Day 104 - Chicken with Spinach, Pine Nuts & Gruyere Cheese

I really want to thank all of you who entered the 100th Day giveaway!  We do have a winner and she has been notified by e-mail.

If you didn't win, there will be other chances as I will be doing a giveaway in the near future on the 365 Facebook page and again on the 200th day.

Again, I cannot thank you all enough!  I truly appreciate your support.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Big, big hugs!

Pretty aren't they?
Oh. Boy.
Beautifully grilled habanero peppers.
What do they have to do with today's post?
While shopping I decided that tonight's dinner needed something orange on the plate and rack my brain as I might, I just couldn't come up with anything.
Until...
I saw the little, itty, bitty habanero peppers arranged so nicely in a basket in the produce section.
I'd never had them before and really am not a spicy food fan, AND have no idea where they might range on the heirarchy of the pepper heat scale.
Regardless, I thought they might be wonderful grilled after being tossed in some olive oil and coarse salt.  I thought that slicing them into small sections would cut down on the heat.
After I grilled them, I seeded them, sliced them into quarters, then slivers and was going to serve them either on top of the chicken or as a side.
Until...

I bit into one!!
And it wasn't even a whole one OR a big bite for that matter - it was a quarter of a quarter!
I just wanted to TASTE it.
Holy Crow!!!
I can't believe how much heat that puppy put into my mouth.  I have NEVER in my life experienced something so unbelievably HOT!!
My whole mouth was on fire, my lips were burning, my ears were ringing, I started salivating uncontrollably, and needless to say my nose was running like a faucet!
Nope, water doesn't help.
Milk, well, a little better.  Oh yeah, that works.  Wait. Heck NO! It's coming back!!!  MORE MILK!!!!
So, there I ran around in the kitchen like a chicken with my head cut off desperately attempting to find some relief.
All this while the family sits on the couch watching both the Red Sox and Celtics lose and me circling in a frenzy.
"Really, Lynne, it can't be THAT bad!" and "C'mon, mom."
HAH - I couldn't even respond!
What is GOING TO GET RID OF THIS????!!!!!

Vanilla. Ice. Cream.
And a BIG bowl of it.
Yup, that's what I ate right before dinner while I was attempting to finish making dinner.
I will NEVER have another cute little, itty, bitty habanero pepper. AGAIN.
Mr. 365 had a small piece, too.
And then he needed some of my ice cream.  ;-)

Chicken with Spinach, Pine Nuts, & Gruyere Cheese

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 package fresh spinach
½ cup grated Gruyere cheese
2 teaspoons pine nuts
1 teaspoon grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup plain bread crumbs
½ cup olive oil, divided in two
2 cloves garlic, minced

Preheat oven to 425ºF.
In a flat dish press bread crumbs on to both sides of chicken.  Place ¼ cup oil in a 13 X 9"-inch baking dish; set aside.

In a large skillet, pour in ¼ cup of olive oil, and add minced garlic.  Sauté for one minute.  Add spinach, pine nuts, and Parmesan cheese.  Sauté until spinach is limp; set aside.

Spoon spinach mixture on to each of the chicken breasts.  Top with grated Gruyere.

Bake for 20 minutes.

I have made this in the past with provolone instead of Gruyere.  I should have stuck with that, but I decided I wanted to be fancy (and I had Gruyere that I wanted to use up).

The spinach was DELICIOUS and I sometimes cook it that way as a side dish without the pine nuts.

The family REALLY didn't like the Gruyere on it, and said I should have gone with the provolone.  They said the first bite was good, but then the rest tasted like fish.

Fish?

Really? 

We were eating chicken.

I really didn't taste the "fishiness" and that's usually something I'll pick right up on.

Needless to say, 3 chicken breasts were plenty for four people, and noone wanted the last one, and my palate had already been ruined for the night.

I rate everything on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the best.  This chicken dish earned 2 rolling pins. 

I would highly recommend using the provolone.  The Gruyere has just too strong of a taste.

Happy baking! 

Day 94 -Macaroni and Cheese

Macaroni - the darker of the two is a fortified pasta with multi-grains and Omega 3's. 
I used ¼ lb. of each.

TA DA!
Change is good, right?
I thought we needed to update the blog, make it a little cleaner and easier to read. 
Besides, I didn't know what the birds in the upper right hand corner had to do with baking anyway.  Unless it was the egg commonality. 
Yeah, no birds.
I'd love your feedback - let me know what you think!  I can take criticism, too.
I understand, some people don't like change and may have a hard time with it.  (I already am every time I click on to see it, it freaks me out just a little bit 'cause I've forgotten that I've done it.)
And don't worry, I won't go changing it every 90 days either.

I had some time on my hands today and as I was hanging Mr. 365's shirts in the closet, I decided to arrange them in order of color.
Is that weird? 
It's something I've always secretly wanted to do.
Like wanting to swing on a trapeze and then do a somersault in the air.
Seriously.
And then after they were all neatly arranged by color, I gathered the sleeves of the shirts as I was taught to do early on in retail, so that they would all fall the same way and be "just so".
Anal retentive, I know.
But with some things, that's just the way I am.

It's gotten so that I've been having to do a search on my own blog now to see if I've already made the recipe or some form of it.
90+ recipes and no duplications. 
We need to make it 365, and so the challenge continues!

Baked Macaroni & Cheese adapted from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, Thirteenth Edition, pp. 274, 333; author, Marion Cunningham; publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., a division of Random House, Inc.; ISBN 0-394-56788-9.

Macaroni & Cheese - serves four
Preheat oven to 375ºF.
Butter a 8 X 8" square baking dish; set aside.

½ pound elbow macaroni, cooked
2 cups cheese sauce (follows)
½ cup finely shredded Colby/Cheddar Cheese(Mexican Cheese)
¼ cup grated Gruyere cheese
½ cup freshly made buttered breadcrumbs (follows)

Cheese Sauce
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1¼ cups milk, heated
½ cup finely shredded Colby/Cheddar Cheese (Mexican Cheese)
salt
freshly ground pepper
As the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan.  Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the paste cooks and bubbles a bit, but don't let it brown - about 2 minutes.

 Add the hot milk, continuing to stir as the sauce thickens.  Bring to a boil.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Lower the heat and stir in the Colby/Cheddar.  Cook for 2 minutes more, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.

Buttered Bread Crumbs
2 tablespoons butter
½ cup Italian style bread crumbs
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Melt butter in a small saucepan.  Add bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.  Mix well.  Remove from heat.  Set aside.

Put the cooked macaroni into a large bowl and pour the cheese sauce over it.  Add the Gruyere cheese.

 Mix gently with a fork. 

Turn out into the baking dish.
Sprinkle the shredded Colby/Cheddar over the top and spread the breadcrumbs over the cheese.

Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until the top is golden and the sauce is bubbling.

Every day I rate what I bake on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the best.  Over dinner, the family decided that this macaroni and cheese earned 3 rolling pins.
We really liked the addition of the Gruyere cheese, but thought it could have used ½ cup more cheddar in the sauce with another ¼ cup of milk.  The family wanted it cheesier.  Also, next time I would not use the fine bread crumbs - too gritty, and too much - or I would only use ¼ cup.  I would really prefer to use cubed bread slices like we did when we made mac. and cheese in 8th grade Home Ec.
Next time.
This is a keeper, I just think it needs these modifications.
Remember, the 100th day post is coming up and with that will be a giveaway, so keep reading!
Happy baking!

Day 91 - Spinach, Bacon & Gruyère Quiche




Mmmmm...dinner.
Boys may not eat cookies, but real men eat quiche, right?
I have to say, my husband has never been a "fan of quiche", but the kids have consistently loved it.  It's been a few years since I've made it, so I cleaned out the cobwebs in my head to access the recipe in my brain.  I also made it tonight because I needed to make dinner and today's recipe for the blog.  There's still a couple leftover chicken enchiladas in the fridge anyway if this doesn't turn out and pecan pie for dessert.
Please note that you may want to read through this whole post and decide what oven temp. would work best for you.  After 8 hours of baking (ok, I grossly exaggerate, but it was taking FOREVER), the quiche still wasn't setting.  Read on and then talk amongst yourselves.  The topic:  oven temperature settings to ensure that you will be having quiche for dinner and not breakfast the next morning. 

Spinach, Bacon & Gruyere Quiche

I used the Fannie Farmer Cookbook Thirteenth Edition for the crust, p. 639; author, Marion Cunningham; publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., a division of Random House, Inc.; ISBN 0-394-56788-9.


Pastry Shell - 9-inch pie shell
     1½ cup flour
     ¼ teaspoon salt
     ½ cup shortening
     ¼ teaspoon dried dill
     3-4 tablespoons cold water (I ended up using about 7)
 
Preheat the oven to 450ºF. 
Mix the flour and salt.  Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender or two knives.  Combine lightly only until the mixture resembles coarse meal or very tiny peas:  its texture will be uniform, but will contain crumbs and small bits and pieces.  Add dill seasoning.  Sprinkle water over the flour mixture, a tablespoon at a time, and mix lightly with a fork, using only enough water so that the pastry will hold together when pressed gently together.  Roll the dough out 2 inches larger than the pie pan.  Fit it loosely, but firmly into the pan.  Crimp or flute the edges.
Cover with a double lining of tin foil and bake for 8 minutes.  Uncover and bake for 8 minutes more or until crust is set and dry. 
Decrease oven temperature to 325ºF.
(After the uncovered 8 minutes, the bottom of the crust was bubbly and still moist.  I lined it with parchment and poured rice into it to add weight.  Doing this added another 10 minutes to the baking time.)  Notice I also pricked the crust, completely forgetting that I wasn't supposed to do that.  Ah well, it's just too difficult to fill in all those tiny holes...

The Filling

4 slices bacon

½ cup chopped onion

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 8oz. bag fresh spinach, chopped (I suggest taking it out of the bag first ;-) )

1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese

4 eggs, beaten

1½ cups milk

1 tablespoon flour

¼ teaspoon salt

 freshly ground pepper to taste

In a large skillet over medium high heat, cook bacon.  Once cooked, set aside to drain on plate lined with a paper towel, and crumble when cooled.

With at least one tablespoon of bacon drippings in skillet, saute onion and garlic for about 3-4 minutes until softened, making sure burner light doesn't go out or you'll be wondering why it is taking so long to cook.  Yeah.

Add chopped spinach to skillet.

Saute until well wilted (well wilted?  wilted well?), until it decreases sufficiently in pan, about 5-7 minutes.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.

In a small bowl, combine Gruyere cheese and flour.  Mix until cheese is thoroughly coated.  Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat eggs.  Add milk, salt, pepper, crumbled bacon, and cheese/flour mixture.  Mix well.

Add spinach mixture from skillet to large bowl.  Mix well.  Pour into pie crust.

Ok, this is where you come in.  YOU are now allowed to make an executive decision.  The topic was temperature for the oven so you could eat your quiche at a decent hour for dinner.  What's the verdict?

Here's what I did which I don't think I'd recommend:

The oven was at 325ºF, and after the consulting numerous cookbooks on baking times at that temperature, they all suggested that a quiche (with added ingredients such as bacon, or spinach, or cheese) would take about 45-50 minutes until it was set and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. 

UN-UNH.

So, I increased the oven temperature to 350ºF and baked it for another 15 minutes.  The edges were starting to puff up and look set, but the knife in the middle came out wet.  Another 15 minutes at 350ºF and maybe a couple minutes more were needed before it was sufficiently baked through.  Totally frustrating!  Fortunately the hungry masses were patient and I was able to temporarily satiate their hunger with sweet potato fries before the quiche emerged form the oven. 

So total baking time: 325ºF for 50 minutes, then 350ºF for 30+ minutes.

Well, I guess it is true, good things come to those who wait.  My husband even liked it this time!  The kids weren't thrilled with the way I had changed it.  I used to use cheddar/Colby cheese and used ½ of a thawed box of frozen spinach that I didn't saute.  I wanted to be different tonight.  I also used a store bought pie crust in the past.  I REALLY liked the taste of the Gruyere.  I had never had it before.  I think I will have to use it again.

I don't think the crust needed the addition of the dill.  Too many flavors and I could only taste it when I was eating the crust without the quiche.

I use a rating system of 1-4 with 4 being the best and this quiche earned 3 rolling pins. 

Happy baking!