The Infamous Coveted Quiche Recipe

Dear queenly cooks,

When I was little, my Mom would occasionally make spinach quiche - one of my favorite dinners, and I especially loved the tender flaky crust.  For years (we won't say how many) I thought she was saying "Keith", and always associated the green spinach-y quiche with Keith Green.

Well, live and learn to spell, right?

The following recipe is so excessively simple you almost feel stupid making it.  It has endless options for variation and can be modified to fit any taste/leftovers in the fridge.  It is also exceedingly popular - I've made it for a few events and the guests always come to me and ask for the recipe - or, they just eat every quiche on the platter and thereby cast their silent vote of approval.

I pulled the original recipe from the 2002 Taste of Home Annual Cookbook (a $0.50 find at an estate sale!).  I'll post it in the original form, in case it was a lost favorite of yours, and include my tweaks in italics.

Mini Mexican Quiches

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 package (3 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup (4 oz) shredded Monterey Jack cheese (or any cheese, really)
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies, drained (I opened 1 pint of halved poblano chilies that I canned in vinegar, and minced them for filling. You can use any chilies or peppers you like, but for large crowds I keep the filling mild since in general crowds won't eat spicy foods.)
2 eggs
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Other filling ideas: bacon, sausage, chicken, ham etc cooked and minced small.  Chopped bell peppers, tomatoes, various cheeses, olives - black or stuffed ... obviously, the possibilities are endless.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and cream cheese (I use a stand mixer for easier mixing). Add flour; beat until will blended.  Shape into 24 balls (each ball will weigh 13 grams); cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  Press balls onto the bottom and up the sides of GREASED mini muffin tins.  Sprinkle a rounded teaspoonful (a generous pinch) or cheese and 1/2 teaspoon of chilies/various fillings into each shell.  In a bowl, beat eggs, cream, salt and pepper (I do this while the dough is chilling).  Spoon into shells. Bake at 350F for 30 - 35 minutes or until golden brown.  Let stand for 5 minutes before removing from tins.  Serve hot or cold.  Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 2 dozen.

Enjoy your "keith"!


Mrs H
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Punchy flavor?

Dear party-goers, 

This recipe comes from my mom, Leslie.  I use it whenever I am serving at a party or some shower or event.  It's super easy, flexible, and - most importantly - simple and straightforward to maintain, even with a large crowd guzzling down punch!  All of the ingredients are completely interchangeable based on your taste preference and the prices at the grocery store.  

Leslie's Party Punch 

Quantities depend on the size of your crowd, but I'll give the approximate measurements for the average punchbowl. 

1 frozen drink concentrate (any fruity flavor that sounds good)

1 liter ginger-ale, or citrus-soda, 7-up, club soda, home-carbonated water, etc

Pineapple rings (optional)

1 quart frozen sorbet or sherbet or both - preferably homemade! (Use sorbet for vegan punch)

Ice-cold water 

Dump the concentrate, soda, pineapple rings (if using), and sorbet/sherbet into the punchbowl.  Top off with water - if you wish, you can use 1/2 liter soda and more ice-water.  It just depends on how many guests you have, supplies you have, how fizzy you like it, etc.  Adjust quantities based on your taste - it is VERY flexible! 

During the party, just keep dumping random quantities of these ingredients into the bowl.  Take it upon yourself to taste several cups, in the best interest of your guests, of course! 

When I make this at a party (if I am not hosting at my home) I bring a cooler with a few tubs of sherbet or sorbet, a few liters soda, some frozen concentrates, and a water jug of ice-water.  

Happy party-hosting! 

Mrs H
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Tart, Fresh Lemony Goodness

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Dear zesty readers,

The following recipes are based on the fresh, summery taste of the sprightly lemon.  Only use organic lemons for the following recipes, even if you aren't an "organic produce" fan; the peel of the lemon goes into these recipes and you don't want to know what is sprayed onto that peel.

To wash the lemons: scrub thoroughly with a veggie scrubber in a mixture of white vinegar and water,( and, if you have it, veggie wash).

The sorbet/sherbet recipes are drawn from "The Perfect Scoop", my favorite frozen treat cookbook.

Lemon Sorbet
Makes about 1 quart (1 liter)
This recipe would qualify as both vegan and gluten-free

2 1/2 cups water
1 cup sugar (you can add more if you like it sweeter)
2 lemons, organic
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 6 lemons) or bottled (if you squeeze it yourself, pick the seeds out of the pulp and include the pulp with the juice.  Sometimes I use a mixture of fresh-squeezed orange and lemon juice.)

In a medium, nonreactive saucepan, mix 1/2 cup of the water and the sugar.  Grate the zest of the 2 lemons directly into the saucepan.  Heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar is completely dissolved.  Remove from the heat and add the remaining 2 cups water (if you're in a hurry, make this water be ice-water or at least ice-cold!), then chill thoroughly in the refrigerator.
Stir the lemon juice into the sugar syrup, then freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturers directions.

Lemon Sherbet
Makes about 1 quart
This recipe would qualify as being vegetarian (but not vegan) and gluten-free

3 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 lemon, organic
6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 - 3 lemons)

In a medium, nonreactive saucepan, mix 1 cup of the milk with the sugar.  Grate the zest of the lemon directly into the saucepan.  Heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar is dissolved.  remove from the heat and add the remaining 2 cups milk, then chill thoroughly in the refrigerator.
Stir the lemon juice into the milk mixture.  If it curdles a bit, whisk it vigorously to make it smooth again.  Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions.

Tips on ice-cream making: I have the Cuisinart ice-cream maker and it works excellently, is easy to use and clean, and I use it often!  Store the churn piece in your freezer so that it is always ready for use.  If this is the mixer you have, assemble for use and start the churn spinning, and then pour the liquid through the hole in the top.  If it is spinning before you pour, the ice-cream doesn't stick to the sides as much.  Then, cover the churn with plastic and swaddle in a bath towel.  This insulates it and speeds up the process.  On average, churning the ice-cream custards and sherbet/sorbets takes about 30 minutes.  The recipes about take 20 - 30 minutes to thicken up.  When the frozen treat is thickened, scoop it out and put it in a tub and store in the freezer to firm up.  If your churn is not completely rock-solid frozen before you start churning, your ice-cream will churn forever and never get thick.

Happy churning!


Mrs H
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willful waste makes woeful want

Dear wandering wonderers,

The above quote is dated from 1576, and is a precursor to the later 1772 version of "waste not, want not".  Who knows when the quotes were actually coined; these are just the earliest dates we have them recorded.  However, the concept is ageless and contains more than a morsel of truth.

I learned some clever tips for wasting not from some more experienced canning friends, and since they are such beautiful ways of using what would otherwise be food refuse, I want to share them with you.

In a previous post I mentioned that blending tomato peels makes an excellent tomato paste; in this post, I willl show you what to do with the peels and cores of fruit. 

The other evening I made a batch of sweetened, spiced pear-sauce using about 20 pounds of organic red bartlett pears.  The sauce was delicious, and simple: peeled, cored, chopped pears, cooked soft, mashed with a potato masher, and just a hint of cinnamon, allspice, clove, and ginger thrown in.  Put into pint jars, process for 15 minutes like applesauce.  But what to do with the leftover pile of peels and cores?  Waste not!  Depending on the tools available for your use, there are two ways of going about this.  I'll give you the optimal method first.

Taking my cue from Miz Carmen, I borrowed her steamer-juicer and set it up on my stove while I made the pear-sauce.  I piled the peels and cores in the top, put boiling water in the bottom, and let it percolate for an hour or two.  The juice that steamed out of the peels I reserved in a half-gallon jar, and then boiled with a little sugar and a bit of lemon juice.  I added two boxes of no-sugar pectin, and jarred it in 4-oz and half-pint containers.  Voila - pear jelly!  And the heap of hot, steamed peels with all of the flavor and goodness extracted were still good for composting.  Waste not! 

If you don't have access to a steamer-juicer, here is the second option:  Put the peels and cored in a saucepan with a little water; let them simmer and bubble for a while.  Pour into a mesh strainer over a bowl and mash out any juice.  Then, make into jelly per the instructions in the pectin box or as directed above.

Off to enjoy some jelly on my toast! 

Wasting not,


Mrs H
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'maters 'n katchup 'n blisters

Dear fellow food-enthusiasts,

Last Friday Mr. H and I took my brother's truck and picked up a round 410 lbs of tomatoes (the next day this was supplemented by an additional 40 lb box from the same farmer). Needless to say, the last week has been spent sorting, washing, coring peeling choppingblendingandotherthings. My friend Miz Carmen and I placed the bulk of the order together, although smaller portions went to a few friends; she and I have spent many late nights bent over the pressure canners!

We read some very useful tomato tips from another home-canner's blog; after blending tomatoes for sauce, let them sit in the refrigerator overnight to separate the majority of the water from the tomato. The water settles to the bottom of the container, leaving the thicker tomato on top. This saves a lot of time when cooking the tomato down to reduce to sauce. However, there is one caveat to this tip: as we learned towards the end of our tomato sprint, the tomatoes need to be blended fairly fine in order for this to work. At first we thought our tomatoes weren't separating because they were romas, and more meatier than beefsteak; but we found eventually that the more finely blended romas separated just fine overnight. You can remove the water by pouring off the tomato and leaving the water in the container, siphoning out the water from the bottom, or using a turkey baster. We used clear containers for our tomatoes so it was easy to see the water level.

After separation: Tomato sauce on the left, water on the right.

Every year while canning, it is customary for me to sustain at least one scar-worthy injury. Last year, I reached behind a canning pot to grab a pear that fell on the stove, and got a harsh steam burn on my forearm that left a nice purple scar. This year, the Accident happened while canning tomatoes. I had boiled a large pot of sauced tomatoes until they reduced to about half, and added a generous mix of spices and onions and shredded horseradish root to make seafood cocktail sauce. After boiling, I was going to blend the sauce in cupfuls, as I had already blended two previous pots of ketchup, and return the blended sauce to the cookpot and then can in half-pints. I poured a cupful in the blender, clamped on the lid, cranked up the speed to 3, and in a hissing, steaming burst of red not unlike a catsup hand grenade, boiling tomatoes exploded all over the deck, the table, and me. I reached into the fiery inferno to shut off the blender and went into the house to lick my wounds and survey the damage. Overall, it wasn't too bad; my apron over my clothes had protected me with a double-layer of cloth, and most of the splatters on my arms were too small to cause much damage; however, my right hand had been the closest to the eruption by dint of the fact that it was the tool with which I had turned on the blender. It had a thick coating of tomato sauce and shredded horseradish, and when I rinsed it under cold water I could see the bubbling red tomato sauce would soon give way to bubbling red skin.

Scene of the crime, post clean-up

It is still blistered and bubbled, but surprisingly it never really hurt too bad. I did manage to burn the same hand twice more the following day - once on the thumb, and then across the palm when I grabbed a hot pan - but I don't think those mionor aftershocks will leave any permanent damage.

All things considered, the cocktail sauce turned out spicy and delicious, and I can't wait to enjoy it with home made fries and Mr. H's fresh-caught seafood.

Fresh peels in a bucket on the right, blended peels on the left

A last Useful Tip on tomatoes comes from a combination of lessons learned from pears and peaches, and the timeless Waste not Want not adage. I'll share the lesson about the pears and peaches in a subsequent blog, but for now I will share with you a jewel of a tip from tomatoes. Save aside the 10+ pounds of skins from blanching/shocking all of your whole and diced canned tomatoes in a bucket or something. Set up a blender and squeeze some of the water out of a handful or so at a time; blend for several minutes per handful, and cook the resulting sauce for a little (depending on how much water you squeezed out) to reduce to a thick, nutritious tomato paste.

We had been planning to sauce a batch of tomatoes and cook them down for a billion hours to reduce to tomato paste, but this method works so well, uses the skins in a pertinent way, and saves time and money. Miz Carmen froze some of her tomato paste in ice-cube trays to freeze and vacuum seal later; not having the luxury of a spare freezer, I am pressure-canning my paste in 4-oz jars.

Happy tomato canning!
Be sure to leave a comment or click the "getting in touch" tab above if you have any fabulous tips or links to share.


blessings,


Mrs H
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Rhubarb for Bakers

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Dear querying fans,

I realize that not all of you can, or are interested in canning, but many of you enjoy baking.  The following recipes call for rhubarb and are enormously delightful.  Both receive rave reviews every time I make them, and the plates are wiped clean!

This recipe was given to me by my mother-in-law - the original Mrs. H!  She found it and tweaked it last summer, and it's a family classic now.

Joan's Rhubarb Custard Pie
Best served slightly cooled
2 cups diced rhubarb (when it's out of season, I use two pints, drained, of canned rhubarb)
2 teaspoons butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cream (2% milk works as well)
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 egg yolks, beaten until thick (save the great whites - see below)

1 8" pie shell, baked and cooled

2 egg whites for meringue (I don't know how you make your meringue but I follow the Cook's Illustrated instructions.  I've included those directions below but feel free to do it however you like.)
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a saucepan, combine rhubarb, butter, and sugar, and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally until rhubarb is soft (keep an eye on it.  You don't want it to stick, but at the same time if you overstir the rhubarb will get tough.)  Beat together cream, cornstarch, and beaten egg yolks.  Slowly pour into hot rhubarb mixture in a thin stream, mixing quickly and thoroughly.  Pour into pie shell while still hot.


Meringue:  Mix cornstarch with water in small saucepan; bring to simmer, whisking occasionally at beginning and more frequently as mixture thickens.  THIS HAPPENS FAST!  When mixture starts to simmer and turn translucent, remove from heat.  Let cool while beating egg whites (instructions below).

Heat oven to 325 degrees.  Mix cream of tartar and sugar together.  Beat egg whites and vanilla until frothy.  Beat in sugar mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time.  Add cornstarch mixture (globs),  1 tablespoon at a time; continue to beat meringue to stiff peaks.





Spread meringue over pie filling with a spatula, making sure to "glue" it to the crust of the pie so that it does not shrink away during baking.  Bake for 10 - 15 minutes, until meringue is browned.

 Buttermilk-Rhubarb Cake with Vanilla Sauce
from Taste of Home 2002 cookbook

Batter:
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk (powdered works fine)
2 cups chopped fresh or frozen rhubarb thawed,
or 2 pints canned rhubarb or rhubarb-strawberry pie filling, drained

Streusel Topping:
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Vanilla Sauce:
½ cup butter
¾ cup sugar
½ cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F.  In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar; beat in egg.  In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating just until moistened.  Fold in rhubarb.  Pour into greased 9x9” square pan (I made 9x9” cake and 9 muffins). 

I promise you ... it's delicious.

In another bowl, blend topping ingredients and sprinkle over batter.  Bake muffins for approximately 20 minutes, and cake for approximately 40 – 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.  (Be gentle when removing cupcakes; the rhubarb makes the cake tend to fall apart deliciously!)

For sauce, melt butter in a small saucepan.  Add sugar and evaporated milk.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cook and stir for 2 – 3 minutes or until thickened.  Remove from heat, whisk in vanilla.  Drizzle hot over cake when you serve.  


Happy baking! 


Love, 

Mrs H
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