Another crustless quiche

I had some milk product, some eggs and some cauliflower that needed using up, so I made a crustless quiche.

So:

• 5 large eggs
• 1 cup fresh half and half
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1/2 head cauliflower
• 3 strips morningstar vegetarian bacon
• 1.5 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
  
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• about 2 ounces cheddar cheese

Beat the eggs and the milk products with the parsley. Preheat oven to 425. Heavily butter a deep-dish pie pan. In a skillet, combine oil, bacon, cauliflower and herbs/spices and cook briefly until they smell good.

Add to bottom of pie dish. Add cheddar, in crumbles. Pour egg mixture over top. Place in oven for 20 minutes, reduce heat to 300 and cook at least another half an hour until eggs set and toothpick in center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes.

Kitchen Alchemy: Beef Stew

I am making something that resembles beouf bourgogne... I chopped the stew meet and dusted with flour, four color organic peppercorns, and sea salt. I'm browning them with a touch of olive oil, a touch of the petit sirah (on sale for $5 at the liquor store) and a touch of French brandy.

The vegetable stock has been reduced by half, and lots of herbs added. In the absence of a true bouquet garni, I have added a variety of fresh herbs from the freezer and dried herbs. Dill, sage, rosemary, oregano, garlic pepper.

My husband has chopped a mound of potatoes and carrots, which one the beef had browned, I put in the beef juice in the skillet and moved the beef into the vegetable stock. I added some olive oil, some wine. I poured the rest of the wine bottle in with the beef, and then filled it half way with water and poured that over the vegetables in the skillet.

I let them cook for five or ten minutes in this mix before I incorporate them into the stew. Then I mix everything up, put it on medium and wait. My husband has chopped some fresh broccoli and cauliflower, which makes it more beef vegetable stew than beef burgundy, but it need to be used...

These vegetables will be added much later, closer to eating time.

Previous versions:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/beef-burgundy.html

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/01/boeuf-bourgogne.html

Eggplant Parmesan

I unexpectedly worked late tonight, so I briefed the husband on how to make eggplant parmesan with some frozen eggplant cutlets we bought at the warehouse club. For lunch today, I made my daughter a scrambled egg with the last of the blueberry bread pudding. And leftover broccoli sicilian for breakfast. Yes, we splurged and got a sicilian last night.

So, the eggplant cutlet come breaded. My husband added layers of sauce, garlic pepper, Italian seasoning, grated parmesan and shredded cheddar, with some diced broccoli for good measure. It's yummy.

Cornbread and sausages

Tonight I'm planning cornbread and spinach-asiago chicken sausages. I had planned to make Eileen Bresslin's vegan cornbread recipe but I ran out of soy milk.

Eileen's recipe:

Preheat oven to 350. These muffins, or cornbread, need to go in a hot oven as soon as they're mixed.

• 1.5 cups yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1.5 cups soy milk
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix dry ingredients. In separate bowl, mix wet ingredients. Pour liquid into dry, mix until just combined. Bake 30-40 minutes. Note: You may not need quite that much oil.

I added parsley and flax seed to mine tonight.

Now for the sausage... I decided to try and make a sauce. In the bottom of the pan I started with:

• About 1/4 cup apple juice
• About 1/4 cup chicken broth
• About one teaspoon cornstarch

Whisk as bring to a boil to reduce and thicken. It smelled sweet, so I added:

• About 1/2 teaspoon four color peppercorns
• About 3/4 teaspoon garlic pepper
• About 3/4 teaspoon garlic
• About 1/8 teaspoon curry

After it seriously thickened, I added:

• three spinach asiago chicken sausages, sliced
• about 1 cup French cut green beans, frozen and thawed in the microwave

Then I served with the cornbread, using some of the excess sauce as gravy.

(Note: These are the same sausages I got at the warehouse club a few weeks ago and had in the freezer. We've eaten them in pasta sauce, and as sausage sandwiches, and now this funky recipe.)

Ravioli with gouda and broccoli

This recipe was designed to use up holiday leftovers from my husband's work party, primarily ham and some smoked gouda.

I started with some steam-in-the-bag just picked broccoli cuts from Wegmans, which honestly, disappointed me a tad because of the number of stems in the bag. With those prepared and about 12 large cheese ravioli cooking, I got my Le Creuset skillet and began concocting a sauce.

First, I melted four tablespoons butter, then added the broccoli, hearty sprinkles of garlic pepper, and sprinkled breadcrumbs over the broccoli. I let that sizzle a few minutes (like two). I added about 3/4 cup soy milk and 1 heaping teaspoon flour, working very carefully to keep the flour away from the broccoli until I got the butter milk and flour incorporated. I added about 3/4 cup tiny pieces of ham. Then I also added about 1/4 cup of small chunks of gouda. After that melted, I set the sauce aside and, with drippings still in the pan, added about two teaspoons extra virgin olive oil to the skillet. Then I fried the ravioli over low heat and sprinkled them with another 1/2 cup finely grated smoked gouda.

Then I returned the sauce to the pan, stirred it all up, and added another 1/4 cup finely grated smoked gouda. And served. It was fantastic.

Another tuna casserole

Since lunch was spicy and used both meat and beans, I opted for a milder dinner. In one pan, I cooked 1 lb of egg noodles.

Meanwhile in my Le Creuset skillet, I did the following:

• Added three tablespoons butter
• about 1 teaspoon basil
• one teaspoon garlic pepper
• and some serious shaking (maybe 1.5-2 teaspoons) of the seasoned parmesan mix that came with the spinach rigatoni things from Aldi

Once the butter melted, I added:

• one cup soy milk
• one packet of cheese mix from Wegmans cheddar and shells mac and cheese dinner

While that cooked, and I stirred, I prepared about two cups cauliflower in the microwave and opened a can of tuna. Then I added them to the skillet.

• one can tuna
• about two cups cauliflower

I drained the noodles and added them.

• 1 lb egg noodles cooked.

I stirred, and added more of the seasoning

• about 1 teaspoon Aldi parmesan seasoning

Then:

• about 1/4 cup extra sharp cheddar cheese
• about 1/4 cup sour cream

Stick in oven at about 35o until the family is ready for dinner.

Stuffed Quesadillas tonight

Tonight I made stuffed quesadillas... because despite going to the warehouse club last night we have no milk or eggs and I didn't thaw out meat and we had tomato soup for lunch so that ruled out anything with tomato sauce so no pasta (and I had hoped to have pasta tomorrow)

Now that was a run-on sentence.

In a skillet, I layered some extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled some garlic pepper, with the heat on medium low, I added a tortilla shell, piled it with black beans and sliced black olives, then lots of extra sharp cheddar, a little pepperjack for zest, and a lid of another tortilla shell. Cook until crisp on the outside, gooey on the inside.

Serve in nice triangles with mango salsa and sour cream.

Mulligutawny (II)

I've made Mulligutawny before, but today I'm revising slightly for the use of leftovers... I will place in crock pot on low...

• About 1.5 cups shredded turkey
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 apple, peeled and chopped
• 1 teaspoon curry
• 1 teaspoon garlic pepper

Sauté in skillet.

Add:

• one can petit diced tomatoes, drained

Cook about 30 minutes on low, stirring occasionally. While that cooks, in crock pot combine:

• about 20-25 ounces Thai broth
• 14 ounces low salt chicken broth
• about 3/4 cup brown rice (I used instant)

Then put everything in the crock pot on low...

The original post on this soup:

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/02/mulligatawny.html

Turkey Spinach Omelettes

So, for the last 24 hours I have thought about the omelette I wanted to make with the leftover white meat of turkey. I made it for dinner tonight and served with Nana's homemade applesauce.

Angel's Turkey Spinach Omelette with a hint of curry

• 6 eggs, beaten
• about 1.5 cups turkey, white meat, shredded
• about 1.5 cups cheese, cheddar, shredded
• about 1 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 1 teaspoon garlic pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground four color peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon curry
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

In a skillet, not a huge one, melt the butter, add the olive oil and the two peppers. Add the spinach, sauté about one minute, add about half of the curry. Add the turkey. Add the other half of the curry to the turkey. Stir. Let sauté, stirring ocassionally, until the liquid begins to disappear.

Pour the hot turkey/spinach filling into a bowl and set aside. Pour eggs into the hot skillet. Let cook on medium or medium high depending on your cookware about one to two minutes. Add the turkey spinach filling. Let cook until the eggs are almost "solid." Add the cheese. Let sit another minute, probably would work best if you covered it to help melt the cheese. Then fold the omelet in half and press down to make sure nothing runny comes out. If it does, let the omelette continue cooking until the runny stuff hardens, as long as your frying pan is not hot enough to burn the eggs.

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Mini broccoli pot pies

The last item for pre-prep is broccoli pot pies... I put little aluminum foil discs in the bottom of cupcake tins to keep them from sticking and rip ready-made pie crusts into pieces about the size of my hand.

We made WAY more filling than we needed. So we made a broccoli cheese calzone kind of thing for another day. And froze it. We started out with 24 cupcake tins with the crust in them.

In a bowl, we mixed:

• Three crowns fresh broccoli cut into bite size pieces
• 2 cans broccoli cheese soup
• about two teaspoons garlic pepper

We scooped a large heaping tablespoon into each tin, pinched the crust closed and then baked at 375 until brown (about 20 minutes.)

Broccoli pot pie

So, I never did get to eat that broccoli pot pie, but I did get to make it and we'll have it for dinner tonight.

I used a ready made pie crust, layered some V8 cream of broccoli soup, some frozen broccoli, some hearty doses of garlic pepper. I sliced and cooked two potatoes. Added more soup, the potatoes, more garlic pepper, then the rest of the soup.

Covered with the second pie crust. Broccoli cheese soup gives more cheesy flavor, but I wanted to try the V8.

Steak sandwiches

So I sliced the leftover steak au poivre into slivers and layed it into my skillet. I cooked it on low to warm it and get the pink out, and sprinkled it with garlic pepper. I added the leftover brandy cream sauce and cooked the meat slowly in the sauce with the last of the frozen parsley from my garden (about 2 tablespoons 'fresh' parsley).

I thawed the last (and very nice looking) loaf of homemade bread. Added a nice helping of leftover gratin, the spinach-cauliflower gratin I adapted from a Wegmans recipe.

Heated the gratin.

Added some slices of meat to each little piece of bread with some 'gravy.'

Fantastic. (Better than the first time around.)

My husband agreed.

Oeuvo Diablo

A long time ago when I was still a reporter on the beat in Phillipsburg, we used to have breakfast at The Mercantile. Vito made a scrambled egg and cheese wrap with a sour cream/dijon/dill sauce to die for.

Today I made something reminiscent of that dish, with tomato soup, for lunch.

I toasted my tortillas in a skillet, with olive oil and some garlic pepper. I scrambled the eggs and cooked them with frozen parsley from my garden. Then, I placed the eggs in the wrap with a sprinkle of garlic pepper and a sauce 3 parts ranch dressing to 1 part horseradish mustard, well stirred.

Garlic Bagels

I had no ideas for lunch when I left to take my daughter to her kindergarten class. When I returned, my husband had come home from work and made garlic bagels with cheese and veggies. He had gone to the bagel deli over the weekend and he thought we hadn't had garlic bagels in a while.

So he toasted them in the toaster, then layered with colby jack cheese and sprinkled with mixed vegetables and garlic pepper. The mixed vegetables were carrots, green beans, lima beans and zucchini, odd for a bagel topping but hot and edible.

And to top it all off, he kissed me afterwards! Garlic or no.

Tuna pasta with lemon sauce

At one point I mentioned I planned to recycle the lemon sauce from the chicken the other night, a French style recipe that included lots of butter, fresh herbs and wine (though I used grape juice.) We did end up eating it on whole wheat spaghetti, with tuna and peas and garlic pepper.

Mac N Bacon

Oh, the evils...

I never made it to the store to get the remaining ingredients for zucchini/crabbiless cakes. Although ironically, my friend Gayle made them at her house. Tomorrow here I hope...

We have no vegetable in the house, except the 4.5 pound zucchini. We have no flour. No fruit. Very limited resources. I have $70 in my wallet designated for grocery shopping but I haven't made it there.

Oops.

So we made our last box of spaghetti and made mac and cheese by adding a pack of generic cheese mix from a box of mac and cheese I stole the noodles from a while ago, our last tablespoon of real butter, some raw milk, and (gasp!) Velveeta. Someone gave me the Velveeta. I did not buy Velveeta. Let me repeat: I did not buy Velveeta.

That would have been bad enough, from a nutrition standpoint but... I added smoked bacon. Also from the farm. 1/3 of the package went in the pasta, 1/3 in the fridge for sandwiches later, and 1/3 in the freezer.

We topped with garlic pepper and served.

Chicken à la diable with Asparagus

I made Chicken à la diable for lunch to use the four chicken breasts I thawed for last night's dinner. Click on the chicken link below to see the recipe. I more or less followed it today, except I added some Indian Chili Powder into the bread crumbs for kick. I used the last of my homemade breadcrumbs and had to add some storebought to make it work.

The asparagus. Well, I meant to glaze it with olive oil and bake with the chicken. Except the olive oil came out too fast so it may be heavier than I wanted. I sprinkled library with garlic pepper, my four-color peppercorns and some sprinkle parmesan.

Mommy's scrambled eggs

Yesterday I had a blood sugar meltdown and it wasn't pretty. It was a reminder that I need to pay closer attention to my own meal schedules. I more or less need six small meals a day, but lately I've been skipping snacks. It caught up with me yesterday. It usually starts with breakfast... I skip that thinking I'll eat mt ten o'clock snack at nine and be fine... Well, yesterday I didn't eat until 11 and it threw my whole day out of whack.

By five, my husband ran to Giant to get a rapid, high protein dinner involving salad because I had in my head I wanted salad. And when I get screwed up like that, I often refuse to eat unless I get something that "looks good."

So he went to the store and bought two pre-packaged ceasar salads in the bags (on sale 2/$7), vegetarian chicken and buffalo wings (because it heats in the microwave super quick), and real chicken breasts (in case I had in my head that I wanted the real thing, and he got organic thinking I would approve... what a sweetie... and he had no idea how to read the price so he paid WAY too much, but it's the thought that counts.)

He spent $22. And made a delicious salad with the buffalo wings strips and laid into it. And the kit included shaved slices of asiago cheese... Mmmmm... We're having the second batch for lunch today.

I'm trying to be more careful today. We had homemade raisin bread toast with 

coffee at 7:30. (The loaf of sticky roll dough that I didn't ice or cut into buns.) At 9, I made myself two scrambled eggs (with soy milk) with parsley, the leftover garlic pepper seasoning from the salad last night, and grated asiago. Served with a side of ketchup and a pinch of coarse sea salt. And technically, I used extra virgin olive oil in the pan instead of no-stick spray. Figured I could use the healthy fat.

Shepherd's Pot Pie

I'm in the mood for something shepherd pie-ish or a beef pot pie, but I'm lacking any vegetable or beef based soup.  I started with... a nice double fist sized hunk of frozen hamburger which I fried in four tablespoons butter and then I added about one cup, maybe a little more, of my mother-in-law's beef vegetable soup from the freezer.

I took a store-bought pie crust and lined my deep dish pie dish. Put some frozen chopped potatoes in the microwave to thaw. I tossed some extra peas in the bottom. Cooked the meat until brown and poured the whole butter/soup/meat mixed into the pie pan. Then I threw the sliced potatoes in the skillet for a few minutes.

Next, I sprinkled some cheddar cheese on top of the meat. I very carefully arranged the slice potatoes on top of the cheese. Then, I used a pastry brush to coat them lightly with olive oil. Finally, I sprinkled liberally with garlic pepper. I covered with aluminum foil and put it in the oven at 425.

Now, I am at my best when I am most experimental... So we'll see how this turns out. It makes me wish I had fresh parsley. And it makes me wonder how on earth I ever learned to cook. My mother didn't cook. No one taught me, but over the years, I've figured some stuff out...

So, I cooked it for about twenty minutes with the lid on and then removed the foil and cooked another ten minutes.

It turned out incredible. So much so that my family ate the entire thing in one sitting.

I, of course, added Frank's red hot sauce.

Skillet Mac N Cheese N Broccoli

I can't even tell you what we've eaten lately. I've been too sick to notice. I know the dehydrated veggies from Forks Mediterranean Deli taste incredible... We had a large sicilian with broccoli last night from Pizza D'Oro. And tonight...

My husband surprised me by making a skillet pasta with tri-color rotini and elbow noodles, olive oil, broccoli, cheddar cheese and a hint of garlic pepper. It was fabulous.