Falling into place

All I was trying to do was flip my tortilla española but the pan must have detected that my confidence was not 100%. This is what happened to the stove. Scrambled eggs on the ceramic part, runny eggs on the metal part. Yuck all around.

Eventually it turned itself into a nice omelette which I served at room temperature. I love the scene in Bicycle Thieves when Ricci and Bruno leave in the morning, so hopeful and happy, with their fritatte wrapped up for lunch. In America we tend to like our eggs warm but elsewhere an omelette is just as often eaten cold or at least not hot. I could go on now for many paragraphs about the Japanese tamago but I'll save it for another evening.



We also had this warm goat cheese in tomato sauce, which we spread on warm bread. Tapas Barcelona in Evanston, IL, calls this Queso De Cabra Con Tomate. Sounds good either way.



Enough about that. As my Texas relations relate, TV season is practically upon us. The O.C. begins tomorrow. Gilmore Girls is next week. What excites me about this season in particular is how many of my TV friends of seasons past are back to delight me anew. Here's a sampling (in the order in which they appear in the September 9 issue of EW):

-Alfre Woodard--I remember her fondly as Roxanne on St. Elsewhere--will be on on Desperate Housewives.
-Ricky Gervais of The Office is both writing and appearing on a Simpsons episode.
-Janeane Garofalo, who was never much good on SNL, is going to play a political consultant on The West Wing.
-Nicholas Brendon, Xander on Buffy, and John Frances Daley, Sam on Freaks and Geeks, are going to be on Kitchen Confidential.
-Neal Patrick Harris, that's Doogie Howser, M.D., to you, is appearing on How I Met Your Mother. Ditto freak Jason Segal (Nick) and Willow Rosenberg herself, Alyson Hannigan.
-Jay Baruchel, the main character from Undeclared, has a show called Just Legal in which he plays the protégé of a lawyer played by Don Johnson!
-The Fonz himself, Henry Winkler, will appear opposite Stockard Channing in Out of Practice.
-Geena Davis has a show but I'm not interested in her. However, I'm plenty interested in co-star Kyle Secor (of Homicide and Veronica Mars).
-Madeline Albright is guest-starring on Gilmore Girls. Ok, she's no TV star, but I always liked her on Meet the Press back when she was SOS. Now I'm getting nostalgic for the Clinton administration. Happens a lot around here.
-Lynda Carter is slated to guest-appear on SVU, which is cool. (So is Bobby Flay, which is not.)
-Dan Futterman, Vincent on Judging Amy, and Tom Irwin, Graham on My So-Called Life, are both appearing on the WB's dramedy Related.
-Charisma Carpenter, Cordelia on Buffy, will be on Veronica Mars.
-Busy Phillips--best name in showbiz--of Freaks and Geeks is going to be on a UPN show called Love, Inc.
-Sarah Gilbert, Darlene on Roseanne, has a new show on the WB called Twins. Her co-stars include Melanie Griffith and Mark Linn-Baker, who you might remember as Cousin Larry on Perfect Strangers.

Ok, most of the new shows will stink and we'll forget all about them. But now, before they have been unfurled, we can be hopeful.

UPDATE: News flash! Scott Baio is going to appear on Arrested Development as a character named Bob Loblaw. (!)