Dinners Week 8: Turkey Chili, the most delicious Quiche, and some party favs

First off, let me apologize for the tardiness of this post.  Six of my best friends in the entire world were in town this weekend, and I wasn't about to miss spending one minute with them because I was on the computer...so here you have this week's meals a little late ;)

Turkey Chili Taco Soup:  Recipe from Skinnytaste found HERE

NOTES:  So, this is one of my new favorite blogs...www.skinnytaste.com.  I have only tried two of her recipes thus far, but they have both been easy and delicious.  In all honestly, this was not the soup that I thought I was making...I had planned on making her turkey chili with sweet potatoes...there is also one with pumpkin that looks delicious, but I wrote down the wrong recipe.
Well, good for me, because this was GREAT!!!






Quiche: (recipe from CovCom Cooks!...can y'all tell this is one of my favorite cookbooks?!??!)

1 9in pastry shell, unbaked (I used 1 sheet of puff pastry this time)
8-10 slices bacon, diced
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 cup grated Swiss cheese (can substitute Gruyere)
4 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Freshly ground pepper
Freshly ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  *Prick holes in pastry shell and back for 5 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350 degrees.  

Fry bacon in small skillet.  Remove with slotted spoon and drain on paper towel.  Place onion in skillet, and saute in bacon grease over m edium heat until golden.  Drain grease.  Spread onioin, bacon, and grated cheese in partially baked pastry shell.

Combine eggs, milk, cream, salt, cayenne, pepper, and nutmeg in medium bowl; mix well.  Pour into pastry shell.  Place pie plate on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until custard is golden brown and firm, and knife inserted in center comes out clean.

NOTES:  I wanted to make something with puff pastry since I had some in my freezer this week.  I thought maybe I'd do some sort of broccoli cheese puffs or mini pizzas, but I then realized that I had some leftover Swiss cheese and bacon that I also needed to use up, and it dawned on me that I hadn't made this quiche in a while and that puff pastry would probably work just fine...which it did!  It was amazingly good.  I don't really even like eggs, and if you ask me if I like quiche, I would probably say "not really."  BUT, this quiche is SO yummy!!!  I added broccoli to the onions and cooked it for a few minutes before adding them in to the pie shell.  *I poked holes in the puff pastry and spread it over a pie plate.  I added macaroni noodles to it to keep it from puffing up...ideally you would use beans for this, but I didn't have any, so I tried the noodles...they burned a little ;)  I cooked it for about 10 minutes.  I made this all at once because it comes together super quickly...my 4 year old helped!!



Stella and Dot party:

Photo by Susie D

I hosted a stella and dot party this past week, which was SO much fun.  I ended up with about 20 girls here just having appetizers, drinking some wine, and looking at fun jewelry.  I thought I'd share my menu with you:

Artichoke Dip: recipe found HERE.
Serve with wheat Toasted crackers.

Toffee Fruit Dip:  recipe found HERE
Serve with sliced Granny Smith apples.  Squeeze a lemon over the slices so that they don't turn brown.

Reese's Cup Toll House Cookies: 
Break and bake Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
Miniature Reese's Cups

Spray two mini muffin tins with cooking spray, or line them with mini muffin liners.  Add one unbaked cookie to each muffin cup.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.  Let cool for 5 minutes.  Unwrap Reese's cups and add one cup to each muffin tin.  Press down slightly so that top of Reese's cup is even with top of muffin tin.

 

Photo by GaylaJ

Bacon Wrapped Dates: recipe found HERE



Happy Cooking!!!