Rice Crust Quiche

 I'm loving Shauna James Ahern's newest cookbook, Gluten-Free Girl Everyday. She and her husband seem to cook by the motto, "Try every recipe once as it's written. Then you can play with it." Great advice, but something I'm not that great at, truth be told.

Luckily for me, this recipe still turned out great. I've been making quiche for a while, so I've got the jist of it. But I've never made a rice crust for a quiche. It's pretty basic, and a heck of a lot easier than making pastry. If I'm honest, there are weeks where I skip the quiche altogether because I simply don't feel like going to the trouble to make the crust.

Not anymore.

I didn't make the quiche from the cookbook (or even the crust recipe as it was written), but I benefited all the same from the recipe. I'll try it exactly as written sometime. I promise.

Here, I used dirty rice that had been sitting in the fridge all week. And since there wasn't that much of it left, I only used one egg to bind it together instead of two.  I cooked up some spinach and onions, threw in some cheese, and used only about one cup of cream for the quiche filling. 

It's delicious. And easy (even if it does take a long time to cook, it's pretty light on the prep work).

Pinterest Fail

Ah, Pinterest. Like so many others, I find it at once incredibly useful and terribly depressing. Why don't my projects come out like that? Why can't I shoot photos that well? 

I have an answer. I don't stay at home all day, I don't have unlimited resources, and this stuff I do is just a hobby. That doesn't mean that I don't care if it looks nice (I do), but it does mean that if a project's not working out, I go to plan B.

Like this recipe, as seen on Pinterest. I was going to make some stellar tortillas, and then make an awesome bacon-avocado-egg wrap with them. 

So I mixed up some batter, poured it in the pan, and let it do its thing. So far so good.

Until I tried to flip it.

Ick. And guess what - it tasted wayyyy too much like coconut for me.

At least my avocado was pinterest-worthy. And a nice change from looking at pictures of perfectly manicured hands curled around a bottle of nail polish.

So instead of my pinterest-inspired wrap, I had bacon, eggs, avocado, and a toasted gf English muffin. Maybe it wasn't perfect or even pinterest-worthy, but it was delicious.

And ultimately, isn't that the point of enjoying life? Not so much to show others how good it looks, but to actually enjoy it...

Hot and Sour

Even though it's solidly spring now and the weather's getting better by leaps and bounds, we still have chilly days where there's nothing better than a hot soup. And boy, is this soup hot - in a good way.

I bet it could be hotter if you like it like that, but it was plenty hot for me. I used leftover pork and beef stock instead of chicken broth (it was in the freezer, and it's pretty light anyways). No tofu because I didn't have it, and for the Thai chile sauce I used the totally inauthentic chipotle and crushed red peppers in my spice drawer. 

It was both delicious and filling, and good the next day too.

And the Kitchen Sink

We all have those recipes, the ones that are the basis of our culinary repertoire. The ones we go back to when there's not much in the pantry, when we really don't feel like cooking.

For me, one of those recipes is simply buttered noodles. A little salt, a little garlic, lots of butter, and I'm happy.

Later on, I learned a recipe that added shallots, crushed red pepper, breadcrumbs, and a sunny side up egg to that mix. It's still a favorite. Here's that recipe, dressed up with some spinach and cheese. It was everything that was in my fridge that night.

Everything Pasta

Everything in this recipe (especially the spice quantities) is a suggestion. Don't like something? Leave it out. Like it a lot? Use a little more. Want to serve more people? Use more pasta, and figure one egg per person. You'll also need more breadcrumbs. The only thing that's really not negotiable is to salt the pasta water really well. Like a tablespoon of salt, at least. Trust me, if you do, the pasta will taste so good you'll be running back to the pantry to make sure you bought gluten-free pasta. It's that good.

Serves Two.

• 1/4 cup gluten-free breadcrumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon parsley
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 3 ounces gluten-free noodles (I like these)
• 1 shallot
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup spinach, julienned
• 2 tablespoons butter, divided
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 eggs
• 2 ounces cheese, grated
• Juice of 1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Spread the breadcrumbs out on a baking sheet and season with parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt and pepper. Toss with one tablespoon olive oil. Put in the oven, checking every three to five minutes and re-spreading the contents of the pan each time you check. Remove when the breadcrumbs are starting to brown.

Meanwhile, start the pasta water. When the water reaches a rolling boil, add in the pasta and cook until al dente, stirring frequently. Strain the pasta, reserving some of the pasta water.

While waiting for the pasta water to boil, heat one tablespoon butter and one tablespoon olive oil in a small frying pan. Add the shallots, garlic, and red pepper, sauteeing until the onions begin to be translucent, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add in the spinach, stirring until it just begins to wilt. Remove the contents of the pan to two bowls, then wipe down the pan. Sprinkle lemon juice over the shallot mixture.

Add remaining olive oil to pan and cook the two eggs sunny side up.

Toss the pasta with the shallot mixture, breadcrumbs, and cheese. Top each bowl with one egg. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Quick, before it's gone

 Even when I could still eat gluten with all its magical-stretchy-bread-baking qualities, I was never much into pies and quiches. Sure, I liked a good one now and then, but homemade pie crust seemed like too much work. So I was stuck with the store-bought ones, and even those with all their delicious gluten tasted like cardboard. Ick.

But in the last year, pie crust has become a challenge. I flatter myself with saying that I've mastered the cookie crumb crust, but really, that's not hard at all.  I've tried some other pie crust recipes (the best! the flakiest!) and been sorely disappointed with the results.

Until now. This pie crust is pretty darn good. Flaky. The flour combination is just right.

I used a tablespoon of psyllium husk instead of the xanthan gum. I find that the psyllium absorbs so much moisture that I tend to need add more. I used two eggs instead of one, and added a couple of tablespoons of cream to get it just right.

The filling is just shallots, sauteed until soft, four ounces of baby spinach wilted and moisture pressed out, a little bit of sausage, and red peppers. Lots of cheese, of course, and scallions sprinkled on top. And like any quiche, eggs and cream are a must.

If it lasts long enough, it's excellent for breakfast the next day, and even lunch.

French Toast, Gluten-Free

Maybe this goes beyond stating the obvious, but making French toast gluten-free isn't that much different than making it the "normal way." Stale bread, eggs, milk, frying pan, and done. Maybe some cinnamon sugar and fruit if you're lucky.

I don't know about you, but my best ideas come to me when I'm staring at the fridge. It's like the ideas that come to you in the shower, or right before you go to bed. Mine come to me when I'm standing there, letting all the cold air out, absentmindedly surveying its contents.

Remember that bread I made? It was amazing right out of the oven, but then it dried out pretty darn quick. I avoided using it, and then one night I was staring at the fridge, wondering what to make for dinner, not really wanting to cook but definitely not wanting to go out to eat either. And then the lightbulb went off in my head - French toast. Quick and easy, and a great way to use up stale bread.

I added some honey, vanilla, and cinnamon sugar to the egg mixture. The best French toast in my book has lots of cinnamon sugar, so I sprinkled it liberally over the toast when it was done too. And the last of the raspberries from the freezer graced the top (and their juice combined with honey made a great syrup).

Smitten Salad

The other night at dinner, Mike was quiet as he ate. Then he said, "You make a really good salad." Oh, be still my heart.

It was this salad, but with sausage instead of bacon, lemon juice instead of vinegar, plus some corn, chili flakes, and paprika.

Sometimes I make it according to the actual recipe, which has become a favorite on its own, but just as often I add my own twists to it. That's what cooking is really about. Pouring yourself into dinner for the pure joy of it.

We don't usually do "diet" salads in our house, mostly because if I'm just looking at greens and salad dressing I'm not very interested in eating it. And when we eat salads like this, with the dressing made from pan drippings, we're always satisfied. They're meals unto themselves, and then we fall in love all over again.

Leftovers - Lobster Omelet

Leftovers. There are leftovers and then there are leftovers. Some are good, some are bad, and some are downright ugly. There's cold pizza or macaroni and cheese (good), fish that was overcooked in the first place (bad), and that stuff at the back of the fridge that's melted into something really stinky, fuzzy, and totally unrecognizable (ugly, of course).

For most of my life, leftovers usually fell into the last two categories. The bad leftovers were eaten grudgingly, and the ugly leftovers were thrown in the garbage bin. The good leftovers were usually lunch or an afternoon snack, and rarely made it to dinnertime the next day.  But the sad reality was that leftovers were a tired memory of a meal that was just o.k.

In the last few years, as I've begun to really cook for myself, I've started to rethink what the word "leftovers" really means. Sometimes it is the same soup, or casserole, or pasta, reheated yet again. And it's always a lot better than the leftovers in my memory. (I had one boss tell me he was always jealous of my leftovers. Another boss always complained that I never brought enough to share with the whole office. Chalk one up for leftovers.)

But other times, leftovers are something much, much more. It's amazing how a totally different focus can create an entirely new meal that no one would ever imagine was leftovers.

Eggs are one of my favorite ways to manage this. Frittatas and omelets are so good that folks will think you cooked the entire thing for that meal only, instead of scraping around the corners of the fridge to use up scraps.  I only made my first frittatas and omelets this past year (it's a lack of patience thing), but they sure do make a strong showing in my life now.

I'm still working on the ability to make a new meal out of any kind of leftovers, but this particular omelet was a revelation. We had too much lobster the other night (if there can be such a thing), and as I stared at the fridge wondering what to eat, this recipe came to me. Even better, it took less than twenty minutes from start to finish.

And it tasted wonderful. A far cry from the leftovers of my memory.




Saute some onions and crushed red pepper.

Toss in some lobster for 30 seconds or so, just to get it a little bit warm. Remove from pan.

Add some more oil to the pan, pour in eggs whisked with milk or cream. When the eggs are mostly set, scatter lobster and cheese on one side of the omelet.

Say a prayer while you (gently) fold the eggs over the filling. Leave it in the pan for another minute or so, then remove to a plate, and top with more lobster and cheese.

Lobster Omelet

• 
  

• 2 tablespoons bacon fat or olive oil, divided
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons cream
• 1 or 2 lobster tails, cooked, peeled, and chopped (about 1/2 cup)
• 1 ounce cheese, grated (about 1/2 - 3/4 cup)
•  1/4 small onion or 1 shallot, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1 scallion, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

Heat 1 tablespoon fat in an omelet pan or 8-inch skillet over medium heat. Add onions and saute until soft and beginning to turn golden, about 10 minutes. Add the crushed red pepper and saute about a minute more. Add the lobster to the pan for about 30 seconds, then transfer the entire mixture to a bowl and set aside. 

Heat the remaining fat in the pan. Meanwhile, whisk together eggs and cream. Pour the eggs into the pan. Lift up at the sides with a spatula every now and then to keep them from sticking to the pan. When the eggs are mostly set, scatter 2/3 of the lobster mixture and half the cheese on one side of the eggs. Starting at the other side of the eggs, use a spatula to fold the eggs over the filling. Keep over the heat for one or two minutes more, then transfer to a plate. Top with the remaining lobster and cheese. Sprinkle scallions over the top, and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve immediately.

 There won't be any leftovers from this one, I promise.

Guilt in the Kitchen

I've said it before and I'll say it again. There's nothing quite like the guilt of leftovers. Maybe it wasn't my favorite dish, or it didn't turn out right. Maybe I'm just plain tired of it, or maybe I can't think of a way to make it new again. Whatever the excuse, those leftovers stare up at me from the fridge, warning me that their days are numbered.

That's what happened with the blackeyed peas. They were never a favorite of mine when I was a child. I always (grudgingly) ate one for good luck on New Year's at my mother's insistence. It wasn't until I grew them in my own garden and discovered Hoppin' John that I could really appreciate them.

This year was my first New Year living in Utah, and I was amazed to find fresh blackeyed peas at my grocery store. Of course, they only came in one size: prepackaged, about two cups worth, I I felt obligated to make a full recipe of Hoppin' John for New Year's. In retrospect, I should have cut the rice in half and used the same amount of blackeyed peas, because even though we both had generous servings, there were enough leftovers to feed me lunch for a week...except I never quite got around to eating them as leftovers.

Enter eggs and cheese, my favorite ingredients for making old food taste new again. I made a frittata, adding in some spicy local sausage and plenty of cheese for an entirely different dish.

I wasn't expecting much, but it ended up being pretty darn good. The rice melted into the eggs, making them almost silky, and the peas brought an unexpected texture. But the sausage really carried the day.

Hoppin' John Frittata

Hoppin' John, the first time around, served on a bed of boiled collard greens

Hoppin' John is a traditional southern dish served on New Year's day for good luck.  It's basically a pilaf of rice, blackeyed peas (also called cowpeas), and ham. Seasonings include onion, garlic, celery, and bell pepper. Here's a basic recipe for it, and another one here.  I use the Hoppin' John recipe in Joy of Cooking, but there are plenty of ways to prepare it. It doesn't really matter which one you use, as it's simply a base for the frittata.

Hoppin' John Frittata

This recipe serves four with no leftovers. It can easily be doubled or scaled down depending on your needs. Just be sure to use an appropriate size pan.

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 - 1 1/2 cups prepared Hoppin' John
• 1 link sausage (about 4 ounces), broken up and cooked
• 1 - 1 1/2 cups grated cheese
• 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
• 3 - 4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a small mixing bowl, combine eggs, cream, and about half of the cheese. Set aside.

Heat butter and olive oil in a medium ovenproof skillet. Add Hoppin' John and sausage, and saute over medium heat, stirring frequently, until warmed through.

Pour egg mixture over the contents of the skillet and lower heat to medium low. Cook until the eggs are beginning to set around the edges, about ten minutes.

Top with remaining cheese and transfer to preheated oven. Cook 30-40 minutes more, or until the eggs are completely set and the top is beginning to brown.

To get the top all brown and bubbly, if you're into that sort of thing, place under a hot broiler for 2-3 minutes. If you're doing this, be sure to keep an eye on the frittata, since it can burn quickly.

Serve warm. If you happen to have leftovers, they make a good breakfast or lunch. Just reheat in the microwave 30 seconds to a minute. Trust me, you won't be avoiding the leftovers from this one.