Southwestern Quiche…A Freezer Meal

Yes! Real men DO eat quiche, and my whole family loves this quiche. I found this recipe, years ago, in a “Taste of Home Freezer Pleasers” cookbook. That recipe was attributed to Paula Marchesi, and I have doctored it up to make it my own. It’s great for putting in the freezer and cooking at a later date, or making it for tonight. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

  • 2 unbaked pastry shells (9 inches)
  • 2 t. chili powder
  • 1 t. ground cumin
  • 1 1/2 c. (6 oz..) shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 1/2 c. (6 oz.) shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
  • 1 c. (4 0z.) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  • 8 eggs
  • 2 cups half-and-half cream
  • 2 cans (4 oz. each) chopped green chilies
  • 2 cans ( 2 1/4 oz. each) sliced ripe olives, drained
  • 6 oz. chopped ham
  • 1/4 c. chopped green onions
  • 2 T. minced fresh cilantro
  • 1/2 t. salt
  • 1/2 t. pepper
  • Salsa and sour cream, optional

Line unpricked pastry shells with a double thickness of heavy-duty foil. Bake at 400* for 5 minutes. Remove foil. Bake 5 minutes longer.

Sprinkle chili powder and cumin over shells; sprinkle with cheeses. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, cream, chilies, ham, olives, onions, cilantro, salt and pepper. Pour evenly over cheese.

Cover and freeze one quiche for up to 3 months. Cover edges of second quiche loosely with foil. Place on a baking sheet. Bake at 400* for 45 – 60 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting. Serve with salsa and sour cream if desired.

To use frozen quiche: Remove from the freezer 30 minutes before baking. (do not thaw). Cover edges of crust loosely with foil; place on a baking sheet. Bake at 400* for 60 minutes or longer, until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting. YIELD: 2 quiches (6 servings each).

Note: Originally, the baking time was less, but having added the ham, it takes longer to bake. This would also be great with chicken, or Cajun Style Andouille Sausage. Be creative!

I also had some problems with the pan sticking to the freezer shelf or whatever I placed it on. It dripped a bit, under the pie plate, when I put it down and caused a suction. Maybe put a double layer of foil on the bottom?

Enjoy!

Hope you enjoy!

Grandma Sherry

WE’VE HAD TWO WEEKS OF FUN!

Boppa turns into Cat Boy!!! If you want to find out about this transformation, read my blog.

Wow! This has been a busy couple of weeks! We celebrated two birthdays, had a grandson stay with us for a weekend, and visited several neat places. I’ll tell you later about the newest addition to our house, that I’m in LOVE with.

Boppa is Cat Boy.
The birthday boy with his PJ Mask cake.
Liam and Mark Twain, sharing a book.

Our youngest grandson, Isaac, celebrated his 3rd birthday on August 13th. We celebrated then and also at his party on the weekend. He received everything possibly made with PJ Masks . He is really in to Cat Boy. Just a month or so ago, everything was Paw Patrol. Now we’re on to PJ Masks. He had a great party, with both sets of grandparents and his cousins, plus lots of other friends. We were delighted to have Liam, our oldest grandchild, to stay with us for that weekend.

Lunch at the Kimball Museum
The Japanese Bridge, over Monet’s Lily Pond.
This would go nicely in my Dining Room.

My birthday was on Aug. 15th. Dick and I went to the Kimball Art Museum, to see the exhibit of “Monet..the Later Years”. Oh. my. gosh. It was fabulous! I told Dick that I wanted one of the paintings of either the Japanese Bridge that went over his lily pond, or one of his bigger paintings with beautiful pastel colors. My sister, Toni Wood, who is the marketing director for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, in KC, told me that I really deserved one of those! But she also said that one of Monet’s paintings sold for $85 Million, and the most recent one sold for $110 million. OK…we bought the coasters instead.

The Chickasaw Indian at the Chickasaw Welcome Center and Bedre Candies.

This weekend, we went for a weekend at Winstar….a major casino, just across the OK/TX boarder. We had two free nights. We spent Saturday morning and afternoon driving to Sulphur, OK, where the Chickasaw National Recreation Area is located. It was great. Dick did some hiking on one of their many trails. There were lots of water things happening, with little falls, springs, places to swim and go tubing. There were enough campground spots for half of Ft. Worth. We also saw buffalo. I will spare you the buffalo poop photo that I sent to my grandkids. LOL I’d recommend this place to anyone who loves nature. We ended that trip by going to the Bedre candy factory.

Silly Liam

Silly Libby
Silly Isaac

I have some silly grandkids! They wanted me to take photos of them with their tongues sticking out. Why do kids always want their tongues sticking out in pictures???? Can you tell which one just finished eating blue ice cream?

And now…my new household item! My son-in-law, Nathan, had been to Lowe’s. He found an LG Dishwasher, that had a tiny dent on it, that had been $900 and was on sale for $200. He called and said “Get down here fast, if you want it!” We went and there was another guy who wanted the same machine. After hemhawing back and forth for awhile, he suggested we flip a coin. We won!!! I feel really guilty, but OHHHH I love this dishwasher! My old one was so noisy we had to turn the TV up really loud. This one, you can barely hear it. Life is Good.

How has your week been? Do anything exciting? We have two weeks and then we go on a cruise. I can hardly wait. Are you all done with any trips?

Have a good week,

Grandma Sherry

The Best No-Bake Cookies!

Ohhhhh, I made my childhood favorite cookies today!!! Check out the recipe on my post.

I’ve been on a diet and I completely ruined my diet today. But it was certainly the way to go! I made Chocolate No-Bake Cookies, a favorite from my childhood. Despite many attempted fails, now I have it down pat. WHAT?? you say. Anybody can make chocolate no-bake cookies! Hmmmm…no, not everyone. I will admit that I am not a very patient person. Patience is needed with these cookies. I’ll discuss more on that later. Here’s my recipe:

NO BAKE COOKIES

  • 1/2 c. cocoa
  • 1/2 c. margarine
  • 2 c. sugar
  • 1/2 c. milk
  • 1/2 c. peanut butter
  • 2 3/4 c. oatmeal
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Mix together the first four ingredients. Stir, over medium heat, until boiling. Boil 3 minutes (full boil). Remove from heat. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together. Drop by spoonfuls on cookie sheets, covered with waxed paper. Let cool. I sometimes put in the refrigerator to cool. Makes about 2 1/2 dozen, depending on the size you prefer.

I already had the milk in the pan when I set out the other ingredients.

Mixing and cooking first four ingredients.
Be sure and stir frequently during the cooking process.


Oh my gosh!!!! So good!

NOTE: It takes quite awhile to heat the first four ingredients. That’s how I have gotten into trouble in the past. I tried to hurry it up, and so I turned the heat to a higher level. DON’T DO THIS!~ That just doesn’t work. I also did not have any waxed paper, so I used parchment paper, which works just as well.

I hope you enjoy this recipe! I will admit, to try to get a decent photo of me eating the cookie, I had to eat four cookies in the process. OH MY GOSH! They were so good!

I definitely give it a thumbs up!!

Let me know what you think. Press LIKE if you enjoy this post. Leave me a comment.

Grandma Sherry

A Trip to the DoSeum

Last weekend, I visited my grandchildren and their parents in Buda, TX. We had a great time! As a treat for Grandma, they wanted to take me to the museum that they had joined recently. It was the DoSeum, located at 2800 Broadway St., San Antonio, TX. Wow! What a place!

The DoSeum is a children’s museum that promotes learning through activities and interactive exhibits. They were focusing a lot on energy, the day we were there. I only have a few photos here, but if you look on their website, there are a ton of photos. The museum is two stories, just packed with fun.

Check out the DoSeum...a really cool children's museum in San Antonio!

Liam’s favorite part was using the virtual reality headset. He spent quite awhile using it. I’m not sure what he was seeing, but he loved it. The area behind him was a place to create things. Kids could use pieces of wood and other things, hammer nails, use a screw driver, etc.. They had safety glasses to wear and adult supervision. It was a busy area.

One of the things that I was fascinated with was the robot. It was a tall robot, and if you stood on the stool in front of it, it would “read” you. If you moved your arms up and down, it would do the same. It was really cool.

Another area had little robot cars. There was a place to program in how you wanted the cars to move, and then it would go.

Kids love to build things, or stack blocks and make things. There were many opportunities to do that. One area included the pyramid shaped block area. Not only were they fun, but they were colorful.

Libby and her mom, reading in the pod.

The book room was great. There were lots of books and then about four big pods that you could sit in, and read. Libby and her mom read several books.

One section was about light and sound. There were instruments to play and listen to their sound. At one point, I pulled out some bar, listened, and heard the man across the room talking. Cool! You could walk through a tunnel with lights changing around you. I liked the big wall which resembled a giant light-brite.

This museum was fantastic. If you get a chance, and you have kids or grandkids, be sure to visit . It’s one of the best children’s museums I’ve experienced. However, I can see that it might be a bit overwhelming for a child with sensitivity issues. There is a cafe to eat at, and a store.

I need to go back! I didn’t get to see everything. This was my grandkids second visit, and they STILL didn’t see everything. It’s a winner!

Where have you been recently that was fun for the whole family? Leave me a message and tell me. Press LIKE, below, to let me know you enjoyed this post.

Grandma Sherry

A Travel Back in Time

It’s always fun to go visit one of our former cities that we lived in!! Check out our Toledo visit.

Two weeks ago, Dick and I visited Toledo, Ohio. We used to live there, before we moved to Texas. We moved to Texas 16 years ago. It had been 7 years since we had been back to Toledo. It was so fun to see all of our friends, our old church, and former co-workers and students!

We stayed with our great friends, Janet and Alan Hazlett. Several of those days, they were working. But Dick and Alan got in two big games of golf. Dick barely won, but Alan thought it was incredibly unfair because Dick was using the Senior Tees. LOL

My former co-workers at St. Clement School.

I had lunch with some of my former co-workers…teachers from St. Clement Catholic School. I used to teach music at that school. Those were good days! That school has since closed, so we all caught up on where everyone was working by now. It was so fun to see them!

My former student, Brittany Barnes, and me.

Funnily enough, I received a text that day, from one of my former students. She was in town for just that day. Could we meet up? So we met and caught up with each other. The last time I had seen her, she was in 8th grade. Now she’s 31. Brittany and I are Facebook friends. I also saw another one of my students, Ryan, in the parking lot of Target. He was there with his wife and baby. Love it!!

One huge Dollar Tree store!

That day, I also visited one of the biggest Dollar Tree stores that I’ve ever been in. Wow! It used to be a pharmacy. It was big, clean and very well organized. The Mystery Shopper in me would really rate it high!

Our wonderful friends in Toledo
Dick and Barb Burnett

On Sunday night, Janet had a dinner and get-together with three other couples. We all used to do things together, and had lots of memories to share. Eighteen years ago, we went with those four couples and one other couple, on a Caribbean Cruise. We celebrated being married for 25 years. It was so fun that several of us went on another cruise, a couple of years later. Now we’re talking about going on another one. I sure do miss these friends!!

My cousin, Sandy Esser and me.
Donna Esser and granddaughter, Eden.

On Monday, we went to Sterling Hts., Michigan to visit my cousin, Larry Esser, his wife and granddaughter. We’ve gone way too long without seeing them. It’s always fun when we get together. We also had lunch with Sandy, Larry’s sister.

It’s great to go on vacation, but it’s also great to come home. Where do you like to go on vacation?

If you enjoyed this post, please press LIKE….it’s below this article. Have a good week.

Toodles,

Grandma Sherry