More Birthday Cupcakes and Dinner!

Summer is always so full of birthdays! Most recently, I celebrated my dad's birthday and since his favorite cupcake flavor is vanilla, I made raspberry vanilla mini cupcakes. I used raspberry extract to get the flavoring without changing the airy lightness of the cake or the pale yellow color, and topped the whipped cream frosting with a fresh raspberry. I tried a different basic vanilla cupcake recipe, this time from Brown Eyed Baker.

Dinner for daddy's birthday was at J Alexander's, my favorite restaurant in Boca. I ordered grouper in lemon butter sauce and peppery haricot verts ... yum!

For today I kept it simple; fresh shrimp poached in butter, white wine, minced garlic, and lemon juice; sauteed spinach in olive oil mixed with garicky rice pilaf; and balsamic roasted red potatoes, a great recipe I have been meaning to make for some time from the lovely blog, Words of Deliciousness.

Yum!

Baby Quiche Bundts!

I LOVE quiche. I love quiche with or without crust, and in miniature pans or one large pie dish. I have made quiche enough times that it has become one of the few recipes I feel fairly confident 'whipping up' while glancing at a recipe list very briefly. My favorite crustless quiche recipe comes from All Recipes, (and I have previously made it here and here).

I always loosely adapt my quiche recipe depending on the ingredients in my fridge. Since I am going away for a 5-day weekend (Washington D.C., Gainesville, and Orlando), I wanted to use up some ingredients already in my kitchen. For today's mini quiches, I sauteed some shallots and garlic together and then added fresh spinach. I whisked together eggs, salt, pepper, and various cheeses, including Muenster, Boursin (herb & cheese), Ricotta, Mozzarella, and Cheddar, and added the veggie mix. I recently purchased a mini bundt pan so I thought, why not bake the quiches in it? They came out very cute!

Avocado Pesto Pasta!

I was browsing through my new favorite blog, Gimme Some Oven, and found a recipe for Avocado Pesto Pasta that I knew I had to make soooon. Avocados, basil, whole wheat pasta, and toasty pine nuts? Sold. Throw in some creamy spinach and Parmesan shavings and Friday night dinner is looking pretty good.

All the pesto ingredients in the food processor: avocados, lemon juice, basil, pine nuts, walnuts, salt & pepper, garlic, and olive oil to be added.

Boiling pasta, sauteing spinach, toasting pine nuts ...

Gorgeous bright green pesto.... There is nothing as lovely as the color and smell of homemade pesto! I love the color of the avocados in this too. Topped with toasted pine nuts ... for that added crunch factor!

Summer 2020:

Spinach Quiche!

Being a fan of spinach, cheese, and anything that comes in tart-form, quiche has been in my repertoire for some time. My favorite 'filling' recipe comes from All Recipes, and I had never really wanted (or felt the need) to bake it with a crust before today. Having recently ordered these gorgeous little tart pans, I knew I wanted to improve my standard quiche. Using Foodo Delmundo's crust recipe, this was the best quiche yet!

Made on 03/28/2012.

Rolling out the dough and filling the tart tins ....

Mix cheeses, salt, pepper, and eggs...

Saute thawed spinach, garlic, and onion in olive oil....

Cutting the remaining dough for the outer crust ....

Prick tart pan bottoms with a fork and brush the dough with a beaten egg....

Pre-bake the crusts at 350 degrees F....

Mix the spinach/onion/garlic mixture in with the eggs, cheeses, and seasoning....

Fill the quiche crusts with 1/3 cup of the filling ...

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until cheese is golden and bubbly....

Let cool....

Lovely!

Yay!

Okay, this is the last quiche glamor shot. ;)

Pesto, Spinach, and Mushrooms!

Thanks to so much Italian in my life, I've discovered a late-blooming love for spinach and mushrooms. I liked them before just fine, but now find myself absolutely devoted. Pesto has always been a favorite of mine, but only homemade! Store-bought pesto is atrocious. I'm also really into whole wheat pasta, more and more. The color is pleasing (as well as natural!) and tends to have more of a bite to it, something I appreciate as a total al dente fan. Last night I made a simple pesto (basil, pine nuts, walnuts, lemon juice, garlic, Parmesan, salt, pepper) and tossed it with whole wheat mini shells (conchiglie). I sauteed sliced white mushrooms in butter and olive oil until tender and wilted a big bunch of fresh spinach with it. I mixed everything together, sprinkled Parmesan on top, and voilà! Dinner is served :)

Made on 03/19/2012.