Posts filed under 'Table talk'
In honor of the upcoming Houston livestock show and rodeo, I will be cooking up a few recipes from this book in the next couple of weeks:
The Texas Cowboy Cookbook
… which I borrowed from our local library recently. It’s so interesting and full of fascinating recipes, I might just buy myself a copy.
First up for tonight, Jalapeno Corn Bread, which will go nicely with a soup from Simply Recipes that I’d already planned on making. (It’s definitely a soup-kind-of-a-day; cold and rainy) Starting with my next grocery trip, I’ll be trying some of the more adventurous recipes from the Texas Cowboy cookbook. I’ll most likely make some changes along the way, like I usually do - substituting chicken, pork, or buffalo for the beef, since we are mostly off of beef these days.
Growing up as a Yankee, I’d never had cornbread much at all. Since my husband loves it, I’ve learned to like it and almost always make corn bread with chili and maybe now and then for other meals. This will be the first time I’ve put jalapenos in it, though.
My normal recipe for cornbread can be found here.
And special thanks to my friend Aly, and her blog, who always makes me feel good about my cooking.
February 11th, 2010
Good heavens, I really love Quiche! My husband calls it “one of those divisive foods”. I guess that means it falls into the same category as sauerkraut, brussels sprouts, and bleu cheese… foods that wars are fought over. Some folks are ga-ga over it, others gag. Very few people fall into the middle ground on foods like these. It seems like a lot of men think quiche is “gay” and are afraid that eating it will severely lower their manliness. (Wow! I hope their manliness is not that fragile!) Ladies seem to often think that it is just the ideal thing when eating together, say, for tea — especially if the quiches are very tiny and you can pop them individually into your mouth. I have no idea why - maybe we think it increases our femininity.
I made quiche for dinner last night. Normal-sized, not mouth-pop-able. To be safe, I also made French Onion soup and garlic toast, hoping there would be something on the table to please everyone. It was the first time I made quiche without a recipe - just “winging it”. I do have an old favorite of crustless spinach quiche which I got from an ancient cookbook in the early years of my marriage, but it has never gone over really well and instead of trying to improve on it, I just made this up as I went along.
The quiche I made last night, thankfully, turned out yummier than I expected. I just enjoyed it again for lunch. It’s crustless, but with a crunchy crouton topping. Here’s the recipe:
Spinach Quiche
6 slices of bacon
1 bag fresh spinach leaves
3 cloves fresh garlic
2 T. olive oil
5 eggs
3/4 c. milk or soymilk
1 1/2 c. shredded monterey jack cheese
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper
croutons, crushed
Start by frying up the bacon as you usually would. I like thick sliced bacon - it’s what I always use. If you are using the thin stuff, consider increasing the amount to 8 slices. Drain the bacon on a paper towel and set aside. Discard the bacon fat and clean your skillet or switch to a large, clean skillet.
Next, crush and dice the garlic and put it into a large skillet with your olive oil. Set the heat to medium, and while it warms up, chop the spinach up into bite-sized pieces. Often, frozen spinach is recommended for quiches and other spinach recipes, but I say “the fresher, the better!” Add the spinach to your now-hot oil and garlic. Stir and fry for a few moments until the spinach is wilted. That’s all it needs. Then remove from the heat and set aside. (You now have both the bacon and the garlic-spinach combo waiting on the sidelines.)
In a large bowl, break all five eggs and whip them up with the milk, salt, and pepper. Use a spatula to add the cheeses, then the spinach. Finally, cut up the bacon with your kitchen scissors and add that, too! Grease a regular 9 or 10 inch pie pan and pour your quiche mixture into it.
This needs to go into a 350 - 375 degree oven for 45-55 minutes. For the last 10 minutes, sprinkle the crushed croutons on top and return to the oven. You know it’s done when the middle doesn’t jiggle and you poke a knife into the center and can see cooked instead of runny eggs.
ENJOY!
I’ll be honest about the thumbs up count: There are 7 in our family. 1 was not home, 1 did not even eat the quiche, 2 (the little guys) were forced to eat the quiche. My husband ate a little but LOVES French Onion soup, so he focused on that. Really, only 2 of us dug into this quiche and really enjoyed it. Divisive foods. Ugh.
Signing off now–
the chow hall chef
September 4th, 2009
Hello Folks!
Apologies — I had an issue with my blog format and got a bit lazy about fixing it, but I am back now and determined to keep my blog more up-to-date than I have in recent months.
News item from the Hochstettler kitchen… After nearly 20 years of marriage and countless pies, my rolling pin was malfunctioning. I had the “regular” kind that most people have - handles on either end of a fairly large wooden rolling pin, the middle spins freely while the cook hangs onto the handles. This always worked just fine for me and, trust me, I’ve never had any complaints about my pies. A couple of months or so ago, when my old faithful rolling pin began sticking so that it wasn’t spinning freely like it should, I checked out rolling pins and decided to give a French Rolling Pin or Tapered Rolling pin a try.
The one I picked is a Vic Firth French Rolling Pin, made of maple:
Vic Firth, by the way, is a famous drummer and maker of drumsticks, who has apparently moved into the chefware arena.
I told myself that for $12.95, I would give this tapered rolling pin a try, but I was largely unconvinced that I would like it. I don’t like learning new things, and since I already knew how to operate my traditional rolling pin, I was pretty sure that I would end up wanting to buy one just like the one I’d had before. At best, I thought it would take me a while to adjust to using the tapered pin.
I was SO wrong. When I opened the package, I immediately fell in love with this thing. Honestly. With no finish, this maple pin was the smoothest piece of wood I’ve ever handled. I was busy that week and didn’t have reason to use it right away, but found myself just slipping it through my hands while I was in the kitchen. When I finally did put it to use, I instinctively knew just how to use it. Having tapered ends means you can turn it and change angles quickly and easily, almost without thinking. You can also easily adjust pressure to get a very even thickness on whatever you are rolling out.
With this French rolling pin, I feel like I can make pie crust, pizza crust, etc. just as thin as I want. It is truly a joy to use.
I know this blog post sounds like an ad; it really isn’t meant to. I just simply haven’t bought anything for my kitchen in a long time that I have liked so much.
June 17th, 2009
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