Ridiculously Easy (and Tasty) Roasted Veggies

In my book, one never needs an excuse to eat broccoli or Brussels sprouts. But, I know plenty of people who would beg to differ. Whether you're a die-hard broccoli/B. sprouts fan, or you hate the thought of their green grossness, I think you'll like this dish. (But, if you still hate them after this, you can use almost any hard veggie - beets, carrots, parsnips, etc.)

First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Then take your broccoli stalks and chop them up - I cut the bushy part of the broccoli from the stalk, peel the stalk & slice it into discs, and separate the broccoli florets. Then I take the fresh B. sprouts and lop (I love that word) the brownish little ends off, peel off the ugly outer leaves, and slice the little buggers in half. Next, peel some whole garlic cloves (can you ever have too much garlic?). Throw all of your goodies onto a pan (with an edge), douse with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss with your hands.


Stick your pan of yummies into the oven and let roast (tossing with a spoon every so often) for 20-30 minutes or until the tips of the broccoli are brown, the B. sprouts are crunchy and browned, and the garlic is smooshy and soft.

Now get out some parmesan cheese and a lemon. Zest the lemon (about 1 Tbsp.) and grate some cheese (about 1 Tbsp.) into a serving bowl.

When your veggies are done, dump them into the bowl and toss with the zest and cheese. Squeeze about 2 Tbsp. of fresh lemon juice on top and grate some more cheese over top of your masterpiece.

Eat and enjoy! If that doesn't make a broccoli/Brussels sprout believer out of you then I don't know what will!

~ Mari

Eggs for Dinner

It was such a nice day out today that I thought I might make a light dinner. So, I decided a quiche would be perfect! We had some goat cheese and cherry tomatoes in the fridge, so I thought that would be a delicious mix.

First, I made the dough for the crust. All you need for the crust is:

1/2 cup cold butter

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cracked black pepper

1/2 tsp. dried thyme

1 egg

1 Tbsp. ice cold water

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Mix the flour, salt, pepper, and thyme together in a mixing bowl (with your hands...I promise it's fun!). Then chunk the butter, plop it in the bowl, and smoosh it around until the butter chunks are evenly distributed. Then pour in the ice water and mix it around. If it is too wet - add more flour. If it's too dry, add more water!

Then just wrap up your little dough ball in plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge while you work on the rest of your quiche!

Now, we will make the quiche filling. Here's what you'll need:

3 eggs

3/4 cup Half & Half

2/4 cup light soymilk

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp. dried thyme

8 oz. goat cheese

Combine everything in a bowl and mix it around until the eggs are completely combined. The goat cheese will be chunky , but that's fine!

By this time, your dough should be ready to roll (lol...)! Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Roll out the dough to be about 1/8 inch thick. Put it in a greased & floured tart pan and cut off the excess with a pairing knife. Then stick the whole thing in the fridge!

I had some extra pie dough and I didn't want to waste it, so I thought I would cut circles out of the dough (with a biscuit cutter) and bake them to make crispy, buttery crackers! They came out delicious!

I brushed them with egg so that they would brown and become nice and shiny!

After it's chilled, take your crust out of the fridge and cut a piece of parchment paper that fits in the bottom of the pan. Then put pie weights on top and stick it in the oven! Bake it for 15-20 minutes.

Then take it out of the oven and remove the parchment paper and pie weights. Brush the entire thing with egg and stick it back in for about 2-3 minutes. This will brown the crust and seal it off from the moisture in the egg mixture.

Once it's brown and delicious-looking, take it out and let it cool a little. Halve cherry tomatoes and place them on the pie crust cut-side down.

Sliver garlic cloves and sprinkle them over the tomatoes. Then poor the egg mixture over the whole thing, leaving the tops of the tomatoes peeking out.

Bake it for 20 minutes and it will be a beautiful thing of beauty! Let it cool, slice it, and serve it!





Mmmmmmm... it came out so good! We sliced it up (it kinda looks like pizza doesn't it?) and served it with some simple sauteed spinach with garlic and pine nuts.

Happy eating everyone!

~ Mari

There's Something About Pesto

It makes me happy. Pesto is, by far, my favorite pasta sauce. I'm not sure if it's the large amount of basil or the large amount of cheese (or perhaps the combination of both?) that gets me, but for a great pesto I get weak in the knees.

And this, my friends, is a great pesto:

Great Pesto

Yield: 32 oz.

8 oz. basil leaves
10 oz. pine nuts
1 oz. garlic, mashed to a paste
½ oz. salt
8-16 oz. olive oil
8 oz. grated Parmesan

Toast the pine nuts before you start getting into "Pesto Mode." They will be much better that way.


Rinse the basil leaves well, dry, and coarsely chop. Transfer a handful into a food processor.

Pulse for a few seconds (until it makes room for another handful). Do this until all of the basil fits into the food processor.

Add pine nuts, garlic, and salt and pulse for a few seconds. Add oil gradually until it forms a thick paste.

Taste and adjust seasoning with salt. Stir in the parmesan.*

*If you plan on heating the pesto at all (microwaving leftovers, etc.), I recommend that you not stir in the cheese. Just add it in later as needed. If you heat pesto, the cheese will melt and become rubbery…not a good thing to have.

VOILA! Now you have a delicious pesto (32 oz. of it to boot!) to eat with pasta, crackers, or just in a spoon.

I hope you enjoy it! I've found that it's pretty darn fool-proof.

Mari

Carb-tastic!

Today was a day o' carbs (not that I'm complaining...). My group was assigned Tuscan Roasted Potatoes, Glazed Sweet Potatoes, Polenta, and Rice Pilaf. It was quite hectic at times, but (as you can see in the photo), we pulled through and came out with some very tasty, starchy foods.


We did make a few mistakes, though...

1. We over-boiled the Russet potatoes before roasting them, so they kinda fell apart in the oven. That's what happens when you are trying to worry about the three other dishes you are working on.
2. Before making the sweet potato dish, we had to bake them. I completely forgot to poke holes in the little devils and they exploded in the oven. Not very pretty. That didn't affect the taste or what the finished product looked like, but we sure felt stupid.
3. The rice pilaf actually went pretty well. We almost burned it, but ALMOST doesn't count.
4. Ahhhh the polenta... polenta, in case you didn't know, is basically yellow grits. You can serve it like grits, or you can spread it in a sheet pan, chill it, cut it into shapes, and grill/saute it. We wanted to do the latter. So, we made the polenta, added some reconstituted sundried tomatoes, rosemary, and garlic, and spread it into the sheet pan. Our sheet pan, however, was too large. So, when we pulled our polenta out of the fridge, we noticed it was about as even as the Smoky Mountains. Drat. We also ran out of time, so I cut them into uneven squares... not the most attractive polenta shape out there, I might add. But, they tasted great and had the right consistency. If only they weren't square...

So, all-in-all it was a sucessful day. We made the four dishes we were assigned, they tasted delicious, and we got to eat LOTS of carbs at the end of class. What could be better?