Tormented Kitchen

This weekend my dear hubby had a special request for breakfast. He claimed since his birthday happens mid-week, that I should fix him a special birthday quiche on the weekend.  So I was a nice wifey, and fixed a special bacon-loaded quiche. It was fabulous! I served it with cantaloupe and a salad of mixed greens with cranberries and almonds and a red wine vinaigrette dressing. Ingredients 1 9-inch blind baked pie shell 1 onion, sliced into strips 3 Tablespoons butter 1 teaspoon minced garlic 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled 3 eggs 1 cup milk 1 cup shaved Swiss cheese, or similar cheese like Gruyere or Emmentaler Black pepper and sea salt to taste Method 1. In a medium frying pan, saute onion and butter. Cook over medium heat until onion begins to brown. Reduce heat to low and continue cooking until softened and brown. Season with salt and pepper. Add minced garlic at the very end and saute until just browned, about 1 minute.    2. Spre...

It's starting to cool down where I live. It's fall. That means it's comfort food season. One of my favorite comfort foods is clam chowder.  Dear hubby Justin is off hunting. My folks came up to help with the kids while he's away. I made this for dinner since they are very fond of chowder. The kids are still in their weird food phases, so they wouldn't touch it. Silly kids! I wonder how long it will be until they figure out what they've been missing.   Ingredients 1 white onion, minced 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled 1 tablespoon butter 4 large potatoes, peeled and diced 2 cans clams in juice, (1 can chopped, 1 can minced) 1/8 teaspoon ground thyme 1/8 teaspoon white pepper 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules 2 cups milk 1 cup heavy cream 2 Tablespoons flour 1 tablespoon minced parsley Method 1 Saute butter and onion until onion has softened. Add the bacon, potatoes, and juice from the canned clams t...

Last week, two of the ingredients in my mystery box that didn't get used for mystery dinner, got used on another night.  Hey, I was not letting this good stuff go to waste! A while back a saw a recipe from Giada de Laurentiis. So I made it. It was good. The kids wouldn't touch it because, ack! Green veggies! They're weird kids. They might eat broccoli and green beans, but forget anything else green. Oh well. Kids go through phases. I hope it won't last too long. Anyhow, I eye'd Giada's recipe and cooked it up. It sounded perfect. I had the pancetta and sprouts left from the mystery box. And you know pancetta is the Italian version of bacon so it has to be good. Anything with bacon is delicious. Yum, fresh sprouts! I trimmed off the stem end and washed them. Aren't they cute? Like miniature cabbages. Diced up pancetta frying away.  The addition of garlic was so tantalizing. Mix it all up, hot and juicy. Add a splash of chicken broth and s...

Recently, Mom brought me a couple bags of potatoes from her garden. I was quite pleased to get her potatoes since my potatoes failed thanks to bugs.  Darn it for trying to figure out organic gardening. So what do you make with lots of potatoes? A while ago, I was looking up French potato casserole recipes, like potatoes dauphinoise and potatoes a la boulangere. They are very similar in technique. Both require peeled, thinly sliced potatoes baked in a dish with some liquid.  Dauphinoise uses cream or milk, while boulangere uses stock or broth. Now let me remind you, food does not turn out perfectly for me every time. I wish it did! This was tasty, but a bit soupier than I wanted. I managed to use onions from my garden and they were so good! I added bacon because everyone loves bacon and it really compliments potatoes in general. Ingredients about 4 pounds of potatoes, I used Mom's red potatoes 4 slices of thick bacon, sliced into lardons 1 large onion, sliced 1...

This meal has been floating in my mind's eye for a while now. To see it finally come together, it was really a sense of accomplishment. This picture just does not do it justice. The colors were beautiful. The flavors really complimented each other, some sweet, some tangy, some savory. Excellent combination! Back in the early summer, I was on a grilling kick. I think it's a seasonal thing for me.  I wanted a grilled pork chop, but it's easy to go wrong on the grill. Sometimes it's hard to judge how hot to get the grill, how long to let the meat cook, and if you've hit it right or ruined it. The first time I made this, I tried two layers of bacon and basting the chops with apple juice. So it was OK. Just OK. As you know, for me just OK is never good enough. So back to the kitchen and lots of brainstorming and testing. I figured brining was the next logical step. I wanted a warm apple topping. Then, this came together. It was really good. I think I just had to w...

I know there are plenty of Olive Garden fans out there, my dad being one of them. I have tried and tweaked and come up with my own clone version of O.G.'s Zuppa Toscana. It's good. And not just because I said so. Many other people have agreed. A lllooooonnnnggg time ago, I took a pot to a Mary Kay dinner and everyone loved it. Yes, I was a Mary Kay lady. But that is its own story so back to the soup. The highlight of my soup is using homemade sausage. Justin's family has a sausage recipe and I've had the honor of making it. It is a traditional Italian sausage in the Northern Italian style i.e. no fennel. I've seen similar recipes listed on recipe sites, but they are usually considered French. I doubt anyone is ambitious enough to want to make homemade sausage, so I will not bother posting it. I will say making it is very labor-intensive. It took most of a day to grind, mix, and stuff the casings, then another couple days in the fridge for the sausages to dry cur...