Fingerling Potatoes and Green Beans

Its a blustery day so we decided to warm up with a warm comfort food.  This adaptation of boiled potatoes and green beans was quick and easy, with just simply things I had on stock in the pantry (I'm in desperate need to go to the grocery now).  The girls and I had 2 helpings each and are now feeling warm again and ready to have fun on this fall afternoon.

Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced 

1 1/2 pound frozen green beans

1 pound fingerling potatoes cut into ~ 2 inch slices

1/2 pound mushrooms sliced

6 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth

1/4-1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/4-1/2 teaspoon salt to taste (if using sodium-free broth)

In a large Dutch oven or saucepan, cook the mushrooms and onion until tender, adding a splash of water when necessary to keep it from sticking. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

Add the green beans and the potatoes and then add enough broth to barely cover the potatoes. Add black pepper to taste, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cover. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 15-20 minutes.

As a note: I added some diced ham to the girls since they are such meat lovers.

Chocolate Chip Marbled Bundt Cake

I sat down the other day with every intention to make chocolate cake with white chocolate chips.  Thought I'd quickly see if I could find a nice recipe for one online, and after pursuing blogs for about 30 minutes...well, we ended up with a Chocolate Chip Marble Bundt Cake.  The cake turned out to be quite pretty with beautiful chocolate swirls.  It has a dense almost velvety texture, and is not overly sweet surprisingly.  I actually think it would work as a Sunday morning coffee cake after mass just as well as an after dinner delight.  And just like wine this cake needs to aerate a bit. The texture improves as it cools, so wait until it cools to take it out of the pan.  My husband and I found we thought it was actually better the second day than the first.  Which makes this perfect for those dinner parties and work birthdays when you want to bake ahead of time.

I found this recipe off of the blog a Piece of Cake http://shaunasever.com/2010/02/stupid-delicious.html -

Prep Time: 30 minutes Cooking Time: 1 hour Serves: 12 to 16

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cup  semisweet chocolate chips, divided

1/4 cup light corn syrup

2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract, divided

2 2/3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup whole milk, at room temperature

Mix 1/2 cup semi sweet chocoalte chips, 1/2 cup water, and corn syrup.  Heat in microwave until chocolatechips are melted.  Whisk in 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Set aside.

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat it to 350 degrees. Butter and lightly flour a 12-cup bundt pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl cream the butter with the remaining sugar until light in color and fluffy, about two minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time until thoroughly incorporated. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl. Beat in the remaining vanilla.

Reduce the mixer speed to low, and beat in a third of the flour mixture just until the flour begins to disappear into the batter. Beat in half the milk. Beat in another third of the flour, then the rest of the milk, and finish with the remaining flour until the batter is smooth. Stop the mixer and gently fold in the chocolate chips.

Scoop out a third of the batter into a medium bowl, whisk in the chocolate syrup and set aside. Pour another third of the batter into the prepared bundt pan and smooth it with a spatula. Pour the chocolate batter into the pan evenly over the first layer. Finish by pouring the last third of the vanilla batter over the top. Lightly swirl the batters with a wooden skewer or knife to give a “marble” effect–a continuous figure-8 motion while going around the pan works well.

Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and the cake springs back lightly when touched, about 60-70 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack. Invert the cooled cake onto a serving platter and dust lightly with powdered sugar before serving if desired. Store any leftovers in a cake dome at room temperature for 4-5 days, maybe more.

Summer Squash, Bacon, Mozzarella Quiche

Quiche is something I think I spent my childhood disliking, and now I spend my adult years feeding my children.  Luckily for me they love anything with eggs, bacon, and cheese in it - so tonight I whisked together this recipe to utilize the summer squash I had in the fridge.  I altered the recipe here and there since I didn't have all the ingredients.  So the original recipe called for zucchini which is something neither my husband nor I can tolerate so I would have eliminated it anyway.  We try zucchini once a year to confirm its still not for us, and since we tried it this summer already we didn't need a repeat.  So here is my yellow squash only adaptation.

Prep Time: 25 minutes Cook Time: 60 minutes Serves: 8 

Ingredients:

1 refrigerated pie crust - I'm too lazy to make my own!

1 tablespoon olive oil

1.5 cups yellow squash, sliced thin

1 clove garlic

1/4 cup onion, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 cup whole milk

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

5 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

4 large eggs

1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place pie dough in a pie pan and press into pan gently. To prepare the filling, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil and swirl to coat. Add squash, onion and garlic; saute for 5 minutes or until veggies are tender, stirring frequently. Set aside to cool slightly. Whisk together milk, salt, pepper, thyme, bacon and eggs in a medium bowl.

Arrange squash mixture evenly over crust and sprinkle with cheese. Pour the egg mixture over cheese. Bake for 45 minutes or until filling is set. Cool for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Before Baking

After Baking

Adapted from Cooking Light Magazine