TWD: Savory Brioche Pockets

After looking at the recipe, I felt like I should stuff some chicken and other things inside these 'pockets' but decided I better just stick to the recipe.  And after making them and eating them, I'm thinking maybe I should have listened to my heart.  Dramatic, I know.  I forgot to add the chives to the potato and goat cheese mixture, oops.  I ended up sprinkling them on top to try to make up for my misfortune but these just didn't wow me enough to make them again.  

It was a 2 day process for the brioche and then several different pans are needed to 'steam' the potatoes and cook the asparagus and caramelize the onions.  And honestly after all that time and all those dirty dishes, I was expecting to have my socks knocked off.  Sadly, they weren't.  My socks are still in tact.

I enjoyed mixing the dough, but we've made brioche before so I knew what to expect.  And I have to admit, I think she's so pretty.

 Calvin helped me fill up the pockets and I caught him eating asparagus!  I just about died because he usually and forcefully refuses asparagus.  So there's that.

 The pockets before the rise.

 After the rise and ready to bake.

 Baked.  The edges didn't really want to stay nicely pressed like they were in the book, but I figured the fillings were solid enough, I didn't worry too much about it.

I KNOW the brioche recipe is a winner because these Pecan Sticky Buns blew my mind and used the same brioche recipe.  I think it's just a matter of what you shove inside these things and your preferences.  If you'd like to try the recipe or a variation of it, you can visit the blog of our host for the week:  Loaves and Stitches.

I'm sure the amazing TWD bakers have come up with some mouth-watering renditions.  To see their links go HERE.

Bowtie Pasta with Chicken, Asparagus, and Lemon

Let me start by saying that I feel much more competent when it comes to baking than cooking.  I am so glad we are doing dinners this year so I can get out of my comfort zone a little bit and cook some new things and maybe become a little bit better than before.

 This recipe actually called for penne pasta but I figured it didn't matter all the much.  Hadlee wanted bowtie, and I think when my kids have some kind of say in dinner, they are more likely to eat it.  I am not sure if it's because I let her choose the shape of the pasta or not, but my kids seemed to like this quite a bit.  I love all the components of this dish, especially the asparagus.  It's something we don't have all that often, but when we do, it makes me happy.  The fresh herbs and lemon make this really feel light, fresh, and delicious.  The best news?  According to the book a 1 2/3 cup serving is 380 calories.  I'm sure that changes slightly depending on what pasta and other ingredient you use, but still, that's pretty good for a pasta dish.

I used chicken tenderloins, cooked them whole and sliced them after the first sear the recipe calls for.  (I have a thing about cutting raw meat/chicken and try to avoid it when I can.)  I also wondered if it would have been easier to keep the asparagus whole (after trimming the ends) until after it was cooked.  It wasn't super easy to fish the 1 inch pieces out of my stock pot after boiling them.  My sauce wasn't as thick as I thought it would be after the 15 minutes of simmering so I tossed the chicken with about another T of flour before adding it back to the sauce.  It seemed to do the trick.

I have never used leeks before. (gasp)  Well, not that I can remember anyway, and I really liked them.  I am going to start using those things all over the place.  I also didn't expect myself to really like the thyme flavor but I did. (I don't think I used the whole 2 tsp though, maybe 1 or 1 1/2 because I was scared.)

I felt like it was a bit too lemony but I tend to be that way when it comes to lemon.  Hadlee added more lemon to hers, so there ya go.  Next time, I might reduce the lemon a bit (and just let Hadlee add to hers) and either reduce the amount of pasta or double the amount of chicken and asparagus.  We are trying to be a little better about what we eat lately and even though the pasta was whole grain, I felt like the ratio was a bit off; there was a lot of pasta compared to protein and veggies.  All in all, this was a win for us and something we would make again, and soon! 

If you'd like to try the recipe, you can get it at Valerie's blog (or you can buy the book).  She was our hostess for the week and picked a great recipe.

Bake52: Asparagus and Cheese Mini-Quiche

Our first Bake52 post!!!  Don't you think this is so exciting?  I really do.

Clare was our host this week (thanks for hosting on the first week Clare!) and she picked quiche.  I am a quiche lover myself so I was pretty happy with her pick.  I have been wanting to make mini-quiche since my sister-in-law's baby shower 4 years ago.  I thought it would be fun to make for her shower, but decided maybe it would be too much work and I also didn't have a mini-muffin pan.  A lot changes in four years because I now have a mini-muffin pan.  And when I turned to the quiche pages of the book, there were mini-quiche instructions.  It's almost like it was meant to be.  Destiny.  And I don't mess with destiny.   

My only problem was that there weren't as many options for the mini-quiche, as far as ingredients, as there were for the pie-sized variety.  I decided to make a pie sized option work in  my mini-sized pastries.  I debated whether or not I should use my regular pie crust recipe or one from the book.  I was ready to use one from the book but I didn't realize there were more than two options.  And of the two I looked at, I didn't have the right ingredients so I went with the usual.  Jen later informed me that there were more than two options.  Oops.  I should have flipped the page.  

All in all, it went pretty well.  The mini-quiche recipe is a double pie crust recipe with half of the filling ingredients.  If you wanted to make the mini-version, you would adjust the ingredients accordingly.  Clare has the recipe posted on her site.  I used about a half of a bunch of asparagus, chopped 1/4 inch.  The only thing I might do differently for next time would be to grill the asparagus before putting it into the quiche.  It was good, but I think the grilling might have added extra flavor.  And now that I have made mini-quiche, I would probably stick with the pie-size most of the time.  Especially as an entree for dinner.  When I started making them I thought that the mini-size might be good since we are trying to cut back a bit on calories, but then when I stopped to realize that there were only half the filling ingredients (with the only good-for-you things in the dish) and double the pie crust, my error was obvious.  I did use fat free half and half.  How's that for healthy?  :)

I rolled the double crust pie dough out to 1/8 of an inch, as specified in the recipe.  I used a ruler, because I have found that I don't know how thick things really are otherwise.  Especially things that are rolled out.  The recipe also called for a 3 inch round cutter to be used.  I measured mine and it was more like 2 3/4 inches but I thought it was perfect and I had exactly 24 circles without having to roll it out again.

 Kind of pull all the sides together and place in muffin tin.

It took me a few to get the hang of it and embrace the wrinkles.  After noticing that the wrinkles around the edges kind of made it prettier.  Or that's what I told myself anyway so that I could embrace it.  The first few I did (on the right) were flatter because I kind of manipulated the dough that way and pressed it flat.  They did hold more of the filling than the "pretty" ones.

 After pre-baking the pie dough at 375 for about 15 minutes, and letting it cool slightly, place a few pieces of asparagus into each shell.

 I tried using a measuring cup to pour the ingredients but settled on a measuring tablespoon.  It's hard to only pour 1/2 -1 tablespoon in with a measuring cup, especially with the cheese mixed in with the eggs and half and half.  I had some left over that I will probably use for breakfast tomorrow.  Bake for 10 minutes and then let cool for 20.

If you want to check out what everyone else made there are links to all of their sites in the tab at the top called "Bake52 Crew."  I can't wait for next week. :)

Cream of Asparagus Soup

 I had planned on making a different kind of soup yesterday but when I went to the grocery store they had asparagus on sale.  That is something I can never pass up.  I started thinking about making cream of asparagus soup for dinner and wondered if it would be a shame to use such a lovely vegetable in that way; but I went for it anyway because it's something I've wanted to make at home.  I looked up a few recipes but none of them seemed like what I was after so I just decided to wing it.  That might not have been the best idea because I have had a string of kitchen disasters lately.  (I will post more about that when it's not so painful to talk about.)  When things don't go well in the kitchen, it really affects my mood.  Luckily for everyone around here, the soup was a hit.