Bye Bye Winter: March Poetry

Second Wednesday of the month today,
you know what that means by now.
I try poetry again, if I may.
You get through it . . . somehow. 

Surely you know how goes,
our group on a theme decided. 
Using one keeps us on our toes,
Bye Bye, Winter's the theme provided.

Bye Bye, Winter

Bye bye, winter, adios.
Surely won't miss you.
Take the snow and go away,
winds and ice go too. 

Bye bye, winter, ciao to you.
I need longer days.
Done with night in the afternoon,
and skies not blues but greys.

Bye bye, winter, arrivederci.
Tired of coats and boots.
And I swear I might just die,
waiting to bake with seasonal fruits.

Blueberry Cookies and Cream Dessert

Bye bye, winter, sionara.
Don't let the door hit you in the ass.
What I wouldn't give right now,
just to see the growing grass.

Bye bye, winter, au revoir.
Can't wait for open windows.
I'll even put up with allergies,
to smell flowers: lilacs, a rose.


Bye bye, winter, auf weidersehen.
Can't wait for neighborhood walks.
And every Spring look forward to,
visiting deer, turkeys and hawks.

Bye bye, winter, toodle loo.
Spring comes in just a week.
So pack your bags, be on your way, 
hello sunshine, goodbye bleak.

Bye bye, winter, I say shalom.
But sure don't wish you well.
Overstayed your welcome here,
you can just go to . . . ahem . . . Carmel.

Before you go, click on these links to more poetry from some of my friends: 
Dawn of Cognitive Script shares So Long to the Cold.
Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares Later, Gator.

Blueberry Cookies and Cream Dessert

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe


NOTE: If you use chocolate cookie crumbs in this dessert it will have a muddier look. If you want a prettier look, use vanilla cookie crumbs.

Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup chocolate or vanilla cookie crumbs

1 box (3 oz) berry blue jello mix
1 cup vanilla ice cream, softened
1/2 pint blueberries

1/4 cup chocolate or vanilla cookie crumbs
whipped cream

Directions:
*Beat the cream cheese and 1 cup of the cookie crumbs until smooth. Set aside 6 blueberries for garnish.
*Mix the jello with one cup of boiling water. Stir until dissolved. 
*Pour it into the beater with the cream cheese. Add the softened ice cream. Beat, slowly and carefully, until smooth.
*Refrigerate for 45 minutes until it starts to set. Fold in the blueberries and divide into 6 individual dishes. Sprinkle with the remaining cookie crumbs and return to the refrigerator.
*To serve, add a dollop of whipped cream and the a blueberry to each serving.

Hash Brown Crusted Shrimp Quiche: Winter Thaw Blog With Friends

Today’s post is the next in our series of Blog With Friends themed collaborations. Each month a group of bloggers get together and each publish a project based on a theme. What I love about his partnership is that it's not bloggers with similar interests or strengths but a diverse group coming up with a variety of posts. In any given month we may a recipe, sewing tutorial, crocheting, crafts project, book review, and/or technology post all related to the theme of the month.

This month's theme is Winter Thaw.

There will be individual project pictures and links to what everyone else has to offer at the end of my post, but here's a peek at what we all came up with:

I made Hash Brown Crusted Shrimp Quiche.

Hash Brown Crusted Shrimp Quiche 

I love this month's theme because it gives me hope. Winter will thaw, Spring will come, my windows will open and I'll be spending time outside again. This very morning it was Daylight Savings Time, the first step towards the end of the shorter days of a dark cold winter. The second sign, the official start of Spring is in just 9 days. And let me tell you, I don't take the first day of Spring as a mark on a calendar, I take it as a promise.

As I think about Spring, about finally thawing out from what has been a frigid winter this year, I think about switching over from my heavier, heartier winter meals to some lighter warm weather options. This year, for my "hallelujah it's the first day of Spring" dinner, I've chosen a quiche. 

I know many people don't think of quiche as a dinner, more as a breakfast, lunch or brunch but for us it's versatile enough and substantial enough to be dinner. I always serve it with Monkey Bread. A strange choice, I know, but it's a funny story (well, in retrospect anyway). You can read it here: Quiche and Monkey Bribe . . . I Mean Bread. 

For this particular quiche I chose a green onion and hash brown crust. First, because it's a little more substantial and second because my older son prefers it. I actually made the crust the day before and refrigerated it. 

The next day, a few hours before cooking the next day I brought it up to room temperature, then continued with the recipe. I gathered my ingredients and chopped the cheese and vegetables.

Start with evenly dispersing the fillings into the crust.

Next whisk together the custard ingredients and pour carefully onto the filling. Top with a little chopped dried chives and pop in the oven.

After it comes out of the oven, let your quiche sit for 10 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy! 

As always, any time you make one of my recipes, feel free to post a picture of it to my Baking In A Tornado Facebook Page. I'd love to see it!

Be sure to visit all of this month's other Blog With Friends projects:

Dawn of Spatulas on Parade shares her recipe for Fiesta Biscuit Bake. 

Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares Warm Up with a 5K (Tips from a Not-So-Athletic Runner).

Jules of The Bergham Chronicles shares Thawed Out, a post about transitioning from winter to spring.

Hash Brown Crusted Shrimp Quiche

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 package (20 oz) hash brown shreds, defrost (if frozen), drain and pat dry well
1 egg
1 tsp salt, divided
1/2 tsp pepper, divided
2 green onions

5 slices provolone cheese, chopped
8 oz medium shrimp, deveined, peeled, cooked and cooled
1/4 cup cooked broccoli florets, chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
6 eggs, beaten
1 cup half and half
1 tsp dried chopped chives
  
Directions:  
*Grease a quiche dish or 10 inch pie plate. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
*Separate the green tops and the white bottoms of the green onions. Chop the whites and set aside, then chop the green tops.
*Mix together the hash brown shreds, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp of the salt, 1/4 tsp of the pepper and the green onion tops. Press into the bottom and up the sides of your prepared dish. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and change the oven temperature to 375 degrees.
*Spread half of the chopped provolone onto the bottom of the hash brown crust. Sprinkle with the shrimp, broccoli, mushrooms, chopped white portions of the green onion and finally the remaining cheese. 
*In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, half and half, remaining salt and remaining pepper. Pour into the crust. Sprinkle the top with the dried chopped chives.
*Bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Don't Forget the Gardener: Secret Subject Swap

Welcome a Secret Subject Swap. This month 9 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts. Read through mine and at the bottom you’ll find links to all of today’s other Secret Subject participants.

My subject is: The garden fairies have shown up at your house and, overnight, created your dream garden. What's in it?
It was submitted by: Minette of Southern Belle Charm.

Let me say right at the start that if garden fairies have shown up at my house and created my dream garden, the first thing I hope (and pray) would be in it would be a gardener. I'm not sure whether you're referring to a floral or vegetable garden but either way, I'll take that gardener.

I don't like the way the landscaping around our house was done. We have Burning Bush shrubs along our walkway, which are very pretty but have prickers. Nothing says "welcome" like stabbing your guests on the way in.

We had a crabapple tree beside our front door but, that section if flanked by the sidewalk, front porch and our foundation so sadly, it was in a spot where the roots had limited room for growth and eventually the tree died. 

All apples around here are store bought.

Green Apple Cookie Bars

Where we live there is a very high water table. A lot of the year our sump pump works overtime. This makes it hard to grow anything as the ground is saturated. All we've really found that will thrive are Day Lillies and Hostas. I like them both, don't get me wrong, but I don't like having them pretty much exclusively.

There is also a layered garden on one side of our house. It's more greens than flowers, not what I'd prefer but originally I kept it up. Unfortunately they built the layers with boulders that, over time, have become unstable and the whole area is now unkempt. Getting someone in here to remove the boulders and properly line the area will be a big and expensive project {{sigh}}. 

If I were to have a dream garden, especially here, so far from home, I'd want all of the flowers that remind me of Boston. I adore rhododendrons, lilacs, forsythia and Iris, all surrounded our home on the East Coast. I tried them here but none can survive our yard. I am beyond excited, however to have found something new, lilac shrubs. They are lower to the ground, bushier (more flowers, yay) and are thriving on the north side of my home. One small victory for me. 

My ideal garden would also be one that is as much about the wildlife than the flowers themselves. I fulfill this wish with the pots I plant yearly. One by the front door I fill with flowers that attract hummingbirds. Other pots both in the front and in the back attract butterflies. I hope my garden fairies keep this in mind as they're busy creating the beauty of my new space. 

Oh, and don't forget that gardener. I'll even pay him . . . in treats.

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

Never Ever Give Up Hope
The Blogging 911 
Cognitive Script 
Southern Belle Charm
The Bergham Chronicles   
The Crazy Mama Llama 
Part-time Working Hockey Mom 
Climaxed 

Green Apple Cookie Bars

                                                              ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe


Ingredients:

1 large apple (I use Granny Smith, Honey Crisp or Braeburn) peeled, cored and chopped
1 TBSP butter 
1 TBSP brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 stick butter, softened
1 stick margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 box (2.79 oz) green apple jello mix
2 eggs
OPT: a few drops of green food coloring
2 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup toffee baking chips
1/2 cup cinnamon baking chips

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 X 13 baking pan.
*In a small saucepan, melt the 1 TBSP butter over medium heat. Add the apple, 1 TBSP brown sugar and cinnamon. Cook and stir until the apple is tender. Set aside.
*Cream the remaining butter, margarine, sugar, brown sugar and jello mix, then beat in the eggs and green food coloring (if using). Slowly at first, beat in the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in the baking chips.
*Spread about 1/2 of the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan. Cover with the apple mixture. Dot the top with the remaining dough and with slightly wet hand, spread out. All of the apple mixture does not need to be covered.
*Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting into bars.