New Year means Refresh....In the Kitchen

It’s a new year. Finally. Good to be done with 2020. I don’t do resolutions any more but I still feel the need to refresh or freshen things up. Make an effort to do things like trying new recipes. With the days shorter I feel like cooking more. And especially with my daughter not in school every day, I’ve got a helper. I measure or she does, then she pours. She is in second grade so measuring is a good practice for fractions and multiplication. And at her age she seems to be more interested in cooking and baking. I enjoy baking more than cooking, but find myself cooking more because it is a necessity. I have a small selection of cook books that I like to use. Of course these days it’s easier to find a recipe by going online. But frustratingly I am constantly having to log back into my iPad when I get to the next step. Is this the same situation for everyone? My go to’s this past January have been Bon Apetit and NY Times cooking, my fallback is always Smitten Kitchen by Deb Perelman , Small Victories by Julia Turshen and Martha Stewart Classics. I am trying to find more vegetarian recipes, I’ve got one foot in that world. But my family, especially my husband eats meat. So if you have any recipe or cook book suggestions that are vegetarian send them my way!

Quiche to me is always a lovely winter lighter meal. Checks off the protein and vegetable intake for the meal, which I need to do when dealing with a 7 year old picky eater which is extremely frustrating. But she likes broccoli and I found this recipe on Bon Appetit , broccoli and cheese quiche. I didn’t have a couple of the ingredients so I substituted spinach for swiss chard and I haven’t been liking feta lately so I subbed goat cheese for that. I was thinking the chef who created this recipe might be insulted but I am trying to work with what I have. Regarding the crust, this recipe in Bon Appetit includes a crust recipe. I made this on a week night and was pressed for time so I used a crust I already had made that was in the freezer. It was all quite tasty.

If you try this recipe let me know what you think. And if you made any changes, what changes were they?

Take care!

Tracey

photo by harper s.p.

Summer Grilling Tools

It’s mid July, mid summer and high grilling season. I love to grill. I don’t have a super fancy or high tech grill. It’s a grill that I can use propane or charcoal. It also has a side burner so I appreciate having that option. I usually use the gas because honestly it’s faster and easier. Also, I usually am only cooking for 2 adults and 1 child. Sometimes only 1 child and 1 adult.

I am always interested in gadgets or insider tips and tricks. I’ve been looking into taking a bbq class at a local teaching kitchen but the schedule just hasn’t been right. I did recently start receiving Bon Apetit magazine and the current issue was the Grilling Issue! You can find it here. Which I have to say as a sidenote it is a bit bothersome the article can be accessed for free online. Maybe it’s posted once the magazine is published. Back to the subject at hand. There are a lot of cool tools talked about in the article written by Jesse Sparks. My absolute fave was using a mesh basket to grill things that get messy and fall apart. Grilling strawberries for a shortcake. YUM! And the grilling tool idea came from a Brooklyn chef, Christine Lecki formerly at Reynard which I have never been to.

Love this idea!

So I absolutely am going to try this. If you have tried it how did it go? What did you think?

Did you make a shortcake? Or what did you put them on?

Enjoy!

Tracey