Quick Quiche

When two people consistently prepare recipes that serve eight, well, you get gobs of leftovers.

Such is the first major road block on our cooking countdown: stuffing the fridge with dishes and coming back to spaghetti carbonara five days in a row. We've been consuming and accepting pumpkin themed drinks, network television (“The Office” may have peaked during season three, but it’s still far and away the best sitcom on any major station*), and visiting Cowboys Stadium.

Saturday morning, got back to grind mode. Sorta.

During the quiche prep, which is really really really easy by any honest appraisal, Victoria voiced dissent: why do you get all the easy recipes? A fair point of concern and one worth addressing.

It boils down to the fact that, until a few weeks ago, I couldn't differentiate boil from bake or make pasta. Now that these life skills are in my life satchel, I'll turn it up a notch and tackle bigger fish.

The quiche itself was and is delicious. There's still about half of it left. How long is quiche good for?

And while we're on the subject of baseball, I just have to say that it's wonderful to see Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera back in the World Series. I've been a big Yankees fan since I thought their logo was cool in 1996, and despite all the negative sentiment tied to this franchise (an obscenely expensive new stadium citizens of the Bronx get to pay for, Alex Rodriguez, the vast contributions to John McCain's presidential bid), I'll continue to back these guys as long as in-house talent I've followed forever keeps slugging. Bombers in six.

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup half and half
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• ⅓ cup minced onions
• Salt and garlic powder/granules, to taste
• 8 oz. shredded Swiss cheese
• 1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and liquid squeezed out
• 1 9 inch unbaked frozen, deep dish pie shell

Preheat oven to 350. Whisk eggs, half and half, mayonnaise and flour in a mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients except pie shell. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Cover exposed pie crust edge with strips of aluminum foil before baking to prevent burning. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until top is golden brown. Remove aluminum strips last 5 minutes of baking to brown exposed crust.

*The opinions of Ramon Ramirez do not necessarily reflect those of the Final Cookdown staff, many of whom are partial to the decidedly less funny, "30 Rock."

Country Breakfast Casserole and Austin City Limits

I hope this is the year Austin City Limits realizes it desperately needs a little energy. For years I’ve stressed that the lack of an exciting headliner (defined as someone that can spark a sincere mosh pit) is crippling this festival. Everything is pleasant, solid, and burgeoning with key intangibles: gorgeous location, advanced logistics, stellar food options, some of the most educated and pleasant patrons you’ll run into. You can thank southern hospitality and the University of Texas there; a guy actually ran me down Sunday afternoon to hand me a dropped, wet twenty.

Still, without something loud and confrontational and horrendous – Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day – the closer will continue quietly ending evenings with bleeding attendees and bored masses weighing the pros and cons of sticking around for that one song. Fifteen years ago, Pearl Jam uses mother nature, specifically the mud, to its advantage; to make people go crazy. During their stellar, fantastic, righteous, irrelevant set, people nodded agreeably.
And for all the high decimal ratings Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver and Dirty Projectors pile up along the scene, when it’s pouring and gross and the Cowboys are losing to KYLE ORTON, there’s no patience and no release. It’s no surprise that the only mass appeal highlights during the weekend (local electro dance wizards Ghostland Observatory and mash up heist artist Girl Talk) had the requisite strength to carry the night.
Really, we had an incredible time.

You may be asking yourself, “how do such hardworking, hard-playing young adults find moments to cook during such a weighty weekend?”

Breakfast.
Saturday morning I made my first career casserole; it was simple, easy and spurned the desire for future casseroles. The key ingredient here, and I imagine this is fairly standard but it blew my mind, was the cheap packet of white gravy. At the suggestion of Victoria, we seasoned with Basil and used overpriced, Chipotle sausage. She also took this appealing photo:

• 1 roll (12 to 16 oz.) sausage
• 6 bread slices
• 6 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup milk
• 1 pkg. sausage country gravy mix
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 Tbsp. melted butter
• Paprika

Crumble sausage into a large skillet; cook over medium heat until brown, stirring occasionally. Remove sausage and drain on paper towel. Spread sausage over bottom of a lightly greased 11X8 inch baking dish. Cut bread into 1 inch cubes. Set aside. Whisk together eggs, water, milk and gravy mix. Sprinkle cheese over sausage. Pour egg mixture over cheese. Arrange bread cubes evenly over mixture. Drizzle butter over bread. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 325, uncovered, 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Okra Nut Bread

Last night kicked off our first evening of cooking! Which really meant I dinner-snacked as per usual while Ramon shopped for a few ingredients, getting home well past my old-lady supper time. Forgive me. We must ease into this whole “not living like college kids” thing.

Upon his arrival, I set to work on our first recipe: Okra Nut Bread. The combination of ingredients sounded a little odd, but I had some fresh okra from PP’s garden and was determined to make something with it. So many of my fondest childhood memories are of his garden: shucking corn in the hot summer sun, eating that delicious sweet corn for what felt like months after our hard work, liking tomatoes for the first time (only his, though), and of course eating my favorite childhood vegetable: okra. I even loved it boiled & slimy. I love that I started out this challenge with something that reminds me of PP so much.

Anyway, the bread turned out great--the ingredients mesh surprisingly perfectly! I noted my few minor adjustments below. The only other thing I’d change is the baking time; our electric oven always works superfast so my bread was just on the cusp of being overdone when I took it out at 40 minutes.

• 1 cup raw okra, chopped, cut or diced
• 2 tsp. shredded orange peel (zest) without the white part
• 1 cup orange juice
• 2 cups sifted all purpose flour - used 100% whole wheat flour
• ¾ cup sugar - used Splenda instead
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ cup raisins
• ½ tsp. ground cloves or cinnamon
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• ½ cup chopped pecans

Combine okra, orange zest, raisins and orange juice. Let stand 30 minutes to plump the raisins. Sift together dry ingredients. Combine eggs, oil and okra mixture. Add to dry ingredients, mixing well. Add pecans. Mix and pour into a greased 9X5 inch loaf pan (my 8X8 pan worked fine!) and bake at 350 for 55 minutes. Remove from pan and cool.