Summer Vegetable Quiche

The other day, I made this homage to late summer. This quiche has all the usual suspects from a late summer garden - zucchini, green pepper, onion, tomato, basil and oregano. Before long, we'll be looking back at the days of full counters and wishing for that squash and all those tomatoes! This particular quiche went with me to my book group luncheon and joined a bountiful counter top buffet of soup and rolls, chicken Caesar salad, fruit crisp, and cookies. We DO eat well when we gather to chat up our books!

Mom Flynn's Squash Casserole

Soft egg and mayonnaise custard surrounds chunks of zucchini, yellow summer squash, and Vidalia onions. Sprinkle in a bit of dried basil and you have a wonderful side dish for a roasted chicken or a pork tenderloin roast. This recipe comes to me via my sister, Donna. She made this for us with squash from her garden back in the early fall when I visited her.  She told me that she inherited the recipe from her mother-in-law,  Mom Flynn. It's simple and so sublime.

Green Herb Quiche and Cucumber Dill Salad

Tonight's supper is a fresh green affair!

Asparagus Frittata

Asparagus Frittata made for an easy and really pretty pillow of eggs and vegetables for my Mother's Day brunch. Sprout Sara came out of Boston for the afternoon, bearing a beautiful Austrian Rose wine and beauty products for her Mom. After cups of hot coffee and chatter over making frittata and crusty toast, we sat for a late breakfast and chatted it up. So relaxing! Thanks Sara for making my day!

Shirred Eggs with Potato Puree

A few years ago, I did a melancholy post that revolved around my forced retirement from teaching. It involved the economic downturn, the slashing of teaching budgets, my age and reduced chances of getting hired to a teaching position in New Hampshire's slow economy and the angst at 'letting it go' and embracing a new chapter of life.

Reading Ruth Reichl's memoir/cook book, My Kitchen Year, gave me much the same feeling that I had as I posted that earlier post here at The Spice Garden.

Traditions ... Spinach Bars Get Their Due

Most foodies have onions, eggs, milk, flour, and frozen spinach ... yes? Add a few spices, mushrooms, leavening, some cheese and ... VOILA!

Cajun Style Eggs in Purgatory with Cheesy Polenta

Sunday night and an easy cozy dinner is called for ... it was cooler today. Fall has arrived!

Pepin's Crepes With a Savory Take ...

Savory French Crepes for Dinner

Crack an egg and add some milk, water, parsley, flour, melted butter, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Whisk it together and let it sit for a bit.

Channel your inner Frenchman by heating a crepe pan until it's good and hot.

IHCC's Mystery Box Challenge - Pumpkin Tart with Spinach and Gorgonzola

Start with a sugar pumpkin...

Saturday Night Supper Courtesy of Nigel Slater

Tonight, it's all about the eggs and sausage ... I could have gone all fancy on you and made more meringues or lemon curd, or some other such fancy Brit sweet treat, but it's Saturday night and I've been busy all day. All I want is a warm, stick-to-my-ribs supper and I remembered a segment from Slater's webpage that he did on breakfast hash.

You can watch him at the link below or trust my version of the recipe as seen further on.

BBC TV's Nigel link to Breakfast Hash

Cooking With Nigel ...

February is here! Spring may still seem way' out there' for many of us, but the hope and dreaming that comes around at this time of year can always be counted on when the daylight hours begin to lengthen and the sun's warmth begins to increase just a bit in intensity.  I begin to think of Easter time and rebirth ... and fresh eggs for coloring and making into cheesecakes or omelettes or soft Easter cakes. Yup ... eggs!

So this month, I'm going to use some of Nigel Slater's egg recipes to inspire a departure from root vegetables and heavy stews and all that other winter time comfort food. If you'd like to join me, grab the Nigel badge (picture above), research some of his egg-based recipes and make one of them your own, post to your blog, and send me a quick comment here ... I'll collect your posts and do an end of the month round-up ...

I'm off to make a bit of a change up on Nigel's Hot Cross Bun Bread Pudding ... with an apple cherry cake that wouldn't come out of the Bundt pan and became chunk o' cake. Hopefully, the next incarnation will be as tasty as I think it should be ... does that make sense? I'm supposed to bring dessert to a Super Bowl Party this evening ... Apple and Cherry Cake Pudding with Whipped Cream coming right up! You can make Nigel's bread pudding into your own original with whatever leftover bread or cake you have floating around the house!

Check out Nigel's other egg recipes too!

Meringues Four Ways - IHCC Potluck

It's been weeks since I contributed anything to the I Heart Cooking Club's weekly share and I apologize for that! Sometimes life just gets in the way, I guess. I'm back this week with a fun Donna Hay recipe that gives me the basic how-to of making meringues. These lighter than air sweet treats are going to be used in four different ways over the next week ... this basic recipe is my contribution to this week's IHCC Pot Luck. I'm trying to do a bit of catch-up. Originally, they were meant to be the offering for the Time for Tea recipe share, but I just got so busy travelling and puttering on some other projects that blogging went by the boards. Thank goodness for Potluck week!

Little Italian Pastries - Soffioni di Ricotta

 Silent Bob has just come into the house with his nose twitching like a rabbit's. He roams in and out of the kitchen where I have just done a photo shoot on these warm soffioni di ricotta. I can hear him pacing around from my spot at the computer in the living room.

Roast Chicken and Other Stories - Simon Hopkinson

I've been reading a book this past month by Simon Hopkinson, a man I had never heard of until picking up his cook book with additional stories and patter on kitchen wisdom and food opinions. I have had fun reading the recipes and making a few, as I poked along through the book. He's conversational in his writing style and I like that. It's rather like listening to my brother yak about food and experiences he's had in the kitchen and around the world of food. Not intimidating, full of good information and technique tips, sweetly illustrated with a few stories and a few chuckles, full of recipes that are written clearly and not too complicated. The other thing that I really like about the book's recipes is that they are all geared for four servings, which is perfect for a two-person household, a retiree budget, and a small-ish refrigerator.

I Heart Cooking Club - Jamie Oliver's Invited to Brunch!

This week's IHCC options are wide open, as it's Pot Luck Week. While the other die-hard cooking club members may be sticking to Yotam Ottolenghi's recipes, I am still having fun with the idea of exploring the other chefs that the club has sponsored over the past couple years. Today, I decided to explore Jamie Oliver's archives on his website ...

Strawberry Custard Pie ...

Spring is here when the strawberries start tempting you, as you pass through the produce department at the supermarket. Am I right? They're not perfect, but they are just so darn promising of warmer days. I can't wait to get down on hands and knees to creep along the rows of berries, filling a colander and contemplating strawberry shortcake, stopping to brush the dirt off a particularly beautiful berry and pop it in my mouth to sample the juiciness. Berries and cream, berry smoothies, strawberry ice cream, spinach salad with strawberries and balsamic vinaigrette, strawberry jam ... is it any wonder that I always fall for the first berries that come in from 'where ever'? I'm a strawberry junkie.

Today I made strawberry custard pie.

IHCC - Royal Potato Salad

Oh, what a warm green mess this is and oh, how utterly delicious! I found myself humming Mellow Yellow as I peeled eggs last evening while making Yotam Ottolenghi's Royal Potato Salad.  Whirling the basil, parsley, Parmesan and pine nuts in the blender made me giddy with the luscious shade of green that resulted. I switched over to trying to remember the Seuss text to 'Green Eggs and Ham'. Whenever, I plopped warm potatoes and eggs, pesto, and peas together and added some mint and tossed, I could tell by the texture, color, and scent that we had a winner here!

IHCC -Greetings Ottolenghi ! Thanks for Sunday Night Supper!

Ottolenghi's Sweet and Spicy Beef and Pork Pie

Two weeks ago, what started out as a search for some good Indian recipes turned into the introduction to a new blogging group that concentrates their cooking efforts on researching and cooking one particular chef's work for an extended period of time. The I Heart Cooking Club was finishing up a period of time in which they had concentrated on Madhur Jaffrey's cooking and announced that they would be moving on to the work of Yotam Ottolenghi.

HMM! There has been quite a bit of chatter on-line about Ottolenghi over the last year. Between talk of his restaurants, his interesting take on fresh vegetables and use of spices in new and interesting ways, the cook book called Plenty, and his latest cookbook called  Jerusalem , I was intrigued to see just what all the excitement was about. I went here and after giving it some thought, I decided to join up.

Deceptively Easy Gourmet - A Ham, Corn and Cheese Soufflé

Flower colors mimic food colors ... what a coincidence! Happy Spring!

It's always fun to roll out a gourmet recipe when guests come to share a meal, but it can be stressful if said recipe is a 'time drain' that takes you away from your guests or has to be worked up at the last minute. I have always been intimidated by the idea of  'The Soufflé' - the idea of a huge puffy mass of eggs dependent on proper folding, the perfect oven environment, and perfect timing when planning the actual serving. All these issues kept me from trying to make a soufflé.

We Should Cocoa ... Pumpkin Eclairs!

These little devils have been on my culinary bucket list for a good while ! Eclairs are one of Silent Bob's favorite pastries. We oogle them whenever we go into a bakery of note and I always tell him that  I will learn how to make them for him! I'm so glad I screwed up my courage and tackled them! They weren't perfect - there was a bit too much salt in the choux and the eclair shells didn't stay as puffed as I would have liked, but they were fantastic for a beginner eclair maker ... me!