Toys in the Kitchen Part 5, and Blender Quiche

My friend Karen, whose blog I follow, posted a recipe for quiche a few weeks ago (see it here) and I was inspired!  Oh, her recipe sounded so good, but it makes too much for my measly 9-inch, 1-inch-deep aluminum pie pan, as compared to her monster 11-inch, nearly 2-inch-deep ceramic one.  I guess I could scale it down to my size pan.

But then I thought - duh!  I have two perfectly good quiche recipes in my card file.  I haven't made a quiche in years.  I have two Real Men living here in the house, and as those of us of a Certain Age "know," Real Men Don't Eat Quiche!  LOL!  But they like eggs and cheese and onions and BACON (bacon makes everything better), so...

I got out my trusty old Black & Decker Crush Master blender and went to town.  Because this quiche is mixed in the blender, lots of air gets incorporated into the mix, which makes the quiche light and puffy instead of heavy and dense.  That Boy even ate his entire serving without picking out the vegetables!

I got in a hurry and forgot to
flute or crimp the pie crust!
It still tasted good!

Blender Quiche

4 eggs

1 c milk

1 T flour

1/2 t salt

1/4 t pepper

1/4 t nutmeg

1/2 bunch of green onions, cut in 1"-2" pieces, including tops

1 1/2 c (6 oz) shredded swiss cheese

4 slices cooked bacon, cut into 1" pieces

1 unbaked pie crust

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and set the rack in the middle position.  Put the first six ingredients in the blender and mix well.  Stop and add the onions, cheese, and bacon.  Pulse until the pieces are about 1/2" in size (6-10 times).  Pour into pie crust.  Bake 35-40 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let sit 10 minutes before serving.

TIPS:  You can just spray the pie pan or dish if you don't want the calories from the crust, add mushrooms, use a medium onion cut into eighths for the green onions, substitute light or whipping cream for the milk, or substitute cheddar cheese for swiss. 

For Quiche Lorraine, use 12 slices of bacon (1/2 pound before cooking), 1 c swiss (Gruyere) cheese, 1/3 c onion, light or whipping cream for the milk, no nutmeg, 1/4 t sugar, and 1/8 t cayenne red pepper.  Keep the eggs, flour, and salt.

Quick Chicken Saute with Bacon and Scallions (In My Cast Iron Skillet)

Here's another quick and easy recipe using those Chick-zilla boneless skinless breasts.  They generally run close to a pound EACH.  For this recipe, I use two of those huge chicken breasts.  I have to use my large 12-inch cast iron skillet because my largest Revere Ware skillet is only a 10-incher, and it just isn't big enough for those bad boys.

This is a pretty quick recipe, and it doesn't have a lot of ingredients, but it is super tasty!  I serve it over either spinach egg noodles or regular ol' egg noodles, and add a vegetable on the side.


Quick Chicken Saute with Bacon and Scallions

8 slices bacon, chopped
2 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast, sliced
6 scallions (green onion), chopped
1/4 c chicken stock or broth
1/4 c white wine (if you don't have any wine, you can replace it with more chicken stock or broth)

Preheat a large skillet over medium heat.  Add bacon and brown.  After the bacon is cooked, add chicken and brown on both sides.  Chicken is done when the juices run clear.  Add the liquids and stir in the scallions.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Serve with the liquid over noodles.

Kitchen Window Hydroponics

The celery after 4 days.

The scallions after 4 days.

Remember setting a stalk of celery in a glass with some water and a little food coloring and watching the daily progress of the color rising up the stalk?  How about putting the very top of a carrot in a little pan (usually from a frozen pot pie!) of shallow water and growing feathery carrot tops?  Or growing the seeds from lemons, oranges, and grapefruit in little paper cups of dirt?  Or suspending an avocado seed in a glass of water and seeing it sprout?  Those were some of the fun things Mom used to allow us to do in "her" kitchen!

Well, while I was waiting for the weather to dry out and warm up so I could dig up the garden and start planting my little seeds, I indulged in what I like to call "kitchen window hydroponics."

I've seen some pictures people have posted online of celery and scallions (green onions) growing on their kitchen counters and I decided to give it a try.  I had celery and scallions, so when I cut up the celery (I'd made Buffalo wings and needed celery and bleu cheese dressing, natch!), I saved the bottom, stuck in some toothpicks, and suspended it in some water in a tiny bowl.  When I needed some scallions for a recipe, I cut off all the green and some of the white, left them bundled in their rubber band, and put them in a coffee cup with a little water.  I change the container and water at least every other day to keep things from getting slimy and gross.

The celery, 3 days later!

The scallions, 3 days later!

It's amazing how quickly growth starts.  I mean, I could see things starting the very next day!  It's kind of exciting, watching these vegetables regenerate.  When the scallions get a few inches taller, I'll cut them off again and use those new tops.  I'm reserving plans for the celery, but it actually has stalks already.  We'll see how big it gets and what I'll be able to use it for.  FUN!!!

A New Season of CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) - What I Got

The first official CSA pickup was this past week, and here's what we got!

Green lettuce
Red lettuce
Kohlrabi
Radishes
Green onions

This year, it works a little differently.  Instead of showing up and picking what you want from what's available, a couple of days before the pickup day, you are emailed a list of what's going to be offered, and then choose what to pick up.  Then the price of what you choose is charged against your membership fee.  There were some weeks last year that I wasn't all that thrilled with what was on the list, so those weeks felt kind of wasted.  It's an evolving system.

Four weeks ago, we got a preview of what was to come.  LETTUCE!  It was pretty good, so I ordered some this time around.

Because I tried (and liked!) kohlrabi last year, I got some again.  They are HUGE!  And so PURPLE!  Here's how I prepared them last year.  They went over really well.

That Man likes radishes, so I got some especially for him.  I probably should have gotten an extra bunch.

Green onions go into a lot of things.  Hmmmm...  Maybe I should have gotten an extra bunch of those, too.

Anyway, it's another season of fresh veggies from the church's organic farm - YUM!