basic quiche

I love a quiche.  This simple recipe is super easy and allows for tons of variation.  Makes a great, breakfast, brunch, lunch, well you get the point. 

You'll need:

1 pre-made pie crust or homemade pie crust if that is the way you roll
4 eggs
1 cup half and half
salt
pepper
garlic powder  ( I just randomly shake in all three without measuring)
roughly 3 cups of filling but two cups works fine too. For my St. Patty's green quiche I used:
1 cup frozen broccoli cooked and finely chopped
1 cup frozen spinach cooked and finely chopped
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

Lay your pie crust in pie plate or if you are like me and forgot you broke yours you can use a 9" round cake pan.  Crimp the edges and get the oven preheated to 425 degrees.  There is no need to pre bake your shell.  I never do and it turns out fine.  Beat your eggs and half and half together with a whisk.  Add seasoning.  Some people like nutmeg or a little cayenne.  Get creative but you can't go wrong with salt, pepper and garlic.  Place your fillings in the pie shell and pour the egg and cream mixture over the top.

Bake in 425 oven for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350 and continue baking for 25 minutes until crust is golden and filling is set.

That is it!  So easy and really delicious.  I've done ham, cheese and broccoli, bacon cheese and tomato, just cheese and broccoli with chives.  A smoked salmon one would be really good.  You could probably do a good southwestern turkey one, with tomato and pepper jack cheese and shredded turkey.  The possibilities are endless.

my green quiche

My little guy and I got in the car earlier to run an errand and one of my favorite songs from when I was 13 was on.  Smashing Pumpkin's "Soma".  I probably listened to that song 25 times a day.  I turned it up as loud as seemed appropriate for a 2 1/2 year old's ears and I dare say he was enjoying it as much as me.  I can only imagine when he is 15 and I turn that song up really loud again and try to convince him it is awesome he will roll his eyes and find me lame.  For now Mama's taste in music seems to go over pretty well and my little pal got a rainbow sprinkle cookie from the bakery for his music appreciation. 

Happy Wednesday!

The shady porch
Uncommon Designs
At The Picket Fence

chicken pesto pizza

Once upon a time I was afraid of yeast.  Seriously.  Anything calling for yeast I automatically thought "nope" and moved on.  It just seemed like maybe it was too complicated.  When I had my bread lesson my fear of yeast began to subside.  This is a wonderful thing because it opens up a world of yumminess like homemade pizza dough!

I don't know about you but I mostly cook recipes I've made a thousand times, recipes I make up, recipes I find in a cookbook, online or a magazine but I omit 5 ingredients and add another 3 that I have instead.  I'm not really a by the book kinda cook.  I decided that chicken pesto pizza sounded good.  Why?  Well we like pizza and chicken and pesto so there you go.  I feel like maybe I've had it before and I could figure out the rest.  So I started looking for a simple pizza dough recipe for the base of our pizza and I found this one from smitten kitchen

Really Simple Pizza Dough
Makes enough for one small, thin crust pizza. Double it if you like your pizza thick and bready.

1 1/2 cups flour (can replace up to half of this with whole wheat flour which I did!)
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water (may need up to 1 or 2 tablespoons more)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Stir dry ingredients, including yeast, in a large bowl.

Add water and olive oil, stirring mixture into as close to a ball as you can.

Dump all clumps and floury bits onto a lightly floured surface and knead everything into a homogeneous ball.

Knead it for just a minute or two. Lightly oil the bowl (a spritz of cooking spray perfectly does the trick) where you had mixed it — one-bowl recipe! — dump the dough in, turn it over so all sides are coated, cover it in plastic wrap and leave it undisturbed for an hour or two.

Once it has doubled in size dump it back on the floured counter and gently press the air out of the dough with the palm of your hands.

Fold the piece into an approximate ball shape, and let it sit under that plastic wrap for 20 more minutes.

Sprinkle a pizza stone or baking sheet with cornmeal and preheat your oven to its top temperature.   We don't have a pizza stone so I went with a baking sheet and heated the oven to 425.  I spread my dough into an irregular rectangularish shape. 

Now it was time to top the dough with goodies.

 I spread some store bought pesto over the top in place of crust.  I chopped about a 1 lb of chicken tenders into small chunks and sauteed in a pan with a little oil.  I put about 2-3 tablespoons of pesto in the pan with the chicken and sauteed until they were cooked through.

I realized I didn't have mozzarella cheese but did indeed have string cheese.  So, I chopped up three string cheese sticks to sprinkle over the top.  I added some spoonfuls of ricotta cheese because I love cheese, probably about a 1/4 cup or so but just do it to taste.   Then I sprinkled romano over the top because again I love cheese.  What other reason do I need?

In the oven it went for ten minutes.

Yum

At The picket Fence
It's Overflowing
Boogie Board Cottage
Between Naps on the Porch
Our delighful home

bread with friends

Two lovely bloggers have kindly passed along the Liebster award to me.




Lindsey at Todd & Lindsey.  She shares lots of excellent recipes and projects.  Just look at what she did with this dresser!







and Nancy of  Life Designed.  She is studying interior design and does some seriously inspiring work.  Since we've got a dresser theme going look at this lovely ikea rast makeover





Wow, right?!  Thanks so much ladies!  Nothing makes me happier than to know people are visiting my blog and liking what they see.   I do what I do because I enjoy it and I'd be doing all this stuff anyway but lets be honest, we blog so we can share and connect.  So, it feels good to have a little love sent my way!  I've received the Liebster once before so I'm not sure if it's custom to pass it along to 5 other bloggers again but I wanted to say thanks and give a shout out to Nancy and Lindsey.  Please pay them a visit, say hi and follow along!

If they lived down the street I'd bring them each a loaf of this

My wonderful friend who also happens to be a wonderful baker taught me two bread recipes this week.

Here is the first:

2 1/4 cups water at 110-120 degrees
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup oil
6 cups flour
4 1/2 tsp yeast (instant)
1 T salt

Here is the second:

2 cups milk at 110-120 degrees
2 T sugar
1/2 cup butter melted
5-6 cups of flour
4 1/2 tsp yeast (instant)
1T salt.

We used unbleached all purpose flour.  The directions for both are the same and I apologize for not having more pictures but I was trying to watch and learn and the best way for me to do that is to just do rather than take notes and pictures.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.  Stir until blended, a dough scraper will help with this.  Once the dough is coming together transfer to a floured surface and start kneading.  My friend did a fold, rotate and push with the heels of your hands motion that I sorta got the hang of.  It is so much by feel and she said however it happens doesn't matter, just as long as it happens.  That is my favorite sort of directions!  So you knead until the dough feels more uniform and a bit sticky

Now its time for it to rise.  Spray a bowl with non-stick cooking spray and place the dough in the bowl.  Cover loosely with some plastic wrap sprayed with non-stick spray and leave it in a warm quiet place for an hour.  It will roughly double in size in that time.

This recipe makes two loaves so remove the dough from the bowl and cut in half.  To make a regular loaf spread it out into a rectangular shape and then roll it up.  Pinch the seam, place in a sprayed loaf pan and mash it down with your hands.  Cover loosely with the same plastic wrap and leave it to rise for another hour or until it has risen up just above the rim of the bread pan like this.

To braid a loaf you take the dough after the first rise and cut into three equal lengths.  Then you braid like you are braiding your hair, tuck the ends under and leave to rise for an hour covered with plastic wrap. 

They bake in a 350 degree oven.  The loaf takes about 40 minutes but keep an eye on it depending on your oven.  The braid takes about 20 minutes.  The most helpful thing I learned is to take the temp with a meat thermometer.  The loaf should reach an internal temp of 190 degrees so when you are there you are done! 

Bread making intimidated me.  I apologize if this isn't the best step by step directions you ever read.  As I bake more and fine tune the process I will share more.  I see now how like many things it is a practice you must get the feel of and that takes repeating.  I'm happy to eat more bread so I'll be repeating often.  I've gotta say it isn't so scarey though.  Much more forgiving than I thought which pleases me to no end and seriously is there anything better than warm bread and butter?

after the first rise when you poke the dough the indents should remain

So, bake some bread.  Do it with a friend.  It's fun to chat and knead. 

Hey, I'd love it if you'd follow me with linky followers or GFC!