Melissa Iwai © 2014
First of all — Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms! :) This is a card I recently did for my mom. I posted my process on my “work” blog on my new website. I’m loving experimenting with calligraphy. The fun thing about this card, is that I drew the calligraphy, because I don’t yet have the correct nib. Anyway, you can check out how I did it here.
My mom is so great. This is us a couple of years ago after she helped plant flowers in our garden (I am kind of hopeless):
She is the only person that makes me feel tall. :)
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So, even though I’ve been crazed with multiple work projects, I had time to completely procrastinate last week and enter some recipes in the 47th Annual Pillsbury Bake Off Contest. I don’t really know what got into me. I haven’t entered a contest in years and years. And I’ve only entered this one once, and didn’t get in. I never tried again, because it was so hard for me. There are certain ingredients you must use, and certain ingredients you can use in addition to these. There are time constraints — your prep time has to be under 30 minutes, and full cooking time has to be within 3 hours (I think!). This year, there was a seven ingredient limit (not counting water, salt, pepper). Anyway, for some reason, I became obsessed, but I only had a week to do it all because the deadline was May 7th, and I only learned about it a week and a half beforehand (thank you Laura Stanke!)
I first learned of the world of recipe contesting when I was a finalist for a Cooking Light Reader Recipe contest — the first one I entered. These people are AMAZING. I was so in awe. I met my friend, Anna, there of Cookie Madness, who had just won the Pillsbury Bake Off that year. Everyone there knew about it and most were in the contesting world. There are so many recipes contests going on all the time. I tried a few after that, but I never devoted the time and energy into it — it is a lot harder than it sounds!
This time, I made about 12 savory fillings and used them in 17 recipes and did two more sweet recipes. I had such a hard time inputting the recipes — it was ridiculous. I kept making mistakes and had to redo them (probably due to sleep deprivation– ha ha).
Here is a recipe I later realized I couldn’t submit because the prep time exceeded the limit of 30 minutes. Also you may have extra filling leftover — this isn’t a bad thing, as the tomatoes are good in so many things!
Roasted Tomato and Mozzarella Mini Quiches
1 pint (10oz.) grape tomatoes, washed and sliced vertically in half
¼ teaspoon dried basil
Non-stick spray
kosher salt
1 can of Pillsbury® Grands!® Reduced Fat Crescent Refrigerated dough
2 eggs
2 tablespoons half and half or milk
1/2 cup shredded mozarella cheese
1. Heat oven to 275° F. Lightly spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray. Arrange tomato halves cut side up in one layer. Season with basil and kosher salt. Roast in oven for 40 minutes. Set aside.
2. Heat oven to 375 F. Spray 8 regular-sized muffin cups with non-stick spray.
3. Remove crescent rolls from package but don’t unroll. Using a serrated knife, cut roll into 8 rounds. Carefully separate rounds. Roll round flat with a rolling pin. Press 1 round on bottom and completely up side of each muffin cup. Beat eggs with half and half or milk and set aside.
4. Top with roasted tomatoes. Divide egg mixture evenly among cups (about 1 tablespoon each). Top with cheese.
5. Bake 12-16 minutes or until filling is set and edges of quiches are golden brown. Cool in pan 5 minutes. Run knife around edge of each quiche to loosen; Remove from pan. Serve warm.