Remember when I received all that dill in my Bountiful Basket? I posted these deviled ham eggs and then I posted the Flounder Olympia (which you need to try if you haven’t yet). But that’s not all baby! I made this fantabulous quiche also. Actually I made quite a bit more but didn’t photograph it all.
After dosing ourselves in dill I realized that I never really used it enough in my cooking. Fresh dill was always paired with fish, or some creamy dressing/dip and used, of course, for pickling. Honestly I use more dried dill than fresh. But that wrong has been righted by the insane amount that I received and a new found appreciation and love for fresh dill.
I so enjoyed the flavor that I will be planting at least 4 dill plants, maybe more? I’m also planting a bunch of Boston pickling cucumbers. A good pair is a good pair.
Speaking of a good pair; asparagus and dill! Why have I never done this before? I know asparagus gets pickled (they’ve been known to show up in my Bloody Mary’s and Caesar’s); logically this thought should have occurred to me before! I am mourning the missed opportunities I could have had with dill and asparagus… Continue reading “Asparagus Dill Quiche with a Potato Crust” »
This is the longest hiatus between posts that I’ve ever taken. As a matter of fact the last time I posted, was during Secret Recipe Club Reveal last month. At my last posting I was hot and heavy into finals for Part 1 of my school. I then took a one week break and visited family in Washington State. The next three weeks were filled with professional specific studies. I took Stock Photography, The Modern Studio and the class of my dreams Food and Product.
On to my SRC assignment, it’s Debbie, our illustrous leader of group C and of Debbie Does Dinner…Healthy & Low Calorie. What’s so great about Debbie’s site is that she has mostly healthy food (she throws in some other tempting dessert recipe that aren’t so healthy ). Debbie gives the calorie count and if it’s a side dish she gives you serving suggestions to keep your meal at about 500 calories, awesome!
I may have scaled back on my blogging but I just couldn’t scale back on The Secret Recipe Club, you know because clubbing is so much fun It had to happen, at some point, I was going to be assigned a Vegan blog. I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t have an issue, but the family…well, as along as I didn’t get weird on them they probably would be okay.
Actually I’ve had a vegetarian blog, Thrifty Veggie Mama and made bean burgers that McGyver and the I really enjoyed. So the leap to a Vegan meal I thought would be easy enough…my only rule was that I wasn’t going to buy anything that I most likely wouldn’t use again.
Here is the last of my dishes from The Daring Cooks Challenge. The mandatory ingredients I selected for this one was: maple, chipotle and parsnips. Although this dish wasn’t at the same show stopper level as the Cowboy Steak with Red Eye Gravy, if I would have made this first I probably would have thought so.
Last Saturday I posted my Daring Cooks Challenge dishes with promises that I would post this very manly recipe and another dish this week. For this part of the challenge my mandatory ingredients I selected were: Instant coffee, cauliflower and goat cheese.
The goat cheese and cauliflower were a perfect foil for the rich rib eye, the flavor was slightly pungent with plenty of garlic. Now the steak, let me just share with you some comments made by McGyver.
Oh my don’t those look good! Smoky salmon burgers topped with juicy pineapple salsa. If you want the recipe, you’ll have to head over to Little Ferraro Kitchen. I did a guest post for Samantha. When Samantha, a college student, made a cry out for help because school was taking up her time, I couldn’t say no. It’s the mommy in me, I didn’t want her worrying about her blog when she had homework to do. When you pop over to her blog, you’ll find out that there may have been a little ‘destiny’ involved also!
Salmon burgers with pineapple salsa aren’t the only recipe you’ll find there, with an excess of pineapple salsa (and it’s short life span) I whipped up some sweet pepper poppers also. Help an overwhelmed college student out and send her some bloggy support, and when you do, tell her ‘Not mom, Rhonda’ sent you over (you’ll get that once you read the post).
Our Daring Cooks challenge this month was more like a scene from “Chopped”, contestants, open your baskets.
In basket 1 you have Parsnips, Eggplant, and Cauliflower
In basket 2 you have Balsamic Vinegar, Goat cheese and chipotle peppers
In basket 3 you have maple syrup, instant coffee, and bananas
The challenge was to pick one ingredient from each list and create a main meal from them. The challenge this month is hosted by David and Karen from Twenty-Fingered Cooking. The purpose behind this challenge was NOT to have a “Chopped” challenge, it was to inspire original…truly original recipes from a set of ingredients.
I’ve been a braisen fool the last month, our Daring Cooks Challenge this month inspired me to braise at least once a week. I posted about the challenge yesterday and featured my favorite recipe Spice-Braised Leg of Lamb with Lemon Preserve. But oh so close was the braised oxtail.
My mom used to make oxtail soup when I was growing, can you believe that silly me thought that it was oxtail? Perhaps it was at one time, but today oxtail is simply beef tail. It has a lot of cartridge and is kind of sinewy. It’s a tough cut of meat, it probably got so tough from batting all the flies? Braising is an ideal cooking method for tenderizing humble cuts of meat. I have to complain a bit here…if oxtail is a poor cut of meat, why is it so expensive? It is nearly $5.00 per pound and I live in cattle country! I happened to get some on clearance, you know the frozen for quick sale section, at 50% off. Evidently I wasn’t he only one who refused to pay $5.00 a pound for a fly swatter.
I think I may have over done this month’s Daring Cook’s Challenge! Carolyn, a non-blogger participant of The Daring Cooks challenged us this month to “Brave the Braise”. Carolyn shared with us what braising is:
Traditional cooking methods may be classed as how heat is conducted through the food. First is moist heat (poaching, simmering, steaming or boiling) where heat is conducted through some sort of liquid; be it stock, sauces or steam. The second method is dry heat (roasting, baking, broiling, sautéing, pan frying) where heat is conducted by hot air, radiation or hot fat. Different methods are suited for different kinds of food. Braising, from the French “braiser”, offers us a combination cooking method – dry heat followed by moist heat. Typically, meat is seared in hot fat which helps to add flavor and aromas, improves color (browning), and texture (crust). It is then submerged in liquid and cooked slowly and gently at low heat. In a nut-shell that’s it! It should be noted that there are endless variations for braising including stove-top versus oven; partially submerged in liquid or completely submerged; or stews where there are many ingredients that are cut into smaller pieces.
Braising has several advantages over other cooking methods in that it provides for uniform cooking when done in an oven with heat coming from all sides instead of just the bottom of the pan as well it requires less attention as it’s cooked at a slow and steady temperature for longer periods. Other advantages are that it clears the stove top for other preparations, the dish may be prepared in advance and the flavor improves over time!
Carolyn also provided us with several recipes for inspiration. One of which has been raved about all over the blogosphere is Braised Short Ribs. It’s the first time I’ve made them and I see why everyone adores them! You can get the recipe here.
Sometimes it tough to think with family activities, the dogs, the TV blaring, the dishwasher and washer and dryer going..all that din one can hardly hear themselves to think. I think that is why my clever ideas most often come to me when I’m riding my bike or when I’m in the shower. The throaty purr of the motor and the sound of water cascading down creates such a lovely white noise that clears the mind and allows more creative thought.
So it was, I was in the shower (a little to early for me to be riding yet) and the idea of what to do with my leftover corned venison and cabbage came to me. Reuben’s are always a favorite way to use leftover corned beef, only I didn’t quite want to do the same thing, so a little variation came to my mind. Instead of sauerkraut I used the leftover cabbage and then served some cooking liquid on the side for dipping. Hello French Dip Reuben.
There is something so delectable about taking a crusty piece of bread, dipping it, letting those crunchy bits of bread soak up the jus, softening it up so that when you bite into it you get a burst of the broth and some crunch. It’s so satisfying to eat a messy sandwich.
The slurpy, tender and crunchiness of the sandwich carried over for me into my next leftover transformation. I ditched the French Dip concept and became French Onion Soup inspired (is there a trend). Really this is no recipe, I just chopped up the leftover cabbage, potatoes, carrots and onions (we were out of corned venison by then…wish I would have had a bigger roast), dropped a rye toast and a slice of Swiss cheese on it, broiled it and viola! A gorgeous soup that was simplicity itself.
In a small bowl mix the mayonnaise, ketchup, relish and dash of Worcestershire sauce. Butter one side of each slice of bread, put bread together butter to butter side. On the side of the bread facing up, spread it with the sandwich sauce, then layer the corned beef on top, add the cabbage and finally the swiss cheese.
Start with a cold pan, turn to medium heat, griddle cheese side down first. Griddle until the bread turns a golden brown, any where from 3 to 5 minutes on the first side and 2 to 3 minutes on the reverse side. Serve warm with a warm cup of broth.
Notes
I like to warm up my corned meat and cabbage prior to putting them on the sandwich.
Bluefish. Is a mild flavor highly sought after sport fish. It is found in most climates, in Australia it’s referred to as Tailor and in South Africa it’s called, Shad.
Boar. A.K.A. a wild pig. It is also the ancestor of the domestic pig. It is still widely popular in Europe and Asia both for game hunting and eating.
Boar’s Head. The boar once upon a time was a feared animal and a menace, in pre-Christian times boar hunts and feasts were part of pagan Yuletide events. It involved into a Christian celebration, the Boar’s Head Feast in which a flaming boar’s head was brought to the table to celebrate Christmas.
). Debbie gives the calorie count and if it’s a side dish she gives you serving suggestions to keep your meal at about 
It had to happen, at some point, I was going to be assigned a Vegan blog. I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t have an issue, but the family…well, as along as I didn’t get weird on them they probably would be okay.
