food.deletia

I don’t like pie crust. Not just making it, but eating it. It’s not successful often enough to enjoy. I realize that in a world of pie lovers, this makes me a freak.

As a result, for the longest time, I thought I didn’t like quiche either. Soggy pie crust just ruined the eggy goodness for me. Then, about five years ago, I discovered frittata. I made my first few from recipes before I realized that they are so hard to mess up that I should just get sufficient egg and fillings in the pan to make me happy. I have made several for my parents, and in that household they get the name “egg things”.

Frittata are forgiving, amenable to a broad range of additions, and an excellent vehicle for leftovers or stray bits of whatever you have in your fridge and cabinets. You can eat them cold, room temperature, or hot and at every meal of the day. They’re very portable, and an excellent candidate for planning ahead style cooking. For example, one egg thing is good for several breakfasts.

This frittata is a variation with a crust of sorts. Shredded sweet potatoes are seasoned and then cooked under the broiler until they crisp up a little. Afterward, you layer in the rest of your components, and bake until it’s puffy and the top is brown.

If you have a little more or a little less of anything in the recipes below, don’t sweat it.

Make one yourself!

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There are times when you have to accept the challenge of making a meal out of your pile of leftovers and the stuff from the back shelf of the pantry. Those times happen a lot around my place. This particular masterpiece was driven by several thawed chicken breasts, some bland pumpkin from earlier in the week, and the arrival of a Penzey’s shipment that included Balti seasoning.

Then, when I was rummaging in the spice drawer I found some saffron. I don’t usually have saffron just sitting around, but my Gemaw gave it to me with some spice and seasonings that were going unused in her house. I thought I might save it for a special occasion or something. Then I decided that a delicious pan of saffron rice right now was better than a pan of ordinary rice colored yellow by stale saffron. Click to find out what’s in my stew

Popularity: 60% [?]

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If you find a recipe for pajun in a magazine or food writing site, chances are you’ll find the phrase “weeknight dinner.” I’d like to add “excuse to have a pile of green onions and lots of vinegary sauce.”

My pajun are never as pretty or as rich as the ones you’ll find in a restaurant. I rarely bother with anything more than vegetables, though the pictured pancake may have some leftover TVP in them. And for just me, one recipe usually makes two 10-inch pans, which I can eat over the course of three or four meals. They’re not as delicious at room temperature, but still tasty, so they make good lunch (bento or otherwise) food.

Popularity: 90% [?]

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I had forgotten how simple these are to put together. One batch makes skads. Right now, I have some in the freezer on a tray, waiting to be dumped into a bag for long term storage. They can be adapted to different dietary limitations, vegan being the toughie. You’d probably have to make your own eggless wrappers.

I’m not going to type out a full recipe, as this is wing it territory. The package of eggroll wrappers will probably have instructions. But here’s the narrative version.

I reconstituted 1C of dry TVP according to package directions, and then moved that around in a skillet with some onion, garlic, and ginger, tossing it with a splash of soy sauce and a dash of sesame oil towards the end. I sliced up about half a small cabbage, minced a couple of carrots, and threw in two handfuls of washed bean sprouts and mixed my protein in. I nuked that for five minutes or so, and then waited for it to cool enough to handle.

While the oven preheated to 375, I assembled the eggrolls. There’s a diagram on the wrapper package if you’ve never done it. I used about two tablespoons of filling per roll, and tried to get the cabbage lined up as I went. I ended up making 14 eggrolls, with a little of the tvp leftover.

At this point, I sprayed the rolls with cooking spray and baked for 20 minutes. I took em out halfway through to give them another cooking spray spritz.

Popularity: 100% [?]

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My Gemaw (that’s grandmother to you) makes these. When I was in college, she sent them to me in care packages, and my dorm neighbors would annihilate them. Friends who spotted me carrying a just-so sized box across campus would follow me home. Gemaw’s Lemon Whippersnappers are very lemony, very sweet, and have a lovely chewy texture. They’re also a gorgeous texture. I called her for the recipe, to use as one of the cookies I brought to a cookie exchange.

Now, if you head out to the wonderful world of the internet, you’re going to find other cookies called Lemon Whippersnappers that use Cool-Whip and cake mix. Those are not the Gemaw cookies. The right recipe includes two crucial changes, plus some essential advice.
Read more about the cookies

Popularity: 97% [?]

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