Spinach and Feta & Broccoli and Chedda Quiches

Back on November 30th we decided to try our hand at a couple quiche. For some variety we chose to make two types...both incorporated cheese and veggies, but lead to quite different results. Our first quiche was the rather traditional broccoli and cheese. We chose to use both Swiss and cheddar, although the original recipe only called for Swiss. The second quiche made use of Bisquick and produced more of a bake than a quiche, but the combination of spinach, tomatoes, and feta cheese was delicious! While juggling the ingredients and directions for two quiches at the same time was a little tricky, separately these are easy and quick meals to prepare. The quiche also stayed well; we had an ample amount leftover, and with a short turn in the microwave we were able to enjoy a quick and filling snack! Enjoy :-)

Broccoli and Cheese Quiche

1 prepared crust
1/4 cup green or white onion or shallot, chopped
1/2 cup of fresh mushrooms, sliced (optional)
3 tbsp. butter
5 eggs
1 cup Half N' Half
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. salt
Dash of ground pepper
4 oz. Swiss cheese
4 oz. Cheddar cheese
1 (10 oz.) package of frozen broccoli, cooked and drained
1/2 cup tomatoes, diced (optional)

Saute onions and mushrooms in butter until soft. In blender or mixing bowl combine eggs, Half N' Half, milk, salt, and pepper. To assemble, place mushrooms and onions in bottom of pie crust. Sprinkle with cheese. Add broccoli and tomatoes. Pour eggs and milk mixture over all and bake. Note: The original recipe did not give a baking time or temp., so we estimated, and baked our quiche for 45 minutes at 400 degrees. Some other broccoli and cheese recipes called for 60 minutes at 325 degrees. Let quiche slightly cool before serving.


Greek Spinach and Feta Quiche

6 oz. fresh spinach
6 oz. crumbled feta cheese , regular or with tomato and basil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 1/3 cups milk
3 eggs
3/4 cups Bisquick
1/2 tsp. salt
fresh ground pepper to taste
basil to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease a 10" pie pan and set aside. Steam spinach while assembling the other ingredients and chopping the onion and tomato.
In a medium bowl combine milk, eggs, Bisquick, salt, pepper, and basil. Set aside.
Combine spinach, onion, tomato and Feta and place in the bottom of the pie pan.
Pour Bisquick, milk, and egg mixture over the top.
Bake at 400 degrees for 25-35 minutes, until puffed and set.

HAPPY EATING!

Shrimp StirFry

I'm a big fan of stirfrys and had been looking forward to making this for the last 2 weeks. Life and other dishes got in the way, so I was real excited when I finally had the time to get around to it. I use fresh frozen shrimp out of a bag from the market, just run it under cold water for 5 minutes and peel them if necessary. I also used frozen stir fry veggies for the peppers and onions which saved me having to cut them up. This dinner was a really quick one to make, it took under a half hour.

Shrimp Marinade:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 lb peeled uncooked shrimp
3 cloves minced garlic
1 or 2 shakes crushed red pepper
Salt & Pepper

Stir Fry:
2 cups chopped red, green or yellow peppers or any mix
1 cup chopped onions
1 can water chestnuts
1 can bean sprouts
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce


1) Mix together marinade ingredients and let shrimp soak in them for a few hours in the fridge.
2) Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute shrimp until they are pink and the edges curl a little bit. Remove the shrimp from the skillet onto a plate or bowl.
3) Turn heat up to high, add vegetables to the skillet and cook for about 5 minutes. If you are using frozen vegetables, make sure you cook them long enough to heat them up and get them to a nice stir-fry texture.
4) Add in the water chestnuts, sprouts and any other vegetables you want to use, along with the teriyaki sauce and cooked shrimp. Stir fry for about another 2 minutes until done.
5) Serve over white rice, udon noodles or if you're really lazy- plain spaghetti. This reheats great in the microwave and will make your coworkers jealous if you bring it for lunch the next day.

Hannukah Latkes

Being half Jewish, I decided it was only proper to celebrate Hannukah halfway. I did the menorah thing and the latke thing, but skipped out on playing dreidel, which by the way is an incredible game if you've never played it. Driedel games at my parents house would go on for hours, OK 20 minutes, and then either my sister or I would get fed up. One of us would steal all the chocolate money pieces(gelt) and eat them. Obviously the game was over after that. Since this was my first Hanukkah away from home, I got a shiny menorah from target and picked up some Manischewitz Potato Pancake mix from the local grocery store. Maybe not the most traditional way to do things, but hey- it works. Jenn, of Steak and Fries night fame, came over to keep me company while I fried the latkes. We had a good time and split a pint of Ben Jerrys for dessert.

I don't have the recipe, like I normally do because I got it off the box, which is now in the trash. If you wanna try making latkes, pick up a box of the mix and follow the directions on the box. They go great served with applesauce, sour cream or some jelly. Try all three and find which one you like best!

Classic steak and fries

Hey, this is Jenn (one of the two lovely ladies Eric cooks for) making a guest appearance on the recipe recording duties. So, Eric brought over two large, juicy pieces sirloin steak and managed to set off our smoke alarm three times in trying to pan sear the meet. We eventually got sick of having to stand on chairs to yank the alarms off the ceiling to turn them off, so we decided to broil the steaks in the oven instead. They came out a little chewy, but with a little ketchup, they were super 1 delicious. The only downside was that they took a good half hour to cook in the oven, so us impatient chefs had eaten all the fries by the time meat was done!


Ingredients:
- Sirloin Steak
- Oil- one with a high smoke point like Canola
- Salt & Pepper

1) Preheat the oven to 450F. If you're using a cast iron pan and aren't afraid of a little smoke and fire alarms, get the pan as hot as possible on the stovetop. With an electric range, this might mean heating it in a 500 degree oven. If you're cookin' with gas, putting the cast iron on high heat should do fine.
2) Rub the steak with a nice coat of oil to keep it moist while cooking and add some flavor. Salt both sides of the meat, saving the pepper for later so it doesn't burn.
3) Sear both sides of the steak for about one minute on each side. Once you place the steak in the pan, regardless of how tempted you are to touch it and move it around- DON'T. Let it sit there for at least a minute before you go near it.
4) If you're using an oven safe pan, take the whole pan and throw it in the oven for around 8 minutes. The cooking time depends on the thickness and cut of meat. If you've got a meat thermometer, you want about 150 degrees for medium.
5) Here's the important part: Once you take the steaks out of the oven, toss them on a plate and cover with foil for five minutes before cutting. The steaks will finish cooking and the juices will distribute themselves throughout the cut of meat. After they're done resting, serve the steaks with some french fries and A1. If you're feeling adventurous, make a pan sauce from the drippings- we'll cover that one later.

Lasagna

You name it, I'm a big fan of any baked pasta dish. Ziti, stuffed shells, and especially lasagna. A meal so versatile and so delicious deserves more than just a single blog post. I love making a big tray of lasagna, having a nice dinner, taking some for lunch the next day and then freezing the rest. Lasagna freezes real well and I could swear it tastes better once its reheated. Its also super easy to make, although a little time consuming. A 9"x13" baking pan ended up making 12 pieces, three promptly ended up in my stomach.

Ingredients:
- Lasagna Noodles
- 1 jar Spaghetti Sauce (I use mine from a can)
- 1 lb Mozzarella Cheese, grated
- 1 lb Ricotta Cheese
- 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
- 1/2 lb Ground Beef
Optional: 1 package frozen chopped spinach

Directions:
1) Start off boiling a pot of water big enough to fit the lasagna in. I usually add some salt and olive oil to the water. Preheat your oven to 350F.
2) While the water is starting to boil, brown the ground beef in a pan over medium heat. This should take about 10-15 minutes, draining the grease off when done. Mix the spaghetti sauce in to the ground beef. If you'd like, defrost the spinach in the microwave for 6 minutes and add to the meat sauce.
3) Drop the pasta into the boiling water and cook for 8-12 minutes. You should stir every minute or two, being careful not to break the pasta. Once the pasta is done, drain the water.
4) Mix ricotta, grated mozzerella and parmesan cheese together in a bowl.
5) Now, the assembly. Be careful- I always burn my fingers on the hot pasta. Layer the noodles down on the bottom of the tray, cover with the sauce, then add a layer of the cheese mixture. Repeat until the ingredients run out or you fill the tray up.
6) Cover the tray with foil and bake for an hour. Remove from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes so the cheese can set before you cut it apart.

It goes great served with some extra sauce, garlic bread, and a glass of red wine.

Soulfire BBQ

Thursday night I had big plans with a friend to hit up the OK Go show at Avalon, near Fenway. Little did we know tickets were only available through a radio station's free giveaway, and we didn't have any. Men still need to eat, so Steve, Dan and I headed out in Allston. We ended up at Soulfire BBQ, on Harvard Ave, less than a block off the Green B line. We weren't expecting anything special, after walking in to find a counter to order at fast food style. The food turned out to be a huge surprise. Dan and I chose the pulled pork platter, served on a nice hearty slice of bread. Dan, being from Texas, claimed its called Texas Toast, but we all know better. Steve had the rib and chicken combo. The pulled pork was incredible, as were all the sides we had. We all chose the same side dishes and our platters were seriously loaded. Along with the pork, there was cornbread, mac & cheese, baked beans, and pickles all on the same plate. Well, it was more of a tray than a plate, but it was good. The service was great, for a place without a wait staff, they checked on our table twice. Soulfire also had a good selection of 5 BBQ sauces. They ranged from a traditional think, spicy BBQ to a much thinner North Carolina sauce. All three of us liked the restaurant and will definitely be going back.

Warm Apple Pie

As an added bonus, and because last Monday was Jenn's birthday, we decided to go a little all out and make a dessert too. Mini chocolate cakes were on the top of my list, but the girls had been enjoying a chocolate birthday cake all week, so we opted for something a little lighter. I wish we had thought of cheesecake, because that would've been awesome. Instead, I finally found a use for the bag of apples in my fridge besides taking one to work every day. I cheated and used a frozen pie crust from the store. I've never made my own crust before and to be honest, I didn't really want to take the time to make one. I've never made apple pie filling before either and didn't print out a recipe, so luckily Jenn had a whole book on apple pies. One more note, I happened to have a jar of Apple Pie Spice that Penzey's included as a free gift with one of my orders, so thats what we used in lieu of the nutmeg and cinnamon the recipe called for.

Filling:
8 cups peeled, cored, and sliced apples(about 8-10 small apples)
Lemon Juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp Apple Pie Spice or 1/4 tsp nutmeg & 1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbl. Butter
2 Tbl. Milk
2 Frozen Pie Crusts- 1 thawed & flattened

Oven at 400F.

1) As you peel, core, and slice the apples, drop them in a bowl of water with some lemon juice. The acidity from the lemon will keep the apples from oxidizing(turning brown).
2) Remove the apples from the water and mix the fruit together with the spices and brown sugar.
3) When completely mixed, transfer the apple filling to the pie shell. Don't overfill the shell, there should just be a little hump above the rim in the center of the pie. You can place a few small pieces of butter on top of the pie for extra flavor.
4) Take some water on your finger and moisten the edge of the crust. Take the flattened pie crust and cover the pie. Carefully seal together the edges of the two crusts.
5) Lightly brush the milk over the top of the pie. This will help it get a beautiful golden brown on top.
6) Place four 2-inch slits evenly spaced in the top crust of the pie, for it to vent while baking.
7) Bake directly on the center rack of the oven at 400F for 30 minutes. Then bake for another 30 minutes on a dark baking sheet.

Remove from oven and cool for at least an hour before eating.

Stuffed Shells

For our weekly Thursday dinner, we decided on Italian this week. We'd already done lasagna over the summer and were looking for something simple and fast. After last week's spare ribs needed two hours in the oven, eating before 10PM sounded like a solid plan. The version of stuffed shells we made is a little different from the recipe below. I forgot to reserve cheese to sprinkle over the top and we didn't use any Parmesan at all. There are a few other small changes too. Its always good to have an idea of how you could improve the recipe the next time you make it. To save time we used a jar of tomato sauce. My personal favorites are Emeril's and Barilla, but use whatever you like most.

Stuffed Shells
1 Box Jumbo Shells
2 lbs Ricotta Cheese
1 lb Mozzarella Cheese, Grated
1 Cup Parmesan Cheese, shredder
1/2 Cup Parsley, chopped

1) Cook the shells in boiling water according to the directions on the package. I like to add some salt and olive oil to the water for taste before the pasta goes in.
2) Mix together all the ricotta with most of the mozzarella and Parmesan. Save some of the last two cheeses to top the dish with. Combine the parsley with the cheese mixture. If you feel adventurous you can add in a little garlic salt.
3) Use a spoon to help fill the shells with the cheese and place each shell in a baking pan with the open side down.
4) Top the shells with the sauce and finish with the leftover mozzarella and Parmesan.
5) Bake for 30 minutes at 350F, until the cheese on top is bubbly and golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving. You want to let the cheese set a bit or else it will turn into a huge mess.

Enjoy!