Real Men DO Eat Quiche...If It Tastes Good!

     For my younger readers, the title comes from a book published in 1982, Real Mean Don't Eat Quiche. Well, my man does eat quiche and loves it! He doesn't eat every kind of quiche, but he does eat this recipe that I got years ago from my mother. This is a simple dish to put together and you will see that I took some shortcuts to make the preparation even easier.

Ingredients:

1 9" pie crust (I use the refrigerated ones that are near the canned biscuits at the grocery store)

2 cups shredded Swiss cheese

2 T. flour

3/4 cup milk (I used skim)

3/4 cup half and half

4 eggs slightly beaten

bacon-cooked and crumbled (I used the pre-cooked variety to save time)

pinch of salt and pepper

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Place pie crust into pie pan or quiche pan. I like to pre-bake mine about 5 minutes.

     I used an entire package of the pre-cooked bacon (15 slices). I never think that pre-cooked stuff is crisp enough, so I put it in the microwave for a few seconds until it gets a little crisp. Crumble it into pieces and place them in the bottom of the pie crust to make the first layer. The picture blurred...but, you get the idea!

    

     Mix shredded cheese (if you can find it in a bag already shredded you are lucky-I bought a chunk and shredded it with a grater) with flour. Put the mixture into the pre-cooked pie crust.

     In a medium sized bowl, mix the milk, half and half, eggs, salt and pepper. Whisk gently (or use a fork) to blend. Pour over the cheese layer.

     Bake at 350 degrees for approx. 50 minutes. You want the top to be lightly brown, the eggs to puff up a bit and you should be able to insert a knife in the center and have it come out clean. Serve with a salad for dinner or with fresh fruit for breakfast. Enjoy!

Where Do You Keep All That Stuff? Metamorphosis Monday

When Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch posted her friend's "dish room" several months ago, my wheels started spinning. I tried to find the link and I couldn't. Susan, if you read this help me out!

Anyway, I thought to myself, "I have a room I'm not using"! Of course I don't have all those fabulous things and I didn't want to spend any money installing shelves...but, I do have some stuff...and several pieces of furniture stashed in the basement that I will never use. So, I decided to see if I could do a dish room on a budget. 

We have a 5 bedroom house and only 2 of us live here now. Our home is a ranch style, with our bedroom, a guestroom and my daughter's room/my office on the main floor. The basement (I've been told that "lower level" sounds better, but we call it a basement) has 2 more bedrooms. One is my son's room/grandkid's play room and the other was the overflow from the storage room.

This is a work in progress. I did buy paint (medium taupe) and we haven't gotten around to painting yet. I hope to hang something on the walls, eventually. I am still in the process of moving things down. My good china and crystal are staying upstairs. The spring, summer and everyday dishes are in the kitchen cabinets and I will switch back and forth based on season.

I started with an empty room and brought an armoire we recently took out of our bedroom, a cedar wardrobe that I hate...but it has always been great for out of season clothing, a cedar chest my parents gave me when I got engaged, the first dresser we bought before we got married, an old bookcase from my son's room and one from my daughter's college days and a vintage wicker table that I love too much to part with.

The rocking horse is from when I was a child and my dad made the dollhouse for my daughter for her 9th birthday. He made one for all of his granddaughters when they turned 9 (4 of them ). The old radio was my grandfather's.

The armoire is perfect for glassware, holiday dishes and platters.

A drawer for flatware and one for trays and holiday bowls.

The wardrobe has folded quilts in the bottom

as well as my "winter" pillows for the living room sofas.

 I've just started hanging the tablecloths in it, I wanted

to show you how that will work.  

Larger vases and accessories sit on top.

The bookcase is great for ribbon. I have more ribbon to move

here, so those added dishes will be moving somewhere else.

Items that I store in boxes are tucked to the left of the wardrobe.

The old dresser has a few of my teapots on top, candles and

crafty things in the drawers. Eventually I will move napkins

and table runners to the other drawers.

The cedar chest is perfect for the heavier dish sets. See all those

Asian dishes? I did put them on Craigslist but I didn't get any calls.

A large antique crock holds a few of my floral supplies.

The view from the doorway. I put a quilt over an old rocker that has been in our family for decades. It is waiting to be recovered and I couldn't look at the green/brown fabric anymore! What I really wanted to show you is that it doesn't have to be perfect, if you have the space-it just has to be functional and organized. Other than the paint, there is no expense involved. There are several "perks" that are going along with this project. I am going through things and finding items I'd forgotten about as well as throwing away many things. I also am making my kitchen cabinets much more functional as I get some of these items out of them. The cabinets in the wet bar in the basement are empty now...I never have empty cabinets! Plus, all those trips up and down the basement stairs can't hurt!

I am linking this to Met Monday. Please join our hostess Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch to see all the wonderful projects.

Mmmm....Individual Meat Loaves for Foodie Friday

     I don't make meat loaf often. Mine has never been bad, but it hasn't been anything to blog about! My husband loves it and while I don't eat a lot of beef, once in a while it sounds good. So, I went searching for meat loaf recipes I could adapt to our tastes. I found one that is good, really good. It just isn't blog picture perfect, but I'm going to tell you about it anyway.

     I started with an Ina Garten recipe. Don't you just love her? She makes good stuff! I made a few small changes because at our house we avoid onions whenever possible. I'll tell you what the original recipe said and you can decide, but my way was really good.

Ingredients:
1 T. olive oil
1 stalk celery chopped (not in Ina's recipe)
1 yellow pepper chopped (not in Ina's recipe)
Ina used 3 cups of chopped yellow onions instead of the celery and pepper...that's a lot of onion.
1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 T. Worcestershire sauce (Ina used 3)
1/3 cup canned chicken broth
1 T. tomato paste
2 1/2 pounds ground chuck
2 slices whole wheat bread baked in the oven until crisp, crumbled (Ina used Progresso dry bread crumbs)
2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup ketchup

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a sauce pan cook the celery, pepper, thyme, salt and pepper (or onion if you prefer) in the olive oil until tender (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat and add Worcestershire sauce, chicken broth and tomato paste. Set aside. In large bowl, combine ground chuck, bread crumbs, eggs and slightly cooled celery/pepper mixture and mix until blended. You can use a fork or clean hands.

Divide the mixture into 6 or 8 small loaves on a sheet pan. Drizzle with ketchup and bake 40 to 45 minutes. I baked ours a little longer because we like our meat really done.

I served them with homemade mashed potatoes (no, I don't peel them) and brocoli slaw. I know they aren't "company" perfect looking. They got a little brown around the edges, but we liked that part. The chicken broth adds extra moisture without changing the flavor. I'll be making these again.

Please visit our hostess Michael at Designs by Gollum for Foodie Friday. You will find some of the best recipes in all of Blogland!

Finding New "Must Haves" From Other Bloggers

     Don't stop reading! Isn't that just the worst name for something that tastes good? A few weeks ago, I was reading a blog post from one of my favorite bloggers, Torie Jayne. Torie is from London and is a designer. Her blog is beautiful and she shares everything from furniture to craft projects, all in amazing color palettes.

Torie posted a recipe for this gorgeous butterfly cheesecake and the crust used Digestive Biscuits. Well, I immediately asked her what she meant...and I was intrigued enough by her response to dig a bit deeper.

A digestive biscuit, sometimes referred to as a sweetmeal biscuit, is a semi-sweet biscuit popular in the United Kingdom and in other Commonwealth countries, as well as in Ireland and in Greece. The term 'digestive' is derived from the belief that they had antacid properties due to the use of sodium bicarbonate when they were first developed. (from Wiki)

     Years ago, I was able to buy a Tea Biscuit from Carr's, that is no longer available. I loved them and this sounded somewhat similar...so, I started my search. I discovered that there are several sources in the States for British products. I also learned that McVitie's Digestives are the original and I decided I would try those. I checked various websites and found that my best deal was ordering them from Amazon where I bought 7 packages for $28 and got free shipping. I did put a link to them on my sidebar. I see they have lowered the price since I bought mine last week!

     They are a little bit like a graham cracker, only more fragile. They crumble so easily, but even the crumbs would be good for crusts, or sprinkled on puddings etc. They are slightly sweet and perfect for a treat with tea or coffee. They would even be good for an easy breakfast. The nutrition label is different than I'm used to, but I think it says that they have 70 calories, 3.1g of fat and .5g of fiber per biscuit.

     Thanks to Torie, I have a new treat on my "Worth it" list of favorites. Have you found anything wonderful through another blogger? If so, why don't you share it with us in the comments!

I'll share a few more beautiful photos from Torie Jayne.

Don't you love her color palette for Halloween?

Torie's sweet colors for Christmas.

A Family Favorite-Old Fashioned Corn Pudding (Easy)

I have had this recipe since I was first married. It is one of those easy "go to" recipes that goes well with anything. It has the texture of a custard, is slightly sweet and is best served the day you make it. You can reheat it and it will still taste good, but it isn't pretty!

Ingredients:
3 eggs beaten (I use a whisk or a fork)
1/4 cup sugar
1 T. flour
1 cup milk (I use skim)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 can cream style corn
4 T. butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter in a baking dish (9x9, round or fluted) while mixing remaining ingredients. Add flour to sugar and whisk into eggs. Add milk, salt and cream corn and stir. Pour melted butter into corn mixture, leaving just enough in the pan to grease it. Stir. Bake 50 to 60 minutes until mixture is set and top is browned.

Beating the eggs

All the ingredients in greased pan

Ready to serve. This dish is best served on the table in the dish you bake it in, particularly if you are having guests. It isn't all that pretty on the plate, and can get a little bit watery as it sits.

With glazed pork chops and spinach salad