Butternut Squash Gratin Goodness

Janet here: First THANK YOU Alecia for passing on this fabulous squash dish that can stand alone (I'm adding couscous to the leftovers to make a veggie meal) or act as a side dish. If you're still looking for something for Thanksgiving, look no further. This one is a keeper.

Butternut Squash Gratin
serves at 6-9

ingredients
1/2 cup olive oil
4 cups sliced onions
4 thyme sprigs
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
6 cups squash, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
1/2 cup grated gruyere (or so — I probably did closer to a cup)
1/2 cup milk plus 2 tablespoons
1 cup breadcrumbs (or in my case, panko because I didn't have breadcrumbs or bread to make them from scratch)

method
Heat 1/2 the olive oil and saute the onion, sage, thyme with salt and pepper to taste. Saute until the onions are carmelized into deliciousness.

Spread this in the bottom of a gratin dish.

Place the remaining oil in the pan to heat it up. Toss the squash in the flour and cook in the pan, stirring occasionally, until brown on all sides, about 7 minutes. Add the parsley and cook for one minute.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Layer squash over the onion mix. Cover the mixture with the cheese and then breadcrumbs. Add the milk.

Bake covered for 25 minutes. Uncover and cook an additional 25 minutes. Serve and enjoy.

P-P-P-Pizza! (w/ peas, prosciutto and other awesomeness)

Rachel here.

So, we've been making pizza. And by making pizza, I mean letting store-bought dough rise and then rolling it out (ok, John's been doing all of this...he's just, you know, sooooo good at it) in some semolina flour and topping it as we please. It's yummy and it's gotten kind of fun as it's become a bit of a weekly routine. Plus, it's cheaper than delivery or take-out AND we can put whatever we want on it.

Until recently, we weren't re-inventing the wheel with this whole toppings shindig. This past week, though, we upped the ante. And now, with not only no reservations but also kind of intense enthusiasm (I only say "kind of" because, you know, it's pizza...not the end of the US involvement in the Middle East...trying to keep things in perspective), I can recommend this combination to you:

Fresh peas (so much better than frozen and so, totally worth shelling all those little buggers)
Pea shoots
Caramelized onion
Gruyere
Garlic
Prosciutto

Ok, my mouth totally watered while I was writing that list. When I told my mom about the pizza before we made it she said, "You had me at caramelized onions." When I asked John whether shoots was "shoots" or "chutes" he answered and then said, "Thanks, now I'm totally hungry." Seriously, people, make this pizza. I know you're probably still full from the various April holidays, but hop up and down to make a little more room and then dig in. You won't be sorry, even if it sends you right back into the food coma you only recently emerged from after the holidays.

And stay tuned. This whole toppings thing just might have to become a regular feature.

What do you like on your pizza?

Quick and Easy Quiche

Rachel here: I suppose it's a little redundant to call quiche "quick and easy". The reason I call the recipe I'm sharing today quick and easy, though, is because in my house we simply don't do store-bought pie crusts. One has never entered our home and it seems quite likely one never will (unless, of course, somebody other than John or I brings it through the doors). We are each competent pie crust makers in our own right and this is a source of culinary pride. The only problem, of course, is that we don't always feel like making pie crust from scratch. When it comes to quiche, this left me in a pickle the first time I made it. Unwilling to use a store-bought crust and completely uninterested in generating my own, I pondered and pondered an alternative way to get a bit of crusty texture into my quiche without spending way more time in the kitchen than I wanted to or succumbing to the grocery store option. What I arrived at was a layer of breadcrumbs on the bottom of the pie plate and, seriously, I have never looked back. Nobody's uttered a complaint (which isn't to say that they aren't secretly missing the true pie crust, just that their longing is satisfactorily abated by the bread crumbs) so far and I'm cautiously optimistic that they won't. The other perk to using bread crumbs, of course, is that you can make them if you don't have them already (since most of us have bread on hand), meaning you can make quiche almost anytime you have bread and eggs and some miscellaneous filling options in your refrigerator. I, personally, love food like this.

So, I have to make a confession before I share my recipe: I actually made two quiches. John and I are taking a fantastic birth class right now at Birthways in Berkeley and each Saturday there is a potluck lunch during class (this lunch may be part of why I love the class so much...there is so much yummy food that the next day I find myself longing for this smorgasbord come noontime). Each week each birthing team brings something different and our assignment for this past Saturday was quiche. Friday night I dutifully made quiche for the class; Saturday morning I woke up at 6 am in a panic that there would be something wrong with it. I hauled myself out of bed (hauling is the only word for getting out of bed these days with this belly), stumbled into the kitchen and made a second quiche just so I could cut into the first one and serve the second one with confidence to my pregnant cohorts and their birth partners. Yup, this is how my life gets told in recipes sometimes: neurosis worked out in the kitchen.

And now for the recipe, which you should make with GREAT confidence, since after making it twice in a row I can say that it is quick, easy and delicious (oh yeah, and truly pretty foolproof).

Quick and Easy Quiche

Ingredients
breadcrumbs
7 eggs
1 c. milk
4 large basil leaves, torn into bits
1 c. scallions, chopped
1 c. tomatoes, diced
1 c. smoked gouda, shredded
salt and pepper

Method
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line the bottom of a 9" pie plate with bread crumbs so the bottom is completely covered and can't be seen (about a 1/2 inch). In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs with a fork (DO NOT use a whisk because later on everything that you mix into the eggs will get stuck in it). Mix in the milk. Add the basil, scallions, tomatoes and cheese along with salt and pepper to taste (a dash of cayenne will add a little pop, too), stirring in well. Pour into your pie plate and place in oven. Bake until the quiche is completely set, around 30 minutes (it's done when the inside is as set as the outside). Remove, cool and serve either slightly warm or at room temperature. Great for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

Janet here: It's hard to know where to begin with this post after all Rachel's admissions. A counselor would be having a field day here is all I can say. But let me just say this:

I use store-bought pie crust all the time for quiche and it's just fine thank you very much. So any of you readers who are feeling a little intimidated by this whole only-homemade-pie-crust-will-count thing should just relax and do what works best for you. I will add, however, that the bread crumbs concept is brilliant (oh and yes I use premade store-bought bread crumbs too rather than whipping up my own from bread--presumably homemade bread). I will absolutely try this down the road.

Crust aside, I agree quiche is an easy dinner. Add a little salad and maybe soup and bread, and you've got a complete happy meal. What I love about quiche is that it's a food free-for-all. You can add whatever you want to the mix and it's generally just fine.

My most recent quiche was about 3/4 pounds cooked turkey bacon and about 1 1/2 cups of grated gruyere. Just delicious.

Eat Your Veggies

Janet here: I have a new favorite vegetarian cookbook, New Vegetarian by Robin Asbell. I have made two recipes from this cookbook and they both have totally rocked. If you like vegetables, you won't go wrong with this cookbook.

I decided to make the roasted parsnip and gruyere strudels for one reason and one reason only: It involved phyllo dough. The flaky, buttery goodness of phyllo dough makes it one of my all-time favorites. It's a bit of a pain to work with, but once you get past your inhibitions about it, you'll never go back. If a recipe has phyllo dough, it will be good. Period.

And before we go further, a word on parsnips. I thought they were like turnips. I was wrong. They are sweet, not bitter, and tasty. I now have to make up for lost decades and eat a lot of these since I ignored them before. As for this recipe, it's an appetizer, but these are fairly substantive so you could make this as an entree to go with soup and/or salad and you would be good to go. We had plenty left over from our little dinner party and my friend took some home and ate one for breakfast. Yum!


Roasted Parsnip and Gruyere Strudels
makes 12 appetizer-size pastries

Ingredients
2 pounds parsnips, peeled, quartered and sliced
2 large carrots, peeled, quartered, and sliced
1 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme (I used dried; it was fine)
2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley (I used dried; it was fine)
4 ounces gruyere chees, shredded
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
olive oil spray
6 sheets phyllo

Method
Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Place the parsnips and carrots in a large roasting pan. Add the onion, thyme and olive oil. Toss. Cover with foil and roast for 20 minutes, stir and re-cover and roast for 20 minutes more. Then ucover and roast for an additional 10-20 minutes until lightly browned. Cool

Mix the parsley and cheese with the parsnip mixture and season with salt and pepper. Coat a sheet pan with olive oil spray.

Place the phyllo on the counter, cover with plastic wrap, and then cover with a barely damp towel. It's important not to let the phyllo dry out.

Take a sheet of phyllo, cut in half across the short side and spray it with olive oil. Fold the half-sheet in half, making a tall strip. Place 1/4 cup of the parsnip mixture on the bottom of the sheet and fold up flag-style, forming a triangle as you pull the lwoer left corner up to the right edge, and then the lower right corner up to the left, alternating as you go. Place seam-side down on the sheet pan. Repeat with all sheets.

Bake uncovered until browned and crisp about 20 minutes. (I brushed them with olive oil before baking, which I think made them even a little crispier.) Serve warm.

Rachel here: So, when we decided to go the vegetarian route for this post, I had the totally lame and unoriginal idea to just make some stir-fry. It's basically the only time we don't eat meat of some sort with our dinner and it's not only easy but easy to do using only locally-grown ingredients. Mine was going to feature some kale, mushrooms and tofu along with lemon and garlic. However, before I even got to stir-fry night this week, my mom got to her vegetarian dish that she's shared with you above. Once I saw her picture and read her recipe I realized that there was, quite literally, no way in hell I was going to suffer the humiliation of posting stir-fry as my counterpart to her gorgeous strudels...so I ordered chicken wings instead from Red Buffalo. HA!