Tomato Basil Crust-less Quiche

We eat a lot of eggs. My recent Spinach and Tomato Crustless Quiche was impressively easy so I decided with a recent gift of fresh basil from a friend whose basil is still in production, I'd be quite happy to make the same dish substituting basil for the spinach. Easy, delicious and easy to re-heat in the morning for a satisfying breakfast!

Ingredients/Direactions

In a large skillet, saute half an Onion and a couple cloves of minced Garlic, add a couple of handfuls or roughly 1 cup of fresh, chopped Basil. Once Spinach is wilted, throw into the bottom of a well greased round cake pan. Top with slices of tomato and a sprinkle on some mozzarella cheese. In a separate bowl, whisk together 6 eggs with 1/4 cup milk or yogurt, season with salt and pepper, pour over Spinach. Top with grated Parmesan and bake at 350F (177C) for 20-30 minutes or until egg mixture is set and top is beginning to brown.

Pumpkin and Banana Spent Grain Dog Treats

I care about my dog and her health, a lot really.

I also have a husband who brews beer.

A husband who recently purchased and set up a kegerator.

Spurring a flurry of brewing.

And an abundance of spent grains.

So, I took my basic recipe for Spent Grain Dog Treats and made a couple of adaptations to get these Pumpkin and Banana Spent Grain Dog Treats - which the Lady is devouring.

In a large bowl mix 4 cups of spent grain, 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of pumpkin, 1 mashed banana and 2 eggs - you might need some additional flour to account for the moisture in the pumpkin and banana - the dough should be quite thick and require some muscle to stir. 

Next, cut into shapes or just press into a cookie sheet.  If you press into cookie sheet, use a butter knife to separate the biscuits into bit-size/treat-size pieces for your dog and cook at 350 for 30-45 minutes. Remove from oven and break apart the biscuits (unless you already cut them into shapes). 

Return to oven, reduce heat to 250 and bake for a couple of hours until they are completely dried out. 

Serve up to your pup and watch them enjoy!

Banana-Brownie Pie

I've been mastering pie crust. But was running low on pie fillings/current seasonal fruits in Korea are not entirely pie friendly.

And I wanted a brownie.

And bananas.

And fresh whipped cream.

So, I threw a pie shell into a dish, pricked it with a fork, baked for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, I whipped up a box of brownie mix. Dumped the batter in the pre-baked pie crust, baked according to the package directions. When it was time to serve up the dish, I simply sliced a banana onto the brownie/pie and scooped a spoon or two of cream on top.

It was delicious.

Every single bite.

Sweet Pork Fried Rice

Fried rice is an easy go-to dish, especially with some pulled pork, rice pilaf and rosted veggies waiting patiently in the freezer to be used. My day of cooking back in September is still serving us in May - I could be embarassed by this, but I will choose to be proud that food stays in our freezer for ridiculous amounts of time ^^

In the Korean grocery store it is a simple task to find 'bulgogi marinade' a kind of sweet sauce for one of my personal favorite Korean meats. Therefore, with marinade in hand and a thawed baggie of pork, rice (plus an additional cup left over from a previous meal) and roasted peppers and onions, I went to work re-heating and preparing, topping the whole thing off with some monteray jack cheese and a fried egg!

Overnight Oats Variation: Carrot Cake

If you're running out of ideas for your bowl of overnight oats - why not boil up some carrots, throw them in a food processor with some brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to use as a 'carrot cake condiment' for your bowl of oats? Great way to get a boost of beta carotene and turn your generally white bowl of oats a nice refreshing orange color ^^

Lentils and Yogurt Sauce

Unfortunately, I wasn't all to impressed with my lentils from this meal, so I'll just say, find yourself a decent lentil or dall recipe and then get to work on this Yogurt Sauce - serve them up together and enjoy! The yogurt sauce (Tzatziki/Tsatsiki) is quite divine!

Ingredients/Directions:

From Shepardic Israeli Cuisine: A Mediterranean Mosic by Shielah Kaufman

Peel, seed and chop one large cucumber (preferably English), sprinkle with salt and let drain in a large colander for about an hour. Using 1 1/4 cups of Greek or Strained yogurt add 2 Tbsp. Olive Oil, 1 Tbsp. fresh Lemon Juice, black pepper and 2-4 cloves of minced Garlic. Mix well, cover and refrigerate until serving. Before serving, squeeze remaining moisture from cucumbers, add to the yogurt along with freshly torn mint and parsley, mix well to combine. Enjoy on lentils, crackers, pitas, etc.

Lemon Almond Pie with White Chocolate Drizzle

First of all, if I were a fruit, I'd like to a lemon. They are gorgeous and bright and beautiful and full of all things joyful, just look at them!

Second of all, I'm still going strong with my pie making-skills and am looking forward to one day doing so with actual pie plates as opposed to round cake pans - all in good time.

For now, directions and ingredients for a deliciously tart and sweet pie!

Ingredients/Directions:
From The Everything Potluck Cookbook by Linda Larsen

Preheat oven to 400 F. In a small bowl combine 1/2 cup chopped almonds, 2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar and 1 Tbsp. Soft Butter, mix well and press into the bottom of one pierced pie crust. Bake for 5 minutes and cool on wire wrack. Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine 1 cup Sugar, 2 Tbsp. soft Butter. Stir in 3 egg yolks and beat well. Add 2 Tbsp. Flour and a Pinch of Salt, mix again. Stir in 1 cup Milk, 1/2 cup Lemon Juice and 2 tsps. Lemon Zest. In a seperate bowl, beat 3 egg whites until stiff peaks form, fold into egg yolk mixture and spoon into prepared pie shell. Bake for 10 minutes then reduce temperature to 325 F and bake 30-40 minutes until top is a deep golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. On the stovetop, prepare white chocolate drizzle by melting together 1 cup White Chocolate Chips, 3 Tbsp. Heavy Cream and 2 tsps. Corn Syrup. Drizzle over pie, let cool completely and store in the refridgerator. Absolutely DELICIOUS!

My First Blueberry Pie

My goal throughout May, and kind of throughout the upcoming 'golden year' is to master making Pie's. I have some habits that I believe are a bit grandmotherly ~ early to bed, early to rise, no desire to watch TV, a love for canning and preserving, making things from scratch, etc. But, the true mark of a perfect grandmother is a perfectly flaky pie crust - something I have not mastered, because in general, I'm not big on Pie. However, take me to the other side of the world where Pie is hard to find and delicious pie even harder and suddenly I want nothing more than a perfect piece of pie and I'm the only one who is capable of meeting that desire.


Ingredients/Directions :
From Amy Sedaris' I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence

Mix 3 Tbsp. flour, 1 cup Sugar, and 1/8 tsp. Salt in a bowl. Add 4 cups fresh or frozen Blueberries, 1 Tbsp. lemon juice, 2 tsp. Vanilla, and 2 tsp. Cinnamon - toss well. Pour into pie shell and dot with butter. Cover with top crust. Crimp of flute and cut several vents. Bake at 425 (218) for 10 minutes then turn down to 350 (177), cover edge with aluminum foil to prevent burning and bake for 30-45 minutes. Enjoy fresh out of the oven!

Pie Crust

Up until recently, I've been a bit terrified of Pie Crust. However, it turns out it's not that frightening and although it's definitely an art and one I've yet to perfect, it's entirely manageable. 

Ingredients/Directions:

In a large bowl combine 2 cups Flour with 1 tsp. salt, cut in 3/4 cups butter (fingers work great for this!) Gradually add up to 4 Tbsp. cold water (1 Tbsp. at a time) until dough forms a ball, chill for 30 minutes before rolling out. If you leave it in the refrigerator too long it will need about 30 minutes to come to room temperature. I like to roll mine out on wax paper if I'm not using it right away, roll the wax paper/crust into a 'log' and refrigerate until later.

Crepe Variations

Having made a batch of crepes (actually a double batch so we could enjoy some crepes throughout the week), it was time to fill them with a variety of delicious things.

We had the standard Nutella with Banana, followed by Peanut Butter, Yogurt and Banana and finally Orange Curd and Banana. I threw some powdered sugar into an empty and thorougly cleaned out spice canister and went to town sprinkling the warm little crepes with sugary good-ness.

What's you favorite way to eat crepes?

Seaweed Dinner Wraps

The meal and the chef that inspired me ^^

In Korea, it is not highly uncommon to enjoy a variety of vegetables, a meat and some lettuce to wrap everything up in. Many of the man and my favorite meals involve just that, wrapping meat in lettuce. Recently, a friend of ours invited us over for dinner and had a sort of mini-buffet of deliciously marinaded meat, a variety of vegetables, rice and seaweed and lettuce for creating wraps. Needless to say, it was absolutely delicious and inspiring! You can definitely go about this type of meal anyway you wish, our friend included Muenster cheese with her wraps which was fantastic! Ours were a bit more simple just because...it's what I had time for. This particular dinner I cooked up some thinly sliced pork (dae-pae samgyupsal - similar to bacon but uncured), mixed in some bulgogi marinade and a sliced onion for the meat dish. For the vegetables I served up thinly sliced carrots and cucumbers as well as a beautiful mix of sprouts I got at our little grocery store. Throw in some rice and have some lettuce or seasoned seaweed ready to go and you're all set for a most delicious and enjoyable dinner!

Creamy Dill Cucumber Dip

Derby Days. Cinco de Mayo. Children's Day.

May 5th.

A day for celebration and gathering together under the bridge alongside the river.

I took this dish...not to brag, but it was a favorite among the picnic-ers.

Ingredients/Directions:

Mix together one container softened cream cheese with 3/4 of the same container plain yogurt and 1/4 of the same container mayonaise (you can also do this as a cup, 3/4 cups and 1/4 cup - but I didn't want to creat extra dishes, therefore just used the cream cheese container to 'measure'). Add to this mixture two peeled, seeded and diced cucumbers, 2 Tbsp. chopped Fresh Dill and Salt and Pepper to taste. Enjoy with crackers, chips or vegetables and a good group of friends.

Cowboy Cornbread (Mix)

For the same picnic mentioned previously, I decided to whip up some cornbread.

Using the recipe from the Gooseberry Patch's Chili Cookbook.

Ingredients/Directions:

Mix together 1 cup Yellow Cornmeal, 1 cup Flour, 1/4 cup Sugar, 1 Tbsp. Baking Powder, 1 tsp. Baking Soda and 1/8 tsp. Salt. If you want to give this as a gift of save it for another day simply pour into a jar or Ziploc and save for later. Other wise, place these dry ingredients into a large bowl. Separately, whisk together 3 Tbsp. melted, cooled butter and add 1 1/3 cups buttermilk (I did 1 cup milk + 1/3 cup Yogurt), add one egg and mix thoroughly. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir until just combined. (If you're feeling funky throw in a few handful so corn kernels before baking). Pour into a square or round pan, bake at 425*F (218*C) for 30 minutes.

Overnight Oats Variation: Strawberry and Banana

Classic and Delicious.

Mason Jar Taco Salad

Mason Jar salads are apparently all the rage on the blogging world...or in the Pinterest world...they are not all the rage in South Korea - but that doesn't mean we haven't heard about them nor that we can't bust out a few ourselves ^^

I try to think ahead. We had some obligations coming up, so I opted to throw together some Mason Jar Salads and see how they worked out. They were quite delicious. I may have needed a bit more dressing, and a bit more space at the top for easier shaking, otherwise - it was a nice dinner and seems like a promising picnic option...time to get into our car and enjoy some road trips!

Ingredients/Directions:

The basics of Mason Jar Salads are to layer up starting with dressing, a hearty set of veggies, cheese and finally lettuce.

For this Taco Salad, I started with a yogurt dressing which I threw together - essentially plain, home-made yogurt with chili powder, cayenne powder, salt, pepper and cumin. (Sour Cream and Salsa would work equally well, if not better for a taco salad). Next, I threw in some corn, followed by tomatoes and black beans. Once those items were layered in, I tore some lettuce into the jar and finally placed some tortilla chip crumbs on the very top. When the dinner hour rolled around, the hubs and I got some exercise shaking our jars and enjoyed some salad (except Mike doesn't really like corn, so he didn't enjoy his as much).