Spinach Quiche

We got a bunch of spinach from our CSA yesterday. I wanted to do something different with it. Spring is a healthy time of year - greens, greens, and more greens - but I get sick of eating greens. I've been trying different recipes this spring that mask the fact that I'm eating greens, while enabling me to actually cook and eat them all. Today I decided to make spinach quiche. I've never made quiche before and really had no idea what I was doing. I made two mistakes: 1) I started too late so we ate an hour later than usual, 2) I used a pizza crust instead of a pie crust (I had an extra unopened Pillsbury pizza crust from my Pampered Chef party and I thought, why not try it?). The pizza crust wasn't bad, it just stuck to the pie pan and only Brett can get any pieces out. But it tasted good, so maybe it wasn't really a mistake. Would I use it again? Probably not. It tasted fine, but pizza crust is not as easy to manipulate at pie crust. Anyway, my recipe is a combination of three recipes. The quiche recipes in Joy of Cooking and the America's Test Kitchen cookbook, as well as this one: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spinach-quiche/detail.aspx. I had to use all three because I couldn't find one for a simple spinach quiche.

I'm convinced that the cheese you use will make or break this recipe. Be sure NOT to buy wax posing as cheese. Ask the cheese specialist at your store which of the cheddars, etc. is worth buying. For this we used Romano cheese that Brett bought in Germany and 365 sharp cheddar.

Spinach Quiche

Crust:
Brush your pie pan with olive oil.
Insert pie crust.
Prick and make the edges pretty (something you can't do with pizza crust).
Brush with olive oil and minced garlic.
Pre-bake 7 minutes or less at temp for pie crust.
Remove from oven.
Set oven to 350.

Filling, etc.:
Cube 1/2 cup strong cheese (Romano, feta, etc.) and 1/4 cup sharp cheddar.
Saute together olive oil, one bunch of spring onions chopped, ~10 oz fresh spinach (stems removed) chopped until the spinach wilts and the water cooks off. Remove from heat.
Beat together 2 cups milk, 4 eggs, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, some nutmeg, a little chopped fresh parsley.
Mix cheese with the spinach and immediately spread the mixture on the bottom of your pie crust.
Open oven and pull out your middle rack. Place pie pan on rack.
Rebeat custard mixture (because all the pepper will have sunk to the bottom) and poor evenly over spinach until 1/2 in from the top of the crust.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until golden brown and a knife can come out clean 1 in from edge of quiche.
Allow to cool at least 15 min.
Enjoy!

By the way, when I made this I had a whole bunch of custard mixture left over. I poured it into my mini muffin tin and added a chunk of garlic to each cup. Then I baked them at 350 for 20 min. I haven't tried them yet. I just didn't want to throw away any food. I'm thinking I could put these little cups on a salad or something.

Spring Is Here!

Hello again!

It is spring and spring means ASPARAGUS! We are avid asparagus lovers, but decided a couple of years ago only to eat it when it is in season locally. It appears at the farmer's market for about a month when it's in season. It is so delicious! Barbara Kingsolver, in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle convinced us to wait until the spring to eat asparagus. It's better for the earth: since it hasn't been shipped from South America or California we are not paying for shipping. In other words, local, in-season asparagus (or any food for that matter) is not gas-guzzling, carbon-monoxide emitting food. Plus, it tastes better fresh. There's nothing like it!

Barbara Kingsolver also taught us to cook asparagus with mushrooms, something we had never thought of before. Wild morel mushrooms are available at the same time as the asparagus. Morels are AMAZING! However, if you don't know where to forage for them yourself, they are very expensive. You can substitute crimini or shitake for them.

Mark Bittman wrote an article called The Flavor of Spring in the Wednesday, May 13, 2009 New York Times (D2). He wrote, "In an ideal world, here's what a spring dish might look like: you take morels from your foraging trip, cream and butter from your cow, and asparagus, shallots and herbs from your garden. You combine them in any way that makes sense to you, and then you thank the forest, the cow and your backyard for providing such amazing bounty." In our case, we thank the farmer's market. We adapted the recipe found in the article. Here's how we combined these spring delights!

Asparagus and Mushroom Stir Fry

2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs butter
1 bunch chopped spring onions or leeks, chopped
1 pound of mushrooms, trimmed and sliced (or more, you could never have too many): crimini, shitake, morel, porcini, etc.
1/3 lb chicken cut into stir fry strips
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 bunch of farmer's market asparagus (~ 1 lb), trimmed and cut into 1.5in pieces
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp flour
~1 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro, tarragon, or chervil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat butter and olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions/leeks, mushrooms, and chicken. Cook until mushrooms have released their liquid and it has cooked off, about 10 min. Add the garlic ~half-way through. Be sure to flip the chicken often until it has cooked through. Feel free to break up the chicken as it cooks. The chicken will cook through before the mushroom juice cooks off.

2. Add the asparagus and the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, cover, reduced heat, and simmer for 2-4 min.

3. Whisk together milk and flour in a cup. Add to the skillet with the herbs. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Continue cooking uncovered until the sauce thickens slightly and the asparagus is tender, about 4 min.

4. Serve over angel hair pasta.

Lentil and Kale soup

Modified from Real Simple's Winter Lentil and Kale Soup

Micah ate his whole bowl the first time I made the above soup, although I didn't follow the recipe. You can substitute any kind of greens for the kale (except collards - they take too long to cook). You can also substitute any kind of winter squash for the sweet potato. We used spaghetti squash once, cut into chunks. It was surprisingly good. Leeks work for onions and onions for leeks. Be sure to use brown lentils. Others will fall apart too much. OK, that's it for this one. Maybe one day I'll make this post better!

Scrambled Eggs

Scrambled eggs sounds simple, but we have a few ways of making them that are very tasty. Most of these are a-la-Brett. :-)

The most important thing is to have high quality eggs. It is better for the earth and the chickens and your body, but it is also much better for your taste buds! High quality eggs taste so much better. You know an egg is high quality when the yolk looks dark yellow or even orange. Check your local grocery store for organic, local, cage free, eggs. Whole Foods or your local farmer's market or CSA are great places to get them. If you live in Pgh I recommend the eggs from "Food Glorious Food" on Bryant St. They are open on Saturdays at 10am. Get there as early as possible because the eggs sell out fast.

Scrambled Eggs with Spices

We like to add spices to our scrambled eggs. Brett is the one who started it and most of these ideas are his.
Crack eggs into a bowl and beat. Mix in one of the following spice combination with the eggs.
- Southwest Seasoning from Penzey's
- Spicy Salt from Penzey's
- Brett's concoction: Basil and Ground Coriander
- Salt, Pepper, Grated Cheese (cheddar or colby jack) (Sarina's combo)

Fry in butter, preferably, Pasture butter made by Organic Valley.

Additions to the above:
- Add capers (I did this I think to Southwest Eggs and it was tasty!)
- Saute onions in olive oil or butter until cooked, add eggs and 1 chopped tomato, saute until finished (best with the Basil and Coriander)

Cranberry Orange Turkey Breast

This recipe is modified from Easy and Delicious Turkey Breast on page 196 of the Fix It and Forget It crockpot cookbook. I made these changes based on what I had in the house and I think it will always make it like this in the future. Basically, instead of cranberry sauce and onion soup mix, I put in fresh ingredients.

Cranberry Orange Turkey Breast

1.5 lbs of boneless, skinless free range turkey breast
~ 1.5 cups of fresh, whole cranberries, bad ones thrown away
1 medium yellow onion
1/2 cup orange juice
1/8 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Combine in slow cooker. Cover. Cook on low 6-8 hours.

The funny thing is that I cooked it on high because I misread the recipe. It turned excellently. That being said, I would cook it on low next time. Also, the original recipe calls for 1 turkey breast. The other turkey breast recipes assume a 4-6 lb turkey breast. I think that free range turkeys might be smaller than industrial-raised turkeys. The free range turkeys will have much more flavor and you know that they can actually walk since they haven't been bred to have over-large breasts, so large that they tip forward and can't move. Anyway, my point is that you may be able to use a larger breast in this recipe. I cooked a turkey breast instead of chicken because I think it's always good to change the kind of meat we're eating. You get different nutrients from different foods. The free-range turkey was on sale this week at Whole Foods. As Micah would say, "Wee-oo hee-oo!"

Curried Lentils

This recipe is originally from Hannah Heis. She and her family eat vegetarian and I asked her for some recipes to help us cut down on our meat consumption. We are not vegetarians, but we only buy high quality meat from ecologically, sustainably, and ethically raised animals. It's more expensive so we just don't eat meat everyday. Anyway, here's the lentil recipe as I make it:

Curried Lentils

1/4 cup olive or safflower oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs curry powder (Badia or Penzey's or other high quality brand)
1 cup lentils
2.5 cups water
2 beef bouillon cubes or 2 tsp Better than Bouillon
1 bay leaf
2 Tbs lemon juice or juice from one whole small lemon
~1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/4 each of two types of dried fruit (currants, raisins, sweetened cranberries, prunes)
1 medium apple peeled and chopped (less is OK)
~ 4 crimini or button mushrooms finely chopped (twice through an egg slicer)

Saute together oil, onion, and garlic until onion is translucent. Add salt and curry powder, saute for another minute.

Combine lentils, water, bouillon, bay leaf, and onion mixture together. Bring to a boil and simmer (covered) 20 minutes.

Add lemon juice, parsley, dried fruit, apple, and mushrooms. Simmer another 15 minutes (covered) or until lentils are tender. Add 1/4 cup water if it's dry. Serve over jasmine rice.

It freezes well.

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A note about the curry powder:
The quality of the curry powder will make or break this dish. If you look at the ingredients on different curry powders, they vary. I'm not sure what the difference is exactly, but I can tell by smelling which ones will work well. You want a curry powder that smells sweet. You will have to compare to know what I mean.

A note about the fruit and mushrooms:
This part of the dish I vary all the time based on what I have in the house. I never do more than 1/2 cup of dried fruit total. My most recent version used currants and diced prunes, 1/3 of a large apple and I didn't have any mushrooms. The mushrooms add a more meaty flavor. You don't want to add too much fruit and mushrooms or it will overpower the lentils, but some variation will work well and it adds nice flavor.

Coleslaw

The original coleslaw was made with green cabbage and pink lady apples. Pink lady apples have a very bold sweet flavor. I can't remember if I put sugar in it or not. This version was the perfect combination of sweet and tangy without being tart.

The second time I made this I used red cabbage and some kind of apple similar to a wine sap (I forgot the name...black something, maybe black twig). When I was making the sauce I thought it needed sugar (it wasn't in my original recipe as I wrote it down originally). I added 1 Tbs of sugar. This version was more tart and didn't have the same sweet and tangy flavor that the original did. It was good but not as good as the first time.

The difference in flavor could be attributed to some combination of the following: the red cabbage, or the type of apple, or the amount of sugar. I would possibly add 1/4 of sugar to a future recipe instead of 1 Tbs because I remember a mound of sugar in the pot the first time I made it.

I think what makes this recipe so good is rice vinegar substituted for white vinegar. Rice vinegar is my favorite vinegar. I think white wine vinegar has a similar flavor.

Anyway, here's the recipe:

Sarina's Coleslaw

Chop finely or grate into a large bowl:
1/4 large green or red or combination cabbage
1/4 large white onion
4 medium carrots
1/2 apple

Combine in saucepan and heat until hot:
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 Tbs cider vinegar
1 Tbs sugar or honey (or perhaps 1/4 cup)
1 tsp salt
Pour over veggies, mix well, cover and refrigerate.
Serve cold.

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Taken from the following two recipes:

1) www.kretschmannfarm.com
Sweet-and-Sour Red Cabbage and Apple Salad--Slice cabbage thin, cut 1 apple into 1/2" cubes, slice 1 green pepper into thin strips, chop 1 small onion finely, toss. Cook 1/2c wine vinegar, 1T honey, 1/2t caraway seeds,1/8t black pepper and cloves until mixture just begins to boil. Pour hot mixture over salad and toss well. Let stand for 30 min. before serving.

2) (I don't remember the website.)

Colorful Coleslaw

Ingredients:

* 3 pounds grated cabbage
* 1 diced green bell pepper
* 1 diced red or yellow bell pepper
* 1 small white onion, thinly sliced
* 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
* 3/4 cup white vinegar
* 1 cup Splenda or sugar
* 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
* 1 tablespoon salt

Directions:

Combine all vegetables in a large bowl. Mix the other ingredients together in a saucepan
. Heat over a medium heat until hot. Pour mixture over vegetables. Mix well and refrigerate for at least three hours. Serve cold.

Variation: Use cider vinegar instead of white vinegar