Quiche

I've made Cooking Light's Spinach, Caramelized Onion, and Feta Quiche many times; but not recently. Cause I got tired of it. But, since I'm no longer working and have time to make meals, and because my kid has developed her father's picky food trait, and because pinterest is awesome, I've been cooking a lot.

I adapted the quiche recipe a bit, and I guess it's no longer "light," but it's very delicious and Abby loved it. "Mom, this Keith is delicious!" Score!

I made this whole wheat crust, subbing sucanat instead of sugar (much better than the pizza dough crust recommended in the recipe.)The one review states to double the oil and milk. I didn't find that to be necessary. I especially liked how the crust was assembled in the actual pie plate.

I used half a bag of hash browns and diced the onions. There were a lot left over (wouldn't fit into the crust) so I served them along side of the quiche. I used the same amount of eggs and egg whites as the recipe states. My changes: about 4 oz. of farmer's cheese and 2 oz. of smoked gouda (the smokiness really adds a lot of flavor!)

So basically, I followed the recipe swapping out the crust and adding smoke gouda and farmer's cheese to the egg & feta mixture.

Like I said, I served with the leftover potatoes and onions, and a side salad. And of course, I topped mine with sriracha because it is awesome.

Pretend the photo is in focus.

Q: Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

A: To have its neck snapped, feathers plucked, skin removed, and then been breaded and pan fried for my dinner.


(Notice the child's hand point to the chicken.)


Yes, I purchased and prepared a chicken breast for consumption. I bought it at Whole Foods, I feel better about that knowing that the chicken ate normal chicken food, walked around in its proper setting, and lived a happy chicken life before having its neck broken.

I was a bit queasy about the whole process, but went about it anyway. It smelled really good while it was cooking, and I enjoyed hearing the crackle of the chicken frying away. I just used some whole wheat bread crumbs, wheat germ, and parmesan for the breading. I pan-fried in canola oil.

I ate it with a side of whole wheat pasta (the family's main course) and some broccoli rabe. It was delicious.

A food-related post!

It's been months! MONTHS! Since I did one of these.
The only good thing about being laid off from work is that I have time to make some pinterest recipes!

This is one I pinned a few months back and finally decided to make it.
Zucchini Fries.


The reason behind this? Awhile ago, my daughter, my sister, and myself had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. We ordered zucchini fries. My daughter devoured them! I deviously thought, "Huh. Interesting..."

I should have realized that she would not eat the ones that I prepared because:
1. They were not deep-fried and
2. I made them.

Critique:
Eh. And that's probably my fault. I skipped the parmesan cheese, accidentally. I also should have added some garlic powder, but am currently out of it. The texture was good, and the "fries" weren't mushy like I feared they would be. My husband even ate like 5 of them! Of course, I think that is due to the dipping sauce, which he loved. To me, the sauce was OK. I would have preferred dipping them in a creamy sriracha sauce, which I should have made, but didn't.

Anyhow, these won't be a weekly menu item, perhaps monthly.

Gingerbread Caramel Corn.

Last December I got a caramel corn recipe from a flickr friend. I finally got around to making it. Or, at least, my adaptation of it.

I initially was going to make it exactly how she did. Real popcorn, light corn syrup, etc.

Then I burnt the real popcorn. And I didn't have corn syrup. Blah.

I decided to create my own version.



Gingerbread Caramel Corn
1 Cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (vegetable spreads are not recommended)
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves
1/2 tsp baking soda


Pop 2 bags of 94% fat-free popcorn.

Heat oven to 200 degress F.

Over medium heat, cook brown sugar, butter, molasses, salt & spices in 2-quart saucepan, stirring occasionally until bubbly around edges. Continue cooking 5 minutes; remove from heat. Stir in baking soda until foamy.

Pour sugar over popcorn; toss until evenly coated. Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. cool completely & store in air-tight container.

My First Attempt.

I finally canned something last week.

I made this honey lemon marmalade. I put in some ground ginger. It was a pretty easy, process.

Make the marmalade.





Seal jars. (They're in water in this picture.)




That's it.




I finally tasted the preserves this morning on toast. I don't like it one bit! I'm so disappointed. The lemon rind isn't soft at all, and there's waaaay to much of it. There's also a weird after taste. And I have 5 jars of the stuff. So bummed!

Brown Sugar.

Yesterday I made lots of cookies. Abby wanted to make chocolate chip cookies, so we made those too. For whatever reason, I suck at the most basic cookie. Anyhow, I was getting everything ready and realize I was out of brown sugar. Duh.
I made some. It was so easy and kind of cool to watch it come together.

1. 1 Tbsp of molasses to 1 c of white sugar.


2. Blend.


3. Blend some more.



4. Store.

Canned!

We went grocery shopping yesterday. I don't know why, but I tossed a box of pectin in my cart. Last year I was intrigued by canning, but was discouraged by the possibility of murdering my friends and family with improperly sterilized jars.

This year, I'm back on the kick. I've been doing some reading and asking advice on facebook. I found a recipe I want to make. Of course, now I realize that I purchased liquid pectin and this recipe calls for dry.

Food in Jars is awesome for tips. And, she's teaching a class which I'm considering, but half-assed-ly, because it doesn't fit into my "one car- crappy part time job hours- husband in school- what to do with the kiddo" schedule.

I think I'll buy one of these books. Any suggestions?

Jim Thorpe and Centralia Critique: Part II.

After the crappy dinner/dessert, we walked the main strip and the train station in the dark.
We then went back to our room and watched "Mad Men" and commented on how we were both hungry.

Even though the inn has a continental breakfast (I went down to get some coffee) we didn't partake. We needed to compensate for last night's atrocity. We looked through Jim Thorpe restaurants (thank the gods for free wi-fi!!!) and decided on The Albright Mansion for breakfast. It was very quaint and charming. And the food was delicious!!! WHEW! Joe got crepes with apples, walnuts, raisins and cinnamon. I decided to get something I wouldn't ordinarily get. I got an omelet with spinach, mushrooms & american cheese. Very tasty! The home fries were crispy, flavorful perfection. The whole wheat toast was a great little bite after a forkful of omelet. The coffee was fresh, delicious, and non-stop.

We walked through the town, this time in daylight. We only went in 1 shop to get Abby a little something. We were greeted by an older man who was probably hiding his white hood in the backroom. *sigh* I would've loved to go into the other shops, but Joe's back was hurting and I know he doesn't like those kind of places. SO, if anyone of my friends/family would like to go to Jim Thorpe, let's plan it!

At this point, we got into the car and took a long (not really, maybe an hour, but it seemed a lot longer because there was nothing to look at!) ride to Centralia...

...to be continued...

Jim Thorpe and Centralia Critique: Part I.

We arrived at Jim Thorpe pretty quickly. In only about an hour. We stayed at the Jim Thorpe Inn and got upgraded to a suite for the same price. SUITE! (SWEET!) duh. The only bummer about this place was that the balcony was closed for repairs and I really wanted to go up there for photo-taking purposes.

We got settled in the suite and walked to Cafe Origins. There was one other party there. And only two people working in the restaurant (the chef/owner and the waitress.) We selected this restaurant based on its vegetarian options.


I got the Syrian Spinach Pie. Joe got a bean & cheese quesadilla. Mine, which had about 5 pieces of spinach and 2 strips of onion, was OK. Joe's was mediocre; nothing on the plate to even attempt to make it look appealing.


For dessert we decided on a "slice" of banana pie. Nothing was really appealing and we just chose this totally laughable item and so not worthy of a photograph. The "pie" was 1 smashed graham cracker, topped with 1 sliced banana and about 2 tablespoons of fig jam. Those items were then completely drowned in reddi-whip. Nothing about this resembled a pie. And seriously, $7 for something my almost-four-year-old daughter could concoct was ridiculous. EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING. On the plus side, the atmosphere was nice.

October 22. Broccoli Soup.

I felt like making soup yesterday even though the weather was warmer than I'd like for this time of year.

I decided upon SouleMama's broccoli soup since Abby loves broccoli. We went to the local produce store and hooked ourselves up with broccoli, potatoes, red onion, and leeks. We stopped at the next store to buy bread.


We came home and got to chopping.

I found it odd that there weren't really any spices or seasoning. I figured (hoped) that the onion and leeks would take care of the flavor. Nope. It was so bland tasting to me. I added salt. And more salt. Then some sharp cheddar. Then I remembered that I had vegetable soup base and tossed in around 1/4c of that. Much better.

I used fat-free half and half instead of the heavy cream. I was expecting a thicker soup. It was very thin and brothy. Abby was unimpressed. Joe doesn't eat broccoli.

It may be better if velveeta was added to it. I don't know. What I do know is that I have what seems to be gallons of broccoli soup for myself. *sigh*

October 9. Pumpkin Buns.

I'm not a fan of those "woman's" magazines (with the exception of "Bust"). I prefer house, craft, or cooking magazines. BUT, when I'm in work and it's S L O W, I'll read anything. "Rod and Reel"? Why not?! "Men's Health"? Pass it my way!
That's how I came upon this recipe for pumpkin buns. A co-worker brings in her "Family Circle" and"Woman's Day" mags. I'm a sucker for any magazine with pumpkins or Halloween items on the cover.

I photocopied the recipe a few weeks ago and finally decided to make it yesterday. I didn't have to work and Abby didn't have school. There was time for this recipe... finally. Then I realized I finished up my butter on the snickerdoodles. I used Promise Light spread. Worked well and cut back fat. That's good. I added some cinnamon & nutmeg to the dough. Then I realized I was out of 10x sugar for the glaze. Boo! BUT, I did have cream cheese, so I blended that with about an 1/8c granulated sugar and a splash of milk. That worked well and probably canceled out the usage of the Promise Light.

The first rise took awhile, longer than the recipe-stated 75 minutes. I just left it for 2+ hours. It rose nicely. We rolled out the dough and added the filling (added a bit of nutmeg to this too). Rolled it and sliced it and let it rise again. They looked beautiful!


While they were baking my house smelled divine! When they cooled a bit, I smeared the cream cheese topping on them and served them to some of the neighborhood kids since one of them came in for a bit and smelled them and promptly asked for one! They were a delicious success. Time-consuming, but tasty. Admittedly, the pumpkin flavor was kind of lacking. The pumpkin gave the finished buns a nice orange hue, but left a very mild pumpkin flavor. The filling was good, but I guess I'm greedy because I wanted more filling!

Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of the finished product because my husband, ever vigilant about the potential for ants, put them in the fridge and now they look kind of gross. I'm sure their texture changed as well. Oh well. At least I had one yesterday.

October 6. Snickerdoodles.

Well, that daily posting was shot to hell. Two reasons, I don't really have time to blog on the weekends and then my husband had to take the laptop to work. So, oh well. Here's a post.

Yesterday, in an attempt to stop my daughter from watching TV, I suggested making cookies. We decided on snickerdoodles. Instead of looking on the internet (no laptop, remember?) I looked in my cookbooks! The Joy of Cooking had a simple recipe. It's a basic butter cookie (with cream of tartar, which is *supposed* to help items rise) rolled in cinnamon-sugar.



The cookies are super flat, but good. I think they could use more cinnamon. Next time, I'll add cinnamon to the dry ingredients as well as rolling the cookie in it. Actually, I'd also decrease the amount of sugar that the cookie is rolled in. I wanted the cookie to be thicker and spicier.

October 2. Creamy Butternut Squash Soup.

I had no intention of making soup until my sister walked in my house with two butternut squash that she wasn't going to use.
SOUP TIME!

I looking at my usual recipe site (Cooking Light) and I saw this soup. Seemed simple, but kind of bland. I read the reviews and saw that some one used evaporated milk. I just happened to have evaporated skim milk in my cabinet. I just decided to wing it and came up with my own recipe. It's delicious!

I wanted to top it with homemade croutons, but instead spent most of the afternoon outside and therefore didn't have time. I did, however, make parmesan crisps. All you have to do for that is sprinkle shredded parm cheese in a hot pan and let it brown. Lift it up off the pan before it burns and let it cool.

Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

2 medium butternut squash
1c 1% milk
1 can of evaporated skim milk
2 14oz cans of vegetable broth
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
dash of cinnamon
dash of paprika
dash of chile powder
olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

Cut butternut squash into 1" cubes. Toss with olive oil, sea salt, dried rosemary & cinnamon. Roast at 425 degrees for 50 minutes.
Let cool.

Combine milks, 1 can of vegetable broth.

Add roasted squash and milk mixture in the blender to thoroughly combine ( should be done in 3-4 batches. Or use an immersion blend if you're lucky enough to have one!)

When all is combined, pour into large pot and slowly add the second can of vegetable broth. If too thick for your liking, add more broth or water. Stir in ginger (don't skip this, it really adds a great depth of flavor!), paprika, chile powder, salt & pepper. Simmer and top with croutons and/or parmesan crisps. Enjoy!

Soup!

I'm really making an effort to lose weight. Seriously. It's difficult to not get discouraged, especially since I strictly followed Weight Watchers for a week and lost NOTHING. Because of that, I said "eff it" and at kind of crappily yesterday. Now to pick up and start over. One day of mourning allowed.

So, since I need to go grocery shopping and there's nothing really low-points to eat in the house (or any points, for that matter!) I found a recipe that would work.

I found this recipe last week. I made it this morning and at it for lunch. Me & Abby took a walk to get some good Italian bread to complete the meal.

Since I didn't have fresh rosemary, I just used dried. I also skipped the fresh herb mix-in and sour cream at the end. It didn't really matter because the soup is so good! My daughter ate a lot of it! This is good news. She asked for more for dinner!

Unlikely Trio.

Inspired by a recipe in the new Cooking Light, I decided to make a Lemon-Lavender Olive Oil cake. The original recipe is Lemon-Rosemary Olive Oil cake. I didn't have any fresh rosemary, but still have a lot of lavender left over from last year. I was intrigued by the use of olive oil in a cake instead of vegetable oil or butter.

Despite the unique ingredients, this cake is quite mediocre. There's a small amount of lavender flavor, but not enough to make it outstanding. The lemon flavor is barely there and the olive oil flavor is non-existent. I guess you have to have olive oil in the title of the recipe since it's such an unusual cake ingredient, but it really shouldn't be there because if you didn't tell me olive oil was in the cake, I never would have guessed.

Needless to say, it was a disappointment. I may try it again, this time using rosemary and a lot more lemon.

Easy as Pie.

I have a confession. It's difficult to admit. It's kind of embarrassing as well. Please don't think any less of me.

OK.

Here goes...

I suck at making fruit pies. There. I said it. *looking down at feet*

Seriously. I've never found a crust recipe that tastes good to me. There is never enough filling and/or it's too runny. The crust gets soggy. I want to be good at making pies. They seem so comforting. And so simple. I don't have a family recipe for fruit pies either, which kind of makes me sad. Now, if you need an heirloom poundcake recipe, or a cheese pie recipe, or a cookie recipe, then look no further, I've got you covered.

Where am I going with this? Well, I had about 8 about to rot peaches. (sounds yummy, right?) But seriously, they were so sweet, too soft for me to want to just eat them. So, I went to epicurious.com for a recipe for anything peach-related that didn't involve milk (none in the house) or eggs (still in my mother's fridge). Pie! Ooh. Look at this pie recipe! Sounds good and a little different! No bottom crust to get soggy! The reviews say how easy it is! I have cardamom! Serendipity!

So, Abby and I started with the crust (after warning her that pie crust must chill in the fridge for 7 years... that's the pre-school equivalent of 1 hr.). Things were going swimmingly. Ooh, and the raw dough is very tasty! This is going to be the perfect summer's evening dessert.

We work on the filling. I'm thinking I may not have enough peaches, so I added a mango. Same color and equally as sweet. I'm so creative! We smell the cardamom and declare it wonderful.

Finally the pie crust is ready to roll out. The child does this (with some help from me) and she expertly cuts out little hearts with a cookie cutter.

After consulting with my friend and expert apple pie baker, we conclude just to sprinkle the crust with water (remember, out of milk & eggs) to make the raw sugar stick to the crust. No biggie.

The pie comes out of the oven. My house smells pretty damn delicious. This will be so good!!!

After everyone was in bed (my husband went to bed early and my daughter had Mr. Softee for dessert), I cut myself a slice of the pie.

The result: Meh.

The crust, well the crust was delicious. I will keep this crust recipe. The filling was scanty and reminiscent of baby food laced with perfume. The cardamom just didn't do it for me. Too much, or just not the right spice for me. I think allspice would have been perfect. I would normally say, "Oh well, next time." But, I'm pretty sure there won't be a next time. Hey, at least it's pretty!

Adapted.

Last summer I made a polenta tomato tart from the Whole Foods website. It was pretty good. A light summer dinner. I was going to make it again last night. Then I went to the grocery store and refused to pay $7.99 for sun-dried tomatoes. And then were out of basil.

I adapted. I created a polenta caramelized balsamic-rosemary onion tomato and goat cheese tart. It was delicious.


Polenta Caramelized Balsamic-Rosemary Onion, Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart

Polenta (I used pre-made polenta that I crumbled and smooshed into a greased tart pan)
2 large onions
4 oz crumbled goat cheese
3-4 plum tomatoes (seeded and diced)
olive oil
pat of butter/margarine
1-2 garlic cloves
2-3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/8c sugar
spring of fresh rosemary
sea salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

Crumble and smoosh prepared polenta into a greased tart pan. Splash some olive oil on top and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 20-30 minutes until a little golden brown.

While polenta is baking, thinly slice onions and saute in pan with sea salt, olive oil and pat of butter. As onions start to sweat, add sugar, balsamic vinegar, and rosemary that is removed from stem. Continue to cook onions until they are a rich brown color and the vinegar has evaporated. (About 20-30 mintues)

When polenta is golden, remove from oven and spread caramelized onions over top. Sprinkle goat cheese on top of onions and then layer with diced tomatoes and freshly pressed (or chopped) garlic. Drizzle with olive oil and put in oven for 10-15 minutes.

Let sit for 10 minutes. Serve and enjoy with a fresh salad!

Gelato-Fabulous.

I've been wanting to make some ice cream. Actually, I've been wanting to make peanut butter, banana, honey ice cream, since my recent favorite snack is Wasa crackers with natural crunchy peanut butter, honey drizzled on top of that, and then sliced banana on top of it all. I don't know what's going on with me, but I'm changing. I used to not like peanut butter, now I can't get enough. I used to intake about 8 splendas a day, now more than 1 and I get nausea and a headache. I know. Don't say it. I'm getting older.
Anyhow, since my daughter doesn't like peanut butter, I didn't make it. On a whim, I went to the epicurious website and searched on gelato. Lots of delicious things came up, but this one caught my attention, mainly because I had everything but the chocolate & the whole milk.
It was a time consuming process, but very much worth it, if not for the end-result gelato, but for the realization that, if you don't put the mixture in the ice cream maker, you have a kick-ass nutella-flavored pudding. The possibilities!!! Cream pies, a dollop (I hate that word) over strawberries, or just not-so-plain old chocolate pudding. YUM!

It's the Little Things.

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
~Leonardo daVinci

Cinnamon Raisin Bread.

I bought some yeast the other day with the intention of making some whole wheat sandwich bread. After some internet searches, I came upon this cinnamon raisin bread. It's a quick bread and therefore doesn't require yeast. Ah well.I did alter it some. I used 1% cow's milk because some one finished up "mommy's milk" (light vanilla soy) with her Life cereal. I also used agave nectar instead of maple syrup. I also tossed the raisins in some cinnamon. I also skipped the nuts. The bread is tasty. And the house smelled wonderful... I got my first glimpse (sniff?) of autumn and got a little giddy. After the bread cooled, Abby & I had a half a slice each. I said, "Seems a bit chewy." She said, "It's supposed to be." And I realized she was right. It was more of a bread texture then the texture I thought it should be (banana bread-kinda-cakey-texture). In total, Abby had 2 1/2 pieces yesterday. I had 1 1/2. We put some butter on it and it was delicious!
A bonus: Super low in fat! Since I skipped the nuts (Abby doesn't like them) it only has 1 gram of fat per serving. Actually, it's probably less since the recipe cuts the loaf into 8 servings... we're getting more than that from the loaf.