Friday's Fun: Stockpiling Day

The other day was such fun! The girls and I made two quiches (for the freezer) and a peach pie (freezer? are you kidding?) of which half was eaten and raved about. :)

The Quiches
I had gotten 4 dozen organic eggs at $1.50 each and they needed to be used and FAST. I had already boiled a dozen, and used a dozen in one nights dinner (breakfast tacos).

So I decided to try quiche. I have never made it before, but love it. I found a recipe for Caramelized Onion Quiche and made it. I did not have red onions, only yellow. So I did as someone did in the comments and used some brown sugar on the onions. OH they looked and smelled so good!! I used her recipe for the crust and I added an extra egg. Because of the cost of the cheese she recommended, I made one of the quiches with Swiss (the girls LOVED the holes in the cheese). :)

They cooked up so wonderfully well. They browned nicely, the crust did not burn, and they did not overflow! YUMMO!!!! Freezing was easy. After cooking, I put them uncovered (I did not know how to do this until after I read about it) until frozen, then wrapped in freezer paper and foil and put into a plastic freezer bag. They freeze for two months. I took pen and wrote date to use by as well as reheating directions (do not thaw, cook 20-25 minutes in a 350F preheated oven).

The only bad thing was it did take a LONG time. There is chilling the dough as well as putting it in the freezer for a bit. I was also sad it did not even use a dozen eggs up. But now I know that with that recipe, it will take THREE quiches to use up all those eggs. I wish I had made more crusts. I made all the crusts at once (even the peach pie double ones).

The Peach Pie:
I love All Recipes for recipes. The recipes are rated AND the comments have the BEST tips in them.

I used the most starred Peach Pie recipe and not only was it simple, it was GOOD! It was the perfect Valentine's day treat, and a great way to use up the organic peaches I had gotten and cut up and froze during the summer. I left the skins on, and you honestly could not tell a difference in the way the pie came out. YUMMO!!

I used the pie crust recipe from the onion quiche recipe above. But I added 1 1/2 tsp sugar (for more sweet). I used 1/4 cup COLD shortening (from Spectrum - not Crisco) and 4 TBSP frozen butter.

A little tip about butter. I cut a BUNCH of sticks into tablespoons and stick them in the freezer. It is a great way to keep the butter cold while making crusts (the colder the butter the better the crust). I keep a ziploc freezer bag of these in the fridge now, ever ready for making pie crusts! :)

With the pie, I did like the comments suggested and added 1 heaping Tablespoon cornstarch, used 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup white, and though I am NOT a cinnamon person, added the touch of cinnamon suggested. WOW this pie came out GOOOD! And it did not boil over!!! The girls raved about it!

SUMMARY:
Our children learn by our example. So far, I have been a horrible example to them of cooking from scratch and stockpiling. This was a wonderful time to spend TOGETHER in not only baking, but stockpiling. They wondered why we were not eating the quiches right away. I got to explain about buying eggs on sale and making food for the future. :) So not only did we have a fun time together, I was able to pass on something important to my children. :) WOOHOO!!!

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Three things I am thankful for:
*slippery soap in baby's hands
*the awe and wonder in JJ's eyes at slippery soap
*the giggles that filled our house for 20 minutes of soapy fun :)