Being a semi-foodie

This Christmas Matt and I found ourselves inundated with wonderful kitchen necessities, niceties and gadgets. Its awesome. Its also incredibly useful as we try to eat at home frequently. Over the last six months we've been trying lots of recipes and seeing what works in our daily lives. We're learning the benefits of dried beans, exploring the global markets for things like Za'atar (which I very highly recommend sprinkling on top off scrambled eggs) and trying to use seasonal vegetables from the Farmers Market. We really really really love food, so this is a way to indulge in it without spending too much money or gaining too much weight!

For a long time I've read one foodie blog, Smitten Kitchen by a funny woman (with the most adorable hairy baby ever.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/smitten/5285817669/) who makes a variety of food, but a large portion is sweets. She uses really great sources like David Lebowitz, who I consider a god since making his Almond Cake recipe for Hannah's birthday, and recipes from Gourmet magazine, like that ridiculous cappuccino fudge cheesecake (ohmygod). Most importantly she provides a good description of what she didn't like, what she would or did change, and ideas to improve the dish. It is hands down my favorite food blog, and really all I needed in addition to checking Betty Crocker on occasion. She's been at the foodie blog for a while, so she has a wonderfully astounding back log of recipes.

More recently I've decided that she most definitely fulfills my baking needs, but not much else. She has access to markets in NYC, more monetary funding and time than I find myself with. I enjoy reading it and considering the dishes, but I tend not to make them unless they are sweets. So I've started searching for more food blogs to actually pull recipes from. I clearly remember looking around for some when I first started reading Smitten Kitchen, but found that they were either too fancy for me or were purely baking blogs that are really only good when searching specifically for something.

Well once I got to looking I found about 4 more than I liked. Didn't have too much housemaking crap, and met my other random requirements. I've started reading them and going through some back recipes to see how friendly they are for my needs and I've really enjoyed it.

So what I'm getting at in a very round a bout way is that I'm becoming somewhat of a foodie. Still primarily a sloppy lazy messy baker (and now with the addition of alcohol thanks to The Boozy Baker) I am branching out into meals for Matt and I. I think to be a real foodie I would have to be a purist and perfectionist, or at least more particular than I am now. I do food my own way, and I think thats what cooking should be about. Using food in a way that is good for your mind, body, and taste buds.

So I have begun to accumulate those go to recipes that I end up making time and time again, each time looking at the egg and flour covered recipe less and less. The one thing I still desperately need is a way to organize recipes I find online. I've started using One Note, but I think I need to play around a bit with just how to use it in the best way.

The one dish that I've made at least once a month since I found it is Spinach Pie. I've tried different things with it because its an easy recipe to experiment with. Its incredibly tasty, filling, and good for you too!
 adapted from All Recipes  (http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/spinach-pie-2/Detail.aspx)

Spinach Pie

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons chopped onion
• 1 (16 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray a 9 inch pie pan with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Remove spinach from package and place in strainer. Squeeze out as much water as you can and let it sit.
3. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft. Add spinach to the skillet and continue cooking until it is heated through and the extra water evaporates.
4. In a large bowl, beat together eggs and cream, flour, salt, pepper and cumin. Mix in spinach and onions well. Pour mixture into pie pan.
5. Bake 25 to 30 minutes until set and golden brown. Spread swiss cheese over top and let cool 5 minutes before serving

I switch out onions for mushrooms or whatever vegetable we've got in the house, and usually add more. I add an egg or two to stretch it and since I bake it in a 2 quart pyrex baking dish (I don't actually have a pie pan, odd for a baker) it fits just fine. I use milk instead of heavy cream because thats what I've got around. I made it with the nutmeg the first time because many recipes call for it but I just don't understand the savory use of something I only want in baked goods. I replace it with cumin. I've also put down a store bought pie crust in the dish before, baked it for ten minutes then added the rest. Its a thin crust, but its a nice addition since I'm too lazy to make the thicker crust I'm actually craving.
You can really alter it however you want because its hard to screw up! Enjoy =)