Category Archives: Appetizers

HAM AND CHEESE QUICHE

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Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great . . .

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big scary ski mask?

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What do you call a mischievous egg?

A practical yolker!

I found these hilarious egg cups on ebay.  I don’t know which is scarier — the ski masks for soft-boiled eggs, or the fact that someone actually made ski masks for soft-boiled eggs.  I’m pretty sure the day my husband comes home and finds me knitting ski caps for eggs is the day I get to start using my maiden name again.

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I can hardly wait to surprise the kids with these at breakfast on Easter morning.  It’ll give them something to share with their therapist some day.

Looking around the interwebs, I was surprised to find a lot of off-color versions of the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme.  Today, however, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men are going to enjoy Ham and Cheese Quiche, inspired by these weird little eggheads.  This quiche is one of my son’s favorite dishes, and I’ve sent it along with many compassion meals.  Quiche is awesome — it’s breakfast, lunch, dinner, appetizer, a car, whatever you want it to be.  It’s simple as pie to make, and comes out great every time.  There are a gazillion versions of the basic recipe out there, but the proportion of eggs, lowfat milk, and half and half in this one results in a fluffy quiche that we like.  You can make your own crust, if you prefer, but like my friend once told me when I suggested she could make her own baby food, “Yeah, I could wash cloth diapers too, but that’s not gonna happen.”

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HAM AND CHEESE QUICHE
Author: 
Recipe type: Appetizer, Main Course
 
Ingredients
  • 1 refrigerated pie crust, thawed
  • 4 ounces smoked ham, chopped
  • 2 cups (8 ounces) grated Swiss cheese, divided use
  • 6 large eggs
  • ½ cup half and half
  • ½ cup lowfat milk
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ⅛ teaspoon cayenne
  • ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Fit pie crust into a 9" deep dish pie plate. Fold edges under, and crimp decoratively. Bake for 7 minutes, then remove from oven and set aside. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.
  2. Sprinkle ham and 1 cup cheese into prepared crust. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, half and half, milk, salt, cayenne, pepper, and nutmeg. Pour mixture into crust and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake until quiche is set, approximately 35 to 40 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

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Off to a great start

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 Ready for the oven

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 Real men DO eat quiche — trust me!

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 Quiche me, quick!

ACORNS FALLING AND HALLOWEEN’S COMING

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Acorns are everywhere this year!  They’re covering the sidewalks, bouncing off my car, and hitting me on the head.  According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, the area’s oak trees are dropping acorns at a rate that is 5 to 10 times the normal rate.  This abundance of acorns happens every decade or so and is known as a “mast” year.  Although no one is exactly sure why it happens, scientists think that this year’s bumper crop is likely related to last year’s drought — the trees are trying to perpetuate their species by expending energy producing seed.

Oak tree branch heavy with acorns 

 Acorns everywhere 

My son’s birthday was yesterday, and although sending a birthday snack to school is getting kind of old for him now that he is a teenager, I am not quite ready to give it up.  Having acorns on the brain, I decorated sugar cookies to look like acorns and dropped them off at school.  The kids will probably think I’m nuts.  😉

 Acorn cookies 

And speaking of things in trees, I noticed that the neighborhood is looking very festive for Halloween this year.  There are great big hairy spiders hanging from trees:

And cute little ghost families:

And this traffic-stopping display of hanging pumpkin buckets (seriously — it even made the front page of the newspaper):

In the Halloween spirit, I made a favorite appetizer for a party last week.  I call it Severed Hand Raspberry Chipotle Cream Cheese Dip, and you kind of have to have a sense of humor to serve it and to eat it.  I am particularly fond of this recipe because I won $500 for it from Better Recipes.  I didn’t have a lot of time to sculpt the hand, and several people thought it looked more like an animal claw, but like I said, you have to have a sense of humor.

Preparing the severed hand

Don’t be afraid

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SEVERED HAND RASPBERRY CHIPOTLE CREAM CHEESE DIP
Author: 
Recipe type: Halloween
 
Ingredients
  • 8-ounce package cream cheese
  • 5 smoked almonds
  • 1 cup Fischer & Wieser Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce*
  • Wheat Thins or favorite cracker
  • *If you prefer, you can make your own raspberry chipotle sauce by mixing together ½ cup raspberry preserves, 2-1/2 teaspoons raspberry vinegar, and 2-1/2 teaspoons adobo sauce (from can of chipotle chiles).
Instructions
  1. Place cream cheese in center of serving platter. Using a sharp knife, cut 4 lengthwise slits in cream cheese, equally spaced, approximately halfway down the block of cream cheese, cutting all the way through the block of cream cheese.
  2. Using your hands, shape five "fingers" from the cut sections of the cream cheese. Round off opposite end of block of cream cheese to resemble palm. Place smoked almonds at the tip of each finger to resemble fingernails. Pour raspberry chipotle sauce over palm end of cream cheese. Serve with crackers.