Judging a recipe by its cover

I have stacks - and I mean STACKS - of cookbooks. But I haven't cracked any of them open in ages. They're neatly packed away in boxes in the basement, waiting till we move to a home where I can get them up on to shelves.

In the meantime, I turn to the internet when I need a recipe. My mother had a recipe box where she filed away her favourites. I have a folder of bookmarks in my browser. There are a few sites I trust to give me decent results each time - BBC Food, Epicurious, the NY Times (though now that the paywall is up I will be using that less) - but more often than not I end up using a recipe from a blog I've never heard of.

The results can be hit or miss for sure. Many home bakers use way more sugar than I normally would, for example. But there are some amazing cooks out there and one of the best things about the internet is the way it connects us all together.

I have taken to using Google's image search in conjunction with a web search to get to the best recipes. That's not to say a recipe without a photo or with a bad photo will not give good returns, but I like the ability to see what I'm going to get before I dive in.

Quiche, from scratch, in less than an hour

I've made quiche loads of times before but before today had never attempted my own crust. But high on the success of my sfeeha (middle eastern meat pies) last week, I thought I'd give it a go and soon found out it is super easy!

I took one cup of flour and forked it together with 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a large mixing bowl. Then, using the same cup measure, I whisked together 1/4 cup olive oil with 1/4 cup cold tap water. Once it was thick, I poured it into the flour and mixed together to form a dough. Press that into a 9-inch pie pan and it's ready for the quiche filling of your choice!

I went with spinach, mushroom and cheese, and also threw in a little bit of red pepper that I had lying around. The spinach was the chopped, frozen kind so that needed to cook first. Then, I lined the crust with the chopped mushrooms and red pepper, added the cooked spinach, then poured over a batter made from 3 eggs, 1 1/2 cups milk and about 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, seasoned to taste. 

Bake the whole thing at 400º F until the crust is golden and the center of the quiche is firm, about 30 minutes.

Quick and easy pickled carrots

For a jar this size (20 oz), use about 2 cups of white vinegar.

Add salt and sugar to taste and dissolve completely before pouring over the carrots. I used about 4 tablespoons of sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar, but play around with it to get it just right for you.

Optional: add sliced chili peppers and/or julienned ginger.

My favourite cheeses

In honour of National Cheese Lovers Day, here is a selection of my favourite cheeses:

The smell of zucchini bread on a snowy day

I'm not ashamed to say I frequent the discount produce rack at the supermarket. There are often things on there that are clearly past their sell-by dates, but just as often there are perfectly usable, if ugly, fruits and vegetables.

Two days ago I bought a bag of zucchinis that were not too beautiful. I used two in a vegetable soup and two more today in a nice and easy zucchini bread. One of the best things about this recipe is that it doesn't require a cake mixer, which is good since I can't find mine!!

Here's the recipe:

EASY ZUCCHINI BREAD 

3 eggs, beaten
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vanilla
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
OPTIONAL: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Grate the zucchini and combine with the beaten eggs, vanilla and oil.
2. Sift together the dry ingredients.
3. Using a spoon or rubber spatula, combine the wet and dry ingredients.  Add the walnuts, if using, and mix thoroughly. Mixture will look like a thick batter or wet bread dough.
4. Grease and flour a loaf pan (or a lined muffin tin). Pour the batter into the pan until about three-quarters full.
5. Bake at 350°F for 50-60 minutes (20-30 minutes if using a muffin pan).

Non-non-dairy creamer

Um.... FAIL!

"Non-Dairy Coffee Creamer. Contains: Milk"