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Tag Archives: recipes

Lesson: Listen to People Who Know More Than You Do

When mom was here visiting, I had her show me how to make a pie crust. She showed me the old fashioned way – just sugar, flour, shortening and water – blended with my hands. She said she wanted me to learn how to do it the way she did. But she also emailed me a recipe for a pie crust that had a touch of vinegar in it, and said it was much easier to manipulate. (The acidity of the vinegar helps relax the gluten formation, so it stays tender even if you roll it zillions of times).

Well, being the stubborn girl that I am, I made the ‘hard’ pie crust for everything I made over the holidays – quiche, quiche, and pie. Today I set out to make a leftovers quiche (asparagus, leeks, sun dried tomatoes, and mushrooms), and I decided to make the easy pie crust. And you know what? It was awesome! It was easy to make (just like I’d been told), easy to put into the pie container, and tasted great.

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New Year’s Clean-Out-The-Fridge Quiche
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Recipe type: brunch
Author: lacinda r. via wearyaswater.com
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 60 mins
Total time: 1 hour 15 mins
This is a very easy and tasty quiche that uses leeks, sundried tomatoes, and mushrooms.
Ingredients
  • 0.25 cup paramesean cheese
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 leek (white & very light green part only)
  • 1 bunch asparagus, tough stalks removed
  • 2 tablespoons sundried tomatoes (in olive oil)
  • 4 oz portabella mushrooms, chopped
  • 1.25 cups half and half
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup mozzerella cheese
Instructions
  1. First, make your pie crust. (It’s not hard…I promise!)
  2. Prep the leek by trimming the roots & green leaves off, leaving the white & very light green part only. Cut that part lengthwise, then chop very thinly.
  3. Slice the asparagus on the diagonal into quarter-inch pieces.
  4. Chop the portabella mushrooms into bite sized pieces.
  5. Saute the veggies (including the sun dried tomatoes) in the olive oil, until the asparagus is bright green and barely tender. Cool for a bit. (Make the pie crust below while waiting for the veggies to cool).
  6. After prebaking the pie crust (10 minutes at 350F), put the parmesean cheese in the bottom of the crust. Next, add the mozzarella cheese. Then spoon the sauteed veggies on top.
  7. Crack eggs into a medium sized bowl & beat with a whisk. Add half and half, continue beating. Pour this mixture on top of the veggies. Top with a little cheese.
  8. Cook at 350 degrees F for 50-60 minutes, until set. Goes well with mimosas!


Easy Peasy Beautiful Pie Crust

Easy Peasy Beautiful Pie Crust
Print
Recipe type: dessert
Author: lacinda r.
Prep time: 20 mins
Total time: 20 mins
This pie crust is easy to manipulate and tastes great. A little bit of vinegar helps keep gluten from forming (which is what makes pie crusts tough from overworking). Makes 1 pie crust
Ingredients
  • 1.5 cups all purpose flour.
  • 0.5 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 tablespoon of sugar
  • 0.5 cups of cold, cold shortening
  • 2 tablespoons ice cold water
  • 0.5 teaspoon of white vinegar + 2.5 teaspoons of ice cold water
Instructions
  1. Mix the flour, salt & sugar in a medium sized bowl. Then mix in the cold, cold shortening with your fingers, until the shortening is mostly pea sized. (Don’t mix it too much!).
  2. Mix up the water and vinegar, then add a tablespoon at a time to the flour + shortening. Mix with your fingers until it sticks together. (Don’t add more water than you need!). Wrap the dough in saran wrap and put in the fridge for 10 minutes to give the vinegar time to work its magic. Then roll out your pie dough. Hurray!

 

weekend cooking adventures: how to roast a chicken and then make chicken stock

I decided not to post a picture of this week’s vegbox, because it looks pretty much like last week’s vegbox. Cabbage + carrots + parsnips + turnips + salad greens + broccoli + sweet potatoes + tangerines. I have no idea what to do with this much cabbage…am going to try roasting it tomorrow. I’ve been a little under the weather (ok, a lot under the weather…I even stayed home sick from work last week), and I’ve been craving chicken soup. So yesterday Emily picked up a whole chicken from the store, and today we had roast chicken for lunch.

Roast chicken is so frickin easy to make. Seriously. Four steps.

  1. Preheat the oven to 400
  2. Rinse off the chicken & pat dry with paper towels.
  3. Sprinkle generously inside & out with sea salt.
  4. Put in dutch oven (or roasting pan) and roast for 1 hour 15 minutes, or so.

If you’re feeling fancy, chop up an onion & potato and put them in the bottom of the dutch oven. If you’re feeling EXTRA fancy, poke a bunch of holes in a lemon and put it inside of the chicken before roasting.

The real reason for making roast chicken (besides delicious juicy chicken) is making AMAZING chicken stock. This is also very simple.

  1. Get most of the meat off the chicken bones.
  2. Put the chicken bones in a crockpot.
  3. Chop up any/all of the following and add to the crockpot: onion, carrots, celery, turnips, parsnips, sweet potatoes, herbs
  4. Fill up crockpot with water.
  5. Turn on crockpot to low, let the magic happen overnight
  6. Strain through cheesecloth.

This magic is happening AS WE SPEAK in the kitchen, and it smells amazing. Tomorrow I’ll strain the broth, then saute an onion & some carrots, add the chicken, and voila, delicious chicken soup!

Baking Bread

I have found the secret to making delicious bread. Get your water really hot (not boiling, though), and then sprinkle the yeast overtop. Let sit for about 10 minutes. Then add honey & butter. Then add pre-mixed dry ingredients.

I make my dough in the bread machine, then after it rises for a while I take it out of the breadmaker, put it in a pam-sprayed pan, and let it rise some more. Bake 20-25 minutes at 400F.

  • 1.25 cups of water
  • 2.5 tsp bread machine yeast (or 2 tsp SAF yeast)
  • 1 Tablespoon honey
  • 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into little pieces
  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 Tablespoons nonfat dry milk
  • 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon gluten
  • 1.5 tsp salt

mushroom barley soup

Got home last night after a cross country flight, got up early so I could be to work by 7, left work at 4 to pick up the vegbox by 4:30, and yet by 5:15 there was still no vegbox. Tired and grouchy and cold, I decided to make some soup.

Mushroom Barley Soup

You need:

  • 1 VeryLarge portobella mushroom, diced
  • 1 onion, diced
  • handful of baby carrots, diced
  • 3-4 cups of chicken broth
  • herbes de provence
  • handful of barley

Saute the onion and carrots in oil (or butter) until browned.
Then add the portobella mushroom. Saute until steamy.
Add chicken broth and a teaspoon of herbes de provence.
Bring to boil.
Add barley.
Reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes, or until barley is cooked through.

ain’t no party like a root veggie party…

Tonight I was in a hurry to use up as many of the veggies as possible (while leaving some delicious leftovers for Emily). So for dinner I made:

Roasted Cauliflower:
Heat oven to 400. Chop cauliflower into big chunks, put on a baking sheet (one with sides, preferably). Mince some garlic over top. Sprinkle 2 Tbsp. olive oil over the top Put a little sea salt on top. Roast for 40 minutes, turning every 10 minutes.

Root Veggie Soup:
Chop up an onion and a few cloves of garlic. Saute in a big soup pot. Chop up a parsnip or two, a turnip, a potato, and some carrots. Put them into the soup pot, and put the lid on. Turn the heat down to medium, and let steam/fry for about 10 minutes. Pour in 3-4 cups of broth (I used chicken broth) and simmer for 30 minutes. Pulse blend the soup until mostly pureed.

Apple Crisp
I used this recipe – not as good as my Mom’s, but still good.

Everything was great. The soup was sweeter than I expected – I guess because of the carrots.And the roasted cauliflower transformed Emily into a cauliflower-lover with one bite.

making my own soymilk

The other day I ran across a recipe from kissmyspatula for making homemade soymilk. I’m a little lactose intolerant, but soymilk from the store always tastes chalky to me, so I was excited about trying to make my own. (Plus, the recipe is ridiculously easy.)

I bought my soybeans from the whole foods bulk section for about $1.50/pound, and used tap water. If you try this for yourself (and I hope you do!), be aware that soy milk foams like crazy when it’s being heated…so use a big stockpot to make it. My verdict – homemade soymilk is really simple and delicious. It doesn’t have any of that chalky taste (or aftertaste) that I hate, and I drank an entire glass of it hot off the stove.

I’m still trying to figure out what to do with the okara (soybean solids that remain after straining the soymilk) – they tasted kinda nutty but mostly bland. I might have to try them in oatmeal.

So, here’s the recipe which I have Lacinda-fied. Originally from Kiss My Spatula’s version of her childhood soy milk, yields about 5 cups

* 1/2 cup dried organic yellow soy beans
* 1/8 tsp salt
* 1/8 cup granulated sugar, plus more to taste (I used 1.5 Tbps. of agave nectar, and thought it was perfect).

Rinse & drain soybeans. Soak in cold water overnight. Rinse & drain again.

Put soybeans and 2.5 cups of water in your blender. Puree until smooth. Dump puree in LARGE stock pot and add 3 cups of water. (A large stockpot is absolutely necessary! It will get super foamy as the temperature approaches the boiling point.)

Bring mix to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Then simmer over low heat for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Strain milk through cheesecloth. Squeeze every last drop of soymilk out. Stir in salt and sugar. That’s it! You’re done!