Let Me Tell You About Quiche

Last week, I made my first quiche. I didn't take a picture. I really should have. But it went over with the kids so well that we made it again this week. I took lots of pictures this week. I just couldn't wait to share it with you. 

We decided on this recipe because we wanted to find something our kids could help make. As homeschooling parents, we assume the responsibility of teaching our students to be self reliant. We need to teach them to cook. They need ample time in the kitchen, using tools that might make us uncomfortable to see them using, starting when they're fairly young. At least, that's my policy. Honestly, we've been pretty short on the time the kids spend in the kitchen lately because of the general level of craziness. 

Not only was it a great source of kitchen experience, but it was delicious. The kids all devoured it. It even satisfies the Cub's persistent desire for scrambled eggs. However, there are no vegetables in this particular quiche, so we serve it with steamed broccoli. 

Ham and Swiss Quiche

Makes about 4 Servings

Total time about 1 hour
Time to cook: 45 minutes

Prep time about 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 package roll-out pie crusts (two crusts per box. we make two quiches. You could make your own crust, of course)
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup half and half
• 1-2 cups diced cooked ham (you can buy it already diced, by thick-sliced ham from the deli, or dice up some leftovers)
• 1 1/2 cups grated swiss cheese
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Instructions

This recipe is super simple. As I mentioned, I picked this one so I could involve the kids in the preparation. There are many other quiche recipes. You can put almost anything (within reason) in a quiche. So far, this is the only one we've tried. I can vouch for this recipe being kid-prep friendly and kid-approved for level of deliciousness. 

1. Preheat your oven to 350. 
2. Take the pie crusts out of the box and let warm to room temperature. Put one in the fridge for later if you're only making one quiche. (The crusts are rolled up and wrapped in plastic, so I set them outside, briefly, on my covered patio to warm)
3. Beat eggs and half and half until combined, then add salt, pepper and mustard. Mix well. (On our first attempt, I didn't supervise the mustard mixing quite well enough. One of my quiches wound up with surprisingly mustardy parts.)
4. Roll out your room-temperature (or close) pie crust and press it into a greased pie tin.
5. Layer ham cubes and swiss cheese into the crust, pour egg mix in, then sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top. 
6. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes: until crust is golden brown and eggs are fully set. (Remember that eggs are still wet on the inside even when they're fully cooked, but you should see no mucous-consistency yellow stuff when you cut into the quiche.)

 Found this recipe here: ham and swiss quiche 

Am I Allowed To Say I Suck At Math?

This month, I will have my 28th birthday. This month, I am studying math I learned in high school because I haven't used it in a decade or more and I need to take a math placement exam for college. This month, I have spent a lot of high quality time with my kids and I have fallen more in love with Papa via his patience for me as I reveal that I have completely forgotten how to solve high school math problems. This month, I am trying to enjoy summer break.

My ex husband (the girls call him daddy) now lives about a five-minute drive from my house. He's in his first year of a biomedical engineering degree. I'll be excited for him if that works out to its most positive end. I don't feel comfortable saying anything else about that right now. But having him living here has been another typical adventure in parenting: awesome for my kids... stressful and frustrating for me. Isn't it all like that?

Daddy is pulling a crazy summer schedule with a full-time block of classes as well as an internship starting in July. He sees the girls on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. For now, it's working out well enough, but once his internship starts, he's going to be cramming his visits in between that and nap time/his classes and they'll get much less time with him.

I've struggled with his presence in my life because he still makes me feel a little insecure. At the end of the day, I'm always happy to have the life I have, but when I visit him, I question my decisions a little. For example: I would love to have a nice road bike. How nice for him that he was able to save up his discretionary spending to buy himself one while I've had to save up discretionary spending to buy bikes for our kids. In the end, I realize that in order to have the things he has, I would have had to be much more selfish. That is not to say that he is selfish, but that I have more external obligations and would have to be quite selfish to ignore them.

Anyway, whinging aside, I come home and remember that I live in a house I own. I have a fun and interesting vegetable garden and four lovely chickens that I helped fight for the city's right to have. I have four amazing kids who I, exclusively, have always been there for. I have a wonderful partner in parenting who supports and loves me and keeps me interested in life and lots of other things. I have chosen to foster life projects, skills, and progress he has not. Our paths have been different, but I'd rather have my vibrant life full of joy and struggle than a bicycle.

This month, I read How to Raise a Wild Child by Scott D. Sampson (Dr. Scott the paleontologist from Dinosaur Train, now vice president of research and collections and chief curator at our museum of nature and science). I was interested to see what he would have to say because I felt like I had some idea who he was. I don't know him personally, but I know he isn't some shrink with a theory he's tested in a sterile lab. He isn't a parent from a previous generation who wants to tell me how to raise my kids despite how things have changed. He's a parent right now, with a modern life and a modern job and real concerns about our modern world. Papa suggested we read this one.

I wouldn't say it has changed me as a parent. I would describe it as an empowerment... a motivation. We all need to get out more and encourage our kids (and ourselves) to fall in love with nature wherever we can find it.

In addition to visiting our "big back yard" (an incredible local open space) increasingly a lot, we've had many interesting upgrades and activities in our life since I last wrote, in February. In near accurate order:

• Grandma Julie visited. 
• I started doing yoga. 
• I got a didjeridoo. 
• Cub got training pants. 
• We built a chicken coop. 
• Daddy moved back to Colorado. 
• All three girls participated in their first gymnastic expo. 
• We got our chicken permit. 
• We built a water-fun table for cub and the girls. 
• We got chickens. 
• Our good friend sent us The Book with No Pictures, which all parents should own. 
• Papa and I went to the symphony with one of my friends. 

• We visited our super-cool, homesteading (I feel like there should be a scale for just how "homestead" you are, like the crunchy mom scale) mountain-living friends. 
• We attended the opening of the new, outdoor portion of the local children's museum. 
• M learned to ride her bike! 
• My ignition broke again and my car had to be towed and fixed. 
• I just got my car back today. 
• The girls all made some cool pillows, which was their first use of my sewing machine.