Tasty Thursday: Sausage Quiche

I love quiche.  It's one of the easiest breakfast items to make but can really look much fancier than it is.  Plus you can make it ahead of time for parties, pop it in the oven and focus on entertaining instead of cooking.  To make things even faster, use the pre-made pie crust from the store.

Ingredients

1 9inch pie crust

1/2 pound sausage, browned & drained

1/2 cup finely diced onion

3 eggs

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese  

Start by preheating your oven to 375.  Lay your pie crush in a 9inch pie dish.  Pop into oven as the oven preheats and you mix up the rest of the ingredients.   Combine browned and drained sausage with onion, cheese, and flour.  Pour into pie shell.  In a separate bowl, beat milk and eggs together and then pour over sausage mixture.  Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until eggs have set.

- stephanie

PS.  Don't forget to enter to win the $50 Matilda Jane credit here.

Baking with Addie

Addie is slowly approaching the age where she's using her imagination.  She likes to play with her tea set and feed her babies and it's so neat to see her brain working.  One day she doesn't understand and is really frustrated and the next it just works for her.  She's also excited about small chores, feed the dog, throw something in the trash, help in the kitchen.  I thought Addie was still a little young for any Christmas cookies this year and I still think there are a few things she's not ready for (ie, icing Christmas cookies can wait until next year) but when I started pulling out ingredients for my favorite Christmas cookies, Addie pushed a chair over to help out.

So I told her to climb up on the chair and put on her apron to keep her clothes free of flour.

I couldn't not let her help out, though she did slow me down a bit.  She was so excited to pour in the flour or help mix up the batter.

I even let her have one lick off the spoon.

It was so much fun with her helping out and next year will be so much fun when I can set her up with a rolling pin to make her own cut out cookies and ice them herself!

-stephanie

Adalyn Turns One

We've been counting down the days until Adalyn's first birthday and Saturday it finally arrived.  After much planning and idea boards over at Pinterest that you can read about initial planning here, invitations here, menu thoughts here, dessert ideas here, and decoration ideas here, the day finally came together.

We had the party at a local community clubhouse which really worked out as far as space was concerned.  Our tiny house just wouldn't have held that many people for a first birthday party.  The downside is I had to make everything and then transport it and set up the day before whereas having it at our house I could have set up a week in advance and saved the cooking/baking for later.

Decorations.  I made a lot of decorations via ideas from Pinterest.  I started all of this weeks before her party because it was something simple I could accomplish and forget about until the party.

Happy Birthday Adalyn!! Banner

Party Lanterns

Monthly Photos

Cake Bunting

Highchair Ribbon

Tutu

Food.  I had a really hard time deciding on the menu.  I really wanted to do the chili/baked potato bar but Rick nixed the idea.  I have to say it would have been easier than what I decided on.  Here's what the menu looked like.

Cheese & crackers
Hot dog bar
Buffalo chicken dip
Pasta salad
Veggie Pizza

Drinks.  You can't eat without washing it all down right?  So I wanted to have something pretty simple as far as drinks went.  I originally was going to do pop however I knew if I did that we'd have a lot leftover and we don't drink pop so we'd be stuck with all of it.  Instead I found a great punch recipe from my girl Paula Deen.  It was fabulous, but be prepared it's full of sugar.  You'll notice the gray and white striped straws that go with the original color scheme, gray with pink/teal.  I found those here.

I also really wanted the hot chocolate bar.  I mean we are in the middle of winter in Ohio so it was perfect for the party.  I found the recipe here.  It was tasty!

Marshmallows, whipped cream and Bailey's to compliment.

Dessert.  The dessert bar was my favorite part.  I'm a girl who loves desserts so I knew I wanted to have a variety of options available to eat or take home.    Also, I decided to forgo the typical birthday cake and do a smash cake for Addie and cupcakes for everyone else.  The dessert bar consisted of Addie's smash cake, cupcakes, brownie bites, #1 rice krispie treats, oreo truffles, and teal/pink suckers.

Notice the gray straws - multipurpose

Gifts.  We opened some presents.  She got a variety of things, toys, clothes, Tiny Toms!!!!!  She also got a cute chair and a lady bug riding toy.

She looks like a princess in this chair

I guess she'd rather lay on the chair then open gifts.

Cake.  Then we all watched her with the cake.

We sang Happy Birthday.

She wasn't really sure of the cake.  The icing was a buttercream icing which I iced the night before so it wasn't soft and fluffy.

This is her, eww I don't think I want to touch this face.

I attempted to feed her a piece thinking if she had a taste she'd like it.  This was her avoiding me.

We gave her a spoon to play with the cake thinking she might try it once she started breaking it down.

She'd rather feed her momma :)

I finally snuck a taste to her.

At this point, she realized she likes it.

So I may as well eat it now.

She was really breaking it up and pulverized the cake.

 This is her clapping!  We say, "Yay!" and she claps.

I love this picture of her smiling.

And this is our only family picture we captured.  Please ignore my awful look.  I've been instructed to wear glasses 100% of the time and I need a tan.

It turned out to be such a wonderful day and even with a cold she hung in there and enjoyed herself so much. I can't believe how much she's changed and cannot imagine how different she'll be a year from now.

Christmas Cookies

With only 3 days until Christmas, my baking has been going on in full blast.  I usually make 5 different varieties of Christmas treats (plus or minus one if I'm not feeling it) a couple days before Christmas.  One of my favorite recipes is for Chocolate Mint cookies.  When I first found this recipe I wasn't too sure I'd love it since I like mint in small portions, but I love me a chocolate cookie so it was worth trying out!

Ingredients
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 tablespoon water
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups Andes mints

Directions
Cook butter, brown sugar and water over low heat until butter melts completely.  Add chocolate chips and mix until almost completely melted.  Remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes.  While chocolate is cooling, combine flour, salt, and baking soda.  Pour chocolate mix into mixer and beat in 2 eggs.  Slowly add dry mixture to wet while stopping to scrap sides.  Beat well until all ingredients are incorporated evenly.  Fold in mints and freeze for 1 hour.

Drop by spoonful onto slightly greased baking sheets.  Cook 10 minutes at 350 then remove from oven.  Let cookies sit for 10 minutes before moving to cooling rack.

Gourmet Candy Apples

Each year, a week before Christmas I attend a gourmet candy apple making event with my BFF and her family.  It's become a huge tradition that I cannot wait to involve Adders in next year.  This is what you can expect once all the madness is over:

Sunday was the event and oh how I look forward to this every year.  You know the apples you see in the mall that look so heavenly?  The ones covered in caramel, chocolate of every variety, as well as many other tasty toppings.  That's what we do every year and then some of my nearest and dearest are lucky enough to taste these tasty apples every year.

Here's the crew (minus a few)

We start around 9:30 Sunday morning by getting the apples out and making sure any damaged aren't used.  We then pound sticks into the apples and start dipping into caramel.  The caramel apples are then passed onto someone with a free hand who holds the apples until they're cool enough to sit down.  After the apples cool completely you have to reform as some caramel pulls off the apple.  

Then, it's time to decorate.  We usually start by dipping into milk chocolate, adding any toppings and then drizzling dark chocolate, white chocolate, mint chocolate and even more milk chocolate.

The best part is that I get to eat these for a solid week.  Yes, I will have gained a pound or five but it's so worth it!

Tasty Thursday - Luscious Four Layer Pumpkin Cake

This is a fan favorite of mine.  I came across this recipe last year around Thanksgiving and people were throwing elbows for it so I knew I had to make it again this year.

Ingredients

1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix

1 can  (15 oz.) pumpkin, divided

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup  oil

4 eggs

1-1/2 tsp.  pumpkin pie spice, divided

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup  powdered sugar

1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed

1/4 cup  caramel ice cream topping 

Beat cake mix, 1 cup pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs and 1 tsp. spice in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9-inch round pans.Bake 28 to 30 min. on 350 or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min. Remove from pans to wire racks; cool completely.

While, cake is cooling beat cream cheese in medium bowl with mixer until creamy. Add sugar, remaining pumpkin and spice; mix well. Gently stir in COOL WHIP. Cut each cake layer horizontally in half with serrated knife; stack on serving plate, spreading cream cheese filling between layers. Don't frost the top layer as we're drizzling with caramel topping just before serving.

 

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