I made my go-to quiche

It almost feels silly to post a quiche recipe on this blog. All of you who contribute to this blog have probably made quiche at one point or another, because it is so easy to make and so tasty, and you probably have your own go-to recipes for it. Well, this is mine! But, I figured, since I took some photos of it, why not share it with you all. Maybe one day you will want to make a quiche and try this method out.

One reason that I like this particular recipe is because compared to many other quiche recipes I have seen, this is slightly healthier. No cream or cream cheese or other heavy foods. Just some milk and a bit of Parmesan (and in this case, goat cheese!) I also like using a combo of parm and swiss.

Quiche is a great thing to bring to a potluck or a brunch, but I actually made this quiche a few weeks ago for no reason at all. I just felt like cooking something easy and delicious. So I did!

Here you go:



This recipe is modified from one by Sara Moulten, via the Food Network website.

Ingredients
1 frozen prepared pie shell (or of course feel free to make your own! I have never done that, but I bet a lot of you have, so totally use your favorite recipe, if you'd like.)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 chopped shallots or 1 medium chopped onion (or a mixture of both!)
1 russet potato, peeled and sliced thinly
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach - thawed, excess liquid drained. (Draining out all the liquid is key! You don't want a watery quiche.)
1 pound cremini mushrooms, chopped (I think a pound is maybe about a dozen or so mushrooms?)
3 large eggs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 cup milk
2/3 cup (3 ounces) crumbled goat cheese


Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Blind bake the crust: Line the pie shell with aluminum foil and weigh it with pie weights or beans (I actually never weigh it down, and it's fine. If the crust puffs up a bit, just poke a few holes in it with a fork and it will deflate).

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until light golden brown.

Increase oven temperature to 375 degrees F.

In a large skillet, heat oil over moderate heat. Add onion or shallots and cook until softened. Turn up heat to moderately high. Add garlic, mushrooms, and potato and cook until the mushrooms begin to brown and release some of their moisture. Add spinach and continue cooking until it is heated through. Drain off any excess liquid.

Beat the eggs in a bowl and add the Parmesan, half the goat cheese and milk. Add the spinach mixture and pour into the pie shell. Sprinkle remaining goat cheese on top. Bake on a sheet pan in the middle of the oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until just set.

I made a hearty vegan brunch!

I made a hearty vegan brunch (salivate at the above picture) consisting of scrambled tofu (recipe will follow), fake ham from some Asian brand of Buddhist products bought from Flushing, LightLife Gimme Lean ground-style "meat," and rustic bread with Smart Balance.

I got the recipe for the scrambled tofu from Ira Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan with a Vengance:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium-sized yellow onion, chopped into 1/2-inch chunks
2 cups thinly sliced cremini mushrooms
2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound extra-firm tofu, drained
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 carrot, peeled (optional, grate it in at the end, mostly for color)
For spice blend
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried thyme, crushed wiht your fingers
1 tsp ground paprika
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp salt
Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Saute the onions for 3 minutes, until softened; add the mushrooms, saute for 5 minutes; add the garlic, saute for 2 minutes. Add teh spice blend and mix it up for 15 seconds or so. Add 1/4 cup of water to deglaze the pan, scraping the bottom to get all the garlic and spices.
Crumble in the tofu and mix well. Don't crush the tofu, just kind of lift it and mix it around. You want it to remain chunky. Let cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding splashes of water if necessary to keep it from sticking too much. Lower the heat a bit if you find that the tofu is sticking. Add the lemon juice. Add the nutritional yeast and mix it up. If the mixture is sticking to the pan, add splashes of water. The moistness really depends on how much water the tofu was retaining before you added it.
Grate the carrot into the tofu mixture and fold. Serve with guacamole and salsa and potatoes and toast and tempeh bacon.

For the "sausages," I took the LightLife Gimme Lean pack of "ground meat" (I find myself making the quote gestures whenever I talk about fake meats, by the way), and rolled it into shape with my hands. This product has great texture and great shape-ability for making un-meatballs, etc. but it is kinda sticky. Sauteed it in a pan with hot olive oil until browned. Did the same with the sliced fake ham. Serve everything with toast and Smart Balance.

I had a glass of Silk soy milk to complete my meal.

Perfect vegan hearty brunch!

I made some corn muffins...

Wow, I made these a long time ago. The occasion was a lovely brunch at Laura's house and I decided to make some muffins. They seem like a distant memory by now. BUT, it is never too late to revisit a good corn muffin recipe. These came to me via Smitten Kitchen (what else is new) but the original recipe is by Dorie Greenspan. Until recently, I did not know who Dorie Greenspan was, but now that I have been reading a fair share of food blogs, apparently Dorie is a pretty big deal.

I was drawn to these muffins because they were described on smitten kitchen as being not too sweet or heavy. I love muffins, but I don't love how dry and dense they can be sometimes. As I recall, a year or two ago I attempted to make banana muffins with wheat germ or flax seed meal or something healthy, and they came out really dry and heavy. They may have been healthy but they were totally disappointing. I was sad.

Luckily, these muffins are really fluffy and light. And although they are not too sweet, they still taste like MUFFINS and not CORNBREAD (even though you could still totally serve them with come chili if you wanted to.) I actually had fantasies of making chipotle lime butter to serve alongside these muffins, but did not have time. Instead, I attempted a blueberry butter, which was tasty. But these muffins don't need flavored butters or fancy spreadys to taste good. They are delicious served plain too.

Here's the recipe, which I followed basically as is. Go for it, make some muffins one Sunday morning. Bring them to a brunch or eat them while you watch a crappy movie on channel 11. Eat the leftovers Monday night with some of Sarah's sweet potato chili. It will be great.

Dorie Greenspan’s Corniest Corn Muffins
from "Baking from My Home to Yours"

Yield: 12 regular-sized muffins or 48 miniature ones

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal, preferably stone-ground
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
1 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 tablespoons corn oil (I used olive oil)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup corn kernels (add up to 1/3 cup more if you’d like) - fresh, frozen or canned (in which case they should be drained and patted dry) - I used frozen, thawed and patted dry.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg, if you’re using it. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, melted butter, oil, egg and yolk together until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough - the batter will be lumpy, and that’s just the way it should be. Stir in the corn kernels. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes (12 minutes for minis), or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.