing it' kind of recipe. No hard and fast rules. You can butter the ramekin or not. You can use herbs, onions, cheese, bacon, white truffle oil, tuna...anything you want although it helps if you use breakfasty stuff.


Crack one egg over whatever you placed in the bottom of the ramekin and place the ramekins in a sauce pan of boiling water. Mark Bittman leaves the boiling water out. Why? Because his cook books suck, that's why. You gotta have the boiling water step or, if you just stick the ramekins in an oven, you're gonna get oeufs en cocotte hard as a hockey puck. It happens...especially to Mark Bittman


Transfer the ramekins in boiling water to a 400 degree oven and set your timer for 8-10 minutes. The real luxury here is the softness of the eggs. Sexy is a good word. I recommend taking a tray of ramekins back to bed and presenting them to your new best friend, perhaps with a warm blowy whisper in their ear, "ee-noof en ko-kot." You can explain what cocotte means afterwards.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do not enjoy cooking, however, I don't mind making these, mostly because, like you said, you can really wing it, and they always turn out fairly tasty.
As for the pronunciation, there is no "n" sound in oeufs, to use your example; it's more like "ee-oof."
Anyway, seeing Pee-wee brightened my day, thanks.

Erika

Yankee-Whisky-Papa said...

I'm both an entitled snot AND an obnoxious style blogger, but I was born in the 70's. Pee-Wee's Playhouse was a favorite, especially the odd sexual tension between Cowboy Curtis and that John Waters-inspired suburban housewife (whatever her name was).

Sissy said...

I remember my french teacher coming up and squeezing our mouths together when we mispronounced words to help us say them properly, but of course that just made us laugh....

Nate said...

It's not pronounced ee-noof and not ee-oof either ! It's much simpler than that : uff en ko-kot.

Anonymous said...

I recall PeeWee's "word of the day" - one particular day, BJW and I were at the Omni Hotel in Chicago getting ready for a wedding (Hmmm, some guy in Lake Forest . . .) we had room service with "Oeufs" and Pee Wee said the word of the day was "Fun" and we had to laugh really loud when we heard it! Well, at the wedding later, the minister said "Marriage can be fun" -- we looked at each other and held in the loudest laugh possible! Since we were in the front row, I think the people behind us thought we were crying (covering our faces, shoulders shaking, etc). Great memory of Pee Wee -- too bad the marriage wasn't so much fun. DMW

Bricktop Polford said...

Love the recipe. And spot on about that a smug little tool Bittman.

Anonymous said...

Tin:
How long do you leave them in the boiling water?

--M

Julia said...

Where would we be without The Trad?

tintin said...

My French sucks. My French cooking does not.

YWP- Miss Yvonne? She was hot.

DMW- Wish I could have been at that wedding.

Bricktop- I got issues with his cook books. And only Joe Bastianch seems more miserable.

M- Put 'em in boiling water and right to oven.

Julia- In jeans two sizes smaller.