Spinach and Bacon Quiche

One thing I often ask for people to bring/send when they come are those packs of Real Bacon bits from Hormel.  They're just great for throwing in some eggs in the morning, on a salad, or in this quiche.  I usually use about 1/2 c. for this if substituting for the fresh bacon. You could leave it out, but it would definitely be missing a little something...

6 large eggs, beaten

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Salt and pepper

2 cups chopped fresh baby spinach, packed

1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled

1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese

1 pie crust, fitted to a 9-inch glass pie plate

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine the eggs, cream, salt, and pepper in a food processor or blender. Layer the spinach, bacon, and cheese in the bottom of the pie crust, then pour the egg mixture on top. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until the egg mixture is set. Cut into 8 wedges.

Walmart-like Sugar Cookies

Here's a recipe from a new contributor, Julie M!  Welcome, Julie!  I'm excited about this recipe for sure! I just can't resist those soft buttery sugar cookies at Walmart. :) This recipe makes an estimated 5 1/2 dozen 2 1/2 inch cookies.  So beware. :)

Cookies:
2 c. butter, softened (or 500 grams)
2 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 c. sour cream  (or fresh cream, heavy cream)
1 T. vanilla extract
1 t. almond extract
6 c.  flour
2 t. baking powder
2 t. baking soda
1 t. salt

Preheat oven to 215C. Cream butter and  sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, sour cream, vanilla and almond extract. Beat very well till mixture is light and fluffy. 

Mix all dry ingredients together in separate bowl.  Slowly blend dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. Only mix until blended, do not over blend.  You can either refrigerate overnight and then roll out and cut. Or, you can just drop by cookie scoop onto cookie sheet. 

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 8-9 minutes until just barely tan around the edges. 

Julie says, "I rolled out the cookies w/o refrigerating and it worked out fine. If you want a sturdier cookie, then add a bit more flour. The trick is to not over-bake them. In my oven it only took about 4 minutes to bake. :) The second time I made these cookies, I did refrigerate them first for an hour or so before rolling out, and I thought it made the outside of the cookies more like the bakery sugar cookies. :)  Also, I think that the almond extract in both the cookie dough and the frosting is the key to making them taste like the bakery ones.  I also used butter paper  (same as parchment paper) on my cookie trays while baking and I think it helped them bake more evenly. Oh, one more thing, so the bakery sugar cookies are pretty thick, so I rolled them out to about 1/3- 1/2 inch thick."

Frosting: 

about 1/2 c. shortening  (or vanaspati or butter)

500 g icing sugar

about 1/4 cup fresh cream

1 t. vanilla flavoring

1 t. almond flavoring

Cream shortening and 1/2 of sugar together, add in rest of sugar, cream and flavorings. Cream till light and fluffy. Add food coloring if desired.

7-Layer Tortilla Pie

1 T. olive oil
1 c. chopped red bell pepper
3/4 c. chopped green bell pepper
1/2 c. chopped red onion
1/2 c. chopped seeded green chile OR 1 t. chopped pickled jalapenos
2 T. minced fresh cilantro
1 t. dried oregano
1 t. chili powder
1 t. cumin
2 c.  tomato juice
2/3 c. dried kidney beans
2/3 c. dried pinto beans
2 c. shredded cheddar
7 8-inch tortillas

1. Combine beans in a pressure cooker.  Cover with 3-4 c. water.  Cook 45 minutes if not pre-soaked.

2. Heat oil in a large skillet.  Add bell peppers, onion, and chiles/jalapenos.  Saute.  Add spices.  Cook a total of five minutes.  Add tomato juice.  Cook 8 minutes or until reduced to 2 1/2 cups.

3. Drain beans and add to the tomato mixture.

4.  Grease the bottom of a round 2 quart casserole dish, or some thing else you can bake it in with high sides. Place one tortilla in the bottom of the dish.  Place 3/4 c. bean mixture on top of the tortilla.  Top with some cheese, about 1/4 c.  Repeat layers, tortilla, beans, cheese.  Finish the final layer with the rest of the cheese.  Cover the dish with foil and bake for 15-20 minutes in a 150 oven. Serves 6. 

Chocolate Cobbler

This is a nice dessert...kind of like a lava cake. And so easy to make. No eggs or butter needed, and you can serve to your vegetarian friends. This makes a spongy chocolate cake and forms a chocolate sauce underneath. The only ingredient you can't get here is brown sugar, but since Megan has figured out how to make that, you should be good to go!

Ingredients:
1 c. self-rising flour (or place 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp. salt in a measuring cup. Add all-purpose flour to measure 1 c.)
1/2 c. sugar
2 Tbsp. plus 1/4 c. baking cocoa
1/2 c. milk
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 3/4 cups hot water
vanilla ice cream, optional (but I'd highly recommend it)

In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar and 2 Tbsp. cocoa. Stir in milk and oil until smooth. Pour into a greased 8 in. square baking pan. Combine the brown sugar and remaining cocoa; sprinkle over batter. Do not stir this together. Pour hot water over the top. Again, don't stir! Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until top of cake springs back when lightly touched. (I usually cook mine for about 40 min. The cake might seem done before that, but if you take it out too early, the sauce on the bottom will be way too thin. YOu want it to get a little thick, like hot fudge sauce.) Serve warm with ice cream if desired.

Skillet Rice

Here's a quick and easy recipe from DebbieM.  I pretty much always have these things in my kitchen, so it's a good one to go to when you don't know what to make for dinner!

Skillet Rice

¼ cup oil

½ medium onion

½ bell pepper chopped

½ lb. ground beef or chicken (or 1/4 kg.)

1 cup rice uncooked

2--8oz. Cans tomato sauce (2 boxes tomato puree)

1 ¾ cup hot water

1 tsp. salt

Dash pepper

1 tsp. prepared mustard

Cheese for topping

Heat oil in skillet and add onion and bell pepper. Cook for several minutes then add the meat. Stir on medium high heat until browned. Add rice, tomato sauce, water, salt, pepper and mustard. Mix well. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes. Cheese can be added just before serving. Makes 4 servings.

Pav Bhaji-Indian Street Food!

Shortly after we arrived in India, we began big fans of pav bhaji.  It's our Indian sloppy joe. : ) And because it is, we eat it with a slice of cheese on it. :)  (At least, I grew up eating sloppy joes with cheese...)

Pav Bhaji
3 small potatoes
1 small head of cauliflower
2 carrots
Handful of fresh peas (200 grams)
1 onion, chopped
1 t. garlic paste
2 tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 T. pav bhaji masala
1/4 t. chili powder
1/2 t. salt
Fresh cilantro
8 pavs (dinner rolls)
Cheese slices, optional

Chop the potatoes, cauliflower, and carrots, and place it all with the peas in the pressure cooker.  Add about a 1/2 c. of water and cook for 5-7 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat 1 t. oil in a skillet.  Add the garlic paste and fry a minute.  Add the onions and fry till soft.  Add the tomatoes and fry until softened.  Once the vegetables are done, drain water if there's a lot, you want a little bit, but not more than 1-2 tablespoons.  Mash the veggies with a potato masher until, well, mashed. :)   Add the mashed vegetables to the onion and tomato mixture.  Add the pav bhaji masala, chili powder and salt.  Stir to combine and cook until no longer soupy, but holds together. Turn the heat off and add the chopped cilantro.

Next, slice the pavs in half.  Throw some butter on your tawa, and grill each tawa until nice and brown on the inside.

Eat 'em up! :)  

Make Your Own Brown Sugar!

Yes! It is possible here in India!! : )  First, you need to get Gur or Sheera from your dukan.  It looks like this (the caramel colored balls in the bag):

 You'll also need either some breakfast sugar or, some bhura, which is just really finely granulated sugar. Both work. : ) Here's my two bowls, one with breakfast sugar, one with bhura.

Next, you want to melt the gur/sheera.  For one cup of sugar, use about two balls.  Double as needed. (You can do this in mass and store in in a ziploc.)

 It will melt and start to bubble like in this picture.  Keep the heat low.  When there are no more lumps and the syrup is smooth, you need to add just a bit of water, like maybe 1 Tablespoon?  I think this is like slightly dehydrated molasses.  Adding the water makes it a good consistency to mix and coat the sugar.  Otherwise, it will clump with the sugar.  So make sure you do add the water!

Next, stir it slowly to help the bubbles and foam subside.  If you need to scoop the foam off with the spoon and toss it until you're left with a dark yet clear syrup.

Now, have your hand mixer ready, and start adding 1 T. at a time to the sugar/bhura and mix it to coat the sugar granules.  Mix it until it's a good consistency.  For one cup of sugar, I added about 4 T. of syrup, and by then it was about the right color and consistency.  It packs great!  It tastes slightly different from American brown sugar, but feels the same.

 This is made from breakfast sugar.

And this is made from bhura.  The bhura didn't get quite as caramel colored, but it tasted the same and had a good texture. 

The true test, I made chocolate chips cookies with it.  And they were perfect! 

 See how it packed in the measuring cup?  Perfect!

Here's the cookies!  Just like normal, no alteration in taste as far as we could tell, nice, soft and moist! 

YAY!  No more hauling 10 pounds of brown sugar back! : ) (And, it'll save you quite a bit if you use bhura!)