Shari's Sausage, Peppers, & Onions Quiche

Today I thawed a pie crust so I could make quiche for dinner. I had gotten the idea for a sausage, peppers, and onions quiche when I saw a picture of one on Pinterest maybe last week. This afternoon I googled quiche and looked at a random quiche recipe to reference the basics on quiche. Here is a link to the recipe I referenced http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-a-fool-proof-quiche-168459. I then proceeded to make up my own sausage, peppers, and onions quiche recipe.

Shari's Sausage, Peppers, & Onions Quiche

1 Pie Crust

Balsamic Vinegar

Thyme

Ground Ginger

Sweet Onion

 Mini Sweet Peppers

Breakfast Sausage

3 Eggs

1 1/2 Cups Milk

Salt & Pepper

Anthony Makes Grilled Ham & Cheese Surprise Sandwiches

Today Anthony made grilled ham and cheese surprise sandwiches for lunch. I say surprise because I saw him making them, but when I bit into my sandwich there was a secret ingredient I had not seen added. That ingredient was salsa. There were also a couple of other ingredients that added lots of flavor, bacon and parmesan.

Grilled Ham & Cheese Surprise Sandwiches

Sandwich Buns

Medium Chunky Salsa

Smoked Ham

Yellow American Cheese

Bacon Pieces

Grated Parmesan Cheese

Creamy Oatmeal Du Jour

This morning I got up and thought I would combine a couple of cold cereals for breakfast with some nuts. When I got to the kitchen though, I felt a little chilly. I decided to have hot cereal, oatmeal instead. You'll find the recipe below. Can I just say, it was amazing.

Creamy Oatmeal Du Jour

Quick Oats

Maple Syrup

Golden California Raisins

French Vanilla Coffee

Milk

Fall Harvest Treats

My friend Kim had asked me to host our Clemson Cross Impact Power Group Bible study at my apartment this week. We just started a new study this semester on the Book of Ecclesiastes. We are all really enjoying the study. There is so much wisdom in that book. We often meet at each others apartments or at coffee shops in the area. Most of the girls in our particular power group are grad student wives. Whoever hosts the group usually provides some light refreshments as well. I decided to prepare some colorful harvest munchies. I put together a trail mix from some random nuts and dried fruit I had in my cupboards. Okay, not so random. I made sure not to include prunes in the mix because I just thought they didn't belong. They were a lot larger than the other nuts and dried fruits so visually it would not have been pleasing. I wanted to make a veggie tray with bacon ranch dip. I remembered seeing a bell pepper used as a dip bowl on Pinterest, thought I'd give that a try. I sprinkled some bacon pieces on top of the bacon ranch dip so people would not be surprised by the bacon flavor of the ranch salad dressing. The munchies were a great hit!

PBJ with Honey Roasted Peanuts

Today I asked Anthony what he wanted me to pack for his lunch. He didn't know. To help him out I gave him some options, one purposefully bad to make it easier to narrow it down! I asked if he wanted peanut butter and jelly, ham and cheese, or ham and cheese with honey roasted peanuts. He said he wanted peanut butter and jelly with honey roasted peanuts. I asked him what kind of jelly, red plum or blackberry if we had any left. He of course wanted his favorite, Blackburn's Blackberry.

Penne Pasta with Sausage & Broccoli

Tonight I asked Anthony if he wanted pasta with sausage and broccoli or a sausage, onion, red and orange pepper quiche for dinner. He said pasta with sausage and broccoli. That is what I made. We thoroughly enjoyed it, and Anthony said it was epic!

Penne Pasta with Sausage & Broccoli

Oil

Salt

Water

Penne Pasta

Broccoli

Chopped Garlic

Water

Sausage

Soy Sauce

Black Pepper & Salt

Flour

Milk

Parmesan Cheese

Green Salads

Yesterday Anthony and I went on a long walk all over Clemson campus and Clemson downtown. On the way back we picked up a Little Caesar's $5 pepperoni pizza. As if that was not unhealthy enough, later last night, I started digging around in the cookies and cream ice cream container for whole oreo cookies. Not every brand has whole oreos strewn amidst the layers of smooth cookies and cream ice cream. The Publix brand does however, and that is what we had in our freezer. I poked around with my fork to find a vein of oreo cookies. When I found some cookies, I ate them. Haha, our cookies and cream ice cream box interior looked like a rock quarry with random gaping abysses. All this to say, we needed to have salad for lunch today. I noticed we had lots of green vegetables in the fridge so I decided to make a monochromatic salad.

Green Salads

Romaine Lettuce

Zucchini Squash

Green Bell Pepper

Celery

Bacon Ranch Salad Dressing

Black Pepper

Vegetarian Salads

Vegetarian Salads:

Spring Mix 

Cannellini Beans

Zucchini Squash

Mini Sweet Peppers

Mandarin Orange

Condiments:

Chipotle Ranch

Soy Sauce

Anthony supplemented his salad with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! We both looked at magazines after dinner. I looked at an international culinary magazine, Saveur, and Anthony looked at an engineering magazine, Popular Mechanics. 

Test Kitchen: Curried Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Today I opened up a test kitchen lab in my apartment. I shared play by play updates on Facebook. This post will kind of elaborate on my Facebook posts via pictures.

Facebook Post 1

Test Kitchen in progress. On the menu: Curried Chocolate Chip Cookies with Red Pepper Flakes, Curried Chocolate Chip Cookies with Bacon Pieces, Curried Chocolate Chip Cookies with Dried Cranberries! Which do you think will be the best flavor? I Googled Curried Chocolate Chip Cookies to see if it's been done before. I did actually see some recipes for Curried Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies, Curried Cardamon Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, etc. If you are feeling exceptionally daring, come on over and try a few. Help me decide which flavor is outstanding.

Facebook Post 2

Update 1: The Curried Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough is amazing! (I just added 1 Tbsp curry powder 

to my batch.) Now to add the other test ingredients . . .

Facebook Post 3

Update 2: I put 3 Tbsp Cranberries, 2 Tbsp Bacon pieces, and 1 Tbsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes in their respective bowls. Wow, those red pepper flakes pack a punch. The 3 cookie doughs taste good.

I made two rows of each flavor on each pan that I baked.

Facebook Post 4

Update 3: Cookies out of the oven!!! Warm, soft, melt-in-your-mouth ooey-gooey curried chocolate chip cookies:) As we had predicted, Anthony's favorites were the ones with cranberries. My favorites were the ones with bacon. The bacon added a nice, slight chewiness, and a subtle meaty flavor.