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May 23, 2009

Quick tip: easy cleanup for cutting watermelon

Watermelon season is here. We love watermelon and over the course of watermelon season, I cut up a lot of watermelons (at least one a week) for for easy snacking. Cutting a watermelon can be a messy task, so here's a tip to help make cleanup easier.

After you wash your watermelon (yes, always wash your watermelon to remove potential bacteria from the skin), place a large baking sheet on your counter, then place your cutting board in the baking sheet. Now, instead of watermelon juices getting all over your countertop, they will all be contained in the baking sheet and cleanup will be quick and easy.

Once you cut up your watermelon, always refrigerate it. Follow these food safety tips for watermelons.

These tips from the University of Illinois Extension have information about growing, harvesting, selecting and storing, nutrition, and preparing and serving watermelon.

And check out this Watermelon Lovers section of the National Watermelon Promotion Board.

Posted May 23, 2009 9:47 AM in Quick Tip | Comments (0)

May 18, 2009

It's always a good day for brunch

Last fall I clipped a recipe for Individual Ham-Crusted Quiches with Leek and Smoked Cheese from the Boston Sunday Globe magazine. All that was missing was a brunch to make them for. That brunch finally materialized last weekend.

The recipe is simple, arrange ham slices in muffin cups, bake the muffins cups to crisp up the ham, saute leeks and red bell pepper, cool that mixture, grate some smoked cheese, mix eggs, half and half, the veggies, and cheese. Spoon into ham cups, and bake. Easy, delicious.

If you've ever cooked with leeks, you know that they can be loaded with sand. My tip for working with leeks is always cut them up and then soak them in a large bowl of water. The chopped leeks float to the top, the fine sand floats to the bottom. DO NOT remove the leeks from the water by pouring them into a colander or you'll add that fine sand back into the leeks. Use your hands or a slotted spoon to remove the leeks from the water. Regardless of how clean the leeks seem, I always do this and I'm always amazed by how much fine sand is left at the bottom of the bowl after I remove the leeks.

Once the leeks are soaking, I arranged the ham in the muffin cups. I used Hormel Natural Choice Ham. I picked it because it is a no-nitrate ham. The slices are small, larger ham slices would have worked better. Once baked, the ham slices shrink and the small ham slices shrunk a little more than I wanted them to. When I make these again, I'm going to try them with prosciutto. Here's the ham arranged in the cups before baking and after baking.

While the ham baked, I sauteed the leeks and red peppers. To cool them quickly, I scraped them into a shallow bowl and set that bowl in a bowl of ice water.

While the leeks cooled, I grated the cheese. Then I mixed the eggs, half and half, salt, and pepper, and the cheese with the leeks and red peppers.

Next, that mixture was spooned into the ham cups.

Into the oven... After cooling in the pan for a few minutes...

These mini quiches were delicious. And easy to make. I'll definitely make them again. Everyone loved them. The vegetable and cheese combinations are endless.

Continue reading "It's always a good day for brunch" »

Posted May 18, 2009 10:18 PM in Recipes | Comments (4)

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