Thursday, June 17, 2010

Guess who made the world's worst eggplant parm?!?

Well, by"worst", I actually mean the saltiest. Did you know you are supposed to sweat out the extra fluid in eggplant by salting both sides of the slices and letting them rest for an hour? After that you are supposed to rinse, squeeze and dry the eggplant between paper towels.  Perhaps I failed in the "thorough" part of the  rinsing category. Perhaps I should have backed off of the garlic salt. Perhaps I should have just made something else. My baked eggplant cutlets were positively briny. EW! 

No, I will not share my recipe here. It was grody-pants. I will post my delicious, so simple, best in the world marinara sauce recipe (that you should make tons of extra to freeze) in a little while. It really is that much better than ragu, prego, five brothers. No lie. 

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Day one... I made a little quiche...

It goes like this... Rolled pillsbury pie crust is a staple in our fridge. Not because we eat a lot of pie but because we eat a LOT of quiche. It's a Ben&Katy England family favorite. Seriously, we CANNOT get enough of it. I'm not sure I make it like the French but here's how I do it.

Quiche the Katy Way
First I preheat my oven to whatever pillsbury tells me to  (usually 450 degrees  or so ) and then I second guess  myself and turn it down to 400.

 Then I nuke my frozen roll of pie crust for about 15 seconds because I am impulsive and forgot to pull it out of the freezer in enough time to actually thaw it.

 Then I realize, as I try to roll it out that I nuked it too long because part of it is soggy... SO then I bunch it up and kneed it together real quick and roll it out over a clean, floured surface. I use the top of my portable dishwasher (it has a faux butcher-block top... jealous much?!?). Those of you that have homes built after the stoneage (unlike mine) probably have built-in dishwashers  so you'll have to find some other flat surface to clean and flour in order to roll out your crust. I feel really sorry for you. Here, borrow this dishtowel and dry your sweet little eyes.

Ok, SO you've rolled out your crust and sprayed your pie pan with non-stick spray like PAM.  You should be right about here at this point...
(yes I realize that I could have simply said "Prepare your crust" but I didn't because it's my blog and I do what I want.)

At that point, I fold and crimp the edges and prick the inside of the pie crust with a fork all over.  I then sprinkle the bottom of the crust with a little cheese. 

Then I pull out my food processor   ( I use that thing ALL the time. I should probably have just glued it to the countertop.) and throw in a peeled and quartered onion and about three bell peppers that have been washed and cored. I also put in a little more cheese. And I pulse it til it looks like chowchow. 

Then I shove add all the baby spinach the bowl can hold, put the top back on and proceed to run the food processor until it is all chopped together. Then I drain out the excess moisture and pat the top with a paper towel (the less "wet" the quicker it cooks. ). Then I crack about 8 eggs and  toss them in the food processor and a splash of skim milk.  Salt and pepper as much as you want... but add salt. Then process it again and pour it in the crust... Add more sprinkles of cheese. 

Then I dress my little quiche up like it's having a psychotic breakdown and put a little tin-foil hat on it. 

See?
(I do this so the edges won't burn)


At this point, she goes on the center rack of a preheated oven to bake for about 40-50 minutes. I know it's done when it puffs up in the middle and doesn't jiggle/slosh.



Remove foil and let cool for about 15 minutes... Then call the hubs for dinner. Mmmmm!

Quiche the Katy Way (without all the charm)
In summation you need:

pie crust
veggies
cheese 
milk 
8 eggs
cooking spray
salt& pepper to taste

preheat to 400, prepare crust (add cheese if that's your thing. It's definitely mine), chop/blend veggies (cheese if you want) and eggs and a splash of milk
pour into crust and sprinkle with cheese then cover the edges with foil so they won't burn. Bake on the middle rack until the middle puffs and doesn't slosh/jiggle
Cool and EAT! Yum!








Sunday, June 13, 2010

HELLOOOOOOOOO!!!

Ok, So I did it anyway! I've started the healthy England family food blog. No one tried to stop me so here we go... Let me first start with a set of lovely little goals.
Goal #1-Turn our eating habits from 50% healthy to 95% healthy
Goal #2- Mostly vegetarian with a little fish here and there at least 5 nights a week
Goal #3- Make meals so hearty and delicious that no one misses the meat.
Goal #4- Please my husband's picky palate and satisfy his bottomless belly...

These goals will likely not be met overnight (especially since we are in the middle of a move) but we've got to start somewhere.

If you're interested in where I found the inspiration, click here.
If you want to read my original blog about this, check it out here!