Good Friday Quiche
06 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Breakfast Tags: asparagus, quiche, red pepper
Happy Easter everyone!
I’ve just finished my rotation in Geriatrics, where I was going all over the hospitals, back and forth, up and down to the various floors for consults. Needless to say, this didn’t make it easy to bake…and who would I feed it to?
But I’m starting IMCU this week, so there will be plenty of nurses, PTs, OTs, and residents to feed. So stay tuned for more baking…
In the meantime though, since I’ve got friday and saturday off for Easter, I thought I’d make something fancy for brunch. Joffre’s post-call today and in a coma since he didn’t sleep last night, so I had the whole morning to myself to clean up the kitchen and make it messy again with this quiche.
Asparagus, Red Pepper, and Bacon Quiche (adapted from JoytheBaker)
I had a couple pillsbury premade pie crusts lying around, and thought this would be a perfect use for it! If you’re more motivated than me…you can make your own pie crust from scratch.
Ingredients for the filling:
- 6 whole eggs
- 1 C milk (I used skim)
- 1/2 C heavy cream
- 1 C shredded cheese (I used a combination of cheddar and mozzarella)
- 1 1/2 C chopped asparagus (I used almost 2 cups and the quiche almost overflowed…so stick to 1.5 C)
- 1/2 red pepper, diced
- 4-5 strips turkey bacon, diced
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, and put your pie crust into a 9′ pie plate.
Lightly saute in butter or olive oil, the asparagus, pepper, and bacon. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper. Then spread on the bottom of the pie crust, and top with 1/2 C shredded cheese.
Whisk together the eggs, milk, heavy cream. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Pour on top of the asparagus/pepper/bacon/cheese mixture. Add the rest of the shredded cheese to the top. Then bake for ~50 mins (45-55 mins) until it’s not longer jiggly on the top and golden brown.
Voila! Enjoy!! I’m sure you can use whatever variation you want. Take away the bacon to make it vegetarian. Substitute half the cheese for feta. Add green onions, spinach, or mushrooms. YUM!
Good Friday Quiche
06 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
Happy Easter everyone!
I’ve just finished my rotation in Geriatrics, where I was going all over the hospitals, back and forth, up and down to the various floors for consults. Needless to say, this didn’t make it easy to bake…and who would I feed it to?
But I’m starting IMCU this week, so there will be plenty of nurses, PTs, OTs, and residents to feed. So stay tuned for more baking…
In the meantime though, since I’ve got friday and saturday off for Easter, I thought I’d make something fancy for brunch. Joffre’s post-call today and in a coma since he didn’t sleep last night, so I had the whole morning to myself to clean up the kitchen and make it messy again with this quiche.
Asparagus, Red Pepper, and Bacon Quiche (adopted from JoytheBaker)
I had a couple pillsbury premade pie crusts lying around, and thought this would be a perfect use for it! If you’re more motivated than me…you can make your own pie crust from scratch.
Ingredients for the filling:
- 6 whole eggs
- 1 C milk (I used skim)
- 1/2 C heavy cream
- 1 C shredded cheese (I used a combination of cheddar and mozzarella)
- 1 1/2 C chopped asparagus (I used almost 2 cups and the quiche almost overflowed…so stick to 1.5 C)
- 1/2 red pepper, diced
- 4-5 strips turkey bacon, diced
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, and put your pie crust into a 9′ pie plate.
Lightly saute in butter or olive oil, the asparagus, pepper, and bacon. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper. Then spread on the bottom of the pie crust, and top with 1/2 C shredded cheese.
Whisk together the eggs, milk, heavy cream. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Pour on top of the asparagus/pepper/bacon/cheese mixture. Add the rest of the shredded cheese to the top. Then bake for ~50 mins (45-55 mins) until it’s not longer jiggly on the top and golden brown.
Voila! Enjoy!! I’m sure you can use whatever variation you want. Take away the bacon to make it vegetarian. Substitute half the cheese for feta. Add green onions, spinach, or mushrooms. YUM!
Post-call pancakes
07 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in Breakfast
Hold on a minute…we’re at the end of block 8? WHAT?!? I can’t believe first year is passing by so fast…I don’t feel competent enough to be a senior!!
Anyways. To make myself feel better, I’ve been making these cinnamon streusel pancakes. They are the PERFECT treat when you’re post-call, or on a lazy sunday, or for brunch for a few people. They’re heavenly and to die for. Joff thought they were a bit too sweet, so you can adjust how much streusel you top it with for each person’s sweet tooth.
The following recipe makes about 6-7 pancakes (i usually make them pretty big, if you like mini-pancakes it’ll definitely make a lot more). I made them again for brunch this weekend and the four of us were rolling around stuffed. Halving the recipe is perfect for two people, maybe even three if you have smaller appetites!
Cinnamon Streusel Pancakes
(from Twopeasandtheirpod)
Yield: 6 large pancakes
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cinnamon Streusel:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
Directions:
1. First, make the cinnamon streusel. In a medium bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Mix together with your hands or a fork, until you have a crumbly mixture. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir just until combined. Do not over mix, batter will be slightly lumpy.
3. Heat a griddle or pan to medium low. Coat with cooking spray. Drop 1 cup of batter onto heated skillet. Add 2 tablespoons of the cinnamon streusel. Cook on the first side until bubbles begin to form, about 2-3 minutes. Carefully flip pancake over and cover very generously with cinnamon streusel. Cook for another 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Continue this process to make the rest of the pancakes.
4. Serve warm with maple syrup and butter.
ENJOY!
Curry Salmon Cakes
31 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in Main Course Tags: curry, fishcakes, salmon, salmon cakes
Call is slowly killing me. This post-call delirium usually lasts for at least the next two days after a call shift, and then just when I’m starting to feel human again, I’m on call again in another couple days.
For anyone who hasn’t been on call before, basically you spend 24-26 hours in the hospital, working…continuously. Every once in awhile you luck out and get a couple hours sleep here and there. With my luck, I get paged every half an hour to an hour all night long. The post-call feeling is a hard one to fully describe if you haven’t experienced it before. You feel partially hungover, like a night of hard binge-drinking…except without the binge-drinking fun. Nauseated, sick to your stomach, dehydrated…you also start to feel a little delirious. Sometimes walking home post-call, I actually stumble and trip a few times and people look at me judgingly for being drunk at 9:30AM. It’s one part of medicine that I’d rather be without.
The only perk to being sleep deprived, exhausted, and feeling terrible for a night is that you get a glorious post-call day of no-work. And because of the aforementioned delirium, usually any kind of productive work (like studying or extra reading) goes out the window because I can’t even focus on one spot for long enough before I drift off into space. So instead I spend my post-call days shopping, cleaning, and cooking.
These salmon cakes were a product of a post-call day. They are DELICIOUS!!! While they’re a little messy and involved, they take a surprisingly small amount of time to make. Do it on YOUR next post-call day. You won’t regret it.
The picture is of my salmon cakes, some left over thai curry from a restaurant, the curry-tartar sauce, and some plain rice.
Curry Salmon Cakes (From my Food Network cookbook – Great Easy Meals)
1 pound skinless salmon fillet, halved crosswise (I used 1.5 fillets and it made 5 cakes)
2 tsp curry powder (preferably hot)
salt and peper
8 tablespoons store-bought tartar sauce
1/4 cup cracker meal/crushed saltines plus more for sprinkling
2 tablespoons grated peeled ginger (I just used ground ginger instead)
1 bunch scallions, finely chopped
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Mango salsa – I didn’t make this, but you can if you want!
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 mango, peeled, pitted, and diced
juice of 1 lime
1. Combine the salmon, 1 tablespoon water, 1 1/2 tsp curry powder, 1/2 tsp salt and pepper to taste in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave until the fish is opaque (2-3 min). Flake with a fork and cool slightly. Stir in 1 tablespoon tartar sauce, the cracker meal, ginger, and half of the scallions and the egg. Form into 5 patties and freeze until firm, about 10 mins.
2. Meanwhile, whisk the remaining 7 tablespoons tartar sauce and 1/2 tsp curry powder in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix 1 tbsp of curried tartar sauce with bell pepper, celery, mango, scallions, and lime juice.
3. Heat 1/4 inch of vegetable oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle the patties with cracker meal on both sides and fry until golden, 2-3 min per side. Drain on paper towels, serve with mango salad and curried tartar sauce. Be careful flipping them, they can be quite fragile!
You can also turn these salmon cakes into burgers by serving them on crusty rolls with tartar sauce as a topping!
Chicken enchiladas for one…really fat person.
19 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
in Main Course Tags: chicken, chicken enchiladas, enchiladas, mexican
Well, in two days I’ll have officially been a “Haligonian” for a month. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been here that long, but at the same time I almost feel like I just got here. I’ve started to settle into my new apartment and so far I love it. It’s a ton of space and I’ve been slowly getting it set up the way I want to. The walls are still a little bare and ugly, but I’ll be able to add artwork and things once I’ve got a couple paycheques!
Residency has been a total whirlwind to start. Just getting thrown in and all of sudden having responsibilities after not using our brains very much for the past two months is extremely disconcerting at first!! Especially in a new health care system with new computer health records systems, different paperwork, and different people. So far I think I’m managing to tread water and just keep my head above water.
Being on call is definitely one of the things to get used to, what with not having any call in fourth year. There’s good nights, and there’s bad nights, and then there’s terrible nights (like last night). But I’m slowly discovering that the worst part of call is when your partner is also a resident…and also doing call. Last weekend he was on home-call all weekend and we couldn’t go anywhere because he kept getting called into the hospital. I’m on call three out of the next four weekends, and he’ll have to go into the hospital for two of the four. I barely get to see him!!
What this story is leading up to is that last saturday night, I had planned out a delicious meal for us, since I had time to cook and I figured he wouldn’t get called in all night for home call. How wrong I was. I ended up cooking these delicious enchiladas and he got called into the hospital right at 5 when I started making them and didn’t come back til 10PM. So I had a whooole lot of chicken enchiladas to eat all by my lonesome! Such are the perils of residency. This recipe makes 12 of them. Good thing they’re still delicious as leftovers for lunches. So enjoy them with a big crowd if you can, there’s definitely enough food for everyone!
Chicken Enchiladas (adapted from Annie’s Eats)
Yield: 12 enchiladas
Ingredients:
For the sauce:
1 tsp. canola oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp. chili powder
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. sugar
1 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce/pasta sauce (I had leftover pasta sauce)
½-¾ cup water
Salt and pepper
For the filling:
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp. canola oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2/3 red or yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped fine
1/2 small zucchini, halved lengthwise, seeded and chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1½ cups enchilada sauce (above), divided
1 cup finely crumbled feta cheese
1 pre-cooked chicken breast (diced or shredded)
Salt and pepper
For assembly:
12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Lime wedges, for serving
Directions:
To make the enchilada sauce, heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, chili powder, cumin and sugar and cook just until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the tomato sauce and water, bring to a simmer and cook until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Preheat the oven to 450˚ F. Transfer half of the black beans to a bowl and mash with a fork until almost completely smooth. Set aside. Add the oil to a large skillet and heat over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook until slightly softened, 5-7 minutes. Add the zucchini and cook just until tender, 3-5 minutes more. Stir in the garlic and cook just until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the mashed beans mixture, whole beans, and diced chicken and cook until warmed through, about 2 minutes.
Transfer the big mixture to a large bowl and stir in ½ cup of the enchilada sauce and the feta cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
To assemble, warm the tortillas in a damp cloth, then place some filling mixture down the center of a tortilla. Roll up the tortilla and place in a 9 x 13-inch baking dish, seam side down. Repeat with the remaining filling and tortillas. Pour 1 cup of the sauce over the enchiladas, spreading it evenly. Sprinkle the shredded cheddar over the top of the sauce. Cover with foil and bake until the enchiladas are heated through, about 10 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake until the cheese is melted, 3-5 minutes more. Sprinkle with additional feta and/or cilantro for garnish, if desired. Serve warm with lime wedges.
Enjoy (maybe with some margaritas)!!
The end of a chapter.
23 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in Snacks Tags: dips, feta, hummus, spinach, spread
Wowee. I haven’t posted anything since November, 2010. Life just gets busy and goes by in a blur, doesn’t it?
Life has indeed been a whirlwind in the past 5 months. To recap quickly, I applied for residency -> travelled all over Canada for residency interviews (10 cities in 2.5 weeks!) -> matched to my first choice – Dalhousie Internal Medicine! -> wrote the final exams for med school!!! I can unofficially say that I’m now an MD! Now we’re in the midst of studying for that final little quiz that’s left – the nation-wide licensing exam, LMCC. So you can forgive me if I’ve been a bit complacent in my blogging. I would have never guessed four years ago that I’d be moving to Halifax…but life takes you in unexpected places!
This month marks the end of a chapter: medical school is finally over! It sounds so strange to say that. I’m going to try and keep this blog alive, and keep everyone updated on the cooking adventures and misadventures that will happen when I’m living on my own in Halifax. There will have to be more than just cookies and cake to keep me alive!
Today I’m going to share my favorite hummus recipe. Every time that I’ve made it so far, it’s been inhaled like crack. Joffre gets over-excited anytime I mention spinach and feta in the same sentence. It’s a little different from your average hummus recipe, the bright green colour is lovely, and it tastes amazing!! The red pepper flakes are a must, it adds the perfect little kick at the end. Make it today!!
Spinach and Feta Hummus
(adapted from Tasty Kitchen)
**The original recipe makes a TON so the one I’m posting is half that…still makes a lot!**
Ingredients:
19 oz can of chickpeas
3/4 – 1 cup Fresh Spinach
4 ounces, weight Feta Cheese
⅓ cups Olive Oil (I put a little less than that in and keep most of the water from the canned chickpeas)
2.5 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
2 Tablespoons Tahini
1 Tablespoon Red Pepper Flakes
1-2 cloves Garlic, Peeled/Pressed (depending on how garlicy you want it)
1 teaspoon salt
Combine all the ingredients in a blender (I use my magic bullet <3 ) and beat until it's creamy. If you leave most of the water in from the chickpeas instead of draining them, it'll be a little runny at the beginning, but firm up beautifully after you refrigerate it for a bit!
Enjoy =)
Cimmmmmanon…mmm…
30 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
in Cinnamon Buns, muffins Tags: cinnamon, Cinnamon Buns, muffins, rolls
It has been a month since I’ve updated this blog. And sadly, I must confess that I haven’t really baked much since my last update! *gasp* Not entirely true. But my camera has been with my parents in China.
Today’s post is on the cinnamon roll muffins that I made yesterday. I’m currently in the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) for three weeks, and I had been talking to the residents about cinnamon buns. I always have a craving for them. I’ve pretty much had a craving for them since my last post, on Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon buns. I have loved cinnamon buns since a young age, my mom and I used to get them at cinnzeo as a special treat. I used to say “cimmanon” on purpose. However, they are expensive at cinnzeo and much easier and just as tasty to make. The Pioneer Woman ones are to DIE for!!! However, if I had them as often as I craved them, they might literally be to die for. That, and the fact they take four hours to make are the major deterrents for why I don’t get cinnamon buns all the time.
Jon (one of the residents) shared a recipe with me for cinnamon buns that are not quite made from scratch, and only take a little prep time and 20 minutes to bake! AMAZING! But I didn’t have any frozen dinner rolls and didn’t get a chance to pick some up. So what’s a girl to do when she gets an intense craving for cinnamon rolls without dinner rolls and without 4 hours to make them from scratch?
You make Cinnamon Roll Muffins in the morning. I love this recipe! It took less than an hour from start to finish, so I made it before going to work friday morning. They have a cinnamony taste on the top, and a slightly more muffiny texture on the bottom. And I love them. Did I mention I love them? The nurses and residents seemed to love them to. I brought the tray to work, and it was sitting empty at the end of the day with a post-it note that said “please refill”.
So make some of these today. They’re not time consuming. They’re not hard to make. And they will definitely satisfy. <3
Cinnamon Roll Muffins (adapted from joythebaker.com) Makes 12 muffins.
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 tsp active dry or rapid rise yeast
2/3 cup warm milk (100-110F; low fat is fine – I ran out of milk and used almond milk)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
Filling/Topping
2 tbsp butter, room temperature
2/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch ground cardamom
Do NOT preheat your oven! However, grease a muffin tin before starting.
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. Dissolve the yeast in a measuring cup filled with the warmed milk, then stir milk mixture, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and egg into the flour mixture. Mix well, until very smooth. Pour into prepared pan and let rest for 15 minutes.
While the dough rests, mix together butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and cardamom in a small bowl using a fork until all the butter has been incorporated into the sugar and mixture is crumbly. Divide the batter between 12 greased muffin cups. Sprinkle evenly on top of rested dough and press the mixture down into the dough with your fingertips or swirl with a spatula. I swirled it and made sure it incorporated well with the top of the dough.
Place pan into a cold oven, then set the oven temperature to 350F.
Bake for about 20 minutes, until bread is lightly browned at the edges and the center of the bread springs back when lightly pressed. Some of the sugar mixture on top will probably still be bubbling.
Cool for at least 30 minutes before whisking the powdered sugar and milk together to form an icing and drizzling it onto the bread. Or leave them be and devour them.
Serve warm. Leftovers can be reheated in the microwave.
On Bruschetta and Boyfriends
03 Oct 2010 1 Comment
in Main Course Tags: bruschetta, chicken, dinner, sandwich, tomatoes
My friend Ryan’s girlfriend has a blog. Her name is Leslie, and her blog is Leslie Chomps!. She had a yummy post on making Boyfriend Bruschetta sandwiches. Why are they called that? I’m not sure. But I had some almost-overly-ripe tomatoes from the Farmer’s Market in my fridge, some chicken breasts, and a boyfriend to feed…so I thought it was a perfect occasion to try them out for myself.
Deliciousness! I haven’t made bruschetta before, but it seems to be a staple appetizer to order in restaurants. I don’t know if I want to order it at restaurants anymore because it’s so simple to make!
I googled “bruschetta” and put the following things in mine:
Bruschetta
- 1 clove garlic (if you like it more garlicy, put more in! I didn’t want too strong of a garlic flavor this time)
- spoonful balsamic vinegar
- spoonful grapeseed oil
- dash of basil (I only had dried, fresh would be fairly good I imagine!)
- dash of salt and pepper
- chopped up tomatoes
- 2 slices of red onion, diced
Mix it all together and let it sit for at least 10 minutes. Mine got really juicy, so I took a strainer and got rid of some of the juices. Then I toasted two baguettes with a slice of cheese, baked up a chicken breast and sliced it in half, and topped the sandwich the bruschetta! MMM. Tasty and healthy dinner. =)
Squishy-squash: the sequel
27 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
in Other Baked Goods, Quick Bread Tags: cranberries, loaf, zucchini
I still had a couple zucchinis kicking around, so I thought it’d be a good time for round 2 of baking with zucchini! This recipe is tasty, moist, and healthy too. I sent it off with Joffre for the crew doing emergency medicine. I think they enjoyed it =)
Zucchini Bread with Dried Cranberries (adapted from twopeasandtheirpod.com)
• 1 3/4 cups shredded zucchini
• 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2-3/4 cup dried cranberries
• Cinnamon/sugar to sprinkle on top
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan with cooking spray, and set aside. Grate zucchini on the large holes of a box grater (to yield 1 3/4 cups); set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together sugars, oil, applesauce, vanilla, and eggs.
2. Into a small bowl, sift together flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and salt. Add flour mixture to egg mixture, and stir to combine well. Stir in grated zucchini and dried cranberries.
3. Pour batter into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture- (if you wish, I didn’t think it needed it!). Bake until a toothpick inserted in centre of loaf comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes. (It took about 50 minutes for me) Cool in a pan 10 minutes – invert onto a wire rack, then reinvert, top side up. Cool completely before slicing.
Calories: ~160 calories/slice (slicing 13 slices)
