A Lovely Lunch

My lovely friend Lauren came over for lunch this afternoon. I made a version of my mom's quiche and Lauren brought over a fantastic salad, fresh feta and cucumbers, and some yummy olives. And of course, what better to go with our lunch than a delicious wine she had received for her birthday? It was a Sangue di Giuda, I suppose that is how you refer to wine. I don't know much about wine, so I am going to assume "Sangue di Giuda" is like "Chardonnay" or something, in which it is a general type. I will have to learn more about wine for my New Year's Resolution. However you refer to it, it was simply delicious. I have never liked a red wine before, not that I have had very many, of course.

Anyway, I have put the recipe for the quiche that I made today below.This is actually an adaptation of the Cheese Custard Pie from Joy of Cooking. My mother has been making it for years and talks about the story of "Marguerite, the vile-tempered cook" that goes along with the recipe every time she cooks it. Following tradition, I have included the story, since it seems wrong to make the quiche and not tell someone the story.

-----

"In Switzerland we had a vile-tempered cook named Marguerite. Her one idea, after being generally disagreeable, was to earn enough to own a small chalet on some high peak where she could cater to mountain climbers. While she was certainly not born with a silver spoon in her mouth -although it was large enough to accommodate several- she did arrive with a cooking spoon in her hands. If she has attained her ideal, many a climber will feel it worth while to scale a perilous peak to reach her kitchen. The following Cheese Custard Pie was always served in solitary state. Its flavor varied with Marguerite's moods and her supply of cheese. It was never twice the same, as she had no written recipe, but we have endeavored to make one like hers, for it would be a pity to relegate so good a dish to inaccessible roosts."

Of course, I should note that this is normally made with a pie crust. I did not want to mess with a pie crust today and wanted a bagel anyway, so I skipped the crust. If you want to add the crust, simply bake a pie crust in the pie tin, make and pour the quiche filling in (skip the wax paper in my directions), and bake as directed.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups milk or cream

1 cup grated cheese

(I used what I had on hand: roughly half mozzarella, half cheddar, and a tablespoon or so of Parmesan)

1/2 to 1 cup of diced ham

2 cups of fresh, washed spinach

2 tablespoons of finely chopped onion

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon paprika

3 eggs

Directions

Preheat over to 325.

Prepare a 9 inch pie tin (about 2 inches deep) by layering it with wax paper (this will keep the quiche from sticking, since no crust is being used).

Cook the onion in a pan over medium-low heat with a little olive oil until tender. Add fresh, wash spinach to the pan, along with a tablespoon or so of water. Cover and let cook for 4 minutes or so, until wilted. Remove from heat, set aside.

Scald milk. Reduce the heat and add grated cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted.

Add ham and spinach and onion, salt, and paprika. Remove the mixture form the heat and beat in, one at a time, 3 eggs.

Fill the pie tin, being careful not to spill any of the filling underneath the wax paper, and bake it until the custard is firm, about 45 minutes.

Multi-Color Goodness

Feast your eyes upon the loveliness of an entire set of antique Pyrex mixing bowls. This moment has been in the making since my freshman year of high school and has involved the blood, sweat, and thousands of antique shopping days of my mom and her twin sister. I tried to help, but was never fortunate enough to find one of the colored bowls myself. Today, my aunt gave me the final piece, the red medium-small bowl, as a Christmas present. So excited.

Mushy Foods for Sore Mouths

The surgery went well, thank goodness. I have plenty of ice packs to wrap around my head and a heaping prescription of Vicodin. My mother came home and made me favorite smooth, a Velvet Elvis (Peanut butter, banana, and chocolate) with uncooked oats and wheat germ for some complex carbohbydrates to give me a long lasting fullness.

For dinner, since I am not yet ready to chew, a friend came over and we made cheesy polenta with spinach (recipe below). It's such a good comfort food and it requires no chewing =). I am nowsitting on the couch with my mom and my friend watching No Reservations. Feeling inspired to make chicken in a saffron cream sauce, maybe next week.

Cheesy Polenta with Spinach

When I am able to chew properly, I think some rotisserie chicken would taste fantastic with it.

Serves 2-3, depending on how hungry you are.

Adapted from a recipe by Jeanne Lemlin

Ingredients

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon wet garlic

3 cups baby spinach, washed

Butter for greasing dish plus 1 tablespoon butter

1 cup low fat milk

3/4 cups water

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup part skim grated mozzarella cheese

3 tablespoons plain yogurt (I used Dannon's Activia)

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds, then stir in the spinach. Pour in a few tablespoons of water and cover the pan. Cook about 4 minutes, until wilted. Cover the pan again and cook until the leaves wilt, about 3 minutes. Toss occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool, uncovered.

2. To make the polenta preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 1.5 quart baking dish and set it nearby. Combine the milk, water, and salt in a medium size saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and slowly drizzle in the cornmeal, whisking all the while with a wire whisk. Continue to cook and whisk the polenta until it is the consistency of mashed potatoes and tears away from the sides of the pan, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the Parmesan cheese, the 1 tablespoon of butter, and the mozzarella cheese.

3. Spread half the polenta in the baking dish. Spoon on the spinach and distribute it evenly. Drop on small spoonfuls of the sour cream and spread it with the back of a spoon. Spoon on the remaining polenta and spread it out. (The casserole may be prepared to this point and refrigerated up to 24 hours in advance. Bring to room temperature before baking.)

4. Bake the polenta for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden on top and sizzling. Do not overcook it because you want to retain its creamy interior.

After The Holiday

The breakfast that I made my mother on Christmas morning: gingerbread waffles, turkey sausage, and fresh orange juice (not pictured).

Christmas dinner, minus the rolls that were still in the oven: corn pudding, green bean casserole, candied yams, ham, sauce for the ham, banana pudding.

-------

Christmas was a bit crazy, but it went well over all. I put together the green bean casserole, candied yams, corn pudding, and banana pudding on Christmas Eve, then transported them to my dad's and cooked them there Christmas morning. I also made the ham and heated up the frozen rolls (everything else was entirely from scratch, I deserved a break on the rolls) at my dad's house too.

My sister gave me the prettiest red apron with off-white polka dots and lace, my dad gave me a classy necklace with fake pearls, and my mom gave me a pastry blender, pastry cloth, and 12-inch oven and stove top safe fry pan. At least my family is embracing my current obsession.

Anyway, I am currently waiting for my mom's non-boyfriend to pick me up and take me to the oral surgeon so I can have all four of my molars removed, oh joy. I haven't been able to eat anything since 10pm last night and it is now 9:30am -it's killing me. I am so hungry. Also, I will not be able to eat practically anything for 3 days or so and probably will not be well enough to cook either.

I am preparing by setting up my station on the couch. My camera, several issues of The Economist, and my PC are beside the couch, along with the sheep icepack that my sister brought back from her trip to New Zealand that is just waiting to be filled with the ice from the freezer. Of course, the large and confusing TV remote is also there. I ordinarily dislike TV, but even I will admit that it is a source of worthy entertainment when I am feeling absolutely awful for multiple days

Foodie!

I have this inkling that this blog is going to primarily turn into a blog about food. Like how I love to eat plain yogurt, honey, granola, and fruit on lazy mornings. I used to eat it for lunch in high school (I would mix the honey and yogurt in the morning, then bring granola in a baggy and a banana to slice up and mix in when lunch time came around.) Everyone thought it looked disgusting, like milk and cereal that had been left out on the counter for days, but it was so yummy.

Goal before going back to Kentucky: have lunch at 4 rivers BBQ, best BBQ on the face of the earth.

Honestly, don't make fun of me, but I have already decided that I love their BBQ so much that, if/when I ever get married, they are catering my rehearsal dinner.

New Blog.

New blog for a new phase of life. I had a blog for high school, started a new one for college, and now have begun another to document life-after-Asbury.

I shall now begin my new blog with a recipe that I adapted from William-Sonoma.

Power Cookies

Because who doesn't like a healthy granola bar disguised as a cookie?

Makes about 20 cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup flaked coconut

1/2 cup rolled oats

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup apple sauce

1 very ripe banana, mashed

1 egg, at room temperature

1/2 cup chopped dried apricots or golden raisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat an oven to 325°F. Lightly grease 1 or 2 baking sheets.

In a bowl, stir together the flour, coconut, oats, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In a large bowl, cream the brown sugar and butter with a wooden spoon (or a mixer) until fluffy. Add the apple sauce, banana and egg and beat with a fork (or a mixer) until blended. Stir in the flour mixture, about 1/2 cup at a time, then stir in the apricots and walnuts.

Spoon the dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheet(s), spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes, switching pan positions halfway through baking if 2 pans were used.

Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet(s) on a wire rack for about 5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to the rack and let cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Outdoors Series, Cabin Cooking, by Tori Ritchie (Time-Life Books, 1998).