Quiche!

This is what I did for tonight's quiches. (Borrowing from these recipes: 1 2 3) It could stand some modification, though.

3 medium-small onions, chopped
1 lb mushrooms, chopped
2 10oz pkgs frozen leaf spinach, defrosted

Sauteed onions a bit in a butter-canola oil mixture, then added mushrooms. Added salt, pepper, a bit of thyme and a bit of nutmeg. Continued sauteeing for undefined period of time, then turned the heat off and added spinach. Stirred.

Grated 8 oz of swiss cheese. Put about 3 oz each in the bottom of 2 premade, defrosted frozen pie shells.

Made a mixture of 6 eggs, 2 cups of milk, 2 TBS flour, 1/2 tsp powdered mustard, 1/2 tsp salt, a good shake of paprika and a good shake of nutmeg.

Divided most of veggie mixture between the two pie shells. There was still a lot left. Sprinkled remaining 2 oz of cheeze on top of veggies. Poured egg-milk mixture into each pie shell. There was a lot left.

Baked @ 375° for about 40 minutes. Dumped remaining veggies and egg mixture into a greased 8x8 pyrex, sprinkled cheddar cheese on top, baked at temps varying from 375° to 400° for an undetermined amount of time.

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To change:
*use chopped spinach. whole spinach doesn't mix well and is kind of clunky.
*possibly chop mushrooms and onions in smaller pieces.
*mix everything together before dumping into pie shells, since the veggies and the milk-egg-cheese didn't get entirely evenly dispersed.
*scale down the amount of veggies and egg mixture, or use more cheese and make three quiches instead of two
*do not sprinkle cheese on top. cheese puffs up and browns, making it hard to see if the egg mixture is set/cooked.

chili!

From Sunset's Vegetarian Cooking, with modifications. They call it "Layered Chili" and suggest you serve it in layers with onions and cheese and some other stuff. It's vegetarian but doesn't have rice or other starch fillers, which is nice. And the mustard seeds are a really neat addition. It's strange using the liquid from the cans of beans, but this came out well, so I'm not gonna mess with it.

4 large onions, chopped
1 large green pepper, seeded and chopped
3 TBS oil
1 TBS each mustard seeds and chili powder (I used extra chili)
1 tsp each ground cumin (I used extra) and unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 14 oz cans chopped tomatoes with jalepenos
2 28 oz cans of kidney beans, liquid included, plus some water (~1 cup)
1 6 oz can tomato paste

In large pot: Cook onions & green pepper in oil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until onions are golden and pepper is soft. Add mustard seeds, cook 1 minute while stirring. Add chili, cumin seeds, cocoa, cinnamon, tomatoes, beans, and tomato paste. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 40 minutes or until most liquid has cooked away; stir frequently to prevent scorching.

Sunset suggests serving with pink onions, which is red onions cooked briefly in water and vinegar, then mixed with more vinegar, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and salt. I'm too lazy to type out the whole recipe + directions for that.

because I can never remember which pancake recipes I've used...

I don't believe in using pancake mix. I'm stubborn and it seems like such a waste.

Every recipe has slightly different proportions, it seems...today's was:

dry:
2 c flour
3 TBS sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

wet:
2 eggs
1.5 c milk
1/2 c melted shortening (I used half butter, half oil)
splash of vanilla

They came out decent, though some were overly puffy. I used a teflon pan, though, which I'm not used to, and the only pan-grease I used was some butter--I ran out of oil.

Spinach and Black-Eyed Peas

I'm not sure how authentically Persian this is, but it was pretty fast and tasty. It has a nice, interesting combination of flavors.

Persian Spinach and Black-Eyed Peas
2 TBS olive oil
3 leeks, chopped (white parts only) (make sure to rinse well)
24 oz baby spinach
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
8 scallions (white & light green parts, sliced)
4 cans of black-eyed peas (~64 oz altogether), drained and rinsed
6 TBS fresh lemon juice (I used the juice of one lemon plus some of the pre-squeezed kind)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt

In a large heavy pot: Heat oil over medium heat; add leeks and cook for 5-8 minutes (until wilted and tender), stirring often.Add spinach, parsley, scallions, and 1/4 cup water. Cover and cook until spinach has wilted (about 8 minutes.) Stir in black-eyed peas, lemon juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Cook until warmed through (~5 minutes). Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with couscous and perhaps yogurt.

Serves 12.