lettered olives

(shark eye or moon snail) (lettered olive, below to the right)

today we started the process of going through all of our shells that we’ve exclaimed over and picked up and horded with pleasure since being in florida. we emptied various bags, boxes, and containers with tagalong sand and smaller stowaway shells. now they’re categorized by sea genre. (piles of auger, shark eye, lightning whelk, king's crown, coral and barnacle, oyster, clam, worm casings. delicate flower petal shells: white with reddish strips. pearly coin-sized shells: grey, white, black, and peach. swirly shell and broken-but-cool shells. artsy necklace pieces. and the few already-dead sand dollars, sponge, and star fish that we found.) some of these are going back to the ocean, others are to be placed in jars as eye candy…

(star fish)

in other areas of life, i’ve apparently adopted a new phrase since being a retiree in florida: “i can go either way.” while one would think this is a laid-back stance to have and that i must be pretty easy-going and not hard to get along with, i’ve been kindly reminded by super snark that it is preferable to have an opinionated partner-in-crime. so i will have to work on getting my fierce spunk back…sometimes it is difficult to have strong opinions about small day-to-day things when life is so good to me.

I made a quiche for dinner tonight and it was pretty yummy, so here’s the recipe in summary…maybe somebody else will want to try making it too!

crust:
1 and 1/2 cups of flour
1 stick of salted butter, cold
3 tbsp of cold water

step 1: put the flour in the food processor and add slices of the butter as it’s processing. when it’s crumbly, add the water slowly while processing. (this can be done the old fashion way too…in a bowl with a fork…same method but slower and more grunt work). roll out the dough on floured surface and put in 9 inch pie dish.

egg mixture:
4 eggs
2 cups half and half
a few pinches of salt
a few pinches of pepper
a dash of paprika
red pepper flakes, to taste
about 3 ounces of neufchatel cheese (or cream cheese)

step 2: mix the egg mixture up in food processor (or with a whisk).

step 3: put whatever you like in the unbaked pie crust; you can add anything you’re willing to eat!

i added in the following order:
1 minced garlic clove
2-3 tbsp of diced red onion
thin zucchini slices (to cover the bottom of the crust)
broccoli, chopped small (to fill pie crust maybe about 2/3 full)
about 4 ounces of grated cheese

step 4: pour the egg mixture over the ingredients that are in the pie crust

step 5: bake at 425 degrees, in a preheated oven, for 15 minutes. reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 30 more minutes until the top is firm and starting to lightly brown.

step 6: wait 10 minutes before serving.

(step 7: if you’re sassy, add plenty of hot sauce and serve with a giant salad!)