Mmmmmm Brunch! First a Quiche with spinach, baby portabella mushrooms, sausage, red onion, garlic and parmesan! Then Biscuits and Gravy with garlic and cumin and a delicious cup of coffee with beans from Caffé Vita!
I love brunch! Personally I love breakfast foods any time of day and the great thing about brunch is that it's good have any time between 11am to 1pm which means you get to SLEEP IN! Which I love to do! Bobby Flay on the Food Network currently has show dedicated to brunch and he has some amazing recipes on there to check out!
Making a quiche is easy and they are delicious! On top of that you can make a quiche in so many different ways. So a quiche is basically is an oven-baked dish made with eggs and milk or cream in a pastry crust. That's where you start and where you go is up to you! My quiche today had spinach, baby portabella mushrooms, sausage, red onion, garlic, parmesan and salt and pepper to taste. It was delicious! When making a quiche you have the choice of making your pie crust or buying it. This is definitely up to you, I personally love homemade pastry dough much more than store bought but time can be an issue. I would recommend taking the time to make your pie crusts ahead of time and keep them in your freezer so you can use them as you please. Otherwise pick the best quality pie crust in the freezer section of your local grocery store and treat it well.
Recipe:
1 C Sliced Baby Portabella Mushrooms
1 C Ground Sausage
1 C Packed Spinach
2 Garlic Cloves Minced
1/4 C Minced Red Onion
3 T Ground Cumin
2 T EVOO
1 C Shredded Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese
6 Large Eggs Scambled season with a pinch of salt and pepper
1 Pie Crust (homemade or store bought)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Bake the pie crust for 10 minutes and remove from the oven.
Season your ground sausage with salt, pepper and 1 T of cumin and mix thoroughly. Then make marble size balls with the sausage using a teaspoon and brown the sausage balls in a medium saute pan at a medium heat. Once browned move the sausage to a bowl. Return the pan to the heat and add the red onion and garlic. Saute for a minute and add mushrooms and spinach season with salt, pepper and the other 2 T of cumin plus the 2 T of EVOO. Toss everything together and saute until the spinach is wilted to a medium point and remove the pan from the heat.
Sprinkle a layer of the Parm/Reg in the bottom of the pie crust. Follow that with a layer of half of the mushroom/sausage/spinach mixture, followed by a layer of cheese followed by the rest of the mixture and top that with cheese. Then pour your scrambled eggs over tops of everything until the eggs fill the pie crust and almost reach the top. Shimmy the dish a little bit to get the egg mixture around everything in the pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Take the quiche out of the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Then slice into 6ths or 8ths, garnish with fresh fruit, serve and enjoy!
Brunch is fantastic and making a quiche can be so easy for you, friends and family to enjoy! Remember a quiche can be anything, instead of sausage use panchetta, instead of spinach use basil, toss some toasted pine nuts in there, add some roasted red peppers, what about some olives or maybe sun dried tomatoes. The combinations are endless and can be so delicious! So get in that kitchen and make it happen! Cooking is all love to me and a big brunch on a Sunday is a great way to prepare for the upcoming week.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Quick and Awesome!
I love cooking for people! I love cooking for myself but it is never as rewarding as when I cook and serve other people. If I am lucky enough I'll get a chance to cook for you too! For those of you who know me Thanksgiving can be my favorite days of the year because I turn it into a cooking THUNDERDOME!
So onto Quick and Awesome! One of my favorite things to make during the week is a stir-fry. Stir-fries are great because they can be done in a variety of ways, they are quick, delicious and AWESOME.
The other night I had my dad in town and he was feeling seafood so we ventured over to Whole Foods and found some amazing bay scallops and key west shrimp. Soon as we got home I had the meal together in 20 minutes and this is how.
Ingredients:
1/2-3/4 lb shrimp (deveined and cleaned)
1/2-3/4 lb bay scallops
1/2 a sliced red cabbage
1 zucchini - 8-10 inch halved and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 yellow summer squash - 8-10 inch halved and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 14oz Box of thin pad Thai noodles (Thai Kitchen makes a good noodle)
1/4 C Dean and Deluca Asian seasoning (it is a mix of pepper powder, garlic powder, ground coriander, sweet basil, ground ginger and more. Any Asian mix of seasoning will work, just make sure you taste it for it's salt content. If it's heavy in salt be careful how you salt your seafood or other protein you may use.
3 T Soy Sauce
2 T Butter
2 T Hoisin
Zest of 1 Lemon
Juice of 1/2 a Lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste
First! Get a two quart pot out fill Get your pans out and get two pans up on medium high, these will be for your scallops and shrimp. Use the directions on the packaging of noodles and start those. Wash all seafood thoroughly! After rinsing the scallops and shrimp soaking any mussel (shellfish) and shrimp really helps get all of the sand out. Salt and pepper the seafood on both sides. Sear the scallops and shrimp in a medium high pan that has been lightly coated in Veg Oil. The seafood should sizzle strongly the minute it hits the pan. Each side (and there are only TWO) should only take about 1 minute per side. Make sure when placing the seafood in the pan not to over crowd it.
Once the meat is in the pan toss all of your veggies in a medium high wok. Season veggies with Asian seasoning and toss with hoisin and soy sauce until everything is well coated. This should only take a second so make sure not to forget to flip your seafood. Add two table spoons of unsalted butter to the pan with scallops and coat all of the scallops and remove from the pan. Once your seafood is cooked remove it from the pan to a plate, drizzle with lemon juice and place to the side.
The noodles should be done by now and you want to strain those and toss them with the sesame seed oil. Then toss the noodles into the wok with the veggies and thoroughly mix. Now the next step is a personal choice. When I cook seafood and then mix it into a noddle veggie mix I don't like to toss the seafood with everything. I want to make sure everyone gets the same amount of seafood; so I first plate a softball sized portion of the noddle veggie mix onto a plate/bowl and then I put an equal portion of the seafood on top. I then mix everything by hand to not damage the seafood. Top with lemon zest and enjoy!
Stir-fries are quick and can be done in a variety of ways which is awesome and gives you not only a delicious meal but also a healthy one too!
So onto Quick and Awesome! One of my favorite things to make during the week is a stir-fry. Stir-fries are great because they can be done in a variety of ways, they are quick, delicious and AWESOME.
The other night I had my dad in town and he was feeling seafood so we ventured over to Whole Foods and found some amazing bay scallops and key west shrimp. Soon as we got home I had the meal together in 20 minutes and this is how.
Ingredients:
1/2-3/4 lb shrimp (deveined and cleaned)
1/2-3/4 lb bay scallops
1/2 a sliced red cabbage
1 zucchini - 8-10 inch halved and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 yellow summer squash - 8-10 inch halved and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 14oz Box of thin pad Thai noodles (Thai Kitchen makes a good noodle)
1/4 C Dean and Deluca Asian seasoning (it is a mix of pepper powder, garlic powder, ground coriander, sweet basil, ground ginger and more. Any Asian mix of seasoning will work, just make sure you taste it for it's salt content. If it's heavy in salt be careful how you salt your seafood or other protein you may use.
3 T Soy Sauce
2 T Butter
2 T Hoisin
Zest of 1 Lemon
Juice of 1/2 a Lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste
First! Get a two quart pot out fill Get your pans out and get two pans up on medium high, these will be for your scallops and shrimp. Use the directions on the packaging of noodles and start those. Wash all seafood thoroughly! After rinsing the scallops and shrimp soaking any mussel (shellfish) and shrimp really helps get all of the sand out. Salt and pepper the seafood on both sides. Sear the scallops and shrimp in a medium high pan that has been lightly coated in Veg Oil. The seafood should sizzle strongly the minute it hits the pan. Each side (and there are only TWO) should only take about 1 minute per side. Make sure when placing the seafood in the pan not to over crowd it.
Once the meat is in the pan toss all of your veggies in a medium high wok. Season veggies with Asian seasoning and toss with hoisin and soy sauce until everything is well coated. This should only take a second so make sure not to forget to flip your seafood. Add two table spoons of unsalted butter to the pan with scallops and coat all of the scallops and remove from the pan. Once your seafood is cooked remove it from the pan to a plate, drizzle with lemon juice and place to the side.
The noodles should be done by now and you want to strain those and toss them with the sesame seed oil. Then toss the noodles into the wok with the veggies and thoroughly mix. Now the next step is a personal choice. When I cook seafood and then mix it into a noddle veggie mix I don't like to toss the seafood with everything. I want to make sure everyone gets the same amount of seafood; so I first plate a softball sized portion of the noddle veggie mix onto a plate/bowl and then I put an equal portion of the seafood on top. I then mix everything by hand to not damage the seafood. Top with lemon zest and enjoy!
Stir-fries are quick and can be done in a variety of ways which is awesome and gives you not only a delicious meal but also a healthy one too!
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