Two Quiche Options

HASHED BROWN QUICHE

INGREDIENTS 

3 cups shredded hash brown potatoes (consider browning first)
1/3 cup butter, melted
seasoned salt to taste
1 cup diced cooked ham
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. Press hash browns onto the bottom and sides of a 9 inch pie dish.
3. Drizzle with melted butter, and sprinkle with seasoning salt. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until beginning to brown.
4. In a small bowl, combine ham, onion and shredded cheese. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and a little seasoned salt.
5. When crust is ready, spread ham mixture on the bottom, then cover with egg mixture.
6. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C.) Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until filling is puffed and golden brown.

SPINACH QUICHE

INGREDIENTS

* 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust
* 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach
* 4 eggs
* 1 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream)
* 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
* 4 1/2 ounces fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced
* 4 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese
* 1/4 cup chopped green onions

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Prick the pie
crust all over with fork and bake for 5 minutes.
2. Place the frozen spinach in microwave safe bowl and cook until
thawed. Drain as much of the liquid as you can and then use paper
towels to get the spinach as dry as possible.
3. Beat together the eggs, yogurt or sour cream, flour, and pepper
until well mixed. Stir in the spinach. Layer the sliced mushrooms,
cheese, and chopped scallions in that order on the bottom of the pie
crust. Top with the spinach mixture.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes and then decrease
temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake for 30
additional minutes. Let cool before serving.

Janice Prugh's Chocolate Waffles (New Year's Day)

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups buttermilk (or 2 cups 2 teaspoons lemon juice or vinegar)
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 large eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
A pinch of cream of tartar (omit if you don't have it)

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and sugar into a bowl and make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl, mix buttermilk, egg yolks and vanilla, then pour into the dry ingredients and combine.
Beat egg whites with cream of tartar in a separate bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually fold the beaten whites into the batter, 1/3 at a time.

Prepare waffles following directions for your waffle iron. For our waffle iron, be careful not to overfill the iron.  Also, let them cook a little longer than when the green light goes on to prevent sticking.  These are very light.

If you like, serve with vanilla ice cream on top.

I heard this on NPR and it sounded good.  We used to have "little smokies" on NYD, but the kids don't usually eat them, so we're trying this and bacon instead.  Could work out to be a "wonderful" tradition. 

Pancake Mix

The recipe for pancake mix to store in the freezer and use as needed:


Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups cake flour
1 cup non-fat milk powder
3/4 cup malted milk powder
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter , cut into 1/2 -inch pieces

Instructions
Process all ingredients in food processor until no lumps remain and mixture is texture of wet sand, about 2 minutes. Freeze in airtight container for up to 2 months.

To make 8 pancakes: Whisk 2 cups mix, 2 lightly beaten large eggs, and ½ cup buttermilk** (I prefer thinner pancakes and pancake batter, so I use a little more buttermilk) in large bowl until smooth. Pour ¼-cup portions of pancake batter onto lightly oiled large nonstick skillet or griddle and cook over medium-low heat until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining batter as desired. Serve. (If you don’t have buttermilk, make clabbered milk by whisking ½ tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice into ½ cup whole or low-fat milk and letting the mixture thicken for 10 minutes.)

**if you don't have buttermilk, you can use 1/2cup milk and add 2 tsp of vinegar, let rest before whisking in with the mix and eggs.

Perfect Pancakes

One of favorite thing to have for breakfast is pancakes. We make pancakes of all varieties, sourdough, whole grain, buttermilk, Swedish, from a box, etc. Between Dan and I, we've tried just about every recipe that we have in our file and cookbooks for pancakes. Yesterday, I tried a recipe that we've made in the past, but we didn't have our own buttermilk....So, I improvised.

Perfect Pancakes
about 16 4-inch pancakes

2 cups flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
2 eggs
3 cups buttermilk**
4 tbsp butter, melted
additional butter for griddle

Heat griddle on stovetop at medium....I'm a very impatient cook and tend to turn the stove up too high. I set the stove one notch above medium, but NEVER go higher than that.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar together in a medium bowl. In a large measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk and egg.
Add the buttermilk mixture and the melted butter to the flour mixture and gently combine. Don't overmix. This has a lot of liquid, so it is a thinner batter, but don't overmix to get rid of the lumps. Lumps are key to great pancakes!
Put 1/2 tsp butter on the griddle and wipe with paper towel to coat the griddle.
Drop the batter by 1/4 cup measuring spoon onto the griddle. Let it cook for abotu 2 minutes, until it has lots of bubbles covering the cake. Gently turn over. The top should be a nice golden brown. Adjust cooking time accordingly. Cook on the second side for another minute. Remove to a platter and keep warm in your own set to warm setting.
You can drop blueberries onto the batter before turning, don't mix into the batter or it will turn blue....We have also tried thin sliced pears on the griddle and then pour the pancake batter on top of that. Delicious!
**we don't always have buttermilk on hand. this recipe works great by combining 3 cups of milk (really should be at least 1%) and add 3 tbsp of cider vinegar, stir and let it rest for a few minutes. Add to the recipe as directed.

These pancakes are so good. I love buttermilk pancakes, but am not a fan of ones that turn out to be 1/2 thick because the batter is so thick. This batter is thin and light. So delicious!

Also, it makes more than we need. So, I put the extra cakes on a cooling rack and freeze them in a single layer. When frozen, put them in a zipper freezer bag for a quick breakfast. They can be microwaved or put into the toaster (our preference).

I saw a new recipe for pancakes that we really want to try, it's for a dry pancake mix to store in the freezer and just use as needed. It sounds GREAT.

Banana Nut Waffles (sans nuts)

Shortly after Dan and I were married, we were shopping at the Mall of America. We stopped in to Williams-Sonoma to check out the clearance section (they have a great clearance section!). This particular visit, we found a Cuisinart Belgian Waffle Maker for $20, SCORE!
Ever since then, we've made homemade waffles on a regular basis ever since.
Louie loves "awfuls!"

Sunday morning, when we got back from church, I whipped up some waffles and used my rotten bananas that I was saving for banana bread. They were delicious!

I had a recipe for Banana Nut Waffles, but didn't have all the ingredients, so I just made up my own recipe with that other one as a guide.

2 cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl.
In a separate bowl whisk together:
2 eggs
6 tbsp vegetable oil
Stir into dry ingredients and then add
1 cup yogurt
3/4 cup milk
1 cup mashed banana

Let batter rest for 5 minutes before using. Preheat waffle iron. When the iron is ready, add batter and spread with a spatula to 1/4 inch of the edge. Close lid, when the green light turns on

Voila, you've got some delicious waffles to serve with maple syrup!

Louie can eat two of these, they're so good!

The recipe will make about 12 waffles. Any extras can be cooled on a cooling rack and then frozen in a zipper freezer bag for a quick breakfast. We've never bought Eggo's yet!

Caramel French Toast

My friend, Carol, made this for the kids when we went to her house for brunch and cookie decorating in December. It is delicious and our kids LOVE it!





















Make one day ahead:
6 eggs
2c. milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 stick butter
1 c. brown sugar
2 tsp. corn syrup
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 loaf french bread, sliced 1 inch thick or Texas Toast (but you can only get 6 slices in the pan....)
Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. In a heavy saucepan, melt butter, sugar, corn syrup and cinnamon until it is a syrup; pour into bottom of the 9x13 pan. Arrange bread slices on top of syrup. In a bowl, beat eggs, milk and vanilla. Pour over the bread; sprinkle with cinnamon sugar over top. Cover pan and refrigerate overnight. Bake uncovered at 350 for 45-50 minutes.
Serve each slice by turning upside down on plate, carmel side up. Delish!