It has been somewhat of a crudy day … really busy, haven’t started holiday shopping, coming down with a cold & exhausted; but, then I got home after a doctor appointment to find a nice package on the door. I have to say I love getting surprise mail delivered, with the internet now, it seldom happens.
Shortly after writing a piece about the beef in Montana, I received an email from Le Cense, a cattle ranch that is located in Dillon, Mt. I signed up for their newsletter online and left it at that. Almost immediately afterwards, they contacted me to say that I could stop by any time to check out their facilities and to try out some of their grass fed beef; unfortunately, we don’t live in Dillon. Today I received a nice package full of New York Steaks and some extra goodies (tshirts, stickers, a shopping bag). We are definitely looking forward to trying out their grassfed steak and sharing the experience with you.
Leftover quiche is almost better than leftover lasagne! Same dinner as last night but even better!
We did not actually “grow” our own quiche, but rather we baked it using fresh rosemary from our garden. I knew we had to participate in Andrea’s GYO (Grow your Own) event for December and with our busy schedules the next couple weeks, I knew it had to be now.
I was craving quiche all day today. I twittered about it all day. Maybe it was all this Paris talk lately, that made me think about comfort food, which for us, happens to include French food. On our way home we made a stop by the grocery and I grabbed some zucchini, spinach, cream and cheese for the creation. I had some leftover savory tart dough in the freezer so we were set on our base, as well I had some pancetta leftover so all I had to add was some onion and fresh rosemary.
I flash baked the crust to give it a bit of firmness, then I lined the bottom with the pancetta. While the crust was flash baking, I sauteed some minced onions with the rosemary and thinly sliced zucchini. I made a custard out of equal parts cream and half and half then added the spinach, cheese and salt and pepper. After lining the crust with the pancetta, I poured in the custard mixture and then topped it with the zucchini mixture. It smelled incredible baking with the butter from the whole wheat crust blending with the smokiness of the pancetta and the fresh and pungent aroma of Rosemary.
Bi-Rite Market sells these cute little bundles of lettuce joy – baby heads of romaine or butter lettuce, they are crisp, fresh and so sweet. I like to tear them apart and drizzle with a light mustard dressing. The perfect side with a slice of quiche.
The meal was fantastic … the quiche was bursting, literally, with flavor and the salad was a nice light side that complimented the mediterranean flavors of the quiche.
Horses Neck Cocktail
Recipe
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Roasted Turkey
Sugar Pie Pumpkin Pie
Recipe
Our Thanksgiving meal was a labor of love which involved everyone in our family, whether you were cooking dinner or washing dishes, it brought us all together. Lenny was the best & sexiest sous chef a girl could ask for! Kathie, my step mom was in charges of the stuffing, turkey and pies. I handled all the sides and cocktails: horses neck cocktail (recipe from Married with Dinner), roasted chestnuts, baked sweet potato rounds with sage, roasted asparagus drizzled with olive oil, sea salt and Parmesan, steamed green beans with bacon, shallots and roasted cherry tomatoes, fennel and rosemary mashed potatoes, and rich turkey stock (homemade, love making stock) gravy.
I am thankful for having the most fantastic man and the love of my dreams in my life as well as my wonderful and very supportive family and friends. As well I am thankful for the area we are blessed to live in!
My sister Daniele is a lucky woman, she has a man who likes to cook for her, which is probably a good thing as she just does not have any interest in the cooking department. Tonight he made us one of his signature dishes, Pasta with Sea Scallops. He sauteed the scallops with butter, olive oil and garlic – the smell was incredible! Then he made a very creamy Alfredo sauce. I have never made an Alfredo sauce and am glad to have one to add to our recipe collection as it was simple and by far the best one I have eaten.
Fantastic and easy meal … bowl of pasta with a creamy sauce and sauteed scallops with a hunk of french bread and a glass of vino! All Daniele had to do was the dishes!
(recipe to come)
Whenever I travel, one of the first things I do is figure out what food that region is known for and I make sure we eat lots of it – France it is wine and cheese, Wyoming it is buffalo, Hawaii lots of great local sushi, Boston it is lobsters and Portuguese food, etc.. you get it by now! Well, when I think of Montana the first thing that comes to mind is “Montana Beef” and after today, now I am questioning all of the beef inspired meals I have had there, the past 14 years.
When one is out in the wild wild west as we are this week, one would think that you would be eating the freshest and hopefully most humanely cuts of beef; right? After all, my family’s house is sandwiched amongst a few different cattle ranches. One would also think that the local grocery store (only Safeway & Iga) would sell the beef that is right in the backyard. One would also think that there would be a local butcher so that you could take advantage of all that great Montana beef.
Then I find out that most of the ranches sell their cattle to slaughterhouses far from Dillon for the actual slaughtering. This shocks me. Then after picking up the beef for dinner I see the words I hoped to never see, when there are cattle running around your house, printed on the label, “product of the USA or Mexico”, which clearly translates to, “not from Dillon”; this shocks me even more, after all the resources are in their backyards.
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I love Anita’s site Married with Dinner. Every time I read it I am completely inspired to start the tradition of cocktails in our home. If we had more space we would probably be doing just that. When we come to Montana, we seem to have cocktails more often, maybe because we have more space and a bar dedicated to just making those vibrations or maybe to deal with the craziness?
In honor of Thanksgiving week, I wanted to make the Oh Henry cocktails. Unfortunately, when I ran to the liquor store I forgot the benedictine so I am calling this the Oh Montana cocktail. We used ginger beer and bourbon. It was spicy and smooth ……..
Tomorrow we will have to give the Oh Henry another try!
Vibi from La Casserole Carrée is the hostess for this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie challenge. Even though Vibi is not American nor will she be celebrating Thanksgiving this week, she picked Dorie’s Twofer Thanksgiving Pie. Thank you!
We are in Montana celebrating with family this week and lucky for you all, the family loves to eat, so we (or I) decided to make the Twofer Pie for a little pre-Thanksgiving indulging.
The pie is two pies rolled into one: pumpkin and pecan. The recipe is pretty straightforward, make Dorie’s wonderful crust recipe, add a basic pumpkin pie filling and top it with a pecan filling. The pie smells wonderful cooking with the two different flavors blending. I did have to cook it more than the recipe called for, probably due to altitude and it did come out rather soft still; but, the flavors and texture were really nice. The end verdict – it was not my favorite Dorie recipe. I would probably make two separate pies, but it was fun to try.
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