Journey Into Deliciousness

Hash Brown Quiche

Grade: A

Time it takes: 1 hour and 5 minutes (10 minutes prep, 55 minutes baking) - but don't forget to take your hash browns out of the freezer to thaw before you get started

Yield: 9" quiche

Source: recipe courtesy of Paule Deen via foodnetwork.com (Hash Brown Quiche)

This was one of the other bits I had wanted to make for Christmas breakfast but couldn't muster the energy to accomplish. But, since I had the ingredients on hand anyway, I made it a couple days after Christmas - when I was feeling much more alive.

I've made this quiche before so I already knew it was tasty. I like the salty flavour of the ham and the egg and cheese combo, plus the hash brown crust is the best. I've had quiches before where there is so much packed into it that it loses the egg taste, I prefer a few add-ins so that you can still tell there is egg going on. But, you can always play around with the ingredients based on what you have on hand. Keeping the structure of the recipe but changing up the embellishments. Different cheese, different meat, throw in a veggie for good measure. Plus a quiche is something you can serve to guests because it always looks so nice, and it doesn't have you slaving in the kitchen the whole time.

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Biscuits and Gravy

Grade: B

Time it takes: 35-40 minutes

Yield: Serves 2-4, depending on your level of gravy intake because the gravy lasted 3 servings

Source: Pink Parsley - a food blog (biscuits and gravy)

Biscuits and gravy is not a dish I've had often, or really ever...maybe a bite once or twice...in my life. I'm not entirely sure why. They sound delicious, but I've just never ordered them or made them.

I have quiet a few food blogs bookmarked that I check in with about once a week, and this biscuits and gravy recipe popped up on Pink Parsley's blog. It instantly sounded like a great idea to make biscuits and gravy. I can't for the life of me think why it took so long for me to finally get around to making them. I dangled the prospect in front of Chris' nose and he was excited enough about it to remind me almost daily that I should make the recipe.

I've never made regular ol' biscuits before nor have I ever successfully made gravy. Maybe that is why it took me so long to make these, I was afraid of failing miserably at gravy making. Well, I started by accidentally leaving the biscuits in for a good 4 or 5 extra minutes because the oven timer beeped while I was man handling sausage and then I forgot about them completely, so the bottoms ended up being hard. The tops were delicious though, so not a total loss. It took me a super long time to get the gravy smooth as well, but it tasted fantastic. My only problem overall was that the dish was too light on the gravy for the amount of sausage. It was more like sausage and biscuits with a bit of gravy. So, next time more gravy and less sausage would be perfection...and also not leaving the biscuits in for an extra 5 minutes would probably help as well.

No complaints about the taste in this household. They were gone faster than the flashiest of flashes - hard biscuit bottoms and all.

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Rosemary Pork Loin

 

Grade: B

Time it takes: 3 hours and 10 minutes (1 hour and 30 minutes prep, 1 hour 30 minutes cooking, 10 minutes rest)

Yield: Serves 6 - 8

Source: Adapted from a recipe found in Summer Entertaining 2011 magazine

When we go to the local wholesale warehouse, we usually get a big ol' pork loin and Chris cuts it into thirds to freeze. That is his meat - he makes it up when he feels like cooking or when I don't want to make dinner. I was flipping through Summer Entertaining and saw a rolled pork loin recipe, so I decided I wanted to try my hand at it. I enjoy rolling meats - I've rolled steak and chicken and it adds great flavour.

I thought I might just toss whatever I felt like in the pork when I made it, but I ended up following the recipe - I'm a fan of following recipes the first time and then tweaking them next time if needs be. Chris wasn't a fan of the rosemay - he thought it was too overpowering. I agree when particular bites had more of the rosemary mixture in them, but I enjoyed the rest that didn't have too much mixture to pork ratio. My grandma thought it was delicious and really enjoyed the rosemary. So, really if you like rosemary you should like this pork recipe. If you don't like rosemary just put in a different mixture - whatever herbs you like, I think feta and spinach would be yummy.

Also I'd recommend using a meat thermometer, so you don't get dry pork. I'm a tad paranoid about cooking my meats through and a thermometer helps me not just leave it in until I have no doubt the meat is done aka shoe leather. I had the pork in the oven for 1 hour and a half and was shooting for 150 F, but managed to get to 180 F because I forgot to check the temperature at the 1 hour mark. Whatever guys, it was my first pork loin - next time I'll just keep a better eye on it, the pork wasn't particularly dry though so it wasn't a big deal.

I still recommend the butterfly technique and the recipe as long as you like rosemary. Chris thought the butterflying idea was genius and is excited to make his own pork loin roll with his own inside mixture.

Click below to expand for the recipe!