Veggie-Enhanced Popovers

Ok, so I'm probably the least interested in food of any of the frequent readers and contributors here.  My criteria, which work pretty well for me, are that a meal has to contain at least one vegetable, have almost no sugar, and be edible to a four year old.  Also it has to be quick and easy enough to conceive, execute, consume, and clean up from in one hour max while also hanging out said four year old. Lately I've been capitalizing on the popularity of both muffins and Yorkshire pudding to bang out some veggie popovers that meet all these criteria and then some.  Here's how: Take half a large yellow onion (one small also OK), two large carrots, and a quarter of a 6 inch cabbage.  Chop in the food processor until evenly small.  Mushrooms are also good here.  I'd also do Kale but haven't tried that yet, would not do spinach because it's too wet.  Take three sausages, we usually have either mild Italian or brats, either is fine.   Slice the sausage into rounds and sautee until  thoroughly cooked.  Toss in veggies and sautee to doneness.  You herbs-and-spices folks can probably come up with something clever here; I usually just end up shaking on a little salt to make sure the veggies cook.  While veggies are in the pan, mix a standard Yorkshire pudding recipe (6 eggs, beaten, then add 2 C flour, 2T salt, 2C milk and beat until bubbly.  Seriously, it's that easy).  I actually thought it might be interesting to try this with self-rising flour the other day, but chickened out at the last minute.  But I digress.  Back to the recipe.  Mix the veggies and sausage into the batter.  Watch out for temp, you don't want to hit eggs with a quick shock of hot oil.  I usually find that by the time I have the batter together the veggies have cooled enough.  Spray two muffin tins with cooking spray, then nearly fill with the batter.  Pop in 400F oven, monitor for doneness, plan for 15-20 min cooking time.  When they come out the are kind of like mini toad-in-the-hole, but with LOTS of nearly hidden and non-extractable veggies (fellow parents will understand the importance of non-extractability !).  We often eat these as a meal unto themselves, but they would of course present better with a salad on the plate.  Samara and Pat love them, and we usually have them left over for a little while.  It's great to have a bunch in the fridge for a quick snack.  Samara found out that they're also pretty good with a little butter when hot, but hey, let's face it, what isn't?  Cheers, and enjoy!

Frittata

What, no post on Frittatas yet?  I'm amazed.  Jo turned us on to this dish by taking us out for brunch at Morning Glory in south Philly and I have been working on making them at home.  The recipe is simple and variable:  saute up whatever veggie goodness suites you, add scrambled eggs and cheese, and cook, browning the top under the broiler at the end.  Kind of like a quiche with no crust.  Except, not so many onions.  And cooked (see further, below) on the stove top.

Obviously this recipe is open to creativity.  My favorite so far is broccoli and mushroom with feta cheese.  Includes chopped onion and some garlic, of course.  I like to add a small glug of milk to the scrambled egg to help it fluff up (not as much as for a quiche).

The trick is in getting it to cook properly.  The egg fluffs up and if you get the egg to pan diameter wrong, gets too deep to cook through before the bottom burns (bummer).  I found an 8 inch cast iron skillet is right for a 2 egg frittata, which is about the right size for the two of us (but may be the right size for one active younger person).  I start by sauteing the onion and garlic in a little butter but add some water before things dry out and basically steam the vegetables.  Once they are cooked, I add the scrambled eggs (with a glug of milk and a dash of Worcestershire sauce) and scramble the veggies into the egg, then add the cheese on top (press it into the egg) and let it be.  Once it has started to cook on the stove top, I transfer it to the oven for more even heat.  When the egg is nearly all cooked I put it under the broiler to brown slightly.   Because we have a gas oven, I just turn on the broiler, which heats the oven above it to whatever temp you get when the broiler is running.

It may take a little practice to get this right, but it's worth it!

Homemade nut butters

As most of you know, I started making nut butters a couple months ago.  We were eating a TON of peanut butter, but then I read a book about nutrition that touched on the different beneficial fatty acids that are found in different kinds of nuts.  I decided I wanted to diversify our nut consumption, but found that alternatives to peanut butter are either hard to find or very expensive.  So, I decided to try to make my own.  Turns out it's really simple, can give great results, and can be cheaper than buying nut butters. Notice the "can"s in the previous sentence.  I've been getting pecans, almonds, and cashews at CostCo for a pretty decent price, so it ends up being cheaper than buying nut butters.  It's pretty obvious, though, that most of the cost of nut butters is the nuts, and the nut butter makers buy them in bulk.  I still think it's worth it, though, because you can make butters that you can't easily buy and you can make them the way you like.  I've learned that I like more of a roasted flavor and more salt than is present in most nut butters.  It's been fun to play around, and I've only ruined a few pounds of nuts by over roasting them.

The entire process is ridiculously simple.  Spread a pound or two of nuts in a single-ish layer in a roasting pan.  Roast between 375-400 degrees until desired level of brown, turning occasionally.  I check and turn pecans after 5 minutes initially, and then every 2-3 min.  Almonds I check and turn after 7 min, then at 3-5 min intervals.  Then, just throw the nuts in a food processor and process.  Initially, you'll make nut flour.  Keep processing, stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary.  This is the only part that can be annoying, especially with the almonds.  Eventually the nuts will release their oils and your flour will turn into butter.  The longer you process, the more liquidy it becomes.  Pecans go pretty quickly, almonds take longer.  You can add salt or other additives towards the end.  Some recommendations from on-line include cinnamon, vanilla, coconut, and ground hot pepper.

I store our butters at room temp, but I've read that if you add things besides nuts and salt, you should store them in the fridge.  I prefer to add those things to individual servings.

We eat almond butter on apples and bananas, pecan butter on apples and crackers, and pecan butter with smoked gouda is amazing.  I also like to mix different butters together to put on french toast, especially with some mix berries on top.  Cashew butter is the richest, and pairs amazingly with dark chocolate, especially as a topping on ice cream.  I haven't made my own peanut butter, yet.  It's so cheap to buy, I'm not sure it will be worth it.

-Maggie

Tower of Power - revisted

I finally made Andy's Power of Tower breakfast!  I don't know why it took me this long, but it won't be that long before I make it again.  It's great!  We made a few modifications based on personal preferences and what we had around.  First, we didn't have any cherry tomatoes, so we left those out.  I will definitely try to have them on hand next time.  I think they would add a lot to this dish.  I would probably sprinkle some balsamic vinegar over the tomatoes at the end of their cooking, and maybe leave the vinegar off the spinach.  I think the vinegar flavor is good, but it didn't come through as much as I would have liked on the spinach.  Second, we went with the "if the knife touches onions, it may as well touch garlic" theory.  To do this, we put some butter and minced garlic in a dish, then microwaved them until the butter was melted.  When the sweet potatoes were done, we brushed the garlic and butter over them and put them back in the oven briefly.  Finally, I sprinkled some grated swiss cheese over the whole thing at the end.  I liked this (I mean, it's cheese, so....), but it didn't add a ton.  Maybe if I had higher quality cheese this would have added more.  In the end, I feel full and satisfied in that "we had a good special breakfast" way, but not gross or bloated, and ready to get moving.

Thanks for the great idea, Andy!

-Maggie