things to try

Recently I’ve been running into things I’d like to try, or things I’ve already come aross that I think other people should try. Here come a couple of them.

First, some recipes that look ultra-delicious (click on the links under each photo to see the full recipe from RealSimple.com):

Pappardelle with Beef and Mushroom Ragu

Yum. Jeremy and I have been cooking with mushrooms a lot lately, and we’ve been pasta-lovers for years.

Slow-Cooker Vegetarian Chili with Sweet Potatoes

I already have a delicious veggie-chili recipe, but sweet potatoes sound like a fun twist on chili. Also, a great excuse to use the slow-cooker.

Spicy Asian Chicken with Brussels Sprouts

Spicy Asian food and Brussels sprouts in one dish? Yes, please. I’m especially excited to try this one.

On a completely unrelated (inedible) note, if you’re looking for a way to be simply delighted in the middle of the day (or any time of day, really), you should visit Jonathan Charles Wright’s blog.

I used to go here every now and then, because Jonathan (who I met through my husband at Biola) is interesting and clever, and writes very well. Jeremy and I think of him as our one friend who will probably actually become a famous writer or something (although he won’t care). Lately I’ve enjoyed reading his blog so much that I just must recommend you go there. It’s more than fun. More than entertaining. Just the best. I’m so happy it exists.

family dinner

Jeremy and I used to cook all the time. Pretty much any night we had together we were making something for dinner, and often something new.

Here in Chicago our kitchen is not quite as conducive to hanging out while making meals, we no longer get all the delicious produce we enjoyed in Echo Park, and our time together post-work feels slightly more limited. As a result, we haven’t had many great dinners together. And we miss making real food. So we’re taking action.

We’re doing that plan-out-your-meals-calendar-two-weeks-in-advance thing, choosing dinner’s we’ll make, delegating who’s in charge of which meals, and taking a major trip to the store for groceries every couple Sundays. We’re only one week in and we started on a Tuesday so it’s only resulted in two new meals thus far, but it’s been great. Thursday night, we lucked out with a great recipe courtesy of Real Simple Magazine. Fun to make, delicious to eat. I highly recommend you give these Chorizo and Potato Tacos with Black Bean Salsa a try.

Eat your veggies

One of my favorite things about joining a local CSA has been being introduced to new fruits and veggies (well, mostly veggies). Most people have eaten an artichoke, but until tonight I had not. We received six baby artichokes in our most recent crates and we decided this was the evening to try preparing and eating a couple. I found this great website for beginners and steamed away. If you’ve never had an artichoke, give this a try. It’s an enjoyable new eating experience, and it tastes great too. I suggest mixing a little melted butter with a touch of seasoning salt and bay leaves for dipping. Have fun and enjoy!

Neighborliness in the Neighborhood

Everyone loves a good chili. And goodness knows there are about three billion different kinds of chili out there. I love a spicy chili with plenty of beans. My husband’s friend–my friend, really–Zach once told me that the first batches of chili never had beans, because chili simmered all day over heat in wait for hungry cowboys passing through.

Some like it hot. Some like it meaty. We made a chili recently that called for Red Tale Hawk Red Tail Ale as a base ingredient. My dad makes a famously delicious chili with a bit of a hodge-podge of ingredients (one of my favorites of which is brown sugar). Most chili recipes require a lot of mixing, maybe even some chopping, and a decent amount of “throw this and that in at the end to taste.”

I happen to be a big fan of chili of most sorts, and I have found the best vegetarian chili out there (I’m pretty confident). It comes from Stories Books and Cafe in Echo Park on Sunset. Jeremy and I are abstaining from meat for Lent. So, tonight, after being offered a holiday from work (and so not needing to go in for my night shift), we hopped on the motorcycle headed for Stories to procure some chili for a satisfying mid-week meal.

The most glorious thing happened as we ordered our chili tonight. Every time I eat Stories’ chili, I think to myself, “I wonder if they would give me the recipe for this if I asked.” And then of course I decide, no, they would definitely not flippantly give away such a clearly incredible recipe. Well tonight, I casually asked the man at the counter, “Do you guys ever give away the recipe?” and–to my surprise–he answered, “Well, I’m the chef. I could write it down for you. I put together a few other great recipes to make this one.” And he did it! He served us our chili and wrote down his recipe on a guest check for me! What a guy. What a place, this Echo Park. What a neighbor.

how to save a quiche

I’m writing this post in honor of tomorrow being Easter, for which many of you may be making quiches of your own. The following advice can be applied to any kind of quiche. Broccoli/cheddar/bacon, Asparagus/mushroom/swiss, you pick it. I don’t know what you people put in your quiches.

Let’s start with some helpful preventative tips, so you don’t have to master the art of saving a quiche.

preventative tip #1: It is NOT necessary to read the instructions on the pre-shaped, frozen crust you bought. Trust me on this one. Just go with your gut. Throw the insides of the quiche into the pie crust (which comes in a nice little pie tin) and just bake that sucker.

If you decide to ignore my preventative tip #1 (shame on you), you’ll need preventative tip #2: The pie crust instructions will tell you to remove the crust from the pie tin it comes in. Again, go with your gut (you know you feel like you should leave that crust in that tin). Do not discard the tin. It will not blow up in the oven (you may have considered this as a reason Marie Callendar is trying to get you to remove the tin).

Ok, last preventative tip is coming up here. When all your ingredients are INSIDE the pie tin with the exception of the liquid eggy mixture your recipe calls for, mind preventative tip #3: You DO NOT have to use ALL the liquid eggy mixture your recipe told you to make. If your recipe says something like “Make sure it doesn’t overflow,” you should make sure it doesn’t overflow. When your eggy mixture starts to kind of almost overflow, STOP POURING. The truth of the matter is, you might just have to throw a good bit of that stuff out.

If you followed these helpful preventative tips, you and your quiche will probably end up looking something like this:

If you do not heed this preventative advice, you and your quiche will probably end up looking a little more like this:

It’s going to be ok. Don’t panic. You’ll probably be thinking, “Should I just eat this quiche for dinner? Can I even serve this at my Easter brunch tomorrow? This is no quiche. It’s a quichish blob with tin foil all stuck to it. Did the quiche blob swallow up the crust?”

Now this rescue-desperate quiche is never going to look quite like quiche #1 (shown above my rescue-desperate quiche), but there are steps you can take to make your sorry quiche servable at tomorrow’s brunch. Here we go:

Step #1: Let the quiche cool. If you need to walk away from the quiche, that’s ok. If you need to nibble a little bit of the quiche to make sure it tastes better than it looks, go ahead. But be sure not to nibble too much or your quiche will look slightly deformed after you save it.

Step #2: When your quiche-blob has cooled a bit, try sliding a (preferably) stainless-steel pancake flipper underneath the crust, without ripping the tin foil (if you didn’t use tin foil, you won’t have to worry about potential ripping).

Step #3: (this is the most difficult step) Grab a friend, husband, or other trusted individual who can help you, and who knows what a quiche is supposed to look like. As a team, slide the pie tin under the quiche-blob, simultaneously lifting and maneuvering the quiche-blob into the tin.

Step #4: Squish any outlying pieces of quiche-blob into the pie tin so that the quiche-blob begins to look a little more like a quiche. Let sit.

After successfully completing these four steps, you and your quiche should look like this:

After all of this you should give yourself a pat on the back or have your trusted individual give you a pat on the back, because you saved your quiche. It is now safely contained in a pie shape, and you can serve it at your brunch.