Posts filed under 'Breakfast'
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
June 28th, 2011
After buying Nature Valley Granola bars with a coupon, I decided to try making my own homemade version of those delicious treats. With a family of seven, a dozen granola bars does not last long at all. For us, it’s really not worth spending the $4 to get 2 boxes of granola bars that will last less than a day.
Somewhere between a Payday candy bar and a whole grain granola bar, Nature Valley’s Sweet and Salty bars are the latest bar on the market and they are GOOD. I could not resist buying a few ingredients and heading to the kitchen… After you read the recipe, keep scrolling for a cost comparison…
Sweet and Salty Bars
makes 40 bars (a darn sight more than the 6 that come in a box)
4 c. crisped rice cereal
3 c. oats
1 c. crushed graham crackers
2 c. cashews or peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 c. sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar
1 t. vanilla
2 c. peanut butter OR butterscotch baking chips, or a combination of both
First, heat the oven to 275 degrees and put the oats on a jelly roll pan to toast. It should take about ten minutes, just let them begin to turn golden brown. Leave the oven on, since you will be using it again soon.
Next, combine the oats, crisp rice cereal, graham crackers, and nuts in a large bowl. Set this aside. In a saucepan, heat the sweetened condensed milk and butter and let it begin to bubble. Add the brown sugar and stir until it is completely dissolved. Then add the vanilla and stir well. Pour this gooey mixture over the cereal combination and stir well, tossing with a rubber spatula.
Press tightly into a greased jelly roll pan. Using a sheet of aluminum foil can be helpful for this, just lay it on top and press down with all your might. Remove the foil. Then, sprinkle the baking chips over the top and return to the oven for 10 minutes to let the chips melt. Remove from the oven and spread the melted chips over the granola as if you were frosting a cake. Cool in the freezer or refrigerator.
Cut into bars and wrap in foil or plastic wrap.
(To simplify this recipe, toss the baking chips into the mixture along with the cereals and nuts. Then you can eliminate the final step of returning it all to the oven and spreading the melted chips.)
Cost comparison; the amounts below reflect my estimate for the cost of each ingredient, the amount used in this recipe:
Crisped rice — $.50
oats — .$50
graham crackers — $.25
cashews — $2.00
sweetened condensed milk — $1.00
butter — $.50
brown sugar — $.50
vanilla — $.05
baking chips — $2.00
Total cost of 40 homemade bars — $7.30 equals $.18 per bar
total cost of 40 boxed bars (with coupon) — $13.33 equals .$33 per bar
April 21st, 2009
We vacationed at a little cabin getaway this summer with our extended family. By that I mean MY family - Mom and Dad, my three sisters, two of my brothers-in-law, everyone’s kids plus my nephew’s new wife. When you do the math, (and we did have to do the math here) it came to a grand total of 24 people. We had an age range running from nearly born (my nephew’s wife was pregnant) to the sixties. A regular family reunion! We had a great time, hidden away in the woods, on the edge of a small lake, of the northern part of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.
Coming from a family of cooks, where we take very seriously phrases like, “homemade”, “comfort foods”, and “from scratch”, we took turns cooking dinner for the entire family. (My dad even made curly fries over a propane burner 2 nights.) For breakfast and lunch, everybody sort of found their own food, usually by taking advantage of a stockpile of lunchmeat and hot dogs in the fridge and pounds of goodies that were prepared beforehand and brought up by my mother and sisters. I had the disadvantage of distance - we had to fly to Michigan so I couldn’t bring pounds of cookies.
The one particular baked good that became our favorite breakfast that week was my sister Sue’s Zucchini Bread. My, OH, My - was it good! She brought - I think- at least 6 loaves of it and I believe we had it all polished off by the end of the week. It became the perfect food to set out and let everyone slice off a serving as they got up and got ready for whatever activity we did that day.
Sue has graciously shared her recipe for Zucchini Bread with me and I, of course, am going to share it with you. A wonderful way to use that zucchini that is so plentiful.
ZUCCHINI BREAD
3 c. flour - I use half white and half whole wheat
1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1/4 t. baking powder
2 c. sugar
1 c. oil - but I use 3/4 c. oil and 3/4 c. ground flax seed
you can substitute 3 T. of flax seed for 1 T. of oil when baking, so you can play with this and use more or less flax seed
1 T. vanilla
3 eggs
2 c. shredded zucchini
1/2 c. chopped nuts (sometimes I use them and sometimes I don’t)
Sift together dry ingredients except sugar, set aside. In a large bowl using mixer at medium speed, beat sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs until well blended. Reduce speed to low, beat in dry ingredients until well blended. Pour into two greased loaf pans.
Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until done. Cool in pans 10 minutes, remove and cool completely on racks.
If taking on vacation, triple the recipe and bring copies.
September 29th, 2008
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