St. Patrick's Day Table 2016

It's almost time for the wearin' of the green -- are you ready?  :-D  It's St. Patrick's Eve, and I've set an Irish-themed table so I can participate in Kathleen's Annual St. Paddy's Day Blog Crawl.  If you'd like to join in the fun, head over to Cuisine Kathleen's blog and prepare to be Irish for the evening.

Easy Cherry Cobbler

If you read my post from yesterday, you saw that we were having chili for dinner last night.  I was extra hungry, and it tasted good to me.  However, the plans changed a little bit late in the afternoon.  I had planned to have cornbread with our chili, since that's what we usually do.  But I talked to Mr. Forest Manor on the phone before he left work, and we both decided we wanted fruit cobbler for dessert.  I felt that would be too much with cornbread, so we just had tortilla chips with our chili in order to save room for dessert.  Priorities, priorities.  ;)

Lemon-Poppy Seed Scones

Last week, I celebrated another birthday.  What a fast year this has been!  I went to dinner at a favorite restaurant with my husband and son and had a wonderful meal.  The next day, I had lunch with my parents in their sun room and afterwards made scones with my mom.

Thanksgiving Tables And A Favorite Recipe

How was your Thanksgiving?  I hope you all had a nice one.  We had such a nice day and such good food; we are truly blessed.

Since the first year we were married, my husband and I have rotated Thanksgiving between our parents' homes.  This year, it was our turn to eat at my in-laws' house.  I'm sharing some pictures of my mother-in-law's tables; they just looked so pretty.  We were supposed to be 13 people in all, but my husband's grandmother and great-aunt were not able to be there due to sickness.  We missed them, and I'm sorry they missed out on such a delicious meal.

Quiche Recipe

Earlier this week, I set a French Provençal table for Cuisine Kathleen's Destination Table Challenge.  You can see more pictures of the table in that post Here.

 I wrote that, in keeping with the French theme, we had quiche for dinner.

It was a traditional Quiche Lorraine, which my husband and I love with a salad and good, crusty French bread.   Most of you who cook at all probably have a recipe for Quiche Lorraine tucked into your recipe files.  But just in case you don't, I thought I would share our recipe with you.  Some years ago, I found a bit of interesting history about this quiche in my cookbook, "The Frugal Gourmet."  You may remember him from old episodes on PBS and possibly Food Network.

The Frugal Gourmet (Jeff Smith) writes that the "egg pie" called a quiche is French.  It actually comes from northeastern France in an area known as Alsace-Lorraine near the border with Germany, and once a part of the German Empire.  The old classic, quiche Lorraine, is simply a bacon and egg pie.  Often onions are included.  According to Mr. Smith, "...the Germans have eaten egg and onion pies for years."  Wikipedia says the French word quiche is derived from the German word kuchen.  "Lorraine" indicates the region associated with the traditional Quiche Lorraine.

The recipe that I use came from my mom.  The card, written in her hand, has been in my recipe box most of our married life.

Here's the typewritten version, as this handwritten copy might be hard to read. 

• One 9" pie crust (I used Pillsbury dairy crust)
• 12 slices bacon, crisply fried and crumbled (I only use nine or ten slices)
• 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese (about 4 oz.)
• 1/3 cup minced onion
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 3/4 teas. salt (I only use 1/4 teas.)
• 1/4 teas. sugar
• 1/8 teas. pepper

*One hint that I use from "The Frugal Gourmet" cookbook is to precook the pastry crust before adding the fillings to prevent a soggy crust.  Also, you may want to lightly sauté your onions before adding them to the pastry.    

Heat oven to 425°.  Prepare pastry.  Sprinkle bacon, cheese, and onion in precooked pastry.  Beat eggs slightly and blend in remaining ingredients.  Pour mixture into pie pan.  Bake 15 minutes; then reduce temperature to 350° degrees and bake 30 minutes longer or until knife inserted one inch from edge comes out clean.  Let pie stand ten minutes before serving.

I have to confess that I've never met a pie I didn't like, be it sweet or savory.  :)  This recipe makes for a fairly simple and inexpensive meal, and sometimes I find that those kind are the best.  We think this smells wonderful when it's baking, and it re-heats so well in our counter top oven (not in the microwave).

**Note:  I only use 1/4 teas. of salt, rather than the 3/4 teas. that the recipe calls for.  I feel like the bacon and cheese have enough salt already, and when I used to add the full amount, the quiche tasted too salty.  Also, I'm thinking of using Gruyère Cheese next time instead of Swiss; it's similar to Swiss, but tastier in my opinion.

If you've never made Quiche Lorraine before, I hope you'll try this recipe.  And as always, thank you for visiting my blog and for your kind comments.  I'm linking to Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm,  Seasonal Sundays, hosted by The Tablescaper, and On The Menu Monday, hosted by Yvonne at Stone Gable.

Au Revoir,

Denise 

Summer Celebrations and a Pasta Salad Recipe

Even though it was over a week ago, I hope you all had a great Fourth of July holiday.  Mr. Forest Manor was home Wednesday through Sunday, and I just couldn't seem to get any blogging done, so I'm sharing some of our celebration pictures a little late.

We went to my in-laws' house on the Fourth for an evening cookout.

While we celebrated our nation's birthday, we also celebrated the birthdays of three family members.  Three generations of birthdays were represented by three sets of candles (on a homemade cake with caramel icing) -- ages 65, 72 and 82.

Even though it was boiling hot, we still had a good time.  We enjoyed hamburgers and hot dogs cooked on the grill, baked beans, coleslaw, pasta salad, fresh cantaloupe, and cake and homemade ice cream.

I love this picture of our son; he really enjoyed talking to my mother-in-law's cousin, who just turned 82 years young.

My mother-in law.

My father-in-law and my husband's younger brother.

On Sunday, July 8th, we went to my parents' house for another cookout to celebrate my dad's birthday, which was July 3rd.

 We had more good hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, oriental coleslaw, and baked beans.  For dessert --  peach ice cream and chocolate ice cream, both homemade.  My mom was the chief ice cream maker.  :)

My sister and my cute niece.

Gracie, the yellow lab.

I love my parents' screened porch.  What's that you ask?  Where are all the people?  They're inside where it's cooler.  The temperature reached 100 degrees in our town that day.

I made a pasta salad for the Fourth of July celebration.  I've been making it for years, and it's always a hit when I take it to summer cookouts.  Here's the recipe if you'd like to try it.  It's so easy, and it looks pretty and tastes good.

- 16 oz. box of Mueller's tri-color Rotini (or other tri-color spiral pasta)

- 8 oz. bottle of Kraft Zesty Italian dressing

- Peeled and chopped fresh garden tomato (I used one large German Johnson tomato)

- Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

After you boil and drain the pasta, you should chill it for a few hours or overnight before adding the dressing; that way the dressing will blend better with the pasta.  Then add tomatoes and cheese and that's it.  This pasta salad is an easy dish to prepare during the hot days of summer and will keep well in your refrigerator for several days.

 

What are your plans for the coming weekend?  Thank you so much for visiting my blog and for taking time to leave a comment.  I'm joining the folks at Foodie Fridays at Rattlebridge Farm, The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays, and Sunny Simple Sundays, hosted by Elaine.  Hope to see you there!

Denise