SPINACH AND SHIITAKE QUICHE

SPINACH AND SHIITAKE QUICHE

Basic Pie Crust

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup shortening, chilled
• 3 tablespoons ice water

Directions

Whisk the flour and salt together in a medium size bowl. With a pastry blender, cut in the cold shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Drizzle 2 to 3 tablespoons ice water over flour. Toss mixture with a fork to moisten, adding more water a few drops at a time until the dough comes together.

Gently gather dough particles together into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 30 minutes before rolling.

Roll out dough, and put in a pie plate. 

             

 Spinach and Shiitake Quiche

Ingredients

 Prepared 9-inch single pie crust

1/4 cup bacon grease that was saved.

• 1 bunch green onions, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 (9 ounce) bag fresh spinach
• 1 (3.5 ounce) package shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped broccoli florets
• 1/2 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Fit pie crust into a 9-inch pie dish.
3. Melt bacon grease in a large skillet over medium heat; cook and stir green onions and garlic until green onions are softened, about 5 minutes. Cook 
4. Stir spinach, shiitake mushrooms, and broccoli into green onion mixture; cook and stir vegetables until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Mix in 1/4 cup Cheddar cheese.
5. Spoon vegetable mixture into the pie crust.
6. Beat eggs, milk, sea salt, and black pepper together in a bowl; pour egg mixture gently over vegetable filling, slightly stirring eggs into the filling to combine.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes; sprinkle 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese over the top of the quiche and bake 10 additional minutes. Cover quiche with aluminum foil and bake until quiche has set and a toothpick inserted into the quiche comes out clean, about 10 more minutes.
8. Allow quiche to cool for 5 minutes before serving.                

Tuesday Time And Money Saving Tip Of The Day

Re-use Plastic Bottle Tops To 

Tightly Seal Food Bags

Making Ravioli For The Family And The Freezer

How to Make Ravioli

Filling

Homemade ravioli can be stuffed with almost any filling you can imagine.

First prepare and have cooled what you plan on stuffing your raviolis with. It can be even left over meatloaf,  left over hamburgers, almost anything you like. Set aside.

Basic Pasta Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons water

Directions

In a medium sized bowl, combine flour and salt. Make a well in the flour, add the slightly beaten egg, and mix. Mixture should form a stiff dough. If needed, stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons water.

On a lightly floured surface, knead dough for about 3 to 4 minutes. With a pasta machine or by hand roll dough out to desired thinness. Use machine or knife to cut into strips of desired width.    

                            1.Before you begin, have your ravioli filling already prepared and your dough kneaded and ready to cut. Start by rolling out your pasta dough into at least two very thin sheets; cut them to a manageable length, if necessary.

2. Lay a pasta sheet onto a lightly floured work surface. One sheet will be the bottom half of the ravioli, and another sheet will be the top. Cover the dough that you're not using right away with a damp cloth to keep it from drying out.

3. For our filling, we used leftover mashed potatoes mixed with two different kinds of cheese. Depending on the consistency of the filling, you can use a small ice cream scoop to create perfectly consistent balls; a spoon will also suffice

4. For an egg-based pasta, use an egg wash to seal the two sheets of pasta together. For eggless pastas, use water or milk. Use a pastry brush to work around the filling and thinly coat the entire surface of the pasta sheet.

5. Gently lay the top sheet of pasta over the layer covered with filling. Make sure that the two sheets match up evenly.

6. Work out any air bubbles by gently but firmly pushing the air from the edge of the filling to the edge of the pasta with your fingers. Continue pushing the air out until there is no more air trapped in the ravioli. (Trapped air will expand during cooking and can cause the ravioli to burst.)

7. To create beautiful ravioli, the filling should be shaped into a uniform size. A small cookie cutter or shot glass is a good way to shape the dumplings. Place the dull side of the cookie cutter around the filling, and press down lightly. Don't cut through the pasta dough--you're just shaping the ravioli.

8. Some people make circles, other cooks prefer squares: the choice of shape is up to you! A sharp kitchen knife, ravioli cutter, or pastry wheel can be used.

9. Use a cookie cutter to make more complex shapes. For holiday ravioli, try trees, hearts, or stars. We used a circular cookie cutter to make circles and a knife to make squares. To make indentations around the edges, press a fork down firmly to crimp.

10. Fresh pasta will cook in minutes, so refrigerate your ravioli, wrapped in plastic, until you're ready to cook them

Budgeting food for a family of 5 in 2012

Come join us every Thursday when I post a shopping list and menu and even recipes and meals to feed and stock a family 5 on $100 a week. We are starting with this amount and then we shall see if we can take it even lower!!!!! This is also going to be a challenge being that NJ is no cheap place to live along with the jacked up prices of everything due to the gas prices.

OK let's get started by clipping those coupons and getting them organized.

Don't forget to write in your journals and spend some quiet time with the Lord.

My Banana Raisin Bread

My Banana Raisin Bread

Ingredients

• 1 cup salted butter at room temp.
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 6 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 raisins

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Stir in the mayonnaise and bananas. Stir together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Blend the flour mixture into the banana mixture; stir just enough to evenly combine. Fold in the raisins.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 50 to 75 minutes. Cool loaf in the pan for 20 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.                

May 2012

Sunday Church	Monday Kitchen  living room GARDEN	Tuesday Bath rooms Laundry room	Wednesday Stairs/mud room Cole’s room	Thursday inventory to do lists	Friday Shopping bill paying	Saturday Yard COOP
		1	2	3	4	5
				Mist Mushrooms Ty’s Court of Honor	Plant warm veggies Pop’s party	Build new clothes line Mist Mushrooms
6	7	8 Quilting	9	10	11	12
Plant Gladioli and dead head daffadils	Open, set up portabella mushroom  Mist mushrooms	Spray peas with compost tea	Mist Mushrooms	Spray fruit trees	Mist Mushrooms	Put up temp fencing around bottom garden
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
Mother’s Day Mist Mushrooms	In-laws b-day Plant watermelon pumpkins and gourds	Mist Mushrooms Plant herbs and more fruit trees		Mist Mushrooms Organize canning supplies /replenish		Melanie’s B-day!! Mist Mushrooms
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
	Mist Mushrooms		Mist Mushrooms		Mist Mushrooms Place flags out
27	28	29	30	31
Mist Mushrooms	Memorial Day	Mist Mushrooms		Mist Mushrooms