Ratatouille, At Last!!!!

It has been the strangest summer for me.  Usually, by this time, I would have made several batches of ratatouille, given that I would have had 2-3 weeks of eggplants from the CSA.  However, between moving and traveling, I have not had time to do any major cooking.  So, today, I decided it was time.  I made a roasted ratatouille today (my favorite type because roasting gives another layer of flavor).  To make it acceptable to my diet, I then took a bunch and made a quiche (the cheese, milk and eggs give me protein).  Here are both recipes:

Oven-Roasted Ratatouille

• 1 medium eggplant*
• 1 medium zucchini*
• 1 small yellow squash*
• 5 small local Amish tomatoes*
• 1 red pepper*
• 1 orange pepper*
• canola oil
• Italian seasoning
• Salt & Pepper

Preheat oven to 400F.  Wash all vegetables.  Trim ends of eggplant. Quarter the eggplant lengthwise and then slice into 1/4" slices.  Trim ends of zucchini and squash. Cut in half lengthwise and then slice into 1/8" slices.  Quarter tomatoes and the coarsely chop. Roughly chop the peppers.  Place all vegetables into a zip bag (2 if needed).  Drizzle oil over vegetables and then sprinkle with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning.  Shake bag(s) until the vegetables are evenly coated with oil and seasonings.  Pour into a prepared roasting pan and roast for 45-60 minutes, stirring the vegetables every 15 minutes to cook evenly.

 Ratatouille Quiche

• 1 1/2 cups Roasted Ratatouille (see above)
• 1 cup Italian Cheese blend
• 5 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cup 1% milk
• salt & pepper
• dried basil

Reduce heat of oven to 350F.  Drain 1 1/2 cups of roasted ratatouille on paper towels.  Press out as much moisture as possible as the vegetables will likely release more moisture during baking.   Place the vegetables into the bottom of a prepared round baking pan.  Beat eggs with milk and seasonings.  Sprinkle the cheese over the vegetables and then pour the egg mixture over the filling.  Bake for 35 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to set for 5 minutes before serving.

*Farmers market ingredients

Moving Day Quiche

While I have been living with my parents, I have made a few quiches to share.  Last week, I was making a broccoli cheddar quiche and Dad said, "I bet this would be good with bleu cheese".  That got me thinking and I decided that I would try that for the people who were helping me move my stuff into my new house.  I thought about it for a while and decided that bleu cheese would be best with caramelized onions and bacon.  So, last night, as I was unpacking and watching the Lions game (they won!!!!), I caramelized onions and cooked up the bacon.  And then this morning, I threw that together with bleu cheese and my standard quiche egg mixture and what resulted is now my favorite quiche.  It's a bit more work than what I normally do, but oh, so worth the effort!

Bleu Cheese Bacon Quiche with Caramelized Onions

• 1/2 lb bacon
• 1 large sweet onion, sliced
• 3 Tbsp canola oil
• 4 oz bleu cheese
• 5 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups 1% milk
• 2 tsp dried basil

Preheat oven to 350F.

Caramelize onions:
Peel onion and then cut into quarters.  Thinly slice the onions and then cut slices into thirds.  Set aside.  Heat heavy skillet over medium heat.  Add oil and heat until shimmery.  Add onions and stir until evenly coated in oil.  Cook, stirring every 1-2 minutes until the onions begin to brown.  Continuing cooking, stirring every 30 seconds to 1 minute until the onions are desired color (brown but not burned).  Set aside to cool.

Add bacon to the same skillet and cook until crisp.  Remove onto paper towels to drain fat.  Cool and then dice.  Set aside.

Assemble Quiche:
Mix cooked onions and bacon and sprinkle in bottom of prepared baking pan.  Sprinkle bleu cheese over the onions and bacon. Whip eggs with milk and basil.  Pour over fillings and bake at 350F for 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Allow to set for 5 minutes before serving.

Canadian Bacon Quiche

An early morning storm followed by a call from my new CSA delaying this morning's pickup reminded me that I have been remiss in posting to this blog. I have been so busy; moving, starting a new career, ending the old one, traveling, I just haven't taken the time to post. For that, I apologize. Last night, Dad bought a Canadian bacon, so I figured I would camelize some onions, cut up some of the bacon and use the bleu cheese I bought last night to make a quiche. But alas, I left the bleu cheese at the house. So this morning I used Swiss and we shall have the bleu on Saturday for those helping me finish my move.

 Canadian Bacon Onion Quiche

• 1 need. sweet onion
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 6 oz Canadian bacon, diced
• 4 oz Swiss cheese
• 5 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups 1% milk

 Preheat oven to 350F. Dice onions; set aside. Heat heavy skillet over medium heat. Add oil and continue heating until oil shimmers. Add onions and toss to coat with oil. Cook, stirring every 1-2 minutes until, they soften. Reduce heat and cook, adding water as needed to keep moist until onions carmelize to desired brownness. Be careful not to burn. At the end, add the Canadian bacon to heat.

Prepare a round baking pan with cooking spray. Spread onions and bacon in bottom of pan. Sprinkle with shredded Swiss. Beat eggs with milk; season as desired (I used garlic, salt and freeze-dried basil). Pour eggs over filling. Bake for 35 minutes at 350F. Allow to set 5 minutes before serving.

Farmers' Market Finds

Mom and I went down to the Midland Farmers' Market this morning and I was surprised how the produce selection has expanded.  It took everything in me not to just buy all of the beautiful vegetables available this morning, but since I head out on Wednesday next week, I resisted.  But there was everything from beets to zucchini and yellow squash to eggplant to cucumbers to tomatoes and so on.  Yes, did you see that they had almost everything for ratatouille?  Oh, I so wanted to get everything and make a batch, but then I would have to leave it for Mom and Dad to eat and that wouldn't be fair.  I settled for beets with beautiful beet greens and blueberries.  Mom got tomatoes, pickle cukes, rhubarb and cherries.

When we got home, I quizzed them on whether they would like to try quiche with the beet greens.  Mom said she usually gave the greens to Lyn (she's actually never tried them before!).  They agreed to try it, so I cooked up the greens, cut up one of the riper tomatoes and then added ham and sharp cheddar.  They thoroughly enjoyed the quiche for lunch and we have leftovers for breakfasts.

Beet Green with Ham Quiche

• 1 Tbsp oil
• 1 small bunch beet greens with stems*
• 1 medium tomato*
• 6 oz Michigan picnic ham
• 3 oz extra sharp cheddar
• 5 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• salt, pepper, dried basil, garlic powder

Wash beet greens, dry and cut off stems.  Cut stems into thin slices; set aside.  Cut beet leaves into bite-sized pieces; set aside.  In a large skillet, heat oil.  Add stems and cook until they start to soften, about 5 minutes.  Add leaves and cook, stirring, until the leaves begin to wilt.  Cut tomato into thin wedges and arrange in bottom of prepared pan (I used a round cake pan this time).  Sprinkle greens evenly over the tomatoes.  Finely dice the ham and cheddar and sprinkle evenly over the vegetables.  In a medium bowl, whip eggs with milk and seasonings until smooth and slightly bubbly.  Pour over the fillings.  Bake in preheated 350F oven for approx 35 minutes, or until a knife, inserted into the center, comes out clean.  Allow to stand 5 minutes before serving.

*Farmers' Market ingredients

Settling In, Finishing Up

Today is actually the third full-time day at SVSU.  It's so quiet around here in the summer.  On average, there are about 5 people in their offices and I suspect that I am about the only one that is not actually teaching classes yet.  My office is huge and I am spread all over it as is par for the course when I am doing research.  I have 3 more projects to finish before the 10th and I can't seem to make myself concentrate on just one.  I did, however, manage to finish re-writing my career portfolio yesterday.  I hope it's closer to what they were looking for.  I had tried to be rather generic in case I wanted to use it someday (which I am hoping that I won't), but they wanted me to get specific, so I did. 

I have finally finished the homework assignment as well.  I know that John wanted to be done with that early, but I didn't get any homework done last week.  I was too busy trying to get all of my packing done.  And quite frankly, I have had a time getting the momentum back up and running.  Today I am concentrating on finishing my lit review.   I am still a little miffed about the way that some in the cohort completed their lit reviews, but what can I do.  As long as they have completed the assignment, nobody can say one way or another whether they did it for the program or if they used something that they had completed before.  There isn't the controls that are in place in grad school that prevent things such as this from occurring.

At any rate, I am really excited for the school year to start so I can get back to finishing up research projects.  Since most will be done as collaborations, it's kind of tough right now to get much done.  The people I need to work with are not coming into work and thus, I don't have enough communication time with them.  But I did find out that there are some great resources in this faculty and I want to take advantage of those resources before they dry up.

Here are some pictures of my office at school.  It's strange to have an office that I can actually close the door on (not that I will ever do that).  But even better than that, I apparently will have an MBA student to help me with literature reviews in the fall.  I am thinking the direct method research will be the best project for him.  We shall see.

New Beginning

New BeggingEV886Y

Last Friday was my last day at Case Western Reserve University and the last day of my science career. Since that time I have been sorting, throwing and packing my belongings. As I go through bags and boxes I haven't looked at since moving to this apartment, I have  been finding pictures and clothes that clearly remind me of where I was when I started this journey. Since I have been plateaued since I started traveling for the bridge program, these things are keeping my spirit up and my head in the game.

 This is a picture of the choir I was in in 2011. I am in the front, third from the left. I actually had already lost about 20 lbs toward surgery at that time, but you can see I still had a long way to go.

 This is me in one leg of a pair of size 34 pants I wore before I started this journey. These pants are important because they are linen and have no stretch. I now wear a regular size 16.

 It is so freeing to have this time to purge my former life. So many exciting changes!

Local Broccoli and Tomatoes

This week's quiche is one of my new favorite combinations! I'm not sure exactly when I fell in love with broccoli and eggs, but I know that right now I prefer that combination to any other. Having locally-grown broccoli just makes it all that much better! Add to that some delicious local tomatoes from the Midland Farmer's Market and I am in heaven!

 Broccoli Cheddar Quiche with Tomatoes

•  1 small head broccoli*, chopped
•  1 medium local tomato, sliced
•  1 cup sharp cheddar, shredded
•  5 farm-fresh eggs*
•  1 cup 1% milk
•  salt and pepper

 Preheat oven to 350F. Sprinkle broccoli into a prepared pie plate. Arrange tomato wedges over broccoli and then sprinkle cheddar on top. Mix eggs, milk and seasonings until smooth. Pour evenly over fillings. Bake for 35 minutes. Allow to stand for 5 minutes before serving.