Spinach Onion and Swiss Quiche

 Spinach, Onion & Swiss Quiche

I baked a quiche for a friend's birthday and it turned out so incredibly delicious I thought I'd share it.  It was supposed to also have canadian bacon but my hubby ate that the night before.  This quiche can be changed to include bacon, ham, roasted garden veggies or any combination imaginable.  I used half and half instead of heavy cream to lighten it a little and it worked out great!

Ingredients:

1 Refrigerated pie crust, fitted to a 9-in pie plate
6 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups half & half
Salt & Pepper
2 cups chopped fresh baby spinach
1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 cup chopped onion, sauteed in butter until translucent.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine eggs, half & half, salt and pepper in large bowl.
Layer spinach,onion, and cheese in the bottom of pie crust, then pour the egg mixture on top.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until eggs are set.

THE TIME OF MY LIFE (cue that song from Dirty Dancing)

We traveled this weekend to Houston to Lakewood church to see Pastor J. Prince teach the Word of God for the first time in the U.S.  It was literally a dream come true since he lives in Singapore and also a dream come true because of the IMMENSE impact of his teaching on my life. He has been instrumental in teaching me the Word and shares the gospel as Apostle Paul did.  He teaches from the Word, so many references, yet doesn't require notes-He's studied up!  What a miracle to see my favorite pastor from Singapore! It was phenomenal!  The place was full-around 15,000 people. We met people from around the country as far as New York City and someone as far as Canada.  It was encouraging to hear everyone we met testify to that ministry impacting them as it has me and awesome to see and hear 15,000 people worship our God.  Absolutely the time of my life- I can't wait for heaven!

 

Chili Supper

This photo simply doesn't do this chili justice.  It's tasty, is also great to serve as chili baked potatoes or fritos chili pie, makes a large quantity so use your largest stock pot, and it freezes wonderfully.  It's full of healthy fiber rich beans, and is delicious as turkey chili and best of all- easy to make.

Amanda's Chili

1/2 lb to 1 lb ground beef or turkey

30 oz tomato sauce

 30 oz kidney beans (with liquid)

30 oz pinto beans (with liquid)

15 oz black beans-optional (rinsed & drained)

1/2-1 cup chopped onion

1 can Rotel

14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

 2 cup Water

2 teaspoon Cumin

3 tablespoons Chili Powder

1 1/2 teaspoon Pepper

2 teaspoon Salt

Brown meat, add onion; simmer 3-5 minutes in large stock pot.  Add remaining ingredients, stir and simmer for 2 hours.

 Enjoy!

 

Joy of Dahlias

 My Purple Pearl Dahlias

Coming inside from cutting dahlias

Cute DIY dress by Martha Stewart

Source: marthastewart.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Our trip to Branson

Us At Silver Dollar City

Autumn leaves on trail

The Chateau on the Lake

One of many waterfalls on the trail

We were able to spend a couple days in Branson. The first night we stayed at the peaceful Omaha house where we just unplugged and actually made Lainey a tu-tu (lol). Then, we went to Silver Dollar City's Harvest Festival, which was fun. We saw great pumpkin carvers, wood workers, pottery and soap. Steven rode Wildfire, twice. We spent a night at the Chateau on the Lake. It was a beautiful hotel. It's more of a destination than simply a hotel. We walked their nature trail, caught part of a movie in their theater, sat on their many decks to enjoy hot chocolate and breakfast. It was a great trip.

What we've been up to...

Steven had surgery on both of his legs- hopefully taking care of his leg pain. He has been off work for the past six weeks and I've enjoyed having him at home. We had the property cleaned up- bush hog work and dead trees removed. Then, we had a pond dug out. All we need now is RAIN!

Blessings of RAIN!

For the past two days it's rained and cooled off! Whew! I'm so thankful! The thunder and rain has sounded SO GOOD! It looks like autumn here because the yard is full of dead leaves-we just had two months of drought and heat, I can't imagine six months of it as somalia has experienced.
I hope to do a lot of canning-so far we've canned some peaches. I think they look beautiful and will be tasty this winter!
Steven has created his first batch of lye soap. He included orange zest and a touch of honey in it. It takes a month to cure. I can't wait to try it! Lye soap sure helps to prevent poison ivy from spreading. I'm hoping this fall I will be able to get outside in the yard (wearing my leg brace) and work in the yard a bit. : )
Our deer have been coming by for water we keep out for them. Here is a picture of the baby deer.

Thirsty

The deer simply couldn't wait for Steven to fill their water bucket today when we got home so a buck and doe drank the kittens' water bowl dry!

Summer Getaway

We spent three nights and four days in Omaha/Harrison/Branson. We had a great visit with family and enjoyed a home-cooked meal. The Omaha house was nice and cool with a picture perfect wedge of watermelon waiting for us. Alex was excited to go to "grandma's" and he even barked at the cats, which is a sweet sound since his stroke. I just hope he wasn't too much for Mom. She had to carry him outside today because his back half wasn't working well. It is so hot it was a bit difficult to do everything we wished to do but we enjoyed the quietness of Omaha, a bit of shopping and a great meal out. We came home to a thirsty garden and deer.

Great Deals

Ok, I intended to take a picture but figured it's unnecessary. Our last grocery shopping trip had some great buys! We had a coupon for Heinz ketchup and walmart had it on sale as well so we got two 40 oz bottles for $1.79! Even better than that was Wish Bone Italian Dressing for $.42!
I truly enjoy saving money as much as I do spending it! Isn't that what Suze Orman says is the new American Dream? LOL

The Opportunity of Adversity

I'm in love with a book that was a gift from Andy Wilson, Sun Stand Still. It is life changing! I keep rereading it trying to soak up all the wisdom. These are some nuggets from the chapter I read today.

"Don't you typically think of adversity as the opposite of opportunity?
I usually pray for God to remove all the obstacles and opposition in my life. To my way of thinking, adversity gets in the way of opportunity. But God doesn't think like I think. I guess that's why he rarely asks me what I think. So instead of taking away our adversity, he develops our faith and demonstrates his strength by working through our adversity...All good stories start with adversity...We'd prefer for God to build a bridge over our troubled waters but it doesn't work that way. It can't because you'd never see how strong God is if there were no opponent for him to overcome in your life.

Without crisis moments we would know nothing of his power. We would have nothing on which to base our trust in his unlimited provision, never prove his potential, never be carried by his tender mercies or have stories to tell of his presence in our darkest hours.

Sometimes his strength is demonstrated in what he does around us and other times his strength shines in us enabling us to endure devastating setbacks with remarkable strength.

Remember that your crisis is your greatest opportunity to see God's glory and goodness revealed- and to have the high honor of revealing him to others."

What Does Your Face Say?

When someone you love walks into the room, does your face light up?

Jesus said,"whatever is in your heart determines what you say" (Matthew 12:34). I believe whatever is in your heart will also determine how you interact with others by body language. So what is in your heart? Are we filled with busyness, stress and selfishness? Are we filled with criticism and fault finding? What does our face say to our spouse or child when they walk in the room? "I'm too busy", "you're not worthy"?

The Nobel prize winning author, Toni Morrison learned this lesson with her children but I believe we should take notice of this with every person in our lives. "When my children used to walk in the room, when they were little, I looked at them to see if they'd buckled their trousers or if their hair was combed or if their socks were up. You think your affection and your deep love is on display because you're caring for them. It's not. When they see you, they see the critical face. But if you let your face speak what's in your heart...because when they walked in the room, I was glad to see them. It's just as small as that, you see."

When someone you care for walks into the room, does your face light up?

Does your face tell them you are glad to see them?

It's SWARM Season

So far we've got two calls about swarms of bees. One is in Tontitown inside a tank on a semi truck. That'll be interesting because we have to remove the tank off of the truck and bring it all here to the house to begin moving the bees into a hive box. The other swarm was in someone's tree in their front yard. We invited 'rookie' beekeeper Steve L. to join us and have his first experience picking up a swarm. (I wasn't much help. I merely rode along to take pictures)

Go for Golf Cart!

So, the $100 golf cart is up and running! All it needed was new batteries. It would've been running sooner but the battery tray was rusted out so once he got new metal welded in to hold the new batteries we could finally try to start it up and it runs like a charm!

17 days post surgery

Here's how we're healing. Still swelling, lovely tape burns that nurse Amanda says looks likely to scar (joy). I'm staying pretty close to my new best friend, the continuous cold therapy machine, which has helped with both the swelling and the pain. I'm counting down the days until life returns to normal.

New Fruit

The first strawberries of the season!!

CASA playhouse palooza bash

Cesar and Angela from Ink and Thread Creations invited us to the annual CASA playhouse palooza bash last night. CASA is a much needed organization in NWA and we always have such a great time with C and Ang! Last night, Steven won an autographed Troy Aikman jersey. They provided fabulous food from Abuelos and we rocked with Oreo Blue! It was a good night despite the knee pain (11 days post surgery). I'm staying on the continuous cold therapy machine today, watched church live online-too cool!

Spring Rains

We got over 14 inches of rain in a week's time! Sad thing is, it's raining again this morning.
Maybe we won't get the river through the front yard again. The marina is flooded as well. Two of the docks had ran into one another. Not sure when we'll be able to get out to the boat to check it.

Dance Your Shoes Off

An answered prayer...No, seriously!

I am excited to introduce you to an answered prayer. No kidding, we prayed over this young lady to become pregnant, with obstacles and mountains before her, our God heard and gave her the desire of her heart. Welcome to earth little Honor Elyse.
Click on link below:
Superchikk: Welcome, Little Sister!

What a deal, I hope?!

Steven- finder of all good road finds and cheap deals- bought this golf cart for $100. Of course, it doesn't run, but everything except the batteries look good so we're hoping it will be a quick fix!

Butter knows home improvement

Finally, we are able to do the work needed on the basement floor and make it a usable space. bonus! we were also able to put in the sidewalk out back! I'm so excited!

dogs, friends and more

The girls got together to surprise Tina to celebrate her birthday (it was a big one). She was totally surprised because her birthday was three months earlier. LOL Alex is getting older and slower. We are relishing what time we have left with him and hopefully giving him some great golden years.

Time to catch up- the 2010 winter season

It's time to catch up. I'm sorry to totally drop the "blog ball". We began to lead a small group(quest) at church. We've kept busy with the house, garden, church, etc. The Christmas season was blessed. Here are a few pictures from this winter, including our record snow fall.