Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Fiesta de Fotos (y Tapas)!

When we returned from Europe, there was about a dozen people who were very interested in seeing our pictures. (Really, they honestly said so.) Since many of them had already been to these places, we figured they were serious :-) And, since Darla and I had been looking for an excuse to make our favorite food in Europe, tapas, we added that into the festivities for the evening.

We knew they didn't want to see all 1500 pictures that the four of us took, so we narrowed it down to a manageable 100 (20 per country). While this was difficult, it worked really well to give an overview of our most interesting/beautiful/funny experiences in each place, which led to great conversations :-) All of our blog readers have seen many of these pictures here already. (For the record, I used Skype's "Share Screen" feature to share the same slideshow with my family, and it worked like a charm.)

While I love showing my pictures to people, my favorite part of the evening was making tapas. Tapas are basically little appetizers, which we had at tapas bars in Spain. Everything has a giant toothpick in it and are all priced the same. You take everything you want, and when you're finished, they count your toothpicks and charge you accordingly. My main souvenir from Spain was a tapas cookbook, which Darla and I used as we picked which things we wanted to make. We also used our pictures to remember our favorite tapas that we had in Spain, and then attempted to recreate them. (The first photo is from Spain. The other 2 are our attempts :-))

Darla made an egg and potato omelette cut into small pieces and served on a baguette, crab salad and an olive on a baguette, and marinated tomatoes and fried quail eggs on a baguette(yes, we used lots of bread :-)). I made baguettes, a garlic, potato and red pepper dip, toasted bread with 3 cheeses (square of semi-hard cheese on bottom, triangle of brie in the middle, and shaved hard cheese on top), mini-cream puffs with sweetened cream and drizzled caramel, andbreadcrumb fritters in honey syrup. While it basically took me the entire day to get everything ready, it was a lot of fun :-) I don't usually fuss over little things, especially little fussy things meant to look pretty, but this was a bunch of fun! :-) Give it a try sometime!




Sunday, September 12, 2010

What? Quiche?!

On Wednesday night, I got home from work later than usual and Ben said his stomach was feeling funny and that he wasn't really hungry. However, I WAS hungry, so I proceeded to make what I'd planned to make for supper. It was not the quickest thing, so by the time it was done (and given that I'd started late in the first place) it was closing in on 8:00 (which for the record, would be a super early meal in Spain, in case you're wondering). As it's just about ready to come out of the oven, Ben asks when it will be done because he thinks he'll try to eat something.

I pull it out and he goes to get some, walks into the kitchen and sees my beautiful supper, and cries out "Quiche??!!??" in an utterly crestfallen voice. (This is one of the few foods he generally voices any actual opposition to. But I didn't even think about it being a quiche because the recipe called it a "torta." ) He eats it anyway, because Ben does not eat because food is good (though that's an added bonus if it's true), he eats because the food is in front of him. Ten minutes later, as he munches in front of the TV, he grudgingly mumbles, "Sorry I made fun of your quiche...It's actually pretty good."

So now, I share with you the recipe for "Pretty Good Quiche" in Ben's book or "Spinach and Herb Torta in a Potato Crust" in my Vegetarian Cooking cookbook :-)

Spinach & Herb Torta in a Potato Crust

3 large potatoes
2 T. olive oil
1 bunch green onions, sliced
1 T. fresh dill, chopped
1/2 c. fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 c. fresh cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper
2 bunches spinach leaves, coarsely chopped
2 eggs, beaten
1 c. cottage cheese
1/3 to 1/2 c. feta cheese
Grated zest of 1 lemon

1. Peel potatoes. Slice two potatoes into 1/8 in. thick rounds. Slice the other potato length-wise into 1/8 inch slices. Brush some olive oil in a skillet, and fry potatoes until golden brown on both sides, in as many batches as necessary. Remove them to a paper towel as they finish cooking.

2. Add 1 T. oil to the pan and cook green onions, dill, parsley, and cilantro over medium heat until the green onions are bright green (about 4 minutes). Season with salt and remove to a bowl. Add the spinach to the same pan with water still clinging to its leaves (or add 1/4 c. water if it's dry). Cook over high heat until leaves are tender and wilted, about 4 minutes. Transfer the spinach to a sieve and press out any water, then add to green onion mixture. Add the eggs, cheeses, lemon zest and stir. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

3. Preheat the oven to 375. Lightly butter a 9-inch springform pan and set it on a sheet pan. Cover the bottom with the potato rounds, overlapping as necessary so there are no empty spaces. Place the long pieces overlapping around the sides. Pour in the spinach mixture, then bake immediately until firm and golden in places, about 40 minutes. Gently run a knife between the pan sides and the potatoes. Release the pan and lift off the side. Set on a serving plate.

[Note: the only things I did differently from what was listed is I substituted about half the dill for chives, used dried parsley, and used goat cheese instead of feta, which was awesome. :-)]

Enjoy the "quiche!"

Monday, September 6, 2010

Balsamic Ben


After more than six years of cooking for my husband, I found a flavor that he really likes (as opposed to something he eats because it's in front of him). I made the dish below last week, and he immediately said, "Wow, this is good! It has great flavor!" As I pondered what this flavor could be, the only major flavor-izer (like my new word?) in the dish was balsamic vinegar.

I started thinking back and realized that whenever there was balsamic vinegar and oil on the table in Europe (particularly Italy) he used it every time with his bread and other things. On top of that, as I filed the recipe away with the rest, I noticed a number of other recipes that also featured balsamic vinegar, which had the note "Ben likes!" scrawled across the top, in my horrid, un-teacherly handwriting. (One of these recipes is my favorite sauce for asparagus) So, now I know. Use balsamic vinegar as much as possible to make my hubby happy :-)

Baked Chicken with Onions, Potatoes, Garlic, and Thyme

[Note: This is the original recipe. I adapted it to about 2/3 of the original amount so it'd all fit in a 9x13, and used 8-12 chicken tenders (smaller than breasts), which bake quicker. Either way, it's super easy!]

1 whole chicken (approx. 3 lb), cut into 8 pieces and breasts halved lengthwise
1 pound potatoes, cut in eighths
1 large red onion, cut in eighths
1 head garlic, cloves separated and left unpeeled
6 sprigs thyme
1 lemon, quartered
1/4 c. olive oil
2 T. balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Arrange chicken, potatoes, onion, garlic, thyme and lemon in a 12x16 roasting pan. Whisk together oil and vinegar and drizzle over chicken and vegetables. Toss to combine and season with salt and pepper. Turn chicken skin side up. Roast until chicken is browned and cooked through, about 50 minutes.

By the way, if you're interested in the recent revival of our garden, check out Ben's blog!