A Little Vegetarian Dinner

So I'm dating a vegetarian. Yes, it grinds my gears. As a meat enthusiast, I'm relearning everything I know about food. Apparently you don't need several kinds of unethically raised animal flesh on the table to call it dinner. I've even tried to cut back on my own meat in-take, insert obvious sexual puns here. Maybe I'm using the wrong search engine but I can't seem to find a vegetarian cooking blog that doesn't piss me off. I'm a purist when it comes to food, well, as purist as any GMO-slurping, urban-dwelling, American can be. I'm leery about using "faux" meat. If it's not meat and it's not dairy, what the hell is it? You can eat all the tofu you want, but I don't care for it. When cooking for my vegetarian I'm just gonna stick to vegetables and grains for now. At least he isn't vegan. Hail seitan! 

Je m'appelle Ratatouille!

Nope, I haven't seen the movie but I've heard great things. I'll usually watch anything concerning epicurious rodents, but for some reason I've missed this one. Typically this dish calls for eggplant. I'm not crazy about eggplant, I can't quite define why, but something about it rubs me the wrong way. I replaced eggplant with heirloom tomato slices and it was excellent. I love buying new kitchen stuff and since this recipe calls for paper thin slices of veggies, I finally invested in a good kitchen knife. This was ridiculously easy and the leftovers were easily repurposed into omelets the next morning. 

you will need the following: 

1/2 onion (minced)

2 garlic cloves (sliced thin)

1 c tomato puree (or sauce)

2 tbsp olive oil 

1 zucchini (sliced thin)

1 yellow squash (sliced thin)

1 red bell pepper (sliced thin)

1 heirloom tomato (sliced thin)

Fresh thyme 

Salt & pepper

Goat cheese (optional)

Polenta 

Step 1: Oven to 375. Pour tomato puree into an ovular dish, unless you don't have one. In which case use a pie dish. Mix sauce with chopped onion, garlic slices and 1 tbsp olive oil. Season to taste. 

Step 2: Arrange thin sliced veggies in a circular pattern. 

Step 3: Top veggies with fresh thyme and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. This part sucks, but try to cut a circle of parchment paper that will fit inside the dish and cover your veggies. I'm really not sure why this is important but the cookbook said it was. 

Step 4: Bake 45 minutes. Prepare a bed of polenta (or any other grain you like) for the ratatouille. 

Top with goat cheese and serve immediately. 

A Little Bastille Day Brunch

We had our blow-em-up day, now the French will have theirs. True, our independence wasn't based on cutting the heads off nobles, but it should have been. I usually forget Bastille Day and I think, merde, I forgot Bastille Day again. This year, I remembered it and baked a beautiful quiche pour un. If the apron doesn't say Francophile or spinster, I don't know what does. It comes courtesy of a friend of mine who visited Paris last fall. I remember really wanting it when I was in Paris, but too ashamed to buy it for myself. 

"Aidez-Moi, Je suis Pauvre"...Quiche Lorraine

I had the best quiche lorraine in Paris shortly after my traveling companion puked into the Seine. It's a lovely memory. Some recipes will try to tell you that you need a special quiche pan. I'm not even trying to hear that. I've never seen this so-called "quiche pan." Quiches are great because you can basically clean out your fridge, bake it with some eggs and voila! Quiche. I actually used a traditional recipe here because it's France day! Quiche is also tres cheap especially when you use Swiss instead of gruyere, and French people were poor during the revolution...

You will need the following

For the crust..

1-1/4 c flour 

1 stick butter

1 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic salt

pepper & dry thyme 

for the filling..

5 eggs

2 c whole milk

3 strips cooked bacon

1 c shredded Swiss cheese

1/2 sliced sweet onion

2 tsp dried thyme

Salt & pepper

dash of paprika 

Step 1: Make a savory pie crust by combining dry ingredients and cold butter cut into coarse crumbs. Add 3-4 tablespoons ice water and roll out. Chill dough while making filling. *Add some shredded cheese to the crust if you want. 

Step 3: Preheat oven to 425. Grate cheese, slice onions, cook and crumble bacon, set aside. Whisk together milk, eggs and seasonings in a mixing bowl. Press pastry into dish and bake ten minutes. 

Step 4: Reduce oven to 325. Layer lightly browned pastry with bacon, onion, cheese and thyme. Pour egg mix over and bake one hour or until solid. Allow to cool completely before serving.

*I used a pie bird to keep the filling from bubbling over.

Vive la France!