“Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.”

As you’ve probably figured out, I love baking and cooking, baking more so.

There’s nothing like trying out new recipes with different ingredients, or even just working with what you’ve got.

Last night, a friend and I decided to make cheesecake.  What an absolutely failure that was.

We couldn’t figure out why it failed.  At first she kept blaming me for over filling the paper liners, which I knew couldn’t have been the problem.  Sure it was a problem but it wasn’t the problem.  There’s no way over filling the liners could have resulted in the cheesecakes not rising properly. Regardless, after making the most horrific looking cheesecakes, I gave up.  On top of attempting to bake them twice.  Don’t ask why..I just thought that might work.  It didn’t.

So when I got home, I decided to Google “spreadable cream cheese”, as that’s what we used instead of bricks.  We figured that was the smarter, more frugal, way to go.

Turns out, spreadable cream cheese does not make a great cheesecake.  Or a cheesecake at all.  See!  Not my fault, the over filling wasn’t what caused them to not rise properly.  Yay.  You’ve no idea how happy I was, and right away I decided to text her.  Unfortunately she’s at work, which means she won’t see my message right away.  Darnit.

I will say this though, the Dalai Lama said it right, “approach love and cooking with reckless abandon”.  Sticking to the norms and not trying things out will only keep you hidden from experience.

However, learn from my mistake, do not use spreadable cream cheese to make a cheesecake.

-D

A quick and easy brunch, lunch or dinner

I’ve realized lately that I don’t cook much at home.  When I’m not studying, I’m usually out and about and always grab something to eat at a restaurant or something of the sort.  And when I am studying…well I usually just snack on almonds or popcorn, and tons of coffee.  I figured, I should start to change that nasty habit of mine.

While going through some recipes on a couple of websites -which I’ll list at the end- I decided to make quiche.  I’ve never made quiche before.  After deciding that, I had no idea what would be the “best” recipe.  What I did know is that I wanted to combine a couple of ingredients.  So rather than following one specific recipe I kind of did my own thing :).

The Recipe:

12 tablespoons  bread crumbs
1 cup diced up honey ham
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup spinach leaves (or 6 or so leaves)
1/3 cup green pepper
4 large eggs, 2 egg whites
2 tablespoons chopped onion (you could use green onion too, if you so choose)
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375°degrees

Spray bottom and sides of cupcake pan with olive oil and sprinkle each cup with one tablespoon bread crumbs (crust for the quiche!).  Gently shake so that it is evenly distributed.

Place ham, green peppers, spinach and cheese into each cup.  I made some with just ham, spinach and cheese and others with everything.  The cupcake pan is perfect!

In a medium bowl beat eggs and egg whites, continue by beating in the cream, milk, salt & pepper, dijon and onion.  You may choose to put the cheese into this mixture rather than in the individual cups, however I chose not to and it turned out fantastic.

Bake for approximately 20 to 30 minutes, or until they are firm.

A great dinner with a side of salad!!  Healthy too:)  Well, somewhat.