Quinoa Lunch

This is one of my favorite lunches. Its great the first day and it keeps well over the week.  I usually make a large batch of this for a weekend lunch and portion out my lunch for week.  This quinoa sauté is also a great way to use up left over veggies.  Sometimes I have a collection of all greens, other times this is a beautiful dish.  On this particular day I had leftover zucchini, asparagus, red peppers, shredded carrots and peas.  The cheese of the day is was feta.

The basic recipe is 

1 cup chicken broth boiling and add 1/2 cup of quinoa.  Bring to a boil and simmer covered for about 15 minutes or until the broth is mostly gone.

Now the fun part:

In olive oil sauté greens (spinach or kale) with garlic and crushed red peppers.

Add as many precooked or uncooked vegetables as you want.  Sun-dried tomatoes are always nice too. You can add as little of something or as much as you want. Search your refrigerator and play around.

Add white wine to deglaze the pan and boil down to almost gone.

Add the quinoa to the vegetables and mix.  Season with salt, pepper and Aleppo pepper, or I added Sumac the other day.  Top with as much cheese as you'd like.  I like Parmesan or Feta. 

Bon Appétit 

And as always, with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

Merci France

This is a short little post as a thank you to the country that helped Julia Child along the way and produces some great wines.  We all know how much I enjoy my wine, and I also really enjoy eggs at all times of day.  However I do only eat eggs for one meal per day.  One of my favorites is Quiche Lorraine.  I made this recently and it can be served for all three meals.  The picture is obviously from dinner.  Served with a side salad and a slice of my homemade French bread.  This recipe of Julia's comes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.   I did make her short paste crust which puts  this at a whole different level, yet it is wonderful with a store bought crust if that is all you have time for.

For one Quiche Lorraine

6 slices of bacon sautéd and patted dry.

Press the bacon into the pastry shell; this helps it not float during cooking.

Combine:

3 eggs beaten

1 1/2 cups whipping  cream or 1/2 and 1/2 - or if you need to add a combination there of it is fine.

salt and pepper

pinch of nutmeg

Add all of these to the partially cooked pie shell and dot with 1 T butter.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes at 375.

What to drink?  Well during the summer this would pair quite nicely with a French Rosé form the Languedoc-Roussillon area or Provence.  The Barton and Gustier Rosé is relatively inexpensive and has a nice body to it. It would also be delightful with a French Chablis.

Also on the wine note I did read this short article about buying Rosé wines, and it is absolutely true.

Bon Appétit and as always,

With love from the Midwest,

Beth