One of the best reasons I can think of for walking the Camino is to eat Spanish tapas, which are widely available along the route.

And I think the Spanish tortilla and Padron peppers are probably my favorite of all the tapas.

Spanish tortilla is a dish of eggs and potatoes that have been fried together in a skillet. It’s kind of like a thick omelette with potatoes. Similar to an omelette, you can add other things to your tortilla, like mushrooms or cheese.

It’s a simple dish, but it’s consistently good in Spain. I usually have it as a snack mid-morning when I am walking.

The first time I tried to make Spanish tortilla at home, it did not taste right. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong as there are only a few ingredients.

Then we moved to England and I started having farm eggs delivered to my house. They have these rich yellow yokes, so the eggs are almost orange when you beat them in a bowl. And they just taste divine.

There are a few other details that I think make the tortilla taste more like the one I eat in Spain. You need to be generous with your olive oil, and of course, use the nicest olive oil you have. And then I think flaky sea salt helps it taste its best.

Alongside Spanish tortilla, I love to order Pimientos de Padron, or Padron peppers. These are seared peppers that look like jalapeños but are more like Japanese shishito peppers. For the most part, Padron peppers are not spicy. Every once in a while you get one with a kick, but mostly they are just yummy. You drop them into a hot skillet of oil until they blister all over. Then sprinkle them with sea salt.

They are so easy to make. The hardest part is finding the peppers. My local market here has them sometimes when they are in season (summer months), so I snatch them up and serve them alongside my Spanish tortilla.

Even without the peppers though, you can enjoy Spanish tortilla. Splurge on some fancy eggs and make yourself a little taste of Spain.

Spanish Tortilla Recipe

(adapted from Jamie Oliver)

Ingredients:

300 grams potatoes, peeled and diced (around one large potato or 2 medium ones)

1 onion, diced

olive oil

5 large eggs

sea salt

Directions:

Pour 3-4 tablespoons of oil into a small frying pan over a medium heat.

Add the onion and potatoes and cook for 20 minutes or until the onions are done and potatoes are cooked through.

Beat the eggs with a fork in a small bowl with a little salt and pepper.

When the onions and potatoes are cooked, remove the pan from the heat and carefully stir them into the eggs.

Add a little more oil to the pan and then pour the whole mixture back into the pan.

Turn the heat down to low and cook for around 20 minutes, or until the eggs are cooked.

Loosen the sides of the tortilla with a spatula. Carefully flip out the tortilla onto a dinner plate. Then slide it back into the pan and cook for 5 more minutes on the other side.

Flip the tortilla onto a serving plate. Slice and serve with bread, a few greens or Pimientos de Padron if you can get them.

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Since we have moved back to Arkansas, we don’t seem to have as much time for breakfast. The boys are running off to school during the week and to activities on the weekends.

There is just so much happening!

But Taido still tries to fix a fun breakfast on Sunday mornings while he is home for the weekend, so this week we had this classic apple pancake that is actually a German recipe.

Which makes sense, because this time last year, we were covered up with apples in Germany. They were falling off the trees on all of our walks and neighbors left them in boxes on our porch.

When we walked by the farm, we could smell homemade apple cider vinegar being made. Taido drank it religiously last fall to keep away winter colds. (Apple cider vinegar supposedly cures everything that ails you!)

I have always made this recipe in cast iron skillets, and thank goodness we had one lone cast iron skillet with us in Germany so I made this pancake in it, as well as many other favorite recipes.

But it’s fun to be back at my parents’ house where Mama has a whole stack of cast iron skillets, so we can have apple pancake in all different sizes.

I have a cookbook full of German recipes that a friend gave us at church in Germany, and I think it will be fun to use it while we are home to recall the hearty Swabian meals we enjoyed over the last year.

I hope our table will always serve to both remind us of the different foods we have shared with others and to welcome new people (and new foods) to our lives.

Apple Pancake

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 large tart apple

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup sifted flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons butter, melted (optional)

Put a 9 or 10 inch cast iron skillet in the oven. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Peel and core apple. Slice thin and sprinkle with half the cinnamon and sugar. Set aside. Mix eggs, milk, flour and salt. Beat with rotary beater for 2 minutes. Pull out hot skillet, drop one tablespoon butter in and swirl around. Pour batter on to melted butter. Place apple slices on top of batter, covering in full. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes. Puncture pancake with fork a few times, turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake about 10 more minutes. Remove from oven and pour melted butter over pancake (if using) and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon and sugar. Loosen from pan. Slice and serve immediately.

I triple this recipe and divide it between three random cast iron skillets.

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I am such a sucker for the one dish meal that a quiche or pie can be.

Also I love anything, and I mean anything, that involves pie crust or pastry dough of any kind.

So this asparagus potato ricotta pie called my name as soon as I saw it in my Tesco magazine.

On its first appearance on our dinner table, this pie was gobbled up by every member of my family except the youngest.

The filling starts as eggs, ricotta, kale and green onions (called spring onions in the UK).

But then you add parboiled, sliced potatoes to the mixture, which makes the whole pie less egg/quiche and more potato/cheese, which is a happy evolution of the traditional quiche for my family.

I used a pre-bought crust and mixed shredded cheddar cheese into it with a food processor before rolling it out, so even the crust has a savory, cheesy feel.

You put the stalks of the asparagus in the pie, but save the tips for the topping. So pretty, right??

We eat vegetarian about five out of seven days of the week, so when I find a meatless dinner that most everyone enjoys, I get super excited!

Asparagus, Potato and Ricotta Pie

(heavily adapted from Tesco’s April 2016 Food Magazine)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds new potatoes

3 eggs

4 tablespoons heavy cream

1 cup ricotta (250 grams)

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

1 bunch asparagus (about a 1/2 pound or 250 grams)

1 bunch green onions

6 ounces frozen kale (or spinach)

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

3 tablespoons ground almonds

Pie Crust Ingredients

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick butter (1/2 cup, 4 ounces), chopped into cubes and chilled

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/3 cup ice water

Directions

Make Pie Crust:

Mix flour and salt.  Cut in the butter with a pastry blender.  Toss in cheese. Drizzle water while stirring and form into a large disk.  Roll out and press into a 9-inch pie plate. Chill while prepping filling.

Make filling:

Boil the potatoes in water until just tender. (15 minutes) Drain and leave to cool.

Defrost and drain kale.

In a large boil, whisk together eggs, cream, mustard and ricotta. Season with salt and pepper.

Cut the rough 1-2 inches off the asparagus and discard. Cut the asparagus tips off and set aside. Chop the remaining stocks into 1/2 inch pieces and toss them into the ricotta egg mixture. Dice the green onions and add them as well, reserving about a tablespoon for the top. Fold in defrosted kale (or spinach). Slice the cooled potatoes and fold in as well.

Spread the ground almonds on the base of the pie crust. Pour the filling into the pie crust and press until packed flat. Scatter the 1/2 cup cheese on top. Place the asparagus tips on top and the reserved green onions.

Bake in a 400 degrees F oven (180 C or gas mark 4) for 45 minutes, until the filling is set and the pastry is golden.

Allow to sit for ten minutes before slicing and serving.

Enjoy!

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I mentioned a while back how much we are loving Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks since we moved to the UK. Save with Jamie is my current obsession, as we are eating mostly vegetarian these days and are always trying to save money on groceries.

This is really a breakfast meal, but we have been serving it up for dinner on a regular basis. It has a lot of wonderful Mexican flavors but since it is a new (to me) recipe, I don’t have the usual problem of comparing it to something I used to make back home. My old recipes just don’t measure up when I try to make them with UK ingredients, mainly due to a little problem I call Lack Of Corn Tortillas.

I can find ripe avocados, but they are precious at $2 each so I love this recipe for making one avocado go a long way. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to taste the avocado when I made a dressing out of it, but the flavors really come through.

The kids love these as much as we do.

Mexican Omelettes

adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Save with Jamie

Ingredients:

1 ripe avocado

3  limes

fresh cilantro

3 tbsp fat-free plain yogurt

olive oil

1 small onion

1 carrot

½ head cabbage

1 red chili pepper

8 large eggs

½ cup grated cheddar cheese

Directions

Made the dressing in a blender. Mix avocado, juice of 2 miles, handful of cilantro, yogurt and olive oil.

Grate onion, carrot, cabbage and chili pepper with a food processor. Then toss with the dressing. Add a few whole cilantro leaves. Season with salt and pepper.

Whisk all the eggs, adding a bit of water, salt and pepper.

On medium low, heat a splash of olive oil. Then cook 1/4 of the egg mixture, sprinkling 1/4 of the cheese. Cook gently for about 2 minutes, only on one side. Then slide the omelette out onto a plate, spooning a quarter of the avocado slaw. Roll the sides over and serve with a few cilantro leaves and a wedge of lime.

Repeat with the remaining ingredients.

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Fall is in the air and I am loving all things pumpkin!

I have an affinity for pumpkin recipes that call for an entire can of pumpkin.  They appeal to my practical side.  I don’t love to save a part of a can of pumpkin puree for some undetermined use, one that usually requires that I open another can and then save part of that one, a never ending line of opening and not fully using cans of pumpkin until I throw out 1/4 cup of pumpkin puree in January.

This recipe makes three loaves so you can share some pumpkin bread with your friends.  I have a neighbor that wraps up breakfast breads and brings them to us occasionally and they are always a welcome treat!

Also this recipe lends itself to substitutions.  You can use all oil or all butter if you’re low on one.  You can use water or milk in place of yogurt.  If you’re low on one spice, add more of another or just leave it out.  The pumpkin bread will get gobbled up no matter how you make it.

Happy Weekend and Happy Fall!

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

1 can pumpkin puree (15 ounces or 425 grams)

4 eggs

1 stick or 1/2 cup butter, melted (115 grams)

1/2 cup oil (110 grams, 125ml)

2/3 cup plain yogurt (120 grams) (can substitute milk or water)

2 cups sugar (400 grams)

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups flour (500 grams) (I use a mix of wheat and white flours)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (can substitute 1/4 teaspoon of cloves, 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon ginger)

Directions:

Combine pumpkin, melted butter, oil, yogurt eggs, sugar and vanilla.  Mix well.  In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice.  Stir dry ingredients into pumpkin mixture until blended.

Pour into three buttered loaf pans.

Bake for 35-45 minutes at 350 degrees F (170 degrees C or Gas Mark 4) or until toothpick or fork inserted comes out clean.

Slice and enjoy!

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Mushroom Asparagus Quiche

Ingredients:

1 prepared pie crust

1 half to 1 pound fresh asparagus, cut into half inch pieces (depending on how much asparagus you want in it)

1 medium onion, finely diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

1/4 cup butter

3 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup minced fresh basil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Optional: tomato slices for the top

Directions:

Melt butter in a large skillet.  Cook onions, garlic and mushrooms until onions are soft.  (10 minutes).  Add asparagus and cook two more minutes.

Set aside to cool slightly.

Mix eggs, cheese, basil, salt and pepper.  Add in the veggies and pour into prepared crust.  Add tomatoes on top if using.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes.  Let stand five minutes before cutting.

Enjoy!

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In the winter months, we eat a lot of oatmeal in the morning, but in the summertime, I have a fruit smoothie for breakfast almost every day.  I make it a little heavier when it is first thing in the morning because I need it to stick to my bones and get me through the day.  Otherwise, I am looking for a cookie at about 9am.

The combination of the above ingredients has sort of become the magical amount for a get-me-through-the-day kind of breakfast smoothie.

Breakfast Fruit Smoothie

A handful of spinach

1/4 cup oatmeal (regular oats)

1/3 cup any juice (orange is pictured, but sometimes I use Superfood juice to make the smoothie pack the extra punch of vitamins)

1/2 cup soy milk (or Greek yogurt, plain yogurt or soy yogurt)

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 banana

1 cup frozen fruit, any combination (above are strawberries, peaches and pineapples)

I put the spinach and oatmeal in the blender by themselves at first to get the pieces minced really tiny before adding liquids.

Then I add the liquids and the fruit.

This makes a fairly large smoothie (at least 16 ounces) which you can share if you want, but I usually don’t.

If you like your smoothie a little thicker (like in above instagram), just use more frozen fruit and less juice.

Here’s to happy, healthy summer breakfasts!

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I love the potatos on the bottom, but I omitted the ricotta she uses and filled the eggs with arugula and asparagus.  I like a lot of green in my eggs, and this turned out delicious.  It came out of the oven around 3pm, and I ate it for afternoon snack, dinner and breakfast the next morning.

Potato Asparagus Frittata

makes 8 slices

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced into half inch pieces

8 eggs

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup aspargus pieces

2 cups arugula leaves (spinach would also work)

1/2 cup milk or cream

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons herbes de provence

freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions:

Melt butter in a 10 inch cast iron skillet.  Add olive oil. Cook potatoes in oil and butter for 10-15 minutes, until brown and cooked through.

In a separate bowl whisk eggs, milk, herbes de provence, salt, pepper and cheese together.  Fold in arugula and asparagus.

Pour egg mixture over cooked potatoes and bake in a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour.

Serve warm.

Enjoy!

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In the past few weeks my precious grandmother has moved in with my mom and my aunt in Nashville.  She’s going to split time between here and Tennessee because if there’s one thing my grandmother does not mind, it is a change of scenery now and then.  In fact, her eyes light up when someone says “trip.”

However, this new arrangement has made her having an apartment no longer necessary so our entire family has pretty much been pillaging her apartment over the last few weeks.

I went over on a Sunday afternoon, intending of course to take only a few things as keepsakes, but so much of my grandmother just seemed to be poured out all over the apartment that I kept filling up boxes in order to catch her.  I don’t particularly want multiple plaques with verses, kitschy phrases and hymns on them, but I can’t bear that I won’t walk by them any more for the rest of my life and remember being at her house when I was little just at the sight of them.

What ARE all these things? Taido wanted to know when I put them on our bookshelves.  Taido doesn’t notice very much, so that should clue you in to the fact that these babies stand out.

I just couldn’t bear for them to get thrown away, and nobody wanted them.

Hmmm. Silence.

I also came across this orange tupperware, and even though I am slowly banning plastic from my house, I brought it home.  When I picked it up out of the piles, I looked at my Grandmother and said,

Oh you used to bring me bran muffin mix in this.

She started to tear up.  Yes.  Yes, I did.

How do you face not doing something anymore that you have done a thousand times?

Simple things.

Like mixing up six week bran muffin mix.  That’s right.  This stuff can sit in your fridge for 6 weeks.

I’ve never put that number to the test, seeing as it only requires about two mornings to polish off the tub of batter around our house.

I brought it home, mixed up muffins, filled it up and put it in my refrigerator.  Every time I open the door I think about my grandmother.

And I also remember her when I walk by the shellacked onto faux wood Great is Thy Faithfulness. It is her favorite hymn of all times.  I look around for her on the rare day that we sing it in church just to see her smile.  Her faith is a force to be reckoned with.  Backed both by years of knowing God’s faithfulness in her own life and and her iron will, Grandmother’s faith is one of many strong towers I have looked to all my life.

Wherever I am, I know when the rain starts pouring down that she is at home praying me safely on my way.

Even though her apartment is all cleared out and much of what she has accumulated on this earth has been scattered about, she still has what matters.  And I’ll take her prayers for me and my loved ones over her cooking any day.

Grandmother’s Bran Muffins

4 cups bran flakes

1 cup melted butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 quart buttermilk

5 cups whole wheat flour

5 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

Pour melted butter over bran flakes.  Add sugar and eggs.  Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk.  Add buttermilk mixture in.  Stir in flour and salt and stir just until mixed.

Store in the refrigerator for up to six weeks.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Note: It should come as no surprise to you that I have tinkered with my grandmother’s recipe.  I’ve changed the white flour to wheat, the margarine to butter and cut the sugar in half.  So you can change it back if you want these muffins just exactly as my grandmother would make them.

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We make two kinds of granola at our house. The first one is a recipe I have used since my early married days in Chicago and the second one is a more recent discovery. Both are delicious and make great gifts in mason jars for your friends who needs an easy breakfast!

I also love to make this granola for trips.

Original Chino House Granola

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup sesame seeds (sometimes I substitute half the sesame seeds for flax seeds)

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup slivered almonds

1 cup broken pecans

2 cups dried fruit (I use a combination of cranberries, blueberries, cherries and mango pieces cut into thin strips.)

½ cup maple syrup

¼ cup blackstrap molasses

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup canola oil

Mix all ingredients except fruit in large bowl. Spread granola on a parchment lined half sheet pan.  Granola should not be more than one inch thick. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring every ten minutes. Toss in the fruit and cook about 5 more minutes.  Allow to cool completely before storing in air-tight container. Enjoy!

Almond Coconut Granola

loosely adapted from The Barefoot Contessa

Ingredients:

4 cups oats

2 cups shredded coconut

2 cups sliced almonds

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup coconut oil

2 tablespoons butter

2/3 cup honey

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup dried blueberries

Directions:

Mix together the oats, coconut, almonds and pumpkin seeds.

Melt coconut oil and butter together.  Add honey and syrup.  Pour over dried ingredients.  Stir until mixed.

Spread on parchment and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until it begins to brown.  Stir every 15 minutes.

Toss with dried fruit while still warm.  Allow to completely cool before storing in an air tight container.

Enjoy!

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