Between Three Kitchens has a new member!

Please give a warm welcome to Ciara!

(I realize that this means we are now between FOUR kitchens, but just ignore that little oversight...)

Ciara originally hails from our hometown in New Jersey but is currently baking up a storm in her kitchen in Portland Oregon. After her first guest post she had inquired about posting on a more regular basis, so I decided to make her a part of the team. You've probably noticed that we've all been slacking on posting since the humble beginnings of this blog... hopefully a new member will kick us back into gear and you'll be seeing more posts from us on a regular basis!

- Marine

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Homemade Waffles

When my boyfriend and I moved into our first apartment together a couple of years ago, we got a few house-warming gifts. Amy brought us a case of her father's delicious homemade wine, which we slowly worked our way through during our first year there. Then when Alina came to visit, she brought us a waffle maker. Of course, I had to put it to use as soon as possible, so over the course of a few weeks, I experimented with lots of different recipes before finding one that makes perfect waffles every single time. They're light and crispy on the outside, yet fluffy and hearty inside. They can be topped with anything your belly desires but I prefer them most with Nutella or with strawberry jam, since we rarely have maple syrup in the house. And if you don't happen to have the luxury of owning a waffle maker, this recipe also makes great pancakes!

Waffles

Ingredients:

- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 3/4 cups water
- 1/2 cup oil (canola, vegetable, etc; anything goes, really!)
- 2 egg whites

Preparation:

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a larger bowl using a whisk, beat the egg yolks enough to break them up, then add the water and oil. Add the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture and whisk until thoroughly combined. In yet another bowl, use a stand mixer or a handheld mixer (or whisk by hand if you have neither) to beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the rest of the batter. At this point, you can either refrigerate the batter until you're ready to use it (it should last for about a day covered in the refrigerator), or immediately make waffles according to your waffle iron's instructions.

Enjoy!

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Stinging Nettle Soup, Ukrainian Style!

I have recently made an unusual soup - an old gem from the motherland via my great-grandmother. Stinging nettle soup. Yes. In case you have not heard of stinging nettle, it's a leafy plant, and it will sting your skin with nettles (containing formic acid, histamine, acetylcholine, serotonin) which will leave little itchy blisters that go away after 30 minutes or so. To my knowledge, this soup is popular in villages and countrysides in Ukraine and Russia. Probably because nettle grows wild where there is more greenery.

Since I was not able to find this plant on the East Coast, I ordered seeds a couple of years ago and planted them in my yard. Now, it grows pretty wild and requires a bit of "weed" control.

A bit more on the plant: The nettles loose their effect once put into boiling water so don't worry about stinging your tongue (but I do recommend using latext or garden gloves when handling them fresh)! Nettle also has medicinal value and contains lots of vitamins and minerals. This leafy plant has been used for cooking and medicine for many ages. Native Americans are among many cultures who use/used this plant for culinary and medicinal purposes.

For additional information, you can visit this page I found: More on Stinging Nettle

Stinging Nettle Soup

Ingredients

- A hefty bunch of young stinging nettle leaves & stalks
- Chicken/ Pork/ Beef - the meat choice is up to you! I used pork this time, but I prefer chicken
- About 5 hard boiled eggs
- About 3 large potatoes
- 2 large carrots
- 1 large onion
- Sunflower seed oil (if you do not have this, you can always use olive oil)
- Salt & pepper to taste
- A dollop of sour cream

After filling the cooking pot with water, add the meat of your choice, and start cooking it while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Adding salt at the
beginning will also bring out the flavor. The longer you cook the meat, the nicer broth you will have!
Next you can start boiling your eggs, of if you already have them done, dice them into cubes. Set aside.
Cut off the ends of the nettle plant and mince. Set aside.
Next, dice the potatoes into small cubes and add them to the broth, which should be coming close to a boil.


While you wait for the meat and the potatoes to fully cook, take 2 large carrots and grate them.
Next, dice a large onion into small cubes.
Take the carrots and the onion, and saute them in a large flying pan until golden brown (using sunflower seed oil)
Next, add the carrots and onion to the soup.
Making sure that the potatoes are tender, you can then add the eggs, and lastly, the nettle.
Taste for flavor and salt. If you feel like there is not enough salt, add a bit more, stir, and taste. (I rarely use measurements).
Finally, pour the soup into a soup bowl, and add a dollop of sour cream!
Enjoy!

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Our First Guest Post: Brunch Quiche

This weekend seems like the perfect time to introduce our very first guest post on Between Three Kitchens! The following recipe is for brunch quiche, which would be perfect to serve on Mother's Day, if your mother enjoys a hearty breakfast. Our contributor is Ciara Melançon; we all know her because the four of us actually grew up in the same hometown and went to school together! Now she lives in Portland, Oregon and in October of last year she started her homemade desserts and quiche company, Sprinkles and Spice. If you live in the Portland area, order some cheesecakes, cupcakes, or quiche from her for your next event! Now, without further ado, here is Ciara's take on brunch quiche.
- Marine
So I've been thinking about what I wanted to make for my first blog post and it's been bugging me until I woke up this morning after being out at the bar and started pulling out breakfast stuff. Eureka! Breakfast quiche! Mothers day is coming up too so this is the perfect easy dish to make for mom if you're having her over or it has everything you need to recover from a night out. It takes about an hour total from start to finish.

Brunch Quiche

Ingredients:

- 4 eggs
- 1⁄2 cup flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup cheddar cheese
- 1⁄2 lb ham
- 1 9-inch pie pan

First things first, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. So let's take a look back at this recipe. This is really a variation on my quiche recipe so it's pretty easy to make variations to it depending on what you like.

If you want something that's all veggies, you can do that too but for our purposes I'm using regular medium cheddar that you can get in any grocery store along with thin sliced honey ham you can get from your deli counter. If I have it, I prefer ham steak but sliced deli ham is just as good!


Our first step is to crack open some eggs. You'll need to use the whole egg not just the whites along with the milk. Whisk well then add flour...


Whisk in your flour. You'll see that we have quite a few lumps and that's okay, just make sure that you whisk well enough that they are as small as possible.


Let's go over to the ham now. We need to cut it up small so it's in easy bite size pieces. I actually rolled up all the slices of ham and cut through them length wise then again perpendicular to my original cuts. It makes for little pieces with a heck of a lot less work.


Then throw those pieces into the pie pan. Try and separate the pieces through the pie pan so that we have an even distribution, we want to make sure each slice has ham in it.


Then throw in the cheese! I love cheese so I might have used a little extra...


Once we have the cheese and ham in the pie pan pour in the egg milk and flour mixture. It should be enough to cover all the meat and cheese, if not just shake the pie pan a little so that things settle and even out. Then put your pie in the oven for about 30 mins and crack open the bubbles. I personally prefer some Cava because it goes really well with orange juice for mimosas!


The really nice thing about this dish is that you can walk away from the kitchen while it's cooking and clean up before your guests come over. I would keep the light in the oven on towards the end of cooking time around 20 mins or so because you'll want to keep an eye on the pie. It will rise in the oven which is perfectly normal! Don't panic and pull it out of the oven, just let it rise and get nice and golden brown. You'll know the quiche is done when you see the top of the pie getting golden and a little crispy on top.


So yummy! There shouldn't be any liquid in the pie, no jiggly parts either. Let it sit for about 15 mins so that it settles and then dig in!


With this recipe the pie is going to be a little denser than quiche, but is still light enough to have for brunch. My fiance likes to eat it late at night when he gets home from work and I've taken a slice with me on my way to work and eaten it while walking. Another variation would be to add some veggies like onion or peppers, or even swap out the ham for bacon or sausage. Give it a shot and make it your own!

- Ciara

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