Tag: Food

How To Revive Leftovers

Do you sometimes look in your refrigerator at meal time and all you find are bits of things left from other meals?

Maybe you find a cup of spinach, four mushrooms, and the end of a block of cheese. What would you do with these?

This is the point where my creative juices begin flowing. I love to take random ingredients, even actual leftovers and turn these into a meal.

A few nights ago, I did find those ingredients listed above languishing in the bottom drawer of our refrigerator while I was trying to decide what to fix for supper. (Yes, it’s supper in this part of Illinois.) My synapses began to fire.

I typically keep homemade pie crust in the freezer portioned in single pie crust size. It will thaw in one minute on 40% power in the microwave. Eggs and milk are staples in this house so I had all the ingredients for a quiche.

Here’s the basic quiche recipe, including pie crust from my book “Simply Delicious”. For even more recipes like this, get your copy here.

For a 9 inch quiche

  • 1 pie crust (can either be home made or store bought)
  • 5 large eggs
  • 1-1/2 cups half and half
  • 1 to 2 cups of vegetables, meat and/or cheese, finely diced
  • salt and pepper to taste

Pie crust is simply made by mixing 1 cup flour and 1/2 tsp salt. Cut in 1/3 cup shortening. Add water one tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together into a ball cleaning the sides of the bowl. Handle as little as possible, kneading only 2 or 3 times to make a smooth ball. Roll into a circle larger than the pie pan and transfer the crust into the pan. Prick the crust or use pie weights to keep the crust from puffing and pre-bake for 10 minutes in 375º oven.

Evenly distribute vegetables, meat and cheese over bottom of crust using a maximum of 2 cups of filling. Mix eggs, half and half, salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the fillings being careful not to overflow the crust. Bake at 375º for 30 to 40 minutes until the eggs are set. Let cool slightly and slice into wedges for serving.

What’s in your fridge?

If you have random bits of leftovers in your refrigerator or pantry and would like to know what I would create, just email, message or tweet and I’ll give you some ideas.

Until next time…

A Quick and Easy Bread

Yeast breads are delicious but unless you have a 5 Minute a Day bread dough stored away in the refrigerator, planning ahead is required. Most of the time, I want something on the table in under an hour. There are several quick bread options, but lately I’ve been making Popovers.

Rich and eggy, with an open center just right for butter and a dollop of jam, popovers may be the easiest possible bread to make. Here’s how I do it:

Popovers

2 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 cup flour

Preheat oven to 425º. Lightly grease a six cup popover pan or use a nonstick pan.

Add eggs, salt and milk to blender. Mix briefly. Add flour, mix for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the blender, mix again for 15-20 seconds or until all flour is incorporated. Distribute batter evenly in popover pan, filling each about 1/2 full. Bake for 40-45 minutes until puffed and browned. Remove from oven and immediately insert knife blade into side of popover near the top to vent steam. Serve with butter and jam.

The popover pan is essential. It is similar to a muffin tin, but has much deeper cups to allow the batter to climb up the sides of the cups and “pop over”.

Try some for yourself.

 

056-In the Kitchen

This podcast recounts a few things we have enjoyed from the kitchen recently; our routine meal after markets and mercantile openings, plus an old favorite Popovers.

Here’s the popover recipe as promised:

Preheat oven to 425º. Lightly grease a six cup popover pan or use a nonstick pan.

Add 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 cup milk to blender. Mix briefly. Add 1 cup flour, mix again for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the blender, mix again for 15-20 seconds or until all flour is incorporated. Distribute batter evenly in popover pan, filling each about 1/2 full. Bake for 40-45 minutes until puffed and browned. Remove from oven and immediately insert knife blade into side of popover near the top to vent steam. Serve with butter and jam.

We also referred to a previous post titled In Defense of Butter. You can read it here.

What is a Real Farm?

What is the definition of a real farm?

Is there a certain amount of acreage required? Maybe a minimum amount of produce raised? Perhaps keeping livestock meets the qualification?

We have asked ourselves these questions as we build this slice of the country we call Five Feline Farm. At first, we referred to it as just the “farm”; a tongue-in-cheek expression of our postage stamp sized property plopped in the middle of large fields of corn, soybeans and wheat. As we discover our mission to live a full life with a blend of old skills and modern conveniences, we also found the answer to being real.

Is there a minimum required acreage?

We have five and a half acres. From this fertile land, we can grow a lot of the produce, herbs, fruit and nuts we need to keep our pantry and freezers full. There is even enough excess to sell at the Farmer’s Market. It takes a lot of planning and hard work but it is a joy to bite into a warm tomato fresh from the garden or add home grown roasted peppers to a pot of chili in the depth of winter.

How about a minimum amount of production?

The line of products we offer in our Mercantile, whether on line or on site is limited only by our time and imagination. We sew cat toys from scraps of fabric and stuff them with catnip grown and dried on the farm. There are balms and soaps and jams and baked goods all created right here. We even offer farm roasted whole coffee beans.

Are livestock required?

Did you know honeybees are considered livestock? It’s true according to the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Beekeeping has changed our perspective on many things. We are better consumers and more aware of good practice in how we approach planting, fertilizing and particularly pest management. We use this practical mantra: “if it’s good for the bees, it’s good for us”. Plus, any excess honey harvested beyond what we personally use is sold. 

So our answer to the question….

Yes, Five Feline Farm is a real farm.

 

Five Feline Farm is growing beyond our wildest dreams. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for daily updates.