Can you hear the birds chirping? And smell the wildflowers in bloom? The pitter-patter of raindrops on the roof? Ahhhh…SPRING!!!! Everything old is new again.
How about having all your gal-pals over for a quick, impromptu lunch, easily prepared on a Sunday afternoon, and served on a manic Monday!!! Do you work outside the home? Text your closest circle of co-workers on Sunday night and tell them not to bring in lunch for themselves, because you’ve got a little surprise for them. Then carry in this little luncheon for your super spoiled little crowd.
QUICHE
I used Pioneer Woman’s Cowboy Quiche recipe, from her cookbook, Food From My Frontier (one of my absolute FAVS), I cheated though and used a store-bought deep-dish pie crust, two in fact. And, I did it myyyyy waaay, with a couple of special touches (to make it a little more girly without being PW’s “Cowgirl Quiche,” because I didn’t have those ingredients on hand). Here’s how I did mine:
Ingredients
- 2 whole Unbaked Pie Crusts (from the freezer section, thawed and poked)
- 1 lb. Bacon, fried until crispy
- 2 Tablespoons Bacon fat (left over from frying the bacon)
- 1 whole red Onion, Sliced
- 8 spears of fresh, raw asparagus (I have it growing in my garden, lucky me)
- 1 cup of diced smoked sausage (I like the spicy jalapeno variety)
- 8 whole Large Eggs
- 1-1/2 cup Heavy Cream Or Half-and-Half
- Salt And Pepper, to taste
- 2 cups Grated Colby-Jack Cheese
Let’s Make it…
Fry the bacon until crisp. Chop into little bite-sized pieces and set aside to cool.
Fry the onions in the bacon fat in a large skillet over medium-low heat for about 10 to 15 minutes (until translucent), stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Fix the edges of your pie crusts, if you want them to look a little less store-bought, and then poke them with a fork around the bottom in a few places. Sprinkle the crumbled bacon, chopped smoked sausage, onion, and raw asparagus around in your pie crusts, of course dividing evenly between the two pies. Cover both with cheese.
Whip the eggs, cream, salt and pepper in a large bowl, and then pour the mixture into the pie crusts. Use a fork to pull the contents around a little and make sure the egg mixture seeps down into it all really good.
Place the pies on a rimmed baking sheet, cover lightly with aluminum foil, and bake for about 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the quiche doesn’t jiggle easily when moved and the crust is golden brown. (The quiche will still seem slightly loose, but will continue to set once remove from the oven.)
Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Cut into slices with a sharp knife, and serve!
You might like to top yours with a little dallop of sour cream, maybe a spoonful of pico de gallo, or torn cilantro leaves. Maybe a drizzle of Shiracha? Or just naked!
.
.
FLATBREAD PIZZAS
< < < I got the idea for these when I saw this photo on 
Pinterest, and then made it a reality when I found these flatbreads at my local HEB > > >
I purchased several packages of the flatbreads (and have them in the freezer, because the lady at the deli counter said our store is discontinuing them. Bummer!!!! Why do they do that just when I find something that I like??? Husband even liked. Ugh!!!)
Anyway, I took the thawed flatbread and drizzled it with olive oil on both sides, then grilled it for a few minutes on each side on a hot, preheated grill, which gave the bread the nice grill marks and made it really soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. I cut each flatbread into thirds and placed on a platter for my guests.
I purchased a tub of Veggie Cream Cheese and a tub of Chive Cream cheese to spread on the warm bread.
And then I had several veggies chopped up for toppings:
Sliced Radishes
Sliced Cherry Tomatoes
Sliced Red Bell Pepper
Sliced Cucumber
Sliced Red Onion
Baby Arugula, Kale, and Spinach mix
Marinated Artichoke Hearts
Olive Salad
Black Olives
And an eater’s choice of seasonings:
Fresh ground Salt & Pepper
Pizza Seasoning
Pesto
Olive Oil
Basalmic Vinegar
I got’ta tell you, these are just darn good pizzas. Even hubbie liked them, like a LOT!!!! Even said I knocked dinner out’ta the park, and that I was back on my game. Which made me blush a little. And now I really want to impress him more!!! Fresh, crunchy, delish!!!!
.
FRUITY LEMONADE
2 or 3 cans of frozen concentrate Lemonade (I like the kind with pulp, pink or regular)
Assorted Fruits:
Lemons
Oranges
Cherries
Watermelon
Strawberries
Blackberries
Limes
Pineapple
Melon
Kiwi
Prepare a large pitcher with lemonade, following package instructions. Fill large glasses with ice and set out a platter of cut-up fruits. Let your guests pile whatever fruits they want on top of their ice, and then fill the glasses with lemonade. When they are done sipping, they’ll have a nice fruit salad to eat!
.
And for dessert…..
FLOWERPOT CUPCAKES
I found these adorable, tough, reusable, silicone flower pots online, and once they arrived (and I washed and dried them), I used a boxed muffin mix to fill them, and then a canned frosting to frost them. Who says cheaters never prosper? Lol!
I should have purchased the chocolate rocks when I saw them at Amazon too, because there were none to be found in my little town (I’d insert a little sad face here except I don’t have the cute little emoticon stickers on my computer. I guess I can always paste something from Google…….like this……which actually, surprisingly gives me a tiny bit of satisfaction).
At least we have a Wal-mart, and at least our Wal-mart has a cake isle in the hobbies section with a few choices.
And I found Chocolate mushrooms at FIVE BELOW:
And I had an abundance of MINT growing in my garden!!!! So, I did the Martha Stewart thing! Which was to poke a sprig of mint into each little cupcake after they were all decorated with the other stuff.
After frosting each cupcake, I sprinkled them with crushed Oreos (I whirled a handful of the cookies in my food processor until they turned into dirt), and tinted coconut flakes. I really could have done a better job with the tinting! Made it more green. I’m a dork!
Just look at these chocolate rocks! Gosh, they would have just been sooooo cute to put on top of the oreo dirt! (I’m still sore about it!)
Oh well, “Be content with such things as you have!” Nobody likes a whiner.
(((UPDATE: I found chocolate rocks at Cracker Barrel!!! $2.99 for a 3 oz. tube!!!! And I also found these cute cute cute Gummy Lightning Bugs!!!! Gosh, now I want to toally remake my cupcakes!!!)))
This is what mine looked like….before I poked in my mint leaves!
.
After my little luncheon that I hosted I thought of another way to make flowerpot cupcakes that you may like better…
.
You can use real terra cotta pots for the trifles, which come in larger-than-cupcake sizes. And since the cake is not being baked in the terra cotta you won’t have to worry about dyes or other toxic elements leaching into your batter in the oven. I soaked my pots in the sink to get the price stickers off, then I put my pots in the dishwasher and ran them through a full sterilizing wash cycle. When they were done I put them in the oven on warm (170*F) to dry them out completely before using.
You can also decorate your pots all pretty before filling them with the trifle ingredients – just something simple that wouldn’t compete with the cuteness of the cakes themselves. Something like this, I was thinking..
Aaaaand…. if you’re feeling especially ambitious, as I was, you can make some cute little flower pot pens to give as gifts for your gal-pals desks, or home offices. Or, even better, let your gal-pals make their own… after lunch. OOOO fun…cRaFt PaRtY!!!!!! 🙂
I found all the stuff for mine at Wal-mart (because seriously, that’s all we have), and when I got my little pots home I soaked them in hot sudsy water to help get the price stickers off. I filled them with aquarium rocks. Then I took a spring assortment of flower bouquets that I found in the floral section, cut them apart, and used floral tape to attach them to my pens. I even found colored ink pens (Bic Cristal).
If you’d like, you can even have a nice little devotion while your eating your lunch!!! Check out this one that I thought was really sweet:
(NOTE: Bible Seeds devotional is now out-of-print, but you can find used copies online.)
“Oh taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusts in Him.”
Psalm 34:8
mrshlovesjesus 