Spinach Quiche

I made this for my friend's baby shower this morning, and it turned out great! I was a little skeptical because I had never used feta in a quiche before, or spinach even, but it was SO yummy! I had to hurry and grab the last piece before it all got eaten up! I used Martha Stewart's recipe, but made some changes.

Makes 2 quiches

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter (I used olive oil)
• 3 shallots, minced (I used 1 yellow onion)
• 3 bunches flat-leaf spinach, thick stems removed and leaves roughly chopped
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 8 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (about 2 cups) (My grocery store didn't have gruyere, so I used crumbled feta)
• 1 recipe Basic Pie Dough, fitted into two 9-inch pie plates ( I was lazy and used the frozen ones!)
• 8 large eggs
• 3 cups half-and-half
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg (Didn't have this, still turned out great)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks set in upper and lower thirds. In a large skillet, heat butter over medium. Add shallots, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Add as much spinach to skillet as will fit; season with salt and pepper, and toss, adding more spinach as room becomes available, until wilted, 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Transfer spinach mixture to a colander. Press firmly with the back of a spoon to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Divide spinach mixture and cheese between prepared crusts. Place each crust on a separate rimmed baking sheet.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, half-and-half, nutmeg, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Dividing evenly, pour egg mixture into crusts.
4. Arrange baking sheets on racks, and bake until center of each quiche is just set, 55 to 60 minutes, rotating sheets from top to bottom halfway through. Let quiches stand 15 minutes before serving.

Cookie Dough Pops

I wanted to eat cookie dough today and not cookies, so I found this recipe. Perfect. In the end I felt just as sick as I thought I would be. Gross. Never again. In case anybody else wants to never eat cookie dough again make these. They are so good, you will eat way to many - making yourself sick, and never wanting cookie dough again. Problem solved, or something like that.

- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (mini would have worked better, but who has those hanging around)
- Melting chocolate. I used the kind from Michaels.
- Lollipop sticks

1. In a medium bowl combine the flour, and salt.

2. In a second larger bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract until creamy.

3. Slowly beat in the flour mixture until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Roll the mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet lined with wax paper (Should make approximately 20).

5. Put the sticks in the dough. To make sure the lollipop stick stays in place, I melt a handful of chocolate chips and dip the stick in them then press it into the cookie dough.

6.  Chill for several hours or freeze for 15-20 minutes until firm

7. Melt chocolate and dip! I dipped just once and the dribbled some melted butterscotch chips on top.

I am really embarrassed of my after picture, for one they look horrible. Two, I grabbed the camera and snapped  in  a rush, hoping I got a picture and this is the best I got. Opps.

Spicy Whiskey BBQ Sliders

I have made these a couple times now and I am already craving them. I made them the first time for my hubby, his dad and brother and they were a HUGE hit. They pretty much licked the pan clean. They have an awesome taste and for a "man" meal my mother in law and I really enjoyed them too.

I took this directly from the Pioneer Womens website, and you should really go take a look because she has really great pictures. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/12/spicy-whiskey-bbq-sliders/

Spicy Whiskey BBQ Sliders:

IngredientsPreparation Instructions

• 2 pounds Ground Meat (beef, Bison, Turkey)
• Salt And Pepper
• 4 Tablespoons Butter
• 1 whole Large Onion, Diced
• 1/2 cup Whiskey
• 1 cup Barbecue Sauce
• 1/4 cup Jarred Jalapeno Slices (more To Taste)
• 12 whole Slider Buns Or Dinner Rolls, Split

Form the meat into 12 (or so) miniature patties and salt and pepper them on both sides. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat and cook the patties until just about done in the middle, approximately 3-4 minutes per side. Remove the patties from the skillet and set aside. Drain off all but 2 tablespoons of grease, then return the skillet to the stove.

Throw the diced onions in the skillet and stir to cook, about 3 minutes. Pour in whiskey (be careful if you're cooking over an open flame; turn it off momentarily to be extra careful) and stir. Allow the whiskey to reduce by half, about 2 to 3 minutes, then stir in jalapenos and the barbecue sauce.

Reduce the heat to low and place the patties in the barbecue sauce, turning to coat. Allow the patties to simmer in the sauce until everything's hot and bubbly.

Place the patties on individual buns and be sure to spoon extra sauce (with the jalapenos!) over the top of each one before topping with the other half of the bun.

** Ok and it does say spicy, but for my kids I just took the jalapenos off and it was just fine for them. Plus the whiskey made them sleep like champs that night. hahaha just kiddin

puffed pancake

(image via)

I've been seeing these around pinterest and blogs lately and so i decided to try it! and I am SO glad I did! It is so yummy, and SO easy!

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
dash of salt
dash of cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

-preheat oven to 425 degrees
-put butter in pie pan and stick it in the oven to melt the butter and heat the pan*
-whisk together the rest of the ingredients and pour into the hot pan
-cook for about 10 minutes, until it is firm and puffed around the edges

serve right away with fruit and powdered sugar or maple syrup!

you can also add the fruit in before you bake the pancake if thats what you like (and I do). I put some fresh blueberries in, and it was delicious! However, the pancake will not puff as dramatically if you put the fruit in before cooking.

*before pouring the batter in the pan, coat the bottom and sides with the melted butter so the pancake doesn't stick!

slackers

GIRLS, what the ??? I have been too lazy to take pictures of my food, but I have been cooking a ton lately. I will try to be better. AND I started a new blog, come follow it:

http://www.courtneysland.blogspot.com/

Also, Cassidy: what the heck are you doing in this picture?

Cap'n Crunch Berries Treats

+

+ a stick of butter = 

so good.

christmas treats

I made a couple things for Scarlett's preschool class and they were a hit. First I made this oreo snowmen........
This is how I did it:

- 1 pack double stuffed oreos
- white chocolate to melt. I used the big bricks from Ralphs and it worked perfect and was SO yummy
- mini chocolate chips
- candy corn

1. Dip the oreos in the white chocolate and sit on wax paper to dry
2. Before they get too hard, make the face on the snowman.
3. After they were hard I put them in these cute little bags from Michael's that already had ribbon attached to them so it was super easy. I'm all about super easy, which is why I didn't put them on sticks. (and maybe a little lazy, but whatever.) I also added an address label on the back that said Merry Christmas Love, Scarlett. She was so excited to hand them out to her friends.

We also made these cute little peanut butter sandwiches, which are pretty self explanatory. I used cranberries for the nose because I forgot to get M&Ms. I also used honey to put the eyes and nose on to make sure they stayed in place.

sorry for the fuzziness...I was in a rush