Potato, leek, and bacon quiche/cake

Trying to figure out what on earth to make using what leftover ingredients we have left in our fridge. I found some potato, bacon, egg, so I used this recipe as a base for our meal
Extra Virgin- Leek and Potato Cake.

Start this recipe with the pastry crust, then while making the quiche filling boil 3 small potatoes, have them cook about halfway and cut them into thin slices to top the quiche. Set the oven to 425 F.

Pastry crust:
1 1/4 cup of flower
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt

3 tbs of shortening cut in pieces
5 tbs of butter cut in pieces
4-6 tbs of ice water

Mix the flower, sugar and salt together, add the shortening and butter, mix until butter/shortening is in small pea pieces. Add 4 tbs of water to the flour mix and mix together into a ball. If needed add more water to make into a ball. Wrap dough with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least an hour, when ready roll it out into mini quiche molds, use a fork to poke holes at the bottom.

Quiche filling:
6 strips of thick cut bacon cut in 1/4 inch strips
4 leeks cut in 3/4 inch strips
splash of chicken broth
1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup of half and half
3 eggs
Salt
Pepper

I cooked 6 strips of thick cut bacon in my skillet on medium, (probably more like 3 strips after I took off the huge chunks of fat. Once cooked and crispy take out the bacon pieces and add the leek pieces in, do not brown simply cook down until soft and mushy, I added a dash of chicken broth and a pinch of kosher salt to the pan and let it cook down. Once the leeks are soft turn off the heat and let them cool. In a bowl mix the eggs, half and half, mozarella, bacon, and cooled leeks. Pour the filling into the molds, it made five 4.5 inch quiches.

Bake at 425 F for 45 minutes.

They were so delicious, hot or cold, and my boyfriend gobbled them up.

Potato Leek au gratin ish

2 Leeks sliced thin

1 onion sliced thinly

2 Bay leaves

3 cloves of roasted garlic

Chicken Stock

Half and half

Butter

Oil

Salt

Pepper

Cook Leeks in oil and butter
Caramelized onions add roasted garlic
Add flour- make roux
Half and half and chicken stock, add water until consistency is right

Slice potatoes thin, see thru
Add sauce at bottom of corningware
Layer potatoes, parmesan, sauce, until full

Sprinkle bread crumbs on top of pan

Bake at 400F for 35-40 mins

Pot Roast

Once again checked the Publix ad to pick out my dinner menu. Today I'm attempting my first ever Pot Roast!!! Woooohooooo! I suppose you can't go wrong with a staple American meal for dinner.
After using the web to find a good recipe none of them fit exactly what I was looking for so it looks like I'll be making my own recipe. Still debating the use of slow cooker to stove/oven method. *Decided on oven.

Here are the ingredients:
-2.25 lbs of chuck roast
-10 ish peeled boiler onions
-6 or 7 carrots chopped thickly
-5 celery stalks chopped into large chunks
-8 oz baby bella mushrooms
-4 gloves garlic
-2 teaspoons of sugar
-3 bay leaf
-salt
-pepper
-flour
-thyme
-rosemary
-1 1/2 cups beef stock/broth
-1 cup cooking wine
- water
-olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 350F and make sure to place rack with enough space for your pot.

2. Coat meat in flour, salt and pepper. Coat bottom of your pot(if you have a dutch oven use that) with olive oil brown meat on all sides, then remove from pan.

3. Add and cook vegetables until brown, if needed add a bit of broth to keep brown bits from burning. Add sugar and garlic cook until fragrant about 30 seconds.

4. Place meat back into pot, over a slight layer of vegetables. Add beef stock/wine and remove brown bits from bottom, add meat and spices. Add enough liquid to almost cover the roast adding water if needed.

5. Cover pot with foil, and put into oven. Turn roast ever 30 mins, cooking for a total of 4 hours. Once roast is tender and starts to fall apart, remove from pot with vegetables and keep under a foil tent.

6. Strain out spices and thicken the sauce (if needed) on the stove top. Either use some cornstarch or a beurre manie. For cornstarch place a small amount in a bowl and dilute with cold water or liquid from roast (this prevents clumping). For the beurre manie use about 2 tablespoons of softened butter and mix with 2 tablespoons of flour. Make this into a paste. Then add to the remaining liquid in pot, let boil, sauce should thicken to an almost gravy.

7. Serve roast, vegetables and gravy with mashed potatoes.

8. Tell your friends how amazing this recipe was :p

If using a slow cooker:
1. Brown meat as stated previously, and vegetables (adds extra flavor).

2. Place half the vegetables at the bottom of the slow cooker. Place meat on top, add second half of vegetables.

3. Add 1 cup of beef broth, 1 cup of cooking wine and all spices.

4. Set on Low for 8 to 10 hours, or high 3 to 4. Once meat is tender and vegetables cooked through it's ready to eat. Remove roast and vegetables, if needed strain liquid to remove spices.

5. Place liquid back into slow cooker, set on high. In a small bowl add cornstarch, add liquid to the bowl and mix until well incorporated, add new cornstarch liquid to the slow cooker(this way it won't clump). Or you can make a beurre manie (2 tablespoons of softened butter with 2 tablespoons of flour mixed together into a paste). Add thickening agent to slow cooker, let liquid get to a boil. Once thicken ladle over your roast and vegetables.

6. Serve with mashed potatoes.

Blackened Catfish with Butter Potatoes

Catfish was on sale this week at Publix.     Sale item = what's for dinner this week!
We also found a bottle of blackened seasoning in our cupboard. So dinner was born. Blackened catfish!
I'd hear terrible stories of smoke taking over the room so I figured an oven bake would be safer.
Definitely will be making it again :)

Recipe:
- 2 fillets of catfish
- 2 tbs of melted butter
- Blackened seasoning
- Olive oil spray

- 24 oz bag of small honey gold potatoes

- 3 tbs water

- 2 tbs butter

- salt

- pepper

Preheat oven to 450 F. Line two baking sheet with aluminium foil. Spray both pans down with olive oil. Cut potatoes in half, place in microwave safe bowl with 3 tbs of water. Cover potatoes and microwave about 7-8 mins or until tender to fork. Drain water out of potatoes, add butter and salt and pepper. Mix potatoes until well covered, place on one of baking sheet.
Rinse catfish fillets, pat dry with paper towels. Baste catfish fillets with butter, sprinkle blackened seasoning to preference. I covered both fillets they were pretty packed with seasoning (fyi pretty darn spicy). Place fillets on aluminum foil, spray with olive oil or a dollop of butter. In our case both :p

Place both baking sheets in oven bake 11-15 minutes. Check that fish is flaky with a fork. Check the thickest part of the fish to be sure. Potatoes should be slightly golden. Serve with salad, green beans, broccoli, veggie medley, etc.