So tonight we are having something new!  I love trying new foods and my family is getting better at it.  :)  In my CSA box this week, we got sorrel.  I've never even seen sorrel and I doubt I've ever heard of it, either so I started googling.  I love google.

According to the JR Organics website- the farm I get my CSA from- sorrel "resembles spinach in shape,  ranging in color from pale to dark green and in length from 2 to 12 inches (5 to 30.5cm). It has a refreshing, slightly lemony taste and has grown wild for centuries throughout Asia, Europe, and North America. It’s frequently used in French cooking."  They also say that sorrel is an excellent source of vitamins A, C, and B9, provitamins and iron and a good source of magnesium and calcium. 


So that sounds like a basic leafy green to me, according to the nutritional content.  I added some to the salad I made last night but I can't tell you what it tasted like since I can't taste anything with this cold but Colin didn't seem to notice so it must not be that strongly flavored.


In searching for recipes, I found a lot of sorrel soup recipes but I just don't think Colin would eat it, no matter how intriguing it looked to me.  I'll have to save that one for lunch sometime.  Colin also doesn't like quiche too much but I gave him fair warning and he gave me approval so I hope he enjoys it.  Most of the recipes I found seemed kinda bland with just sorrel and goat cheese.  Then I stumbled across a recipe somewhere in my search that had caramelized onions in it.  Now we are speaking my husband's language.  He loves anything with caramelized onions in it.  I've also seem beautiful pictures of quiche with a potato crust that looked so pretty I wanted to reach into the screen and have a nibble.  So instead of busting out my mom's trusty, practically indestructible oil pie crust recipe, I decided to try a potato crust instead, esp since I wouldn't have to climb into the nether regions of the cabinets, 6 months pregnant, to get the flour down.  I'm not sure why we keep it up there since we use flour almost every day.


So here's the recipe or process or whatever.


Caramelized Onion, Sorrel and Goat Cheese Quiche with Potato Crust
3-4 potatoes, sliced thin (I would do mine thinner next time) and steamed until soft and tender but not falling apart.
1 onion
a large spoonful of brown sugar
butter
1 large bunch of sorrel or 2 smaller. It wilts like spinach so be prepared with more than you think is necessary. If you can't find sorrel, use spinach.
goat cheese
5 eggs
3 generous tablespoons of flour
1 2/3 c milk or unsweetened soy milk (I used the soy)
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
oil to grease the pan


First, slice the onions and heat the butter in a decently sized pan. When your butter is nice and hot, add the onions, some salt and pepper and allow to cook down over medium low heat. This takes a while, but the patience is worth it, trust me! When they look like this, add the brown sugar and allow it to cook longer. They will get all sweet and delicious.










After your onions are nice and caramelized, wash and chop the sorrel, making sure to pick over for bugs. Because it's similar to spinach, I washed it like spinach, allowing it to swim in cold water for a few minutes. Make sure to remove the stems of the large pieces and then chop evenly. I cut the pieces into about 1 inch slices. Add this to the pan of onions and allow to wilt for about a minute. Off the heat and set aside.










Preheat your oven to 375. Oil your pan well since the potatoes have a tendency to stick to the pan and then line the pan and the sides with overlapping potatoes. Dap with goat cheese and then spread the onions and sorrel over the cheese.








Beat the eggs into a large bowl, add the salt, mustard, cayenne pepper, flour and milk and mix well. Since the flour has a tendency to clump, I used my handy dandy Cuisinart immersion blender
and made quick work of it. If you don't have one of these, get one! I use mine almost every day. Pour over the top of everything. Add salt and pepper. I thought there was enough in the mixture and there wasn't so make sure you add more than called for. Place your quiche in the oven and bake for 40 minutes, until a knife inserted into the filling an inch from the edge comes out clean.


In eating this, I could taste the lemony flavor so many of the sites I looked at had promised. Overall, I'd make this again. Colin, the quiche hater, liked it enough to eat Dylan's portion too. Dylan wasn't toohot on it but he's not super fond of goat cheese so that's to be expected. :)

I just finished writing out this week's meal plan, which is admittedly, mostly a repeat of last week's since I've been sick enough to not be cooking.  This is what I will be posting recipes from this week so if you want to cook along with me, let me know what you think!




Tonight's dinner is going to be a caramelized onion, sorrel and goat cheese quiche with a potato crust.  I'll post the recipe and pictures later!

Well, I'm still sick. Not surprising since the doctor told me yesterday that I have bronchitis. So I don't feel up to cooking anything big and want something healing. In the past few years, I've given up the typical American stance that chicken noodle soup makes everything better. Now when I'm sick, I want matzo ball soup.   This is a traditional Jewish soup served on Shabbat in observing homes. It's pretty much chicken soup with balls similar to dumplings without the glue-like texture. Ok, so I'm not a fan of chicken and dumplin's. Anyway, I supposed there are as many ways to make matzo ball soup as people who make it, just like chicken noodle soup. My best friend and a Jewish friend of mine (both of whom are the ones who taught me about this wonderful soup!) make theirs with veggies. You know, carrots, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, spinach or kale, etc. My husband and children refuse, yes, refuse to eat matzo ball soup this way so I make it plain, just broth and balls with no veggies. Last time I made it with veggies, I even tried to blitz everything together in the food processor and they still wouldn't eat it! So instead, I just make a big salad and refuse to give anyone their soup until the salad is eaten or no one will eat it! I also make a loaf of bread to go with this meal, just to make it SUPER carby. That's the way Colin likes it though and I love to make him happy when I make dinner.

So here's the process of my day and the recipes.

This morning I took a roast chicken carcass out of the fridge that I've been saving to make stock with. Threw in some leek tops, carrots and carrot tops and celery from my CSA, some onion, ginger (a piece about the size of my pinky) and a head of garlic with the papery skin pulled off and the top sliced off then thrown in whole, some marjoram from my CSA, a handful of parsley from the miracle plant outside that made it through the whole hot summer and this confusing winter on my patio, a bit of basil since it was on the counter, some dried rosemary from last week's CSA and a dried sage leaf, a bay leaf, salt and pepper and some soy sauce. There might be a few other things in the pot but I can't remember through the congestion in my head. Pretty much, put whatever in the pot you have laying about. When I have stock ingredients in the fridge that are going to go off soon, I put them all in a bag and freeze them so I can just toss them in the pot when I want to make stock. I put all this in my stock pot and put it on low all day. My house smells wonderful!

At about three, I put the bread ingredients in the bread maker on the dough cycle. If you don't have a bread maker, you can totally make this by hand. I'm just feeling lazy today.  It takes about 3 hours to make a loaf of bread, so make sure you are prepared for the time by starting early!

It's almost 5 now and I have to get up soon to start the oven to bake my bread.

Here are the recipes:

Matzo Ball Soup  
2 1/2 quarts of chicken stock or half stock, half water
1 head of garlic, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, minced
1 package of matzo ball mix. I prefer the Streit's brand to the Manischewitz because I think it's more flavorful and needs less done to it.
1/4 c oil
2 eggs
Some soy sauce to taste
Parsley

Follow the directions on the package for making the matzo balls.  Saute the garlic and ginger in a bit of oil in the bottom of the stock pot and then add your stock/ water.  Boil the stock/ water and season to taste with soy sauce, salt and pepper and some parsley. My hubby only likes soup from a can usually so I have to make it really salty.

It's super easy... pretty much one of the few convenience meals I make for my family but they love it.

Sunflower Seed and Flax Whole Grain Bread

I originally found this recipe at allrecipes.com but have changed it to fit our tastes.

1 1/3 cups water
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3 tablespoons honey, brown sugar, white sugar, agave, maple syrup or whatever. Check out my post on agave
1 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour or any amount of rye and whole wheat flour to make this amount
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon or so active dry yeast.  This is about 1/2 of a package.  You can add more if you want but it's not necessary.  I buy my yeast at Costco in a big 2 lb thing and it lasts me about 2 years, even making bread regularly.  And it's only a bit more expensive than buying the packages.
1/2 cup ground flax seeds
2 handfuls sunflower seeds

Put the ingredients in your bread maker in the order recommended and push dough.  I've baked this bread in the bread maker but it's always better to make it in the oven since you don't waste half the loaf with the weird top and the annoying paddle indent.  After the timer beeps, put it in a greased pan and allow to rise again to 2x it's original size.  **
Bread always rises fast in my kitchen for some reason but recipes always say an hour, so I'm saying an hour just in case. Punch the dough down, then place shaped loaf into a greased bread pan and let rise until doubled again. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until there is a hollow sound when you thump on the bottom.

**To make the bread by hand, proof your yeast in the sweetener (I used brown sugar today), yeast and warm water in a bowl for about 5 minutes until frothy and bubbly. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and knead until smooth and elastic, like the underside of a woman's arm (I read that somewhere and it's totally describes what the texture should be like for all the non-bread bakers out there). Put in an oiled bowl with a towel over it until doubled in size, about an hour or so.


Like I said, I serve this meal with a simple or complex salad, whatever I feel like and some butter on the side.  I hope you enjoy this as much as my family does and I hope it makes me feel better!

So a friend of mine posted this article on her Facebook page that was full of info comparing high fructose corn syrup and agave nectar. Did you know that they are made the same way but agave nectar is "anywhere from 70 percent fructose and higher according to the agave nectar chemical profiles posted on agave nectar websites" while HFCS used in soda is 55% refined fructose?! That was shocking to me, esp since all the raw food recipes I find and many of the vegan ones call for agave nectar to sweeten things. Granted, I don't usually buy it because I'm not a raw foodist and I think honey works just fine and I already always have honey on hand.

For all you mamas out there, here's another compelling argument from the same article for pregnant and nursing mamas to avoid agave nectar: "the saponins found in many varieties of agave plants are toxic steroid derivatives, capable of disrupting red blood cells and producing diarrhea and vomiting,39 to be avoided during pregnancy or breastfeeding because they might cause or contribute to miscarriage by stimulating blood flow to the uterus.40 At the very least, agave products should carry a warning label indicating that the product may cause a miscarriage."

That's right. Frightening! And this is something marketed as HEALTH FOOD! It's more and more common in processed foods from the health food store and being relied upon more and more by home cooks with a natural or healthy bent. After reading this article, I will be substituting something else every time I find a recipe calling for agave, just like I do with corn syrup in many things.

If you want to check out the whole article, you can follow the link below. It's a BIT technical but by no means hard to understand or follow.
http://www.westonaprice.org/Agave-Nectar-Worse-Than-We-Thought.html

Hi all! I assume that most people reading this blog, this early in the creation of it- and possibly ever- will know who I am but here's a little intro anyway.

My name is Brandi and I love food. I love cooking food, buying food- disregarding the budget-, getting good deals on food, trying new food, recreating basics and, most of all, EATING food! The only thing I don't like about food is meal planning. It takes so much fun out of creating meals but, it also takes a lot of stress out of what's for dinner! So I meal plan and I encourage everyone to take the time to sit down and write out a weekly, biweekly or monthly menu. It saves so much time and money and my husband loves to know what we are having for dinner. Plus it makes him feel all manly when I ask him to look it over and approve of it.

That being said, we do bring some food issues to the table with us. Both my children (D & J) are allergic to milk so we don't do dairy, really, except for special occasions. Also, we limit our meat intake, though we do eat meat. My darling husband wouldn't survive if I took it away entirely! And I wouldn't want to do that to him, either. Also, we are members of a local CSA so most of my recipes will be including seasonal veggies. Pretty much everything I post you can find in your local supermarket but I really recommend supporting your local farmers and hitting the farmers' market. Plus, I know my boys eat a lot more veggies when they get that kind of interaction. However, we are not health nuts. We eat all kinds of food, junk food included. :)

More importantly than all that, I am a Christian woman, writing this blog for the glory of Christ, to share the passion that my Heavenly Father has given me, a small ministry in my day to serve outside my home, into the homes of people I love, even if I don't know you. Occasionally, there may be talk about what's going on in my life with regards to my walk with Christ.

I pray that you will be blessed, encouraged and inspired by this to go and create meals for your family that are nutritious and delicious.