GRANNY'S KITCHEN: Easy Quiche

I love easy dinners!  And when given free fresh eggs at church today, I decided I wanted to make something with eggs.  I wasn't in the mood for a scrambled egg sandwich, so I decided to make a quiche.
After doing a quick we search, I found a recipe here.

Preheat oven to 400.  Spray a pie pan with oil.
Then I layered in a drained can of mushrooms and diced 1/2 onion. I topped that with a generous cup of shredded Monterry Jack cheese.

In a separate bowl, I whipped up 4 of the eggs, a cup of Bisquick, 2 cups milk, and some salt and pepper.  This I poured on top of the goodies in my pie plate and popped in the oven for 38 minutes.

YUMMY!! 

You can layer anything you want under the cheese.  Maybe next time I'll do a spinach and mushroom quiche!  Looking forward to trying this with different goodies mixed in.

GRANDMOTHER'S LIBRARY: "Everliving" by Christina Dudley

I sure do enjoy my Kindle Fire!  I get onto Amazon periodically and download free books!  "Everliving" is one of my free finds on Amazon.  This is a 'tragic' love story that takes place in California in an old logged out Redwood forest (or should I say where an old Redwood forest used to be?).

Daphne Linstrom lived in the 1800s and loved the mighty redwoods.  She loved them so much that she became their 'protector' and lived on (as a ghost) for decades after all but one had been logged.

Ben Platt is a graduate student who stumbles across the town where Daphne had lived and not only finds her one remaining redwood, but also 'see's and falls in love with (the ghost of) Daphne!

The book describes what is found in the canopy of a redwood!  I had no idea that other 'forests' or 'worlds' actually existed in the top of a mighty tree!  I just pictured branches, stems, and leaves.  Apparently the branches get so thick as to create a 'forest floor' high in the canopy in which other plants can grow and thrive.  Wow!  Makes me want to take a botany class in California just to study redwoods!

This paranormal love story sounds as if it will be a mush, gushy book, but it really is a great mystery!  Daphne had disappeared a hundred years ago, and this mystery was still alive and creating tourism in her home town of Red Gap.  There are many speculations as to what happened to her, but it is Ben who actually discovers her secrets.

This was a GREAT book to read!  And more doubly enjoyable because it was FREE. Amazon rotates different books to offer as freebies and I happened to catch this when it was free.  The book can be purchased for a nominal price (around $3) for a Kindle, or it is available to read as a 'regular' book found here at Amazon.!  Eiether way, it was an enjoyable find.

GRANNY'S KITCHEN: small Angel Food Cake

After making my Tiramisu (found here), I had 6 egg whites that needed to be used.  I didn't want to make meringue, but didn't want the egg whites to go to waste.  I searched the web and found Cookie Baker Lynn's blog (found here) which had a 6 egg solution: a small angel food cake!







6 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/8 tsp salt
6 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup minus 2 T flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup flaked coconut

Beat the eggs with the cream of tartar and salt.  Add the sugar a tablespoon at a time. Beat until shiny and stiff.  Pour into an 8" square pan.  I did not grease the pan, but will try greasing it next time.
I had some leftover coconut from my Easter Basket Cookies (found here).  That's why the green.. It made it festive!  If I had planned this out, I could have gotten creative with chocolate bunnies and jelly beans for decoration.  Next time!
This is also pretty with just white coconut as you can see from Cookie Baker Lynn's Blog post..
And this is much easier than the Angel Food cakes I remember my mother making!

GRANNY'S KITCHEN: Tiramisu

Ever since I saw the Cake Boss Episode where Sonny made a Tiramisu, I have been wanting to try this!

Here is my version of his Tiramisu.
 First, I mixed 6 egg yolks with 1 1/4 cup sugar.
I improvised a double boiler by doubling up a couple sauce pans.  I stirred and cooked my egg yolk/sugar mixture over boiling water for 10-15 minutes until it was creamy and yellow.  Then took it off the heat.

 After this was done, I added a pound of Marscapone cheese plus 1/4 cup cream cheese and stirred until melted.

I then folded in almost 2 cups of Cool Whip.











The recipe calls for lady fingers.  I actually used Milano double chocolate cookies in place of one box of lady fingers.  And to give a touch of authenticity, I used a box of lady fingers, too.

 I used my small spring form pan and put a ring of frosting around the inside to hold the cookies in place.  (There was STILL frosting from my original Super Bowl strawberry football project and my Easter Basket Cookie  project. )  I then snapped part of the lady finger cookies off to make them fit the side of the pan and alternated Milano cookies and lady fingers around the pan.  .

I then put the rest of te Milanos on the bottom of the pan and filled in the rest of the space with lady fingers

The recipes all call for either coffee or coffee flavored liquor.  Since I don't drink either, I had no idea what to get.  I decided to go with the coffee flavored liquor because the flavored is probably not coffee, and the liquor will evaporate.  :)

Anyway, I had the salesman point me to the coffee flavored liquors and the name "Kahlua" sounded familiar, so that is what I bought.  Not sure if a coffee flavored liquor and rum with coffee flavor are the same, but it is what it is. I bought the smallest bottle available (which looks like it will make 2 or 3 Tiramisu pies!  Take 1/3 cup of this and using a basting brush, brush this onto the lady fingers and Milano cookies.  I used a little over 1/2 of my third cup for the first layer, because I had to brush on the sides and the bottom. 


Then pour about 1/2 the filling mixture in the pan and layer with the rest of the lady fingers. Brush these with the Kahlua, too, then pour the rest of the filling on top.  I may have poured too fast, no idea. But for some reason my lady fingers tried to rise to the top.  I gently pushed them back down with my finger then placed my Tiramisu in the fridge for a few hours.  This could be made the day before, because it does need time to set up!  As you can see, I didn't quite allow mine to set long enough: we were anxious to dig in!

When finished, sprinkle some cocoa powder on top.  I would use some kind of stencil next time to make it prettier.  One recipe recommended chocolate curls as a garnish.  My chocolate 'grated' rather than curled as you can see.

Take a knife and cut around the pan to get the frosting from the side and take off the side.  The cake boss put a ribbon around his, and I would have done so if I'd had one -- it would hide the frosting line. 


I will probably make this again just to get the Kahlua used up! lol  I didn't taste it, I don't think.  If so, it was nicely blended into the rest of the ingredients so that there was no alcohol taste to this and really no coffee taste.  It was a pleasant flavor and easy enough to make that I won't hesitate to make this again.

GRANNY'S KITCHEN: Easter Basket Cookies

 I found these sugar cookies at Aldi's and thought they would make a nice cookie basket.  There are 24 pieces: just enough for each of the 24 places in my mini muffin tin holder.

I generously sprayed my muffin tin with the spray oil.  I then took one piece of cookie dough and smashed down into each of the holes. Before the time was up baking, I pulled out and pressed down just a bit (it was like 'popping' balloons -- the cookies deflated so they were still basket shaped rather than balls of cookies.
While these were baking, I took about a cup of coconut (I just used what was left in a bag in the freezer) and added a few drops of green food coloring and water.  I shook up to make green coconut for the Easter grass.

Believe it or not, I still had frosting left in the can from my football strawberry project.  I squirted some of this in each basket (after they were cooled) then pushed some of the green coconut Easter grass onto each cookie.  Jelly Beans (slued down with frosting, too) completed the look. 
The lighting in my photo is off (wish I hadn't used the flash!), but here is the finished project.