Who's Cooking: Emily (Indianapolis, IN) + A Giveaway!

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I met Emily through mutual friends in college.  Though we had a lot of the same friends, we didn’t really become close until after we graduated.  Since I moved back to Maryland we keep in touch through Facebook and email.  We were both pregnant at the same time, our kids are about 3 months apart and we both try to cook with healthy ingredients, so we generally have lots to talk about! 

Emily has been married to her husband, Joel, for 5 years and they have their hands full with their son, Ben, who is almost 18 months old and a constant bundle of energy!  She also works full time at Indiana University School of Medicine, handling the finances and negotiating budgets for all the research grants and clinical trials within her division.  Therefore, she is more often referred to as the Queen of Spreadsheets and Paper-Pusher Extraordinaire! 

Life for Emily and her family is full of fun blended with a hefty dose of chaos. 1 toddler + 2 dogs + 1 surly cat = a busy household!  Both Emily and Joel are also active in their church, as Joel is the church’s music director.  They’re definitely a physically active family too - Joel prefers to bike while Emily runs half-marathons.  She refers to the one full marathon she ran as one of her poorer life decisions! 

They own a home built in the 1900s and have their hands full renovating the space.  Now that they’re enjoying their own yard, they are able to grow a lot of their own veggies.  They’re hoping to be able to harvest fruits they’ve planted last fall (blueberries, raspberries and strawberries) this spring and continue planting apple, peach and cherry trees on their property this spring.

While her husband’s ultimate dream is to eventually retire on land and “homestead it” farm-style and live off the land, the whole nine yards with goats and chickens, Emily’s response is mostly to lovingly refer to him as a hippie.

Q&A With Emily 

Why do you cook at home?  I manage budgets and finances at work and I would be lying if I didn't admit that my OCD in this area doesn't also extend to our budget at home. We budget hard in the Humberd House and we're pretty proud of it.  As such, our primary reason for cooking at home is the pure cost savings.  

Although, since both my husband and I enjoy cooking, it's not a huge sacrifice to eat at home most nights. We enjoy trying new recipes and exposing our son, Ben, to new flavors and dishes. We both grew up in homes where our moms cooked dinner at home nearly every night of the week so that's how we always envisioned how our family would function as well. Eating out is so expensive and we have big dreams for our future (did I mention we're remodeling our 1900's home?) so we'd rather our money go toward things like an updated kitchen (counter space? Yes please!) than toward eating out on the regular. 

What is your favorite ingredient to cook with? It would have to be anything from our garden. I never grew up gardening, although my mom did a lot of farmer's market shopping, so I never appreciated the dramatic difference that comes from eating something you literally just picked.  

It's remarkable how many more veggies I find that I enjoy because I'm picking them out of our garden and not off the shelves at the local supermarket. Even the best supermarket has a lead time and unfortunately, you can taste the difference. We've had great success with tomatoes, corn, okra, eggplant, and herbs and I've really enjoyed getting creative with those! 

If you could travel to any country or city in the world, just to taste their food, where would you go and why? In all my traveling (3 study abroad trips in college; 1 in grad school), I've somehow never made it to Mexico. Amazing, right? Authentic Mexican food is a favorite of mine, so I would love to experience authentic Mexican food firsthand, right from the source. Plus, I love Patti's Mexican Table on our local PBS station, so if the food is half as amazing as she makes it look and sound, I think I will be one happy camper. 

The recipe I want to share today is a favorite in our house: Tomato Zucchini Quiche.  I found the recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks: Simply In Season.   
It’s actually the featured giveaway today so make sure and enter in the raffle below!

I love this recipe because we grow a lot of tomatoes in our garden. Our original goal was to use them purely for sauces and salsas and other tomato-based products.  I was never that crazy about tomatoes, but suddenly, when I was pregnant with Ben, I started loving tomatoes. No idea why. Just started really enjoying them and this recipe was one of the first that I tried where I thought, "Hmmm... maybe tomatoes aren't so bad.” 

Fast forward 18+ months later and tomatoes are Ben's favorite food. He will eat tomatoes before he will eat any other toddler snack or treat. As result, this quiche has become a pretty standard staple in our house due to the fact that it is chock full of veggies and an easy meal for him to feed himself. Any recipe that serves as such a tasty vehicle for veggies is a great one to keep around! 

Crustless Zucchini Tomato Quiche Printable

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 starting on a weekly basis.  It will feature a home cook, their story and a recipe to share.  I'll also occasionally do giveaways based on these features, so be sure to check them out! - See more at: http://www.tastymess.org/p/blog-page_26.html#sthash.AKfZfuud.dpuf

This is a new segment I'm starting on a weekly basis.  It will feature a home cook, their story and a recipe to share.  I'll also occasionally do giveaways based on these features, so be sure to check them out! - See more at: http://www.tastymess.org/p/blog-page_26.html#sthash.AKfZfuud.dpuf

This is a new segment I'm starting on a weekly basis.  It will feature a home cook, their story and a recipe to share.  I'll also occasionally do giveaways based on these features, so be sure to check them out! - See more at: http://www.tastymess.org/p/blog-page_26.html#sthash.AKfZfuud.dpuf

This is a new segment I'm starting on a weekly basis.  It will feature a home cook, their story and a recipe to share.  I'll also occasionally do giveaways based on these features, so be sure to check them out every Friday morning! - See more at: http://www.tastymess.org/2014/03/whos-cooking-allison-salisbury-md.html#sthash.t8mV7gqJ.dpuf

This is a new segment I'm starting on a weekly basis.  It will feature a home cook, their story and a recipe to share.  I'll also occasionally do giveaways based on these features, so be sure to check them out every Friday morning! - See more at: http://www.tastymess.org/2014/03/whos-cooking-allison-salisbury-md.html#sthash.t8mV7gqJ.dpuf