Spring Quiche & Salad

Yesterday I was sitting at work wondering what to do with my asparagus. I thought about soup, then putting it in a salad, something easy and quick so I could go to the gym beforehand.

Instead, I decided to bag the gym and make an asparagus quiche. I cobbled together a couple of recipes and my own ideas and came up with this.

Asparagus Quiche

Crust
1 stick unsalted butter
1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
dash of salt
3-4 tbsp water

Place butter, flour and salt in the food processor with plastic blade if you have one. Process until the size of small peas. Open lid and add water all at once but around the bowl. Process a few more times until still somewhat crumbly but sticky. Wrap into a flat disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate 45 minutes. Roll disc out using flour, put into 10 inch removable bottom tart pan.

Filling (preheat oven to 350 at this point)

1/2 medium onion chopped
4 slices bacon, in 1/2 inch strips
Fry these together on low in a small pan
when onions are translucent add the bottom 1/2 of 3/4 lb asparagus to the pan, chopped in 3/4 inch lenghts, fry for 3-4 minutes longer

In a 4 cup measure mix together:
3 eggs
1/2 c. heavy cream
1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. sour cream
1/4 tsp salt, black pepper and nutmeg to taste

Prick dough and line bottom of tart pan with:
1/2 c. gruyere cheese grated
add the bacon/onion/asparagus mixture
Place top 1/2 of the asparagus in a radius pattern neatly into tart pan
sprinkle with 1/4 c. grated parmesan

Slowly and carefully pour in the egg/cream mixture, making sure to distribute evenly. Put immediately into a hot oven. Note you may want to put tart pan on a jelly roll pan before filling as this makes for easier transport and clean up if overflow happens.

Cook for 35-45 minutes or until golden brown on top. Let cool 5 minutes Serve warm with a salad.

Finally Spring... though it doesn't feel warm enough

We did the first bit of spring pruning and planting last week. Very exciting for me as we're starting to plan the garden, think about the yard and get ready for our summer of plenty. We started by trimming the climbing hydranga from the top of the house and off of the windows. Hopefully the flock of birds will not come back.

While he was up on the ladder doing this (I don't know why he doesn't want me on the 16 foot ladder...) I was planting French breakfast radishes. I had never eaten these radishes until living in France. I like them much better than their hotter round counterparts here in the U.S. Eaten with a bit of butter and salt and some of my sweetheart's homemade bread, delicious.

Last year the patch of ground that I put the radishes in sat fallow until I planted the tomatoes so Radishes have to be planted in early spring in Maryland as otherwise they just go to seed. I thought this would be a good use of the space next to the sorrel that is starting to come back. So I put them in last Wednesday and every day I keep hoping to see little sprouts, but it was 29 this morning and I think those little sprouts have decided it is much much too cold to make an appearance. Hopefully we'll have radishes by Pam's birthday though so I can put the tomatoes in the week after. Obviously the radishes above are not mine, but they certainly look like the ones on the package.

I have also started the plan for ripping out ivy. I spent a good hour Sunday morning ripping. Filled up a garbage can full and there's more to go. I'm hoping to rip out most of the ivy in the yard. Mandi, if you want to help, let me know. ;-)

Black Bean Soup - Revisited

So the last few days I've been rushing around like crazy but haven't had time to prepare myself lunch. We had nothing at home to eat and I ended up with cold cafeteria pizza on the run yesterday as I raced back into work.

This morning I was groaning thinking I didn't have anything for lunch again and remembered the black bean soup I had made and frozen last month. I pulled it out, thawed it out, dished it up with some scallions, cilantro and muenster and lunch was good to go. Good thing too as I was starving!!!


Black Bean Soup Recipe
~2.5 hours

1 lb. dried black beans
2 medium onions
1 lb. carrots
2 tsp. chopped garlic
2 tbsp. olive or vegetable oil
bay leaf
6 c. chicken stock
~6 c. water
2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. cayenne
Salt Pepper and extra water to taste.

Toppings:
cheddar or muenster cheese
sliced green onions
chopped cilantro


Bring black beans to a boil in 8-10 cups water for 10 minutes then let sit one hour (or let soak for 8 hours in cold). Drain and rinse. Meanwhile, peel carrots and onions and chop in food processor or by hand until minced. Saute on low heat for 10-15 minutes until carrots and onions are soft, season with salt and pepper. Add garlic and saute for 2 minutes. Add cumin, cayenne, & chicken stock (add water up to 1 inch above beans) and bay leaf. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 45 minutes or until beans are cooked. Remove bay leaf and process with immersion blender until 3/4 of the beans are pureed. Put the bay leaf back in and Let simmer 10-15 more minutes until thickened slightly. Serve with toppings. Makes about 12 servings (freeze some).

Colcannon & Ribs

Spare ribs were on the menu last night and I'd been looking forward to using Josh & Joanie's plum barbecue sauce that they put up last summer and sent us for Christmas. I was debating making a turnip and carrot gratin that I had tasted at my director's house over Christmas but while walking through the store I saw this beautiful bunch of kale. Didn't know what I was going to do with it but...

A recent conversation with my significant other revealed that while I thought he didn't like greens, he thought I didn't like them, thus we were not eating them. Excited, I resolved to put more greens into our diet. The recipe came from The Victory Garden Cookbook which is organized by vegetable. I popped it open to K and there it was, what better way than to mix them with my favorite.... mashed potatoes.

Kale needs to be stripped of its stalks, washed and blanched before sauteing. It reduces by about 3/4. The lb of kale to 1.5lbs of potatoes suggested worked nicely. I sauteed leeks in butter, then added the blanched chopped kale and sauteed in more butter, then mashed the potatoes (which I boiled in the liquid from the kale) and added some 1/2 and 1/2 (she says milk or cream). I did cut down the butter from 8 tbsp. to 3 so I figure for this recipe I did quite well on fat content, especially when paring it with the ribs. :-)






Anyway, the barbecue sauce was perfectly sweet and spicy, the kale and potatoes set it off nicely. Though the picture is not perfect, it was quite tasty. Thanks guys!!!

Peanut Butter Criscross - Cashew Butter Cookies

So my challenge this week was to see just how quickly I could go through three dozen Peanut Butter and Cashew Butter cookies. I made it to Tuesday, how's that?


I hadn't made peanut butter cookies in a while and the bright idea came from paging through Grandma Derse's family cookbook that my family made up a few years back. I am not a peanut butter fan, especially when it comes to mixing it with jelly or chocolate or anything else that is not a spoon, but turning those pages in that cookbook brought me back to my childhood when we would put our initials next to the ingredients to decide who got to put which ingredient in. (I must confess, the chocolate chips in the chocolate chip cookies were always the highlight). But here I had a huge craving for peanut butter cookies and what better way to stave off the salmonilla outbreak than cooking the peanut butter.


I confess I did not using Grandma's recipe, but pulled out ye ole Better Homes & Gardens cookbook (if you don't have it, shame on you, I'm not giving you the recipe!!). I did 1/2 crisco and 1/2 butter, the crisco adds the crunch that you don't get with the butter.


As for the cashew butter cookies, I used the same recipe and substituted the cashew butter for the peanut butter. I think the peanut butter ones were better, my sweetie did not agree. I think men are generally more into cashews than women. Well, they must have been good, they are gone, gone, gone!

Stuffed Squid

I have been remiss and I have been thusly informed.

As I have not taken many photos over the course of the holidays, (too busy partying I guess), you are stuck with last Friday's adventures.

We had Papa and Ev. over for heavy appetizers before the symphony. They showed up with shrimp salad (yes in January) and we made mussels in triple bock beer and these stuffed squid.

All of the recipes I had seen involved using cheese and pine nuts and I wanted more of an Asian bent. What I decided to do is use a gyoza filling recipe that I have. Here's my approximate recipe (really bad at the whole measuring thing).


12 oz pkg frozen cleaned squid
3 oz pork
3 oz cabbage
1 inch ginger (peeled and chopped fine)
1 spring onion
1/2 of an egg
a dollop of sesame oil
1 tsp cilantro
1 tbsp bread crumbs
3/4 c. chicken broth

In the food processor combine the pork, cabbage, ginger, spring onion, cilantro, egg, and sesame oil. Add a pinch of sugar and a bit of soy if you want. Chop fine but not until it is mush. You may want to do the pork first and add the other stuff after.

Chop the squid tentacles and mix them with the breadcrumbs and the chopped pork mixture. Stuff this into the squid bodies, filling 3/4 of the way full. Pin closed with a toothpick.

Lightly sauté and then add 3/4 c. chicken stock and simmer for 7-10 minutes until pork is cooked through. Serve with a Vietnamese dipping sauce. Enjoy

Too much cheese?

I don't think it is possible to eat too much cheese but we are blessed this season with an abundance of the good stuff from both sides of the pond. I went to Trader Joe's the other day and bought a few cheeses for our upcoming work party. The next day, my wonderful friends Alison and Max gifted us with a blessed abundance from Dean & Deluca. There is a lovely roquefort, an enormous, tasty Brilliant Savarin and a yummy Basque goats cheese. To gild the lily, my Mother sent us a sampling of cheeses from Renard's Cheese in Door County. MMMMmunster, WI cheddar and the classic holiday cheese spread. We are now swimming in cheese. Twelve lovely pounds of cheese.

I've also decided to make crème fraiche for the first time. I found the recipe in Medrich's Cocolat, but it is also available online. It's simple but you need to plan ahead. What you do is:

Heat 1 c. heavy cream (not ultra-pasturized) to 105 degrees

Remove from heat

add 1 tbsp. of buttermilk and stir.

Let sit, lightly covered for 12-36 hours in a warm spot until it has thickened and has a lovely nutty taste. I made 5 cups. Mine didn't thicken too much but has that lovely nutty taste and besides, it's "whipping" cream. Now I get to make tarts and desserts and .... yum!