Leftover quinoa makes a quick and easy frittata. Originally, I prepared the quinoa by simmering it in vegetable broth with sauteed onions and sun-dried tomatoes for approximately 5 minutes. Then, I covered the pan, removed it from the heat and allowed the quinoa to steam and absorb any remaining moisture.
Quinoa Frittata
serves 6 to 8
2 cups prepared quinoa
1 cup diced ham
8-10 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried ground basil
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Topping:
1/2 cup freshly ground bread crumbs
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. Stir well to combine. Pour into a large casserole dish brushed with olive oil. Sprinkle top with bread crumbs. Bake at 375 degrees F for 50 minutes or until the center is firm.
Do you see that speck of yellow at the upper left corner of this photo? It’s one of my favorite pantry items… Colman’s Mustard Powder. It ends up in sauces, vinaigrettes, salads, spice blends and more. Since I like to clean out my pantry every 4-6 months, I usually end up with just the right amount to whip up a batch of homemade mustard every few months.
Basic Mustard
makes just over 2 cups
1/2 cup Colman’s Mustard Powder
1/4 – 1/2 cup black mustard seed, ground
1/2 cup sugar, or more if desired
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup white wine, vermouth, guinness, porter, or sherry
1/2 cup cider vinegar
Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.
In a large glass measuring cup, add 1/2 cup wine or beverage of choice and vinegar. Stir in dry ingredients. Add additional wine or other liquid, if needed to create a smooth spreadable mustard. Pour mustard into a spotlessly clean glass jar or bowl and refrigerate for at least 24 hours before use. I like to store my batch in an oversized mug. Use immediately.
Frittata di Ricotta
1 red pepper, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, finely diced
olive oil, as needed
1 lb spicy Italian sausage, sliced
24 oz whole milk ricotta
6-8 large eggs
1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated
1 sprig basil, julienned
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
For Top:
1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated
1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
In a large dutch oven, saute onion in olive oil until light golden. Add sausage slices and continue to saute until golden on the edges. Then, add garlic, peppers and red pepper flakes. Allow peppers to wilt and most of their moisture evaporates. Set aside to cool.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
When sausage mixture has cooled to room temperature, stir in bread crumbs, Parmigiano Reggiano and basil. Whip eggs and ricotta in a large bowl. Then, add to sausage mixture. Pour this mixture into a large casserole.
Combine bread crumbs and Parmigiano Reggiano. Sprinkle over prepared casserole. Bake for 1 hour. (Or, until the eggs have set.) Serve with rustic bread and a tomato salad.
This is a lovely golden brown crusted cornbread that has a bit of structure. It’s quite dense and moist. This allows the cornbread to be cut into slices instead of wedges or squares. One warm slice makes the perfect base for a sunny side up egg. If that’s my egg we’re talking about, the white would be firm. And, the perfectly creamy yellow yolk would spill into a thick puddle on the plate at the very first slice.
Cornbread Loaf
2 cups finely ground cornmeal
1/2 cup AP flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sour cream
3 eggs
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Sift first four dry ingredients together. Set Aside.
Combine the remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Whip briefly. Add dry ingredients and gently stir all ingredients together. Place batter in a well-buttered (or olive-oiled) loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50-60 minutes. The center should be firm to the touch.
In an attempt to keep the sugar content to a minimum, I might have used a wee too little sugar. This coupled with the fact that my polenta was excruciatingly fresh, the flavor of corn was stronger than I’d prefer. This strong corn flavor almost overpowered the dish. Next time, I’ll probably relent and add a higher dose of sugar.
This was not a perfect dish. But, the resulting moist, fluffy (souffle-like) pudding cake is worth the effort it will take to perfect.
Chocolate Polenta Pudding
Makes one 9×9 inch dish
1/2 cup polenta
4 Tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
Bring to a simmer and allow to simmer gently for 10-15 minutes.
Cover and let sit an additional 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
Then, stir in:
1/4 cup light and fruity olive oil
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla.
Set aside. And, whip the remaining 4 egg whites to soft peaks. Fold into chocolate mixture.
Bake in a buttered 9×9 inch baking dish for 45-50 minutes in preheated 300 degree F oven.
The cardoon or artichoke thistle is a interesting plant. If celery and artichokes could have a baby, they might be a lot like the cardoon. The taste is dominated by the artichoke with a little celery-like texture thrown in for good measure. I love it and my husband loves it. We snatch it up every time we find it in the market.
But, before you do anything… you MUST remove the thorny spines. First, run a paring knife down each stalk. Most of the thorns are easily visible. But, some can be quite small. So, it’s best to simply remove the outermost edges of each stalk. Work quickly. After removing the spines, carefully remove all of the fibrous threads (as you would from the outer stalks of celery). The cut areas discolor rapidly. As soon as you finish with each stalk, place them in a large bowl of water with the juice of 2 lemons. I like to squeeze in every drop of lemon juice that I can. Then, I toss in the rinds.
This time, even working quickly, I got more discoloration than I would like to see. Clean your cardoons immediately before use. And, keep your prepared cardoon pieces in water until you’re ready to use them. Depending on their size, you’ll need one or two bunches for this recipe.
Cardi Gratinati alla Romana
adapted slightly from Mario Batali’s recipe
(makes 1 large casserole dish)
4-5 lbs cardoons
2 lemons, halved
10-12 cups water
1/2 cup freshly grated pecorino fresco
2 cups besciamela sauce (or bechamel sauce)
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
salt, to taste
Top:
1/2 cup pecorino fresco, finely grated or processed fine
1/2 cup bread crumbs, processed fine
Bring cardoons to a boil in a large stock pot of 10-12 cups of acidulated water. Simmer long enough to wilt (approximately 10-20 minutes) and drain well. Add cardoons back to the stock pot and combine them with 2 cups besciamela sauce, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and pecorino. Add salt to taste. Stir well to combine all of the ingredients.
Pour into a large casserole dish and top with the mixture of bread crumbs and pecorino. Bake at 375 degrees F for 45-55 minutes …or until cardoons are tender.
Besciamela Sauce
3 Tablespoons flour
4 Tablespoons butter
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon white pepper, freshly ground
In a small sauce pan, melt the butter. Add flour and allow to bubble for 2-3 minutes. Add salt, nutmeg and ground black pepper. Slowly drizzle in milk. Stir vigorously to prevent lumps from forming. Stir vigorously until the sauce is smooth and creamy. Bring to a simmer and allow sauce to thicken.
(If mixture is too thick for your taste add another 1/2 cup of milk.)
Buon Appetito!
(P.S. …Sometimes after wilting and straining the cardoons, I’ll make a little addition. In the stockpot, add one diced onion. Saute until light golden. Then, add two finely diced potatoes and saute long enough to give the potatoes some color. Then, I’ll add the cardoons and proceed as above.)
To keep the dried fruit from being too sticky, I like to toss the trail mix with a small amount of sugar. Over half of the sugar falls to the bottom. So, this whole batch of trail mix needs less than 1/2 of a tablespoon of sugar.
Soy Nut Trail Mix
3 cups roasted soy nuts
2 cups roasted almond
2 cups toasted pumpkin seeds
2 cups dried cranberries
1 cup raisins
1 cup dried blueberries
1 Tablespoon superfine sugar
1 cup white chocolate chips or chunks, optional
In a large bowl, combine all of the dried fruit and nuts. Stir or toss with clean fingers. Sprinkle sugar over the top and give them another toss. Using zip lock bags, divide into single serving portions or store in a jar for easy snacking by the handful.
Pistachio Crumbles up front… Snickerdoodles in the back
The Snickerdoodle is a lovely all-purpose cookie. It’s a mildly sweet sugar cookie type base rolled in cinnamon sugar. Even though Christmas is a time for flashier (fancy & time-consuming to make) cookies, somehow a batch of these always find their way to the table.
And, you know what? They’re always the first to disappear.
The one debatable fact:
Should we dust them with cinnamon sugar after baking? It’s not standard practice. But, it’s become a tradition in our house. (Above, the cookies in the back & to the left are just rolled in sugar pre-baking… while the back right stack was given a second dusting after baking.)
I think the extra dusting will win in the end.
Snickerdoodles
makes dozens
3 cups AP flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
For Rolling:
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon, freshly ground
Sift dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Set aside. In another bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Stir to combine and set aside.
Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Gently stir in dry ingredients. Stir until combined. Chill dough for approximately 30 minutes to firm up.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Roll cookie dough into balls. Then, roll in cinnamon sugar and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake cookies for 15 minutes for crisp cookies. Or, 12-13 minutes for soft cookies.
If desired, dust with additional cinnamon sugar.
Snickerdoodles are perfect paired with a hot mug of dark chocolate cocoa.
Oven Roasting Coffee
The air-popper method (Click Here) that we’ve been using is the best for method for a uniform roast. But, for large batches or times when you want to play with a more rustic roast, the oven makes an interesting alternative.
This batch was roasted at approximately 500 degrees for approximately 10 minutes.
Oven Roasting Coffee
Preheat oven to 550 degrees F with baking stone on center rack.
Place green coffee beans in a rectangular collander on a shallow aluminum baking sheet. The beans should be in a single layer. When oven reaches 550 degrees, place baking sheet on the baking stone in the oven. Reduce heat to 500 degrees F. Roast beans for 4 minutes. Quickly reach in and give the beans a shake. (Carefully keeping beans in a single layer.) Quickly close the oven and stand by… listen for first crack. If you can’t hear the cracking, wait approximately 3 minutes and check for first crack. Give beans a quick shake and close the oven.
Roast to your preference. Monitor beans at all times to prevent burning.
Then, when the beans are at your desired roast, take the beans outside and give a them a number of rough shakes to remove the chaff. Or, place roasted beans in batches into the air-popper for 30 seconds to 1 minute to remove the chaff.
For complete instructions: Sweet Marias
Juicers are fine. But, you lose all of that healthy fiber. If you enjoy some pulp in your juice, a powerful blender will do the job even better. But, you do need a blender with sharp blades and a strong motor.
Carrot Apple Juice
makes 2 glasses
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
2 large apples, sliced with seeds removed
1 cup ice water
drizzle of honey, optional
Place all ingredients in a heavy duty blender and liquify. Drink immediately before the fiber settles out of solution.
(Another combination we enjoy… 2 apples, juice of one lemon and 1 large cucumber)
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