Summer Recipe submitted for consideration

Hey friends, summer is around the corner and I recently had an opportunity to submit for consideration a "Summer Recipe" to be published on a reporters blog site.  I chose my Cottage Cheese Quiche as a suggestion for this reporter's blog.

This is a delicious, EASY recipe you can make the day of or ahead of busy summer activities and takes hardly anytime to make (about 10-15 mins). The one shown in the photo above has spinach and vegetarian bacon strips added, however this is optional.  Hope you try my recipe, as those who know me, know I am not a kitchen or cooking fan, but this is a house staple!

COTTAGE CHEESE QUICHE


2 shallow Pastry Shells (either graham cracker or pie pastry shells. The graham cracker pastry shells add a slight "sweet" taste to the meal, which I have found people enjoy!) 

1 16 oz Cottage Cheese, small curd (regular is best, can use low fat but do not recommend large curd) 

6 eggs 8 oz Swiss Cheese, grated or cut into small cubes 8 oz Mozzarella Cheese, grated or cut into small cubes 

Add the following seasonings to taste: (approximately 1-2 teaspoons): 

Garlic 

Pepper 

Oregano 

Thyme 

Sage 

Dash of salt 

Optional Items: 

4-8 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained 

4-8 oz Parmesan Cheese 

Chopped green onions 

Vegetarian Bacon Strips (Morning Star brand is what I use) 


Take the above ingredients (except the bacon) and mix them all together in a large mixing bowl blending the items together. Pour 1/2 of the mixture into each pastry shell and spread evenly. Cut the Vege Bacon strips into squares and place them across the top of each pie rotating the direction to create an appetizing look to the top of the pie. Bake the pies in the oven at 400º for about twenty minutes and then allow the pies to sit in the hot oven with the heat turned off for an additional ten minutes. Cool and set out for guests. Serves about 6 generous slices per pie. Total prep time 10-15 mis + cooking This is easy, quick and a real crowd pleaser.

The Power of One

Nothing happens without a team, so in reality, there are more people behind the single person struggling to find their way in this ever increasing and difficult world.  Such as in the other day when I got this e-mail from my Mom about Etsy.  She knows me well and believes in the success of me and does what she can to assist where she can.  On this day she told me about something I had not known Etsy had done to their web site to help Etsy shops do more in promotion.  Etsy originally, when I first joined their site (2009), gave you the basic "About" page.  This is where you write a little bit of information about who you are and it is easy to access and change, which I have done when running specials in my shop.  Now they have added a more in depth "About Me" page, an extra to the original one, where the shop owner can talk about their "story" of how they came to be a shop owner.


Needless to say and two hours later I created my story, created the graphics for the moving banners and published it for all the world to see.  The new section also allows me to link to this blog which affords me more time to come here and write about my Etsy experience, challenges and dilemmas


I am a single person running a shop by myself while looking for work in the graphic/creative/packaging design industry, which has grown harder with the challenges of the internet bringing technical qualities to the table I have yet to completely master.  I wear many hats (wrote a children's story talking about such a person) and I am all things to many people.  Which is why I am grateful when someone who knows I may suffer from microscopic vision and can miss utilizing a tool before unknown to me.

So THANKS MOM, and thank you to all who visit my work on Etsy, my creative outlet for ideas from my head and vintage items from thrift stores, I really appreciate you stopping by.  I also hope you tell others about me as I want to grow and hire a person to help around the office so I can do more in the design world and less cleaning of the office! (ha ha).

Living with Grief

http://markvoland.blogspot.com/

I watch over him now as he permeates the remaining years of what our lives were together, because no one now, who shares my day to day, knew me as long as we knew each other, except family of course.  I was sixteen when I met him, turning 57 when he passed away and he has now left me once and all forever.  I can still miss him although, no worries, I am able to function quite normally and have been for awhile.  I just want to find that comfort zone again and I don't think I ever will.

He was not the only important man in my life to pass away, I lost my father when I was just 19, I still grieve him and it will be 38 years this October 30th.  Halloween has never been the same for me.

Living with grief is learning how to say ok to emptiness.  The life you once knew won't come back, unless you get lucky like I did with my dog Buddy.  I believe he is the cat I had 30 years ago who was blessed to come back to me, and Mark knew Buddy.  I found Buddy on the street one day thinking Mark and him would be great together.  Buddy had other ideas.

But here I was living my life thinking nothing about it when not once but twice, the two most important men in my life structure disappear.  I am grateful to our time together.  Read this poem, It is from the point of view of my daughter who witnessed the day I learned my friend Mark Voland had died.  I really like it.

Grief doesn't go away.  It shrinks.  For most of us it becomes really manageable, as it has for me, but memories being what memories are, this is part of a grieving process.  It also becomes louder when other things go wrong in your life that are out of your control and the world requires you to be strong.

So I am going to go be strong now.  Please go read the poem, maybe you'll like it too!