httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYAzrcUMLpA
Hey Foodies!
It is I, your food editor (secretly, it is moi – Brian posing as the evil food editor of this blog). This week I found a video in which I made an artichoke dip for a competition at work. Although I did not win this one, it is still a very good dip for crackers.
Seeing as Summer is also just around the corner, both Helenka and I found it was just TOOOOO hot to blog so we leave you with this special.
See you soon!
Enjoy
B&H =:)
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzIXYQajCLo
Hey, everyone! Well, I hope you are enjoying your summer. I know I am! The weather this summer has been fantastic (it’s really humid where we are, but I’m not complaining). Helenka and I have had two BBQs thus far (which I’m still in the process of editing, so they will be shown at a later date).
For this week’s episode I am unfortunately on my own as Helenka had to move her castle. So I took some creative leeway and cooked up a story about her being abducted by aliens, because how else would you explain why she was not around? 😉 Other than being foodies, we are sci-fi fans, too! Hey, it all fits … somehow.
Getting back to the show … using a recipe I found in the book as a guide, I made two quiches for this episode. The first was the original and the second an experiment where I replaced the ingredients before sampling them both to find out which was the better of the two. I also had some taste testers from an upcoming series I’m doing who gave me some additional feedback.
Keep in mind the book we are reviewing and learning from is based upon the idea of being able to cook better and healthier meals than those found in some American restaurants by using reduced fat substitutes such as turkey sausage along with artichoke hearts and feta cheese in their version of the quiche. My version may not be the healthiest or lowest in fat, but I can say that it did receive a slightly better review. I think the goat cheese had something to do with it; hmm, seems to be the magic ingredient … again. I also replaced the turkey sausage with Pancetta (Italian bacon) which I thought added a very nice flavour and complemented the artichoke hearts and goat cheese (chèvre).
This is not the first time I made a quiche and you shouldn’t be surprised to know there’s a story….
I remember the first time which was not a long time ago or in a galaxy far far away. I was making a spinach quiche for lunch as my sister and her boyfriend were coming over so that they could drive my other sister and me off to the airport (on our way to a brother/sister vacation).
I was a bit nervous as I thought it would be a hard thing to do. It was messy but not hard. I think I had a recipe to follow and also used one of those frozen pie crusts which come in handy if you are making a cheater pie (I’m saving this topic for another blog) or, as in this case, a quiche.
It would appear that there is a conspiracy going on with the size of these pie crusts and quiche recipes (so as to increase sales, me thinks) as they never seem to be the correct size nor have enough depth to be able to take in all the egg mixture. I ended up making two, with even extra left over. As it was my first, I was pleasantly surprised that it was very good and my guinea pigs … umm … family enjoyed it as well (experimenting is fun with them — the family — not guinea pigs).
Thinking I was a bit smarter this go round, I bought deep dish pie crusts and the conspiracy held true again (i.e., not deep enough or big enough for all the egg mixture). So for the second quiche, I got smart and cut down some of the milk but kept the same number of eggs (using double yolks – another experiment – instead of extra large eggs). It was weird to see … though the results were still yummy. The reduction of the milk didn’t hamper the taste or quality of the quiche. I’m getting the idea that quiche would be a hard type of dish to really screw up unless you started using weird ingredients – but, then again, if you like it who’s to say that it’s good or bad.
Why don’t you take a crack [Evil editor groans at the pun] at it and let us know if you’ve found a particular combination of flavours you liked. You never know: we may just recreate it on our show!
Thanks again for watching. Have yourselves a GREAT week and keep sending in your feedback. We love hearing from you!
Enjoy!
B&H =:)
Pictures below are of the two that I had made – very hard to tell the difference though the first two are my creation the last two are the book version (making me hungry just looking at them).
Please note: We try and review the recipes in the cookbook; however, in an effort to respect copyright, we are not able to reproduce the actual printed recipes here. If you do have the book, please follow along with us!
Helenka declined to critique the quiche offerings because of the physical stress and strain of moving her castle. However, she was extremely happy to have portions of them in the fridge to nourish her. Okay, that’s the official press-release reason. The real reason is that She. Was. Abducted. By. Aliens who also decided to coerce Brian to include them on the show in her place.
::sighs:: It’s tough when two little green guys made of plush can try to replace *moi*! There also appeared to be a ransom request of cookies. Well, ::huffs in indignation:: *moi* is most certainly upset as I gave Brian a fancy cookie gun from Williams-Sonoma absolute ages ago and to think that he would have used it to guarantee my freedom ,,, um, wait a minute. ::pauses to ponder:: Okay, fine. Everything’s okay. Especially as I’m out of their tiny, green clutches! Those two greedy l’il green guys weren’t satisfied with only asking for cookies, they wanted CAKE too by the end of the show – as well as demanding the rights to all episodes (in lolcat speak to boot)!!!
It’s too bad Brian didn’t turn the tables on them by asking the canonical alien question that always pops up in SF, namely, “Cake or death?” On the other hand, it was gratifying to see how I was missed. After all, with me you get scintillating colour commentary (and sparkly accessories in scarves and jewellery). But they just sat there and were … green!!! [Brian pipes in : Those evil creatures make a come back too! – but that’s another story for another day]
Number of servings (yield): 8
Meal type: supper
Culinary tradition: USA (General)
Microformatting by hRecipe.
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=430_lH_Af3Y
When I thought up the idea of doing my own cooking show with my very bestest friend and “Cohort in Cooking”, Helenka [Evil editor’s cautionary note: uh-oh, he’s trying to make me forget he bypassed my editorial eagle eye last week], a few years ago, I never thought I would reach this milestone. Okay, so 10 episodes of 10 minutes each may not really seem like a huge achievement but, hey, let’s celebrate anyway because it’s a 10 in our books! [Evil editor’s clarification: though the finished episodes may be only 10 minutes long, between the additional prep time (done by those dedicated, hard-working kitchen pixies, lol) to the total length of raw footage that requires considerate selection and additional application of a bit of pizzazz, the CIC is proud to boast that we’ve more than earned that 10!]
I love pizza and my favorite store-bought brand is “Delissio”, especially the garlic bread one. However, if you are a nutritional fact info reader (as I am), you will shy away from it as well as all other store bought pizzas due to their incredibly high calorie, fat and carb counts – for the very small slice that is supposed to be one serving. No matter how good it is (or was, in my memories), I find myself walking away from buying it. How’s that for willpower?!? [The CIC offers congratulations and applause. Besides, our version tastes fabulous!]
I was pleasantly surprised and eager to try this version of a mini pizza using “English muffins” as the unexpected secret base instead of dough. We really enjoyed these little treasures. I have since made them several times, varying the ingredients. [See the CIC pout! He didn’t invite me to partake.] I’ve tried a version with sun-dried tomatoes, even switched English muffins with those new burger buns called “thins” (from the you know who company [Evil editor’s note: he’s just pulling my leg; he really means the PC brand]). They are bigger so you can really lay out the ingredients on their culinary canvas; of course, the calories, etc. will be higher. Just remember this is all about learning how to eat better by cooking at home. I think this one deviation in the bun is just fine, though do stick with the original if all you are looking for is a snack.
Thanks to all our fans. We really enjoy doing this show and appreciate that you are watching us faithfully every week. So here’s to the next 10 episodes. If you hadn’t figured it out yet, I prefer to set short attainable goals in many of my endeavours. 😉
Please note: We try and review the recipes in the cookbook; however, in an effort to respect copyright, we are not able to reproduce the actual printed recipes here. If you do have the book, please follow along with us!
Dinner was Mini Pizzas, 3 Ways on Page 92 from The Book. Of course, we decided on the Basil Pesto, Goat Cheese way. The other ingredients were kalamata olives, red onion slices and artichoke hearts.
One of the biggest problems with eating/judging serving portions of pizza is that people overestimate how small one serving is. An excellent case in point is that supermarket frozen personal mini pizzas actually contain EIGHT servings … and not merely one that the word “personal” would otherwise indicate. However, in this case, the size was limited severely by the use of English muffins (and that’s smart thinking). Yet the lavish use of extravagant toppings didn’t make us think we were being restricted in any way. In fact, it was the deliberate contrast between textures (smooth, crumbly, crunchy, squishy … and now I’m giggling because I’m remembering chewing and savouring) that made the experience so much fun, especially having to bite down through all of the multi-hued layers.
The salt I chose for this … well, it really couldn’t be anything else other than the Mediterranean sea salt. Along with grindings of black pepper and the oil from the preserved artichoke hearts, we had a *free* salad dressing for our arugula, spinach, kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes and red onion slivers. And that’s something else to remember: when ingredients come preserved (but not in mostly chemical formulae, because … yuck), you can easily incorporate the liquid for cooking or, as in this case, a salad dressing. Hey, we like *free* … and we thought you would, too.
This episode also brought back 35-year old memories of getting together with friends and having one of them whip up a pizza on the spot. I remember the pizza dough … and sardines (hey, I happen to love sardines), onions and a bit of olive oil. I believe there were anchovies as well. In any case, it was a fun, spur-of-the-moment meal to have late at night. The weird dreams were a bonus.
But the memory also highlights the fact that, too often, pizzas are covered with too much goop, things that have no distinguishable shape or texture and therefore cannot be appreciated (let alone chewed). However, if you use real ingredients (in small portions), then you can allow your tastebuds to savour all of the varied shapes, sizes, textures and flavours, because good food deserves to be respected as well as enjoyed. And there should be absolutely no limit to your imagination, whether it’s sardines or … something even stranger!
The other two choices from The Book were either Hawaiian or Sausauge and Pepper. In my opinion (and verdict), our choice was amazing.
Cooking time (duration): 60
Number of servings (yield): 2
Meal type: snack
Culinary tradition: USA (General)