Brunch Quiche and Dreams of Paris

The day before Easter, I bought two dozen medium eggs to boil and dye. I like to dye the medium eggs because they are cute and less of an investment - nobody here really likes hardboiled eggs. Our Saturday got away from us and we never had time to actually boil or dye eggs, and Sunday was even busier. I found myself with two dozen medium sized eggs in my fridge that needed to be used.
At the same time, I had a serious craving for ham with Herb de Provence. When I was in Paris last summer, we bought some ham at a local grocery store, just for making quick sandwiches with, and I was amazed at how amazing the flavor was simply because it was seasoned with a little Herb de Provence. It is such a wonderful aromatic combination of herbs (hello, lavender!), and seems to pair well with ham.
So, I decided to delight my husband with one of his favorite foods of all times, and make him a quiche that he could eat throughout the busy work week. I decided to experiment (because that's what I do!) and came up with my own quiche recipe, and let me tell you: this was the best quiche I have ever had. I HIGHLY recommend making it if you are a quiche-lover. It's definitely not low-calorie, but would be great at a brunch, or a protein-rich start to your day.
And because I'm not a huge fan of blogs that are so filled with photos of the food that you have to scroll forever to find the recipe, here it is right at the top, for your ease.

Ham and Herb de Provence Quiche
Preheat oven to 400*
1 pie crust prepared and in 9" pie plate
(I prefer homemade. An easy recipe is just 1 cup flour, 1/3 cup butter, a pinch of salt and sugar, and a couple tablespoons of very cold water - enough to get the dough to stick together. Add flour, butter, salt, sugar, and combine using a pastry cutter or fork until dough is sticking together in pea-sized chunks, add water little by little until dough sticks together. Form ball, chill for about 15 minutes before rolling out.)

12 medium eggs or 10 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 t Dijon mustard
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1 t Herb de Provence (you can find it in the bulk spice section of most higher-end grocery stores)
1 T finely chopped chives - more is not a bad thing if you feel like it (just use kitchen shears for ease)
1 cup fresh grated Jack cheese (yes, I know, not traditional Swiss like most quiche, but Jack is creamier, trust me)
1 cup chopped ham of your choice - the better quality, the better the flavor
2 T fresh parmesan cheese

1. In a large bowl, crack eggs, add heavy cream, and mustard, and blend with an immersion blender until it's a bit frothy - at least a minute, two is okay.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and gently combine so the cheese disperses (you don't want it all clumped up).
3. Pour egg mixture into pie crust. You can top with extra Jack cheese if you want.
4. Bake at 400* for 20 minutes, then turn oven down to 375* and bake for 25 more minutes (total of 45).
5. Pull it out, and give it a little jiggle. If it doesn't move, then double check by gently pressing down on the top middle. If it feels firm, take it out immediately and cool on a rack. You don't want to overcook a quiche - that's how it gets rubbery.
In this case, after 45 minutes, it was set, but the middle was a little soft when I cut into it. That actually makes it really delicious. This quiche has a very creamy texture.

Originally, I made this quiche mostly for my husband, but I ended up eating almost as much of it as he did. It was so good.
And since I'm really missing Paris, let's relive that trip with a couple of photos I took while I was there. It was glorious. I would go back tomorrow if I could. Maybe you can look at them and pretend you are in Paris while you eat the quiche. Au Revoir!

 (We were there for Bastille Day - this was shot from the balcony of our AirBNB.)

 (This is a Chateau in a tiny little town outside of Paris called Maintenon. So very Cinderella.)

 (This is inside the dome of Sacre Couer.)

(This is the Chateau Vaux le Vicomte - also a little ways outside of Paris and well worth a visit.)

Banishing Dairy

A couple years ago, I went through this horrible phase of stomach problems.  In the process, I learned that red meat and dairy are my triggers.  Red meat was fairly easy to eliminate from my life - we didn't eat much of it anyway - but dairy is a lot harder.  I have never tried to completely eliminate dairy, but I have drastically cut back on how much I consume.  Ever since doing both of these things, my body is much happier with me.
I am currently experimenting with almond milk.  In fact, we ran out of regular milk and all we had in the fridge tonight was vanilla sweetened almond milk.  My son really wanted crepes for dinner (sort of an off-and-on Sunday night tradition in our house).  I decided to try dairy-free crepes and I am pleased to report that they were a huge hit.  The texture was even more delicate than with regular milk and they had a subtle nutty flavor that we all enjoyed - particularly my husband.  He was the one who told me this *had* to go on the blog.  So, with the disclaimer that I have never been to France, here you go:

Dairy-Free Crepes (based on the Betty Crocker crepe recipe)
1-1/2 cups flour (throw in half wheat flour if you want to add a healthier twist, but not more than half)
1 Tbls sugar (omit if you are using sweetened almond milk)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups almond milk
2 Tbls canola or vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs (add a third if you like a slightly chewier crepe)

Mix all dry ingredients, then add in wet ingredients.  Stir until very smooth with a whisk (or you can throw everything into a blender).  Let the batter rest for about half an hour.  You can even leave it in the fridge overnight. 
I use this wonderful Italian crepe pan my husband got for me.  You heat it right on a burner then dip the hot pan into the batter, flip it back over and set it back on the stove to set.  You can also make them in a pan, but I confess, I am not great at getting them thin and uniform.
Top/fill with your favorite ingredients.  I like strawberries and bananas with chocolate or raspberries and whip cream.

Breakfast Frugality...sort of

Let's go back about 10 days to a couple Thursdays ago...I got this brilliant idea, after a trip to the grocery store, to make my own english muffins.  We're not huge loaf-bread-eaters in our house (we might go through one loaf on a good week, usually it goes bad before we finish it), so making traditional bread has never made much sense to me.  However, we go through a lot of english muffins (and raisin bread) in our house and I am always dismayed at how expensive the *good* english muffins are.  I started doing some research to see how exactly you make english muffins and it was about this time that I realized that good english muffins are sourdough.  I then did some research about sourdough starters and realized that this whole process was going to take me a lot longer than I had initially thought.  The good news was, though, that I would have this living sourdough starter in my fridge to make all sorts of good things with.  I found lots of different ways to make starters.  Everything from pineapple juice and wheat flour (interesting?) to just plain flour and water.  I chose this one from William Sonoma, which is flour, water, greek yogurt and buttermilk powder - although I had to omit the buttermilk powder since I didn't own any.  In the end, I doubt it would affect the flavor in any way.

So, I mixed my starter and let it sit on my kitchen counter for 48 hours, stirring it twice a day.  It was pretty gross to watch wheat ferment.  After the required 48 hours, it had gotten nice and bubbly and was sufficiently stinky.  I found a jar and put it in the fridge and let it sit there for a week.  I wanted to make sure I had good, strong sourdough to work with.  Yesterday, the day that my starter needed to be fed (something that must be done weekly to keep it alive), I decided to begin the process of making the english muffins.  Recipe found HERE.  I used about half whole wheat pastry flour.
Last night I took a cup of starter and mixed it with flour, honey and milk and let it sit out for 16 hours.  At the same time I fed my starter by replacing what I took out with half a cup of water and half a cup of flour, then letting it also sit out for 12ish hours before putting it back into the fridge.
This afternoon I checked on the dough.  Things were definitely happening so I finished off the recipe.  I am intrigued by this process.  Without any yeast, I ended up with rising, bubbly dough. 
From the start of mixing the starter last night to finishing frying the last english muffin, the whole process was 20 hours.  10 days if you count all that starter business.  I probably saved myself $5 by making these myself.  And they do taste really good.  That sourdough is pretty pungent.  If you factor in all my time, though, I wouldn't call this any kind of cost savings.  So now the question is: are these good enough to be worth the trouble?  I'll have to eat them for a week first to really have an answer to that.  The boys will have to weigh in on this too.  When I've made homemade breads before, the kids always refuse to eat it (too heavy, I think).  If they refuse to eat these too then that will probably answer my question too.  I'm also looking forward to attempting to make that sourdough bread with the really crusty crust.

Breakfast Tradition

I'm on a breakfast-posting-kick it appears.  I was making this particular breakfast this morning and wondering if it was something novel or if everyone does this with left-overs.  This is for those out there, like me, who always make too much rice or noodles (although admittedly due to this breakfast I do it on purpose sometimes).  This is a tradition from my grandpa's side of the family.  Apparently his dad was always in charge of making breakfast for the family when they were growing up and he made this from time to time.  It's simple: you just throw some left-over rice or noodles into scrambled eggs.  It is surprisingly delightful.  Growing up it was always a treat which is kind of funny, because it was probably the kind of breakfast originally created to make food stretch a little farther.  I tend to eat a lot of scrambled eggs and it's always nice to change up a boring old egg sometimes.
This morning I discovered we had both rice and noodles in the fridge so I asked my 4-yr-old (who is particularly fond of eggs made this way) which one.  He cheerfully suggested we use both and so we did.  It was a first for me and I really liked it.
So: it's very unscientific.  Use about 1/4 cup of cold, cooked rice or noodles per egg.  Throw a little bit of butter into a skillet, add the rice/noodles and saute in the butter.  The rice will pop and sizzle a little bit.  When it's warmed up and softened, add the egg(s) and scramble into the rice/noodles.  Cook eggs to your desired level of firmness.  I like to then mix in a little bit of grated cheese at the end.
White or brown rice works, but I am not a fan of basmati or jasmine - too much flavor with the eggs.  My favorite kind of noodles are shells or broken up linguine.

Another breakfast tradition from the same family is to make potato cakes out of mashed potatoes - another thing I always make too much of.  Just take a scoop of mashed potatoes, shape it into a patty and fry it in a skillet.  So good with the crispy top and bottom and the creamy middle. 

Better Mini Donuts

Alright.  Raise your hand if you splurged on the mini donut maker thinking you could make delightful mini donuts to thrill your children (occasionally, of course).  You then brought it home, made the recipe that came with the directions and were subsequently not thrilled.  The donuts tasted like waffles and you thought: bummer.  Anyone?  Anyone?  I know there's at least one hand up out there.
After that first try, I put the donut maker away - far back in the cupboard and forgot about it.  Then last night my son was talking on and on about how much he loves donuts and how we should really have some for breakfast in the morning.  This woke up my curious brain and I while I was reconsidering the donut maker, I wondered if using something similar to cake batter would get better results.  So, this morning I dug out the donut maker and looked at my various cake recipes and decided to do a little experiment.  I liked the results a lot better than that first disappointing try.  In fact, I would venture to say that if you use enough PAM in the pan, you get pretty close to cake-donut-flavor/texture.  So here's the recipe, for all of you that hung your head in shame for falling for a very unnecessary kitchen appliance (I still can't help you with that sandwich maker from 1998 collecting dust back there too - I got rid of mine ages ago).

Buttermilk Mini Donuts
1-1/4 cup flour
1 Tbls cornstarch (because I add it to all cake and baked goods for smoothness)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
6 Tbls butter (melted)
1 egg + 1 egg white
2 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup buttermilk
(food coloring is optional but festive)

Since we're not making a fancy cake, just beat all the ingredients together at once until just smooth.
Pour a heaping tablespoon of batter into each donut compartment of hot donut maker.  Cook as directed.  For donuts with a little bit of crispy texture on the outside, spray lots of PAM on the top and bottom of the pan between each batch.  Makes about 4 batches of 7 donuts - maybe 5 if you don't over-pour.

Chocolate Glaze
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1-1/2 cup powdered sugar

Whisk all ingredients together until smooth.  Dip slightly cooled donuts into glaze before serving.

(And yes.  I too am laughing that my previous post was for a very healthy breakfast and this, as my 4-yr-old said after proclaiming it the most delicious breakfast he had ever had, is very unhealthy.  I would argue that it is at least slightly healthier than ordering donuts from your local donut shop.  I am a great believer in moderation in all things.  Variety is the spice of life, as they say.)

Big-Protein Breakfast

I love breakfast, but I have to be really careful what I eat in the morning.  If I eat lots of carbs, I end up having a major sugar crash about an hour later that leaves me shaky.  So for me, cereal is pretty much off the table unless I'm in a hurry and I pack a snack.  I love pancakes but they cause me similar issues or just leave me with that "ugg" feeling.  Awhile ago I saw a recipe on pinterest for almond meal pancakes.  I love almond meal and add it to all sorts of things like muffins and banana bread.  So, I pinned it mostly to remind myself to try out something similar - not necessarily the exact recipe (it didn't quite look like my thing but I liked the idea).  Using almond meal instead of flour means these are heavy on the protein and light on the carbs - a perfect way to start the day.  These are even gluten-free.

This morning I finally had a chance to experiment with a couple of different batches and we all liked the results - particularly the 2-yr-old.  He ate more breakfast than I've seen him eat in ages. 
These are a pretty flat pancake, and they have a nice somewhat crumbly texture and a light, nutty flavor.  I'm not a syrup fan (we don't even have any in our house) so I just dusted a little powdered sugar on top.  Honey would be another great alternative topping.  Jam or applesauce would work too.

Almond Meal Pancakes
1-1/2 cups almond meal
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
2 tbls oil
2 tsp vanilla

Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Add milk, eggs, oil and vanilla and whisk until all ingredients are combined.  Fry on medium-low to medium heat in a well-oiled pan.  Watch closely for bubbles, when the bottom side is lightly browned and the pancake is firm, flip and cook the other side for about a minute.  Re-oil pan between batches (even if it's non-stick).  Makes about 6-8 6" pancakes.

Breakfast: German Pancakes

Whew! I'm on a roll posting to this blog this week.
Today: Breakfast. I was making a German Pancake this morning per my husband's request and was thinking about what a wonder they are. This is our favorite breakfast, hands down (although we've not been able to convince our boys to give it a shot). It is a delightfully puffy blend of salty, sweet and sour.
I love what eggs do in the oven, I mean, look at this thing!While I am pretty sure most people know how to make a German Pancake, I will give the recipe anyway.

German Pancakes
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
6 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
lemon juice and powdered sugar to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place butter in a 9x13 pan and melt in warming oven (watch carefully so butter does not burn - best to do this while the oven is warming, not when it has reached temperature).
While butter is melting, combine flour, milk, eggs and salt in a bowl with an immersion blender or whisk (or you can dump it all into a blender) until well blended and smooth.
Remove buttered pan from oven, poor batter into pan over butter and bake for 20-25 minutes on the center rack. Check after about 18 minutes and reduce heat if the pancake's peaks start to burn. Remove from oven when pancake is thoroughly browned and fluffy. Pour lemon juice liberally over pancake, then sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve. Makes 4-6 servings depending on how hungry everyone is. Eat when fresh from the oven and hot, do not save leftovers as they will turn rubbery.