Melinda Wells - The Proof is in the Pudding

This quiche is an easy main course for a luncheon or for a light dinner. Seana says she usually serves it with mini muffins and Caesar salad.

1 single piecrust: refrigerated, frozen or homemade (see note below)

2 cups cottage cheese (low-fat and small curd)

3 eggs (room temperature and beaten)

½ cup shredded Swiss cheese

½ cup shredded Gruyere cheese

2 or 3 green onions (white and green parts) finely chopped

1 cup French-fried onion rings in a can (crushed with your fingers)

Salt & pepper to taste (I use about ¼ teaspoon salt and ⅛ teaspoon ground pepper)

Prick the bottom and sides of the unbaked piecrust and bake according to the package directions. (Or the directions in your cookbook if you make the crust from scratch.) When the crust is light brown, remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cottage cheese, eggs, cheeses, green onions, salt, and pepper. Hand mix until thoroughly combined.

Pour mixture over cooled piecrust and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until the quiche has puffed (about ½ inch).

Pull out the oven rack beneath the quiche and cover the quiche with the crushed onions. Then continue to bake until the onions appear lightly toasted-about 5 more minutes.

Remove from oven and cool for 5 or 10 minutes before serving.

NOTE FROM DELLA: For homemade crust, I recommend the standard pastry recipe for an 8- or 9-inch one-crust pie in Betty Crocker’s Cookbook .

This recipe is from British author Penrose (Penny) Anderson. She wrote for Thames Television in London, is a published poet, and is also a voice-over actress. She said her favorite voice job was in Warhammer , a fantasy video game in which she got to play both the High Elf and the Dark Elf, contrasting characters she described as the “video game’s version of Jekyll and Hyde.” When Penny’s not providing the voice for various animated characters, she’s working on a novel.

2 tablespoons butter

1 large white onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

5 red ripe tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato paste

4 cups chicken broth

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon basil (or 1 teaspoon herbes de Provence, if you have them)

Juice of ½ lemon

Salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)

2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped, to garnish

Sauté onion and garlic is hot butter for 3 minutes, until softened. Add quartered tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken broth, bay leaf, and basil (or herbes de Provence). Put into a blender. Pulse briefly so as not to liquefy, but to have bits of tomato visible. Pour into saucepan. Add lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Return soup to simmering point. Garnish with chopped parsley. ( Della’s note: I like Italian flat leaf parsley.) Serves 6.

Richard Fredricks is a former Principal Baritone of the Metropolitan Opera, television, and musical theater. Before show business, he was a sonar man, in the Submarine Service. Richard was kind enough to share this recipe from his mother, Charlotte, who was born in Londonderry, Ireland.

3 teaspoons baking powder

1½ teaspoons baking soda

1½ teaspoons salt

4½ cups unbleached flour

1½ teaspoons nutmeg (to taste)

½ cup currants (some cranberries are nice for variety)

½ cup raisins (or just a wee bit more)

2 handfuls of chopped walnuts

2¼ cups 2% buttermilk

Lightly flour a dry, cured 10-inch iron skillet and set over a low flame to preheat.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together all dry ingredients four times. Add currants, raisins, and chopped walnuts and fold them until coated with dry mix.

Make a well (hole) in the center and add all the buttermilk at once. Fold together (with two large, strong spoons) until thoroughly mixed, adding buttermilk as necessary to make it moist, but not overly wet.

Make a big ball of the dough (pushed away from the sides of the bowl with the spoons) and lightly flour the top and sides, lifting and working the flour under the ball as you rotate the bowl. Lightly flour as needed to be able to transfer the moist mix to the hot skillet.

When the entire surface of the ball is lightly floured, place it in the center of the heated pan and gently flatten it out until the entire pan is filled to the edges.

Cook approximately 20 minutes on the first side. With a large pancake turner or spatula, gently left the scone to see that it is sufficiently well browned, then turn it over by tilting the pan to meet it as it is gently “flipped.” The second side takes approximately 18 to 20 minutes.

Pierce the center with a knife to determine when the soda bread is done: dry to slightly moist, nice light to moderate brown crusting.

Remove from heat, wrap in terry-cloth towel, and place on a rack for cooling (the oven rack is fine with the door open) until just warm. In half an hour or so, you can slice off a piece or three and begin to enjoy one of the simple but elegant pleasures of Ireland, complemented by a lovely cup of tea, with milk and honey. Refrigerate the scone in a large Ziploc bag with as much air removed from it as possible. To reheat, slice off pieces in ½ inch slices and warm in the toaster or toaster oven.

Richard says, “Oh, such a delight, delicious-plain or with butter, jam, or both, or a smidgen of marmalade.”

½ cup brown sugar

1 egg, well beaten

½ cup softened butter

½ cup milk

½ cup currants

½ cup raisins

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1½ teaspoons allspice

1½ teaspoons cinnamon

1½ teaspoons nutmeg

1¼ teaspoons cloves

1½ teaspoons salt

⅓cup dark molasses

½ cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Put 5 cups of water into pressure cooker with rack in the bottom.

Combine sugar, egg, and butter, mix until smooth. Add milk, currants, and raisins. Sift together all dry ingredients and add gradually. Mix batter well. Add nuts.

Turn into a buttered bowl or mold that may be set loosely in cooker. Cover the bowl with wax paper, securely tied. Place the bowl on the rack with water in the cooker. Close the cover on the pressure cooker securely. Allow steam to flow from the vent pipe for 20 minutes. Place pressure regulator on the vent pipe and cook for another 40 minutes. Let pressure drip on its own accord. Serve warm with Brandy Hard Sauce. (Recipe follows.) Serves 6.

½ cup butter

2 cups powdered sugar

⅓cup (about) brandy

Cream butter with sugar, add brandy, and blend to taste and form. It should be firm, not stiff, at room temperature. It softens on warm plum pudding.

NOTE: If a Lemon Sauce is preferred, substitute the juice of a lemon and a pinch of salt for the brandy.

Della’s Italian Pot Roast (in a Crock-Pot)

4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 6 pieces each

1 package fresh baby carrots (approximately 4 cups)

1 stalk celery, cut into 1-inch pieces, including the leafy tops

2 diced Roma plum tomatoes, with seeds removed

2½ lbs. boneless beef chuck roast

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 cans tomato soup (10¾-ounce can-I prefer plain Campbell ’s tomato soup)

¾ cup water

1 bulb of roasted garlic (see method below)

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar (ONLY white distilled)

TO ROAST GARLIC: place a whole garlic bulb on a piece of aluminum foil and drizzle over it a little extra virgin olive oil and wrap it up. (Twist top of foil to make it look like the garlic bulb is in a little sack.) Roast in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. When it’s soft, open the garlic bulb enough so that you squeeze the roasted garlic out onto a little dish or piece of wax paper or foil. Discard the casing.