Mediterranean Quiche

This is an Emeril Legasse recipe, circa 2002. It has been in my recipe file for a long time and I have made it at least three times. You can see his original version here, on the Food Network website. Funny, I even left a review for it about this time last year. It is a "5 star" recipe, averaged from 28 reviewers!
Beware that it is not low-fat. I considered buying fat-free half & half but was a bit disturbed by the ingredients. Best thing is to restrain yourself and eat small portions. It is so good that it's not easy to do that!

I chopped and cooked as I went. The pace was fast, and especially trying since the tot would have various needs to be met while I was cooking. At least he was asleep in the stroller while I shopped for the ingredients!

First, slice up a medium onion. Cut the ends off, then halve it, then slice it in thin half moons.
Chop up a medium sized zucchini. Saute on medium-high heat in 2 TB butter, for 6 minutes. Toss often.
Meanwhile, use a damp paper towel and wipe the dirt of your mushrooms. I opted for 1/2 package of baby bellas. Slice them up. Add to saute pan and cook an additional 10 minutes, stirring often, so the mushrooms release their water.
Meanwhile, mince 1 teaspoon of garlic, chop 2 teaspoons of fresh thyme and 3 Tablespoons of fresh basil. After the ten minutes is up, add the garlic and cook one minute. This is where I got behind. You are supposed to add the basil, thyme and tomatoes at this point. I had yet to prep the tomatoes. I turned the heat down to really low, added the thyme (not the basil) and went to the tomato prep.
Use 4 oz oil packed sun dried tomatoes, drained. I find Trader Joe's julienned work well since I only have to chop them up a little bit. I use 1/2 jar and my fist to squeeze out the oil.
Emeril suggests making your own pie crust but I opted for the ease of store-bought refrigerated Pillsbury. It was also on sale so 1 crust cost $1. And, you don't have to use a rolling pin! It is an 11" disk ready to put into a 9" pie plate.
Soon after I started fluting the edge I recalled that I should have used my tart pan (which has scalloped edges and sides that drop out). Oh well, next time!
The recipe suggests baking at 375º for 12 minutes while the Pillsbury package suggests otherwise. Follow the Emeril recipe. I don't have pie weights and didn't want to bother with coming up with beans or marbles to solve this. The crust came out fine, only a couple puffed places which I pushed down.

Crack 3 eggs in a large bowl.

Whisk eggs, 1 1/4 cups half & half, 1/2 cup grated Gruyere, a dash of salt, a grind of pepper and 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes.

Put veggie mix in the pre-baked pie crust.

Pour egg mixture over and dab with 3 oz. crumbled goat cheese. It helped to slightly freeze the cheese so it wouldn't be so sticky and mushy. I froze it longer than intended and it completely froze! I was able to cut it up with a knife easily this way. Don't be tempted by the pre-crumbled cheese unless you already know of one that tastes good.
Bake at 375º for 25-30 minutes (takes our oven 30) until set (no more jiggles). Allow to rest for another 30 minutes.
It was so late, the tester was already bathed and in his p.j.'s! He LOVED it and so did we!

Bacon, egg & cheese breakfast sandwich

First attempt at sushi: Inside-Out Phili Roll

If you love sushi and eat it at least once a week, when the day comes you make it yourself, you will be in heaven!

I still need to find some good reliably fresh fish to use.
Today I used smoked salmon. You could even make tuna salad and tuck it into a sushi roll.
The filling consisted of 1/3 less fat Philadelphia cream cheese, sliced cucumber and sliced smoked salmon. I tried spicy mayo on the side. Rather too rich for this but it was nice to try.

Santa brought me a rice cooker for Christmas! I used it for the first time.
I have reservations since it only cooks for 15 minutes, not the usual 20 and the rice was undercooked. Not terribly undercooked so it just needs some tweaking.

The first thing is to thoroughly rinse your sushi rice in a mesh type colander.
1 cup of rice is good to start. I used 1/2 cup but it seemed to barely be enough.

Next time after rinsing, I will let the grains soak in water for 10 minutes with a piece of konbu before turning on the cooker.
It seems that there are many techniques used to prepare sushi rice. Some say soak for 10 minutes, others for two hours before cooking it.
The cooker cooks in only 15 minutes so I suppose next I will let it sit for 5 minutes before I stir it then another ten to let it cool on a plate before I season it using my hands.
1/2 cup rice; 3/4 cup water: cook
seasoning: almost full 1 teaspoon mirin, the rest filled by rice vinegar
Toast your own sesame seeds. Or buy them toasted.
It took me 2 burnings to get it down! 2 minutes in the toaster oven, remove promptly, use aluminum foil (which cools fast).
Smoked salmon! Most packages at the supermarket are 4 oz., I used 2 oz. to make 3 rolls.
Cut into strips for easy placement.
Seasoning the rice. Make sure you use a nonreactive container. I used a melamine plate. Sprinkle seasoning over then use your hand to gently turn and mix it around. Keep your hands in it. This stuff is soooo sticky, you better have a bowl of water to rescue your hands! One youtube flick I watched, the maki maker suggested wearing gloves smeared in mayo! Well, you'll be glad to know water works perfectly fine.

Super sticky!

I cut one sheet into three pieces. Next time I will just cut it in half.

Prepped cucumber and cream cheese formed into pencil thin logs.

Put plastic wrap over the bamboo mat.
Lay down a piece of nori and place your rice on the mat, formed larger than the width.

Place the nori on top and arrange your fillings.

Slide the sushi to the middle of the mat and start rolling.

Here you can see where I was short on the rice.

Tester approved; he gobbled all of it up!

Salad Snack

It's late afternoon and all I've had to eat was a bagel and cream cheese. I don't want to make a sandwich and I want something healthy. Look no further than the veggie drawer!
I dug up some spring mix, pea shoots, shredded carrots, a tomato, cucumber and a red bell pepper.

If you have a little extra time and you're in the mood, it's good to make your own dressing.
This is what I tried out and it was a success!

A drop of dijon mustard
A tiniest plop of honey
A squeeze of 1/4 a lemon
A dash of pepper (the miso is salty)
A plop of white miso (just leave it out if you don't have any)
Add your best oil, olive is good. Watch how much you put in, it can get fatty really quick.

Put a wrap on it and shake! Really you could just use a fork or whisk it.

Miso was a nice addition. I used the spoon to smooth and incorporate it in by stirring.
I took the chopped up veggies and dropped them in the dressing container. Put a wrap on it and shake to coat. The spring mix was not dressed, nor was the tomato.
Eat it and stay away from the snack food! Better yet, get rid of it :D

Roast Beef Panini

Once or twice a year, it seems, I get a promotional mailing of "Cuisine at Home."
I swear I've received the same copy five times by now.
Each identical issue I might flip through, then it ends up in the recycling bin.
A couple years ago I even got a years' subscription to the magazine, as a gift, and it was pretty good!
This time around, the panini sandwich ideas caught my eye since we received a press for Christmas last year.

This sandwich was a bit unctuous and vinegary but I like that sort of thing. Maybe it would have been better if we split a sandwich and had a tomato soup with it.
The special mayonnaise ingredients:

1/4 cup mayo
2 tsp. minced oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. prepared horseradish
1 tsp. ketchup
dash of cayenne pepper
Combine in a small bowl.
Thinly slice 1/3 cup (eyeball it) red onion. I like to use a serrated edged knife for this task.
Put in an equal amount of hot peppers. The recipe suggests pickled sweet cherry peppers but I used what we already had on hand, banana peppers. Sprinkle with some red pepper flakes and pour some banana pepper juice in the bowl to help season the onions a bit. Toss it all together and let sit for at least 5 minutes.

Use freshly grated cheddar. Grate 1/2 cup or so.

Butter up your slices of bread on the panini press side. In retrospect, this is an unnecessary addition of fat, but heck, it tastes good! New years' weight loss resolution not yet in the picture, apparently ;D.
Smear the delicious mayo spread on all four slices after their other sides have been buttered.
The mayo spread is so good and the inspiration of many more.
Top with cheese, meat (3 slices Shaw's Italian roast beef), onions & peppers. Sizzle on the press until it smells like it's done!

Panni Potato Pancakes

These are so easy to make- just add water to a boxed mix! Food reviews on Amazon give this particular mix mostly 4 or 5 star ratings. Next time I would like to try the 5 star-rated "shredded" version. Alex made these while I was out food shopping. He added an egg and smoked paprika to the mix and I think that made them even better. Next time, we are thinking of adding some chopped chives.
We gobbled down 4 each and put the rest in freezer bags to enjoy again, soon.
We'll reheat them like other frozen hash brown patties: 375 degrees for 15 minutes, flipping 1/2 way through.