A Skillet-Quiche with Cheddar and Broccoli

I wish this picture was scratch-and-sniff. Because you'd scratch and you'd sniff and you'd get your fanny to a supermarket for the ingredients faster than shit through a goose (yes, I'm using goose crap as a way to sell a recipe.) This is one of my old stand-by's for a week night dinner. It's super-easy to make, scrumptious and surprisingly fills you up without that heavy feeling. I shred up a couple of potatoes fresh for my crust, but a bag of frozen shredded potatoes works great, too. I'd also recommend trying out different veggies--this one was going to have asparagus until I discovered the icky noodliness of my green friends and decided to skip them.

6 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp pepper
3/4 tsp salt
10 oz broccoli spears or whatever veggie you want to invite to the party
1 cup grated cheddar
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large shallot, chopped
1 lb shredded taters

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Whisk together eggs, milk and pepper. Add cheddar and 3 Tablespoons Parm. Set aside. Heat oil in skillet or any oven-proof pan over med-high heat. Saute shallots for about 3 minutes. Add taters and salt and cook 3 minutes. Spread the potatoes out to make a bottom crust and cook undisturbed for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add veggies over potatoes. Pour egg mixture over and sprinkle with remaining Parm. Bake for 25 minutes or until the edges are puffed and set and the middle is wobbly. Turn on broiler and toast the top until it's set and puffed and browned slightly. Let that bad boy cool for a couple of minutes and then dig in.

Vegetarian Parmesan Cheese, baby.

I don't know if anyone else in the world has this problem, but for a long time I was on a hunt for a half-decent Parmesan that didn't contain animal stomach materials (sorry, I try not to get militant about my veggie ways but this one grosses me out a tad.) It was all very sad because I love Parm and the recipes that it takes part in, but I have this strange-old-lady-like discomfort with buying edible products online so I was having trouble. The cheese elves at Whole Foods were very nice about attempting to help in my quest, but did not deliver the goods when push came to shove. Then, Trader Joe's came along and provided their store-brand Parmesan containing microbial rennet and I saw the fricken light. It made me truly happy for about four minutes and I hope the same can happen to another vegetarian Parmesan-lover out there.

The End.

A truly splendid German Pancake

I truly love this recipe. It is easy as crap, has ingredients that you typically have hanging around the kitchen and is really simple to throw together on a Sunday morning for breakfast. The batter fluffs and puffs up while baking and the texture is really wonderful. I make mine in a cast-iron skillet but you can use a regular non-stick pan if you are skillet-less. If the pan has a plastic handle, just wrap the plastic part in some tin foil and you're good to go. Tim and I really love it with real maple syrup (that's right, Rinks, only the Vermont shit for us) but I bet a drizzle of lemon juice would be nice as well.

3 Tablespoons butter
6 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 425.
Mix eggs, flour, milk, salt, sugar and vanilla in a bowl with whatever tool you prefer until all lumps are goners. Heat your pan over medium heat and melt the butter until it's melted and foamy. Dump in the batter. Remove from the heat and put it in the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the edges are all puffed up and slightly browned. It should look like this:
Pretty awesome, no? Sadly, those lovely edges will shrink but the sweet flavor will not.

Now slice that baby up and enjoy with maple syrup, jam, lemon juice or whatever tickles your fancy.