Happy Frittata and Hangover Quiche

You might have thought I wasn't coming back from The Tundra (Denver), but back I am and no snow here--yet! Yea!!! It's way too cold for me even in T-Town but whatcha gonna do? Put on your long underwear, wrap up in a blanket and hope in a blink spring is back real soon.

While not having a Rocky Mountain High and trying to ignore the snow on the ground, my beautiful daughter and I spent some quality time eating at some exceptionally fine dining establishments (Panzanos, Little India, La Fondue) and cooking a tad bit on Christmas morning. Nothing fancy, just a hot-out-of-the-oven quiche. Now the nice thing about frittatas and quiche is their simplicity. If you've got eggs, you can throw anything into the mix you like--vegetarian, meat lovers, any kind of cheese--add a pre-made (or your Mama's recipe) pie crust and voila! you have quiche.   Leave off the crust and voila! you have frittata.

So let's get started because you know on New Year's Day, you either stayed up too late, drank too much and/or just don't feel like doing a darned thing but you have to eat breakfast/brunch. You can even put most of this together the night before but that's as likely to happen as outlawing guns in Oklahoma.  There are two recipes here--one for vegetarian quiche and the other for sausage frittata--mix or match ingredients, your choice.

Vegetarian Quiche

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
1 store bought pie crust (if frozen, let thaw--if dairy case, place in pie plate and crimp edges) or make your own crust
6 eggs
1/8 c milk, half and half or cream
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
leftover veggies--we chopped balsamic glazed brussel sprouts from Panzanos--about 1 cup
and/or
fresh veggies--thin-sliced carrots, mushrooms, bell peppers, etc.--saute in butter/olive oil until barely tender
1/2 c grated cheddar cheese and additional for topping
salt and pepper

Saute onion and any fresh veggies in 2 TBSP butter and 1 TBSP olive oil until onion is translucent. Add chopped garlic and veggies and continue cooking for about 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Set aside and cool slightly.
In a medium sized bowl, lightly whisk eggs and milk. Slowly add sauted vegetables or leftover veggies into egg mixture. Add grated cheese, salt and pepper and blend.
Pour into pie crust. Place pan on drip pan in oven and cook 25-30 minutes. When top is golden brown, remove. Let sit for 3-5 minutes, cut and serve.

Sausage Frittata Italia

Exactly same ingredients except:
No pie crust
add to recipe:
1/2 c ground sausage
2-3 small potatoes, peeled and grated
1/2 ball fresh mozzarella or goat cheese (Chevre), cut into chunks
Pecorino Romano cheese for grating on top

This can be prepared in an oven-proof skillet (which always seems to stick like crazy) or you can prep in a skillet and pour into a greased/Pam'd oven proof dish before placing in oven.

If cooking in oven-proof skillet:
Saute onions and sausage until sausage is barely cooked, add garlic and grated potatoes (and any fresh veggies)--cook for another 3-5 minutes. Add any leftover veggies and heat through for several minutes.  Whisk eggs and milk and pour over ingredients. Place one chunk of cheese in each serving spot-when eggs begin to set (top is still runny), grate Romano cheese on top and place under broiler for 4-5 minutes until puffy and browned.  Watch carefully.

 If baking in oven-proof dish:
In no-stick skillet :) saute onions and sausage until sausage is barely cooked, add garlic and grated potatoes (and any fresh veggies)--cook for another 3-5 minutes. Add any leftover veggies and heat through for several minutes.  Remove from skillet and place in oven-proof baking dish.  Whisk eggs and milk and cook in skillet until eggs begin to barely set, top is runny but bottom is starting to form up like an omelette--keep moving them around with a rubber spatula and then pour over vegetables in oven proof dish--spread across evenly, place one chunk of mozzarella cheese in each serving spot, grate Romano cheese on top and put under broiler for 4-5 minutes until puffy and browned.  Watch carefully.  Let set for 2-3 minutes, cut and serve. 
These can be breakfast, brunch or dinner.

And of course a champagne toast to everyone for a very Happy New Year.  Much happiness, success and great health in 2013.

Bonne chance!

Elk Meadow, Evergreen Colorado

 

 

Spice Up Your Life Chex Mix Cha Cha Cha

Two turtle doves and a pan full of Spicy Chex Mix...

Don't buy those horrid bags of 'Chex Mix' when you can have the best Chex Mix Ever in two hours. So you have to sit and watch the game or a movie and every 15 minutes you must force yourself to Stir The Mix. Big whoop. It's worth it. Be warned--you will not be able to stop eating this once you start. It is addictive. It is a drug. You cannot 'just say 'No'. It will be a tradition. Do not count calories or carbs. Diets start with Your New Year's Resolutions You Will Not Keep. It's OK. I hope no one really does but keep trying anyway. This stuff is REALLY GOOD. Thanks, hubby.

Spice Up Your Life Chex Mix (you can cut recipe down by half if you really think this is too much)

3-14"x18"x4" disposable aluminum pans from the dollar store

5 c each: Rice Chex, Wheat Chex, Corn Chex and Cheerios
4 c pretzels--sticks or bows

4 c mixed nuts
1 c cooking oil
2 TBSP Worchestershire
2 tsp Tabasco
2 tsp Liquid Smoke

Spices:
2 tsp garlic salt
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp onion salt
1 tsp Lawry's seasoning salt
1 tsp Fines Herbs
1/2-1 tsp Cayenne Pepper

Mix cereals together, divide equally into two pans.
Pour 1/2 c oil onto each pan of cereals
Mix spices and pour equally over the two pans of oiled cereals
Stir and pour cereals into third pan back and forth into other pans to mix thoroughly. Divide mix back into two pans.
Heat oven to 200 degrees. Place cereals in oven, stir every 15 minutes.

Cool and package in containers or gallon ziplocs.

Bon Chexatit!

You Stole The Joy of My Life

Holding your soft, small hand in mine, I walked you to the door and down the  hall to your Kindergarten room.  Full of primary colors,  happy pictures of smiling oranges, goofy grapes, animal drawings and the guinea pig in his glass house sitting in the corner.  Your pretty and oh-so-young-and-full-of-hope teacher greets us with a beautiful smile and a warm pat on my shoulder as she takes you into her safekeeping and  waves me goodbye.  Always with a tug at my heart, I turn away, being the brave Mommy I must be and look foward to the end of the day when I hear your excited recitations of alphabet lessons, milk and cookies, playground time and what you will be doing tomorrow at school.

I go home and do the routine cleaning--dishes into the dishwasher, towels hung in my idea of neatness, toys put into toyboxes, feed the dog, feed the cat and maybe a walk around the block. A typical day, in a typical American home with the kids  safely learning their ABC's at the neighborhood school.

The phone rang and the caller ID shows the school is calling.   Oh dear--have you come down with a fever?  Forgotten your assignment?  I smile with a bit of hesitation hoping it won't be necessary to go back and face the office in my t-shirt and sweatpants...Mom clean-up comes later in the day. Sunglasses and a jogging set work for walking or driving kids to school.

Fast forward twenty years. I am at my office getting ready to leave for lunch and the phone rings. The caller ID shows a hospital I'm not familiar with. 'Hello, I need to speak to the mother of (my daughter)." My heart skips a beat. 'This is her Mother.' 'You're daughter has been in a very serious automobile accident. She is alive but in serious condition. We are assessing her injuries and I have no other information at the time. She is conscious. Can you get here right away?' 'I'm at least 12 hours away but I will be there by this evening. Can I talk to her?' 'No, but she is asking for you.'

The tears come. I cannot stop them. My baby is too far away for me to hold her in my arms and what if I don't get there in time? What if it's worse than they say? What can I do from here? I grab my purse and drive like a maniac to my house. I tell her father I am leaving NOW. I drive with an angel on my shoulder the 12 hours to my daughter and it takes 10 hours because I don't see the cars, there are no highway patrolmen, no deer jumping in front of my car...only a jack rabbit running for his life down a lonely highway in the middle of a deserted highway someplace near the mountains and as I get closer, ice on the road. I slow to the highway speed limit and skim across the snow patches praying to a God that doesn't protect my beautiful child to please keep me on the road and maybe pick up my car and just drop me at the emergency room. I run a red light in the small town she has been taken to by ambulance with her friends who were in her car driving home for the holidays. One has a broken leg. One is OK--but no, she's waiting for a life flight to a metropolitan city that handles extreme injuries. A red light appears behind me and I push the pedal harder to hurry through this ugly place that holds the joy of my life in its not-state-of-the-art hospital walls.

I slam into the ER driveway with the local cop hard on my tail. I throw open my door and jump out only I can't go in because the Barney Fife, gun pulled and Official Police Badge shining in the bright lights wants to arrest me for running that red light. I tell him he needs to step away because I'm going in. He asks me if I realize I have run a red light and broken the law. A strange, animal instinct rushes through my veins and I stare at him through eyes of Mother Dares You to Step An Inch Closer. I walk away from my car and I hear him say, 'Don't do that again, or I'll have to take you in.' I keep going through the doors, up the stairs to the third floor of this old, tired hospital with it's shiny floors and depressingly sad yellow-green walls to the nurse's desk. They take me to my daughter. She looks up at me when I enter the door and tears fall down her face. She grimaces with pain. Her back is broken Her ribs are broken. There are small cuts on her face and her hair is matted with blood and pieces of glass. She gasps for air as she cries and I hold her arms and rub her shoulders and smooth back her hair from that beautiful face. God give me strength to calm her.

The agony of guilt for being the driver of the vehicle her friends were in heading home, in the fog, when the tractor trailer pulled in front of her and dumped the backhoe into the windshield, slamming everyone into positions that break bones and puncture organs, becomes as painful as the ache in her back and sides. It will be several years before peace comes to any of us, if ever.

That phone call could have been the school calling to say, 'There's been a shooting. Please come to the fire station for further information and to pick up your child.' It could have been the worst day of every parent's nightmare. That my child wasn't there to pick up. It could have been the end of my life as I know it because someone took away 'The Joy of My Life' forever. We got a second shot a life and it's joys and miseries. We were lucky.

Hold close the ones you love. Send your children into the world with the words, ' I Love You' until they think they get tired of hearing it. Never take for granted that life will be as it started
at the end of the day.

Oven-baked Risotto

I love risotto.  I don't love standing over the stove stirring the liquids into the rice.  Here's a quick, easy way to have risotto on the table without any effort and it's really good. 

I was leary that this could possibly work because every Italian recipe tells you to constantly stir the rice and broth.  Just goes to show you, when you're too lazy to cook something creamy, earthy and delicious, you can cheat.  Your choice--daydreaming over the stove or having a glass of wine while this cooks itself.

Oven-Baked Risotto
3/4 c Arborio rice
3.5 c chicken or vegetable broth

1/2 c grated Percorino Romano,  Parmesan or any hard Italian cheese you prefer
3 TBSP butter
salt, pepper

1 c frozen peas...or vegetable of your choice

In an oven-proof casserole, mix the rice and broth.  Cover and place in 350 degree oven for 1 hour.  Remove and stir in butter, cheese, salt and pepper until creamy.  Mix in veggies.

Mama mia, itza gooda.

Bon appesotto!

Mais oui, vous pouvez! But yes, you can! Boeuf Bourguignon

I fell in love with Paris and croissants on my first trip there with my daughter 12 years ago. When I came back, French croissants were nowhere to be found in this city. Oh, there were packaged ones and bakery displayed fauxoissants--made from shortening (not butter), nothing flaky enough to compare in the least with those heavenly, Parisian morning staples and nothing worth bothering with.  I bought Julia Child's book, Baking with Julia and taught myself how to make croissants (and we'll cover that another time).  Not exactly the same (our flour is different) but better than any I have yet to eat stateside.

Julia became my mentor--long before The Movie and The Books--I was a devoted Saturday audience of 'The French Chef' on PBS. Laughing at her but mesmerized by the things she would make, I had no idea at the time just how much her cooking would influence my pursuit and love of a good meal. So, one would certainly think, 'If I can make croissants, why wouldn't I be able to make just about anything?' Intimidation, my friends. As marvelous as her Bible is, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, as wonderful as her remade DVD's of her TV show are, I was 'lacking the courage of my convictions' that I could attempt to make one of THE most famous French dishes known--Boeuf Bourguignon ("BB"). Three pages and two more reference pages from her book seemed daunting--it IS daunting. In the movie, Julie and Julia, the moment when her soon-to-be-publisher is making BB and tasting it for the first time--I knew then by the look on her face that I should surely attempt this peasant dish that makes you feel like Marie Antoinette before losing her head.  Of course, it's doubtful she ate this being so busy with that cake ordeal and all.

So, this day I have followed her recipe to the absolute T and I have Never Tasted Anything So Delicious Anywhere and I have eaten in some very, very fine restaurants. This is to die for. As my most-wonderful-husband-in-the-world said, 'Can we market the smell?' And then when he tasted it, his eyes rolled back in his head and a moan came out of his mouth--rather hedonistic--but likeable, nonetheless.

If you will bear with me and not give up at the length of what seems way too much effort (which it is definitely not)--I promise you, your guests will think you are a 4 star Michelin chef when you serve this. It is not difficult and contains nothing exotic. It is magic.

First, be organized 'mise en place' and have all your ingredients out before you begin. Also, pay close attention to the directions. They are very important--simple--but must be followed. When I began, I thought, 'why couldn't this be cooked in a crockpot?' Don't even think about it. The preparation processes provide layers of flavor you cannot achieve by throwing everything into a slow-cooker. I will shorten what I can--however, the prep time is about 30-45 minutes; baking time is 4 hrs and the finish takes just a few minutes. Everything can be prepared in advance and reheated. If there's anything left, the flavors meld into an even more flavorful stew. Don't be alarmed by the look of this when done--you are cooking in red wine and vegetables that will darken as they soak up the gorgeous flavors. It is divine.


Boeuf Bourguignon

I.
3-4 slices of bacon, sliced into 2" pieces
1 TBSP olive oil

II.
3-4 lbs Chuck roast cut into 4" chunks
3 sliced carrots
1 sliced onion (or 4-5 shallots, halved)
salt, pepper
1-2 TBSP flour

III.
3-4 c red wine
3-4 c beef broth
1 TBSP tomato paste (this is why you should have a tube of Amore' in your fridge)
2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
1/2 tsp thyme
1 crumbled bay leaf

IV.
18-24 small onions or 1 large onion, quartered or 5-6 shallots, halved
1 c beef broth
1 lb fresh mushrooms, quartered
4 TBSP butter
2 TBSP olive oil
parsley sprigs


V.
1 TBSP butter
2 TBSP flour
****************************

I. - Simmer bacon in small saucepan of water for 10 minutes. Remove from water and dry.

II. Heat oven to 450 degrees.

In large skillet, saute' bacon in oil until nicely browned. Set aside.
Thoroughly dry chunks of meat with paper towels, heat more oil (if needed) to medium-high heat and quickly brown meat on all sides. Remove and place with bacon.

Brown vegetables in skillet. When slightly browned, add meat and bacon back into skillet, toss with flour, salt and pepper and place on medium rack in oven for 4 minutes. Toss meat and return to oven for 4 more minutes (this browns the flour and starts melding flavors). Remove from oven.

Reduce oven heat to 325 degrees.

III. In oven-proof casserole, scrape out bits from skillet, add meat, bacon and vegetables. Pour over wine to barely cover, add broth and tomato paste, garlic, thyme and bay leaf. Cover and place on middle rack for 4 hours.

IV. Onions - Heat 2 TBSP butter and 1 TBSP olive oil to medium heat and saute onions for 10 minutes, or until browned evenly--stir often. Add 1 c beef broth, 3-4 parsley sprigs, 1/2 bay leaf and 1/4 tsp thyme. Cover and simmer 20-30 minutes (Julia: 40-50 moinutes!) remove cover and reduce any remaining liquid. Throw out parsley and bay leaf.

Mushrooms--VERY IMPORTANT--Clean and DRY thoroughly. They will not brown if moist.
In skillet, over medium to high heat, add 2 TBSP butter and 1 TBSP oil until foaming has stopped. Add mushrooms, and brown for several minutes. There will be no liquid in pan when done and they will be better than chocolate!

At this point, I added the onions and mushrooms to the casserole rather than serving them at the end as indicated in Julia's recipe. Or you can just serve the mushrooms for dessert!  Seriously, they're so good you won't stop eating them...so maybe cook more than a pound?

V. When meat is fork tender, remove casserole from oven and dump all into a strainer over a medium saucepan. Set meat and vegetables aside. Stir the butter and flour into a paste and whisk into liquid from casserole. Depending on how much liquid has been reserved, add more broth or flour to thicken slightly--this is not gravy but a beautiful blanket to cover the meat and vegetables in a rich sauce.

Place meat back into casserole, top with vegetables and sauce. Serve with boiled and buttered potatoes and a loaf of French bread. Heaven on earth.

Bon appétit

Float Your Boat Meatloaf Potatoes

Sometimes, y'all just have to want some downhome cooking but the thought of your Mom's meatloaf or liver and onions (God forbid) are not what you have in mind.  The last thing most of us want when we walk in the door after a day at work is standing around in the kitchen for hours or staring in the fridge wondering what the heck's for dinner.  Well these little potatoes will put a smile on you and your significant other's face. Yummy baked and smashed potatoes toped with  an oh-so-good-not-your-mom's meatloaf all nestled in a potato skin.  You'll wonder why you hadn't thought of this before!

Float Your Boat Meatloaf Potatoes
4 medium sized baking potatoes
milk
butter
1/2 c grated cheddar cheese


meatloaf:
1/2 lb hamburger meat
4 breakfast link sausages or one sweet Italian sausage out of their casings
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 egg
1/4 c marinara sauce
2 TBSP onion soup mix
1/4 c Italian bread crumbs

meatloaf topping:
2 tsp maple syrup
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
2 tsp ketchup


Bake potatoes in 350-400 degree oven until done.  While potatoes are baking, mix meatloaf ingredients in bowl.  Set aside.
Mix topping together in small bowl.

Split baked potatoes in half lenthwise.  Scoop out potatoes into saucepan and set potatoe boats in baking dish.  Add milk and butter to scoopings, salt, pepper and mash leaving lumps.  Keep warm.

Scoop meatloaf mixture into potato skins.  Top with syrup/mustard/ketchup topping.   Bake for 30 minutes at 350.  Check for doneness.  Remove from oven and top meatloaves with mashed potatoes and grated cheddar cheese.  Put back in oven for 15 minutes and broil last several minutes, if desired.

Bon Appotato!