Assumption Pizza

I am a master of the last-minute. Oftentimes, I am only struck with an idea hours (or even minutes) before it needs to be finished. So two Thursdays ago on the Feast of the Assumption, I came across this amazing blog, which provides recipes and other meal ideas for each of the major feasts of the liturgical year. It also has recipe ideas for other not-so-major feasts, like St. Augustine's feast day, which was celebrated yesterday.

Of course, I realized that I didn't quite have time to prepare an Assumption-themed meal since at that point it was already 4 pm, and Andy likes to eat before 9, ideally. (Although, we have eaten after 9:30 in the early days of our marriage, when I was still figuring out our oven). So I decided to go ahead with my original meal plan: homemade Margherita pizza and our friend Julia's Chocolate Mousse pie for dessert (with tofu as a secret ingredient...shhh!!!).

As I was making the pizza, however, inspiration struck. Couldn't I use one of the crusts to do a little Marian-inspired decorating? I had a bunch of little Roma tomatoes that my mother-in-law had graciously given us, plus some pesto that we had made together, and I had bought fresh mozzarella. All the materials I needed to craft a quick Assumption-themed meal! After brushing on some olive oil to the pizza crust, I sliced the tomatoes and used those to form a large "M" in the middle. I then took a pastry brush and painted on a cross above the letter with the pesto. I placed slices of mozzarella around the "M" to look like clouds. And then, (because I wanted the pizza to taste yummy!) I brushed the mozzarella with a lighter coat of pesto. Below is the result:

Before baking (I was a little worried the pesto on the clouds would look weird, but practicality won out in the end)

Ready to Eat! Note: the crust was crisp because it wasn't loaded down with cheese and sauce. It was delicious!

So while  I won't be  submitting this to Catholic Cuisine anytime soon, I think it turned out pretty well for a last-minute variation on my original meal plan. 

And just in case you're interested in how the non-Marian pizza turned out...

Muy Delicioso!

Let me know if you're interested in the recipe for the aforementioned Chocolate Mousse Pie. I took pictures of the process, but the final result picture mysteriously vanished from my camera. But you can ask Andy how it tasted (fantastic!), plus it's full of protein and yummy chocolate goodness, without the dairy. 

Are you more of a stick-to-the-recipe kind of a person or spontaneous and creative (with sometimes disastrous results) in the kitchen, like me?

Domestic Adventures: Quiche Lorraine

One reason I’m so reluctant to bake is that I get pretty poor results (almost) every time I try. Case in point: the crust on this Quiche Lorraine*. I followed the recipe,** word for word (I even chilled the shortening before adding it). But try as I might, I couldn’t roll the dough out as requested. All of the fat…er butter and shortening…kept sticking to the cutting board, the rolling pin, my hands, pretty much everything but the crust itself.

So I finally formed two balls of dough with my hands and flattened them out in each pie pan.

Here are the results:

Yeah, I was disappointed, too. So I’m not sure what I did wrong…except maybe some of the crust got left behind on the cutting board, etc. Also I used all wheat flour. Maybe that affected the consistency?

The filling was easy enough. I combined six eggs, 2 cups of evaporated milk, 2 cups of almond milk, 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese (recipe called for swiss), ½ t. salt, dash of pepper, and a dash of nutmeg. I added 1 onion, chopped and sauteed, and about ½ cup of diced ham (from some lunch meat).

The only thing that made me a bit nervous about the filling was that when I poured it into the pie crusts, the filling easily covered the edges of the pie crust. Since I was worried about the possibility of overflowing during the baking process, I put a cookie sheet on the rack below the pie pans.

In case you were wondering, a watched quiche (much like the famed pot of liquid) never bakes.

If you listen closely enough you will hear, “Stop wasting your time looking through the oven window, wondering when I’ll be ready to eat. I still need another 25 minutes to cook. So go read or something. Or write about me on your blog…”

Honestly it’s only my vanity that is concerned about how the quiche looks. I am much more concerned about how it will taste. (Especially since it’s almost six o’clock and I’m starving).

Ah, the timer is going off. The moment of truth has come. How did it turn out?

Well, in typical Master of Philosophy form, this was my husband's reaction to seeing the quiche:

M: Okay, Andy, time to pick which one we'll tonight. The other one we'll throw away (sarcasm).

A: Oh, honey, why? That would be wasteful! 

A: Is there any difference between the two?

M: Nope. Same ingredients. Just pick which one looks good to you.

A: This reminds me of the philosophical problem of Buridan's Ass (Proceeds to explain that in the scenario, a donkey sits between two identical bales of hay and must choose which one to eat. Seeing no difference between them, he can't choose. So he starves to death).

M: I see. Are you suggesting that we, like Buridan's ass, just stare at these two delicious quiches until we starve?

A: No...(still not sure which one to pick)

M: This one is darker.

A: Okay, let's eat it!

But once we sat down, and took our first bites, the verdict was clear. Delicious! A+! And if you don't believe me, ask my husband, who ate FOUR helpings. 

I think he likes it. 

*Recipe came from the More-with-Less cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre

**For your sanity and mine, I didn't describe all the steps of the recipe. If you are interested in it, I can either send it to you, or you can purchase your very own copy of More-with-Less (I highly recommend it!).