Classic Quiche Lorraine

Originally claimed by Alsace-Lorraine, this cheese-custard classic is perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

I often find myself whipping up a quiche for dinner when I need to go grocery shopping and my frig contains little more than eggs. My favorite quiche recipe comes from one of the vintage cookbooks I inherited, Betty Crocker's PIE AND PASTRY COOKBOOK.

Quiche Lorraine
From the 1968 Betty Crocker's PIE AND PASTRY COOKBOOK


1 9 inch pie crust. *(if you don't want to make your own, use Marie Callender's frozen pie crust brand)
12 slices bacon, crisply fried and crumbled
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1/3 cup minced onion
4 eggs
2 cups heavy cream or light cream (whatever you prefer)
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Heat over to 425 degrees. Prepare pie crust or unwrap frozen crust :-) Sprinkle bacon, cheese and onion in uncooked pie crust bottom. With a hand mixer, blend remaining ingredients, pour over bacon mixture. Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce over temp to 300 degrees. Bake 30 minutes longer or until a knife inserted 1 inch from edge comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.
This is wonderful served with steamed veggies and fresh fruit.

*I thought you might find humor in knowing that I took this photo on the hood of my car since I was loosing daylight.  My neighbors probably think I'm a total loon! :-)

Enjoy!

~The Lemonista

No-Bake Reese's Peanut Butter Bars

We're going to do some candy making today, and I can't think of a better start than the delicious combo of peanut butter and chocolate. I mean, who didn't love Reese's Peaunut Butter Cups growing up?

If you have a minute, check out this blog post for a great read about one of America's favorite treats.

The recipe I'm featuring today came from good 'ol Mom's recipe box.  After some research, I found an identical recipe on Kraftfoods.com, but under a different name No Oven Peanut Butter Squares.  This is the recipe I'll be using today, so go to this link to print the recipe.  However, do look at my tutorial below as I've added extra details to ensure you get perfect results.

You will need:

LINE 13x9-inch pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan.


MELT butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 45 sec.



Add powdered sugar, graham cracker crumbs and peanut butter.







Mix well.


Spread into prepared pan.


Melt chocolate in a microwaveable bowl on high, 30 sec at a time, stirring between each 30 secs until melted (no more than 2 min total)  DO NOT overheat chocolate or it will burn and there is no cure for burnt chocolate.




Pour melted chocolate over peanut butter mixture in pan.


Spread evenly.





Refrigerate for 15 min and the cut partially through to mark 48 squares. 




Refrigerate another 45 min until set.  Cut all the way through mixture into squares.  I store these in the frig because I love them cold :-)


***I wanted to add that these could be made with Sunflower Butter from Trader Joes if someone in your family has a peanut allergy.

Enjoy!

~The Lemonista

Momma Got New Legs ~ L'Occitane Rocks!

Photo used w/ photographer and model (that's me *grin*) permission. 

I enjoyed a wonderful evening out with my BFF for my Birthday last month. After some great girly conversation (and a few margaritas), we decided to stroll around the Arizona Biltmore Fashion Park to do a lil' shopping. We hit all the regular stores on our stomping ground and soon found ourselves heavy handed with shopping bags (and smoking credit cards). Just as we were about to call it a night, we arrived in front of L'Occitane. My BFF, aka The Queen of Cosmetics, got all giddy--professing her love of L'Occitane products while I grumbled under my breath, "I don't like stinky stuff."

Obligated by friendship, I half-heartily following my beloved BFF into the store. 

We were promptly greeted by a lovely red head with a peaches and cream complexion, "Welcome to L'Occitane.  What can I help you ladies find today?" 

My BFF flawlessly listed off a couple of items with French names, while I avoided eye contact and made my best attempt to slide under the radar.  My plan had almost succeeded, when Miss peaches & cream placed a scoop of some gritty lemony smelling stuff in my palm, "Come over to our sink," she said, "and scrub your hands with our Verbena Body Salt Scrub."  She proceeded to fill my head with impressive stories about L'Occitane's lavander fields in France and the women of  Burkina Faso who harvest their shea butter as she took me through a quick regiment, that had me changing my tune from, "I'll pass" to "Gimme that stuff!"

*(Heads-up to any L'Occitane higher-ups that may be reading my blog post--This red headed dream employee of yours deserves a raise!)*

So here's the secret.  These three products have made my legs look and feel fantastic.

*GREAT GIFT IDEA*

1.  Scrub your legs with this stuff (which smells absolutely AMAZING!)

Verbena Body Salt Scrub

2. Lather your legs with this stuff (A foaming oil--who knew! This is perfect for shaving.)
Almond Shower Oil

 

3. Rinse and dry your legs and then apply this stuff.  (This may just be the thing that's been missing from my life *sighs*)
Shea Butter Body Lotion



That's it!  Now enjoy your gorgeous new legs.  Seriously, I had no idea anything (other than the fountain of youth) could make such a difference! If I could just sign myself up for a spray tan, I'd be all set *wink*.

~The Lemonista

P.S. I am not being compensated for writing this post. This post is my own experience and idea. Those are most certainly my real legs in the photo above. And for the record, I am 40 years young ;-) 

Linked to:
Feathered Nest Friday

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

*UPDATE 8/1/2011* My nephew and I won this writing contest! Yay!  Thank you to all who voted.

I'm back from vacation and ready to get into the swing of blogging. I hope everyone is enjoying a great summer so far. One of the highlights of my summer vacation has been working on an entry for Heather Howland's PW1k writing contest with my 16 year old nephew, Jaidyn. 

We were asked to write a young adult story about this photo in 1000 words:

How fun, right!

Jaidyn and I sat on the beach and kicked ideas back and forth for an entire afternoon.  The following story resulted from his amazing creativity. So a big round of applause goes to my very cool nephew!


If you'd like to vote for our story (and we'd love it you did), please click here and vote for entry #4. 

Entry # 4: UNBIDDEN GUEST

“Ma’am,” A commanding voice clamored above the ringing in my ears. “Ma’am, are you injured?”

I struggled to lift my aching head off the dirty ground, as a groan slipped through my lips. My vision came into focus revealing a good lookin’ face with sapphire eyes looking down at me.

He signaled an eager wave before he barked, “Fetch me a blanket!” at a young guy dressed like Dudley Do-right.

“Yes Sir, Chief Tristan,” Dudley replied from the porch of a gigantic log building.

Chief? He couldn’t possibly be older than me, 17 at most.

Tristan crouched his fine self beside me and carefully folded a piece of the tattered cloth I’d landed on over one side of my body before placing his hand gently on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Ma’am. We’ll get the rest of you covered right quick.”

Where am I? How’d I end up sprawled across a forest floor? I tried to get my bearings while I shifted my weight and wiggled limbs to evaluate my physical condition--A little banged up but no permanent damage.

“Can you speak, Ma’am?” Tristan’s voice, husky and soothing, strangely calmed my uneasiness.

As I cleared my throat to offer an answer, a foggy steam drifted through the air and the smell of rotten eggs assaulted my nose. “It’s Aurora,” my voice barely pushed a whisper. “What’s that smell?”

“That’s Old Faithful, Ma’am. You’re smelling the sulfur in the erupting geyser.”

Geyser? Damn it, Larz! Could that boy ever get my transport coordinates right? The cool gold chain of my timepiece slipped between my fingers, as I grasped the antique pocket watch in my palm. Rotating the face into my view, I clicked open the circular glass cover and then placed my thumb on the center. The watch face faded, revealing a small monitor that displayed my current location.

Old Faithful Inn, Yellowstone National Park, July 17, 1914

Oh, I am so not taking Larz out for pizza when I get back! Time travel may not be an exact science, but Larz was 74 years from a graceful landing at an alternative nightclub in 1988. Glancing down at my black tank mini-dress, I let out a scoff as I thought; He was probably tweeting while operating the transporter controls again. Idiot.

I heard a twig snap 20 yards to the east and darted my eyes in that direction. Three cowboys were trying to get a glimpse of me.

In an attempt to shield my skimpily dressed body, Tristan leaped to his feet, grasping the grip of his pistol as he warned harshly, “I say, you men avert your eyes. Don’t come any closer.”

Slowly raising my knee, I grazed my fingertips over the weapon strapped to my leg. I pressed down on the outer shell of the weapon’s holster, activating my tracking device. If Larz knew what was good for him, he’d get me the hell out of here, pronto.

The weight of a heavy wool blanket draped over me. “What happened to her, Chief?” Dudley asked.

Seriously? I’m lying right here. Hello.

“I don’t know. She hasn’t said much.” His attention danced cautiously between the cowboys and me. “I reckon she’s one of the traveling performers staying at the inn.”

Dudley took a good hard look at me and then commented in a confidential tone, “Chief, she looks so much like…”

“I know,” Tristan cut him off with a warning glare and then glanced down at me wearily, almost grief stricken.

My peripheral vision caught incoming movement. The three cowboys had made their way within 10 yards of us. Tristan’s stance became rigid with alarm. He narrowed his eyes as he hollered, “I told you boys to get on out of here!” Motioning a nod to Dudley, he ordered, “Escort those men off the property.”

“Yes, sir,” Dudley replied.

I reached down, impatiently smacking the tracker on my leg a second time. Come on, Larz. Time to hone in on my signal and beam me up.

Dudley cocked his six-shooter and confronted the cowboys. All hell broke loose. Dudley fired off one round. The bullet bounced off the cowboys like rubber, causing their bodies to flicker like static interrupting a hologram’s transmission.

Black Hole Trolls! Dread stirred in the pit of my stomach. What are they doing here? My landing had been a mistake, so they couldn’t possibly have followed me.

Tristan kneeled in front of me, aiming his gun at the three trolls cloaked as cowboys. “Drop your weapons,” he shouted, his voice quaking with adrenaline.

The lead troll raised a deadly laser-blaster, no bigger than a tube of lipstick, and pointed it directly at Tristan. Crap! He’s gonna disintegrate us both!

“Move!” I grabbed Tristan’s waist to shove him aside, pulled my weapon and fired two lethal rays, eliminating two of the trolls.

“Aurora?” Tristan stared at me in confused shock. He grabbed my wrist, wrapping his fingers around my silver bracelet, my only possession that connected me to my unknown past. Time seemed to come to a halt as a rush of visions flooded my mind--The warmth of Tristan’s soft lips, the tingle of his touch. Impossible images, yet they played like memories as real as the heart racing in my chest.

“It can’t be,” the words passed under Tristan’s breath in total disbelief. “You died.”

Vaporizing into a time warp, I catapulted from the past to the future, arriving back at Base Station One.

“Dude, I am so sorry,” Larz pleaded. “Dork here,” tipping his head to our friend Kyle, “bumped my elbow as I was guiding your last landing—screwed up the whole transport.”

“Can you just shut up for a second and get back behind the controls? I need you to send me back.”

“Back? What are you talking about, Aurora?”

My pulse raced as I worked to slow my breathing, “I have to help Tristan.”

“Who’s Tristan?”

I paused, brooding, “I think he’s the one we’ve been looking for.”



Thanks, everyone! I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as Jaidyn and I enjoyed working on it.

~The Lemonista