Pickle Me

Let's celebrate 627 blog hits with pickles! Mom... did you read my blog 627 times? 

I'm not going to lie to you. I loathe cucumbers. But there is a very good reason for it. On my 8th birthday we were at the Ground Round and my family and I were having the best night ever. I'm pretty sure a Julia Roberts movie was playing on the wall and I specifically remember my chicken fingers being extra crispy and I can still look down and see my powder blue birthday dress; 1993 was going to be my year. My vegetarian of a little sister quickly ruined EVERYTHING after she got cucumber sick all over the table. I haven't eaten one since, and I'm sorry if I just ruined them for you. I still remember her walking to the car from the Ground Round in my younger brother's SpiderMan pajama's and her "high heels." While I'm laughing now, I'm still not eating cucumbers. 

I will eat pickles, and I did pickle today. When I saw the pickles in my Farm Box this week I knew what I had to do. 

While educating myself on pickling veggies, I found this video on about.com. How to Pickle...Warning: This guy is so lame. Even though this man is zero fun to watch, it's so simple to follow. 

Take the guessing out and sanitize the mason jar. I did, really easy to do and I now feel like Botulism and I are in a good place. 

My Pickles: 

2 cups of distilled white vinegar 
1 cup of water 
4.4 oz. of salt. (I measured this in oz. since the brine recipe from about.com called for 3/4 of a cup of salt, I just used my food scale). 
Pickling Spice (as much or as little as you like! I bought the McCormick brand and used about 2 Tbsp.) 
2 cloves of garlic
2 pickles from your Dreyer Fram Fresh Box 

Boil the liquid and the salt until the salt dissolves. 

Add hot mixture to pickles and spices in jar.

Put in fridge for 2 weeks. 

Here's to hoping I've got great pickles in two weeks. These pickles could very well be a disaster, but that's what this is all about isn't it?

Anyone care to share their pickling adventures? 

-Laura 

Easy as Pie!

Let's talk leeks....

Pull out your pie dish! We're making dinner. 

Tonight I made a super delicious quiche with spinach and leeks.

First things first, you need to make a flakey crust. 

Crust:

1 cup of flour 

1/2 teaspoon of salt 

1/4 cup of ice water 

1/4 cup of olive oil 

Mix the dry ingredients together with a fork. Mix the wet together, pour in to the dry ingredients and press your pie crust in to your pie dish. 

I froze it for 20 minutes and then I baked it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes with parchment paper and another pie dish on top. Next, I took the second pie dish and parchment paper off and baked it for 10 minutes until it got to be a nice golden brown. 

While all of the freezing and baking is happening, you can make your filling. 

Leeks + Spinach Filling: 

3 large eggs 

4 oz. Heavy Cream 

1 cup of Skim Milk

2 Leeks Sliced thin

3 oz. Spinach Chopped 

First I sauteed the spinach with olive oil spray, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I let them nicely wilt and then set aside. Repeat with the leeks. 

I  beat the eggs and combined all ingredients above. 

Put it all together...

Finally the flakey crust is a golden brown and your veggie custard is ready. Next I took an italian cheese blend and covered the bottom of the pie crust with cheese, filled the pie with the filling and put some more gooey cheese on top. 

I baked it for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees. 

The hubs topped it with fresh a fresh tomato. 

Seriously tasty, seriously easy, really fresh.