Party Quiche

Super easy, super tasty. This is one of my favorite "go to" recipes of all time. Kind of a crust-less quiche with a little fiesta mixed in. The original recipe was from my Mom's friend Peggy and was printed in our church cookbook, circa 1970-something. It's a great dish for breakfast, brunch or lunch. It even tastes good cold! Cut it into small squares for an appetizer or large squares for an entreé. I'm thinking about trying it out in muffin tins for individual quiche-lettes at our next party. The cooking time will be different though, so I'll have to experiment. If anyone tries it out before I get around to it, let me know how it goes!

St. Patrick's Boiled Dinner

I just love St Patrick's Day. Not because he ran all the snakes out of Ireland (though that does help), but because it allows me two of my favorite indulgences...Guinness and Corned Beef Dinner...yumm! It conjures up all sorts of memories like Dad doing the two-step to the plethora of Irish folk songs in our vast music collection! I've created a twist on the old time favorite by adding a baste that zips it up a wee bit...but not too much. It's the only corned beef (or cabbage) my Brother-in-Law and Sister will eat!

Irish Soda Bread

4 – 4½ c. Flour
½-1 tsp. Salt
3 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Soda
¼ c. Sugar (optional)
2 shakes Cinnamon, Ginger & Nutmeg each
¼ c. Butter or Margarine
1 Egg
1¾ c. Buttermilk

Optional:
2 c. Currents, Raisins, &/or Cranberries

In a large bowl, stir together flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and sugar until thoroughly blended. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or knife until crumbly. In a separate bowl, beat egg slightly and mix with buttermilk; stir into dry ingredients until blended. Add optional items. Turn out on a floured board and knead until smooth (2 – 3 min). Divide dough in half and shape each into a smooth, round loaf; place each loaf into a greased pie pan. Press down until dough nearly fills the pan. With a floured knife, cut a cross in the top of the loaves, about ½ inch deep. Mix ¼ c. buttermilk with a capful of Irish whiskey and bathe the top of each loaf and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in a 375o oven for 35 – 40 min., or until nicely browned.
Yields 2 loaves.

~Marta

Oatmeal-Brown Sugar Baked Apples

I made this for my BD Breakfast with Mom and Stephanie. It was a rainy, blustery March day and this recipes conjured up cozy, warm, loving feelings of my childhood.

I Used Gala Apples (I wanted sweet but firm apples and they were the biggest and looked the nicest that day).

My oh-so-smart-sister, Stephanie, recommended we core the apples from the bottom and twist off the stem. You can then eat the whole thing!

Added: 1/4c Raisins, 4 chopped Apricots and a small handful of chopped Pecans. Apples still firm but not much syrupy-goodness.

First found this recipe on my sister's wonderful food blog: Make It Bake It Buy It Fake It

She found it on: the kitchn

~Marta

Fiesta Corn Muffins

There were leftover ingredients sitting in my fridge from the muffin-a-thon the other day: fresh cilantro, red bell pepper, and buttermilk. As I sat thinking about what I could do with it all so's not to waste it, it dawned on me... just make more corn muffins!

I combined two recipes for the best of both worlds: lots of corn and lots of flavor. Used my vintage muffin pans (8 muffins cups in each) since I still haven't washed out the 12-cup muffin pan from the other day. Yep, I really hate washing out muffin pans. Seriously do not like. Of course, now I've got three pans to wash. Ugh. Anyway, these are super tasty corn muffins and would go great with all sorts of barbecued dishes (or a bowl of chili of course).