"Real Moms don't make quiche"

I beg to differ. I have gotten that email about what real Moms do and don't do. Near the end of the list is the part about real moms not baking quiche. I'm here to say UNTRUE!!!!

Quiche really are easy to do. You can throw just about anything in them and it will seem fancy. The mini quiche I made the other night were made out of the leftovers in my fridge. I had a red and an orange bell pepper that were just about at the end of their lifespan, basil from my garden!!! picture me doing the cabbage patch shouting "go me! go me!", some leftover bacon, and some ready-made pie crusts. I always have eggs and cheese on hand, so I figured that would suffice. I made mini quiche instead of one normal sized quiche because, let's face it, anything miniature or over sized is cute and fun except my over sized boo-tay.

Mamma Ducky's Mini Quiche

1 pkg. ready made pie crust (the kind that comes rolled up)

3 eggs

1 1/4 C heavy cream, half and half, or milk you decide, based on your desired waistline...I went middle of the road with half and half

1/2 C roasted red, yellow, or orange bell peppers (or any combination)finely chopped to roast a bell pepper, slice it in half, seed it, and brush it with olive oil all over. Place on foil lined broiler wrack and crank that broiler up. Broil until peppers appear slightly charred (mine took 5-9 mins.)

3 slices cooked bacon, chopped who has cooked bacon in their fridge? I do. Southerners tend to fry up bacon just to use the bacon grease in recipes and we're left with fully cooked bacon. Some of you may buy fully cooked bacon, there by having slightly cleaner arteries than myself because you did not use the bacon grease in some other recipe. Goody for you.

1/3 Cup frozen spinach, defrosted, squeezed see, I'm not totally without healthy thoughts.

2 leaves of fresh basil finely chopped

1 Cup shredded cheese of your choice (I used 2% cheddar cheese) feta, Monterrey jack or a smoked variety would be yummers too.

Why is there an unnecessary picture of shredded cheese? We all know what shredded cheese looks like after all. Because I heart cheese and it's my blog.

**most of this can be done ahead of time, like roasting and chopping the peppers, the bacon, shredding the cheese. If you have that all done ahead of time and ready to go, this comes together really quickly.

Remove the pie crust dough from the fridge and let it set out for 15 minutes or so (or put it in the microwave for 15 seconds on defrost setting). Unroll it on a mostly clean workspace. Now, I wanted REALLY mini quiche. Like tart tin size (for the little people, you know how it is). I scrounged the kitchen to find something that would work as a dough cutter. Now, if you're fancy-shmancy and have a round cookie cutter that is approximately 2 inches in diameter you're set. If you're like me, you'll take the cap off of the Flintstones vitamin bottle and use it.

I cut out 24 little circles, sprayed my tins with non-stick spray, then pressed the circles into the tins.

Next, beat your eggs and add the milk/cream/half & half. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Combine the roasted peppers, bacon, spinach and basil in a small bowl. Spoon slightly less than 1 tsp. of the mixture into each pastry-lined tine. Spoon appr. 1 T egg mixture into each tin. Sprinkle with cheese. Pop into a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Done and donerer. Serve warm or room temperature.

*NOTE* you can most certainly use muffin tins, you'll just need to use a bigger cookie cutter (or lid) and adjust the amounts put into each cup accordingly. If you're boring and just want a standard, pie sized quiche, put your dough in a pie plate and throw everything inside. You'll want to bake it until the center is no longer jiggly.

After the fact, I realized caramelized onions would have just made these little suckers to die for. As they stand they're pretty darn good, I just wouldn't jump in front of a train to save a tray of them.

The Dude strolled in the door as these were cooling on the counter. I told him to try one. ONE. He ate 13.

Show me them pearly whites.

I went to the denist today. I hate the dentist. Well, going to the dentist. I actually like my dentist, nice guy. I'll continue hating going to the dentist, mostly because of the dental hygenist.

I thought she looked nice enough...WRONG. As I'm looking around the room as she jabbers on about who knows what, I notice a bunch of pictures drawn by kids. Awe, how sweet...WHAT THE?!?!?!?!??! There is one picture that reads: "You may think you have a nice hygenist, but look out." The pictures accompanying this text are a gun firing a bullet at a duck and a huge foot stepping on a bug. These are the times I so wish a I had a camera phone.

#1, what did she DO to this poor kid?

B. Why would she put that picture up?

Pink. Why is this woman allowed around patients???

Is it part of the job description to make you feel like crap?

"Oh, mmmm, gee, are you sure you floss enough?"

Lady, I floss as much as I can. It isn't that high on my priority list. Yes, I know, bad me.

I think she was disappointed that she didn't find my mouth in such bad shape considering I hadn't had a cleaning in a year and a half. But oh, she kept lookin.

"And your wisdom teeth???" she chirped.

"Do I have wisdom teeth?" I wonder aloud.

"Oh, it's very rare to not have them.

"The Dude doesn't have any."

"We'll see about that when he comes in later," she said, almost in a rather condesending manner.

When I tell her they've never bothered me, she found that unbelievable.

"Well you'll have to have them out right away!!"

What the hell? She was just hell-bent on finding something that had to be fixed. She was also absolutely certain I had a cavity but when the dentist came in he said I didn't. She even argued with him until he got out this super-duper-hi-tech cavity finder thingy-ma-bob **actual, technical name**. She also swore up and down I had gingivitis due to my gums bleeding. Well duh lady. You just flossed my teeth with embroidery thread. You read that right. This stuff:

This stuff is easily 10Xs thicker than regular floss. No joke my gums bled. I brought up that I had recently quite nursing The Pickle and that (the hormones and such), coupled with the embroidery thread led the dentist to conclude no gingivitis.

Things we learned from this: dental hygenist chick needs to get off her power trip and that she doesn't know all she thinks she knows.

I think I need a recipe. Well, YOU need a recipe. This comes from my girl Katie...actually her mother in law. This is not a diet recipe AT ALL, which translates into yummy. This is the recipe EXACTLY as it came to me. My little changes will be noted at the bottom.

Mexi-veeta Spaghetti

1 rotisserie chicken- de-boned and shredded
1 lb. spaghetti
1 stick butter
1 pk. McCormick mild chili powder
1 onion- chopped
1 cup celery- chopped
1 bell pepper- chopped
½ can mild Rotel tomatoes
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 lb. Velveeta cheese
1 box chicken stock/broth
1 ½ cup half-n-half

Instructions:
1. De-bone and shred chicken. Set aside.
2. Boil spaghetti in half salted water/half chicken stock. Don’t drain spaghetti.
3. Chop onions, bell pepper, and celery.
4. In a skillet, melt stick of butter; add onions, bell pepper, and celery. Sauté until onions are translucent. Add soup, chili mix, and cheese until melted.
5. In a large casserole, mix noodles and water, skillet mix, chicken, and half-n-half. Stir together.
6. Bake covered at 300°F for 45 minutes.

Mamma Ducky changes: I cut the butter to 1/4 cup, didn't use bell peppers (was out), and I used 2 % Velveeta. Another thing is The Dude HATES spaghetti noodles so I used penne. I felt they held up better to cooking. Also, I didn't realize that the recipe was calling for McCormick chili MIX until I was already elbow deep in this recipe. So I just added some chili powder, cumin and black pepper.

This really makes TON of food. Divide it in half before baking and slap some in the freezer for another meal. That is, unless you're feeding an army, not the small kind either.

Numero Uno

Peeps this, yo. I'm kidding. Ok so here we go. I'm starting this blog because I have a lot of ideas and I need a place to put them. I have a rather dry sense of humor and if you can't deal with that, well, um, sorry?. I'm not proper or entirely polite. I'm not a professional chef or decorator. My sewing skills are probably subpar, but this is me.

Today the kids' sitter called me at work and asked if I could come and pick them all up. Her son had been in a motorcycle accident. He's ok (yay!). Anyway, do you know what my first thought was (aside from wondering if he was ok)? Hobby Lobby! Woo-hoo. I've been needing, er, wanting to get over there for a couple of weeks now. I just never had the time. Only I would think it a brilliant idea to take three kids under the age of three into Hobby Lobby just before nap time. Of course I find what I need and head home. I must hurry, I have important things to do.

Over the course of the afternoon I baked cookies with the kids (ok, so they were cheater cookies, but how else can you let a set of not-quite-three year old twins bake?!), baked an apple pie (hello fall!!), decoupaged a previously ugly and plain trash can for the twins' room, finished and packed up a baby wrap for a friend (welcome to the world Logan!) and cooked a friggen awesome dinner (which all the kids ate! BONUS!!). Yes, I rock. Or maybe I'm just nuts. Either way, I had fun.