Crispy Cheese Stars

I found this recipe on Disney's Family Fun Magazine website.  I had all the ingredients, and I LOVE anything with cheese, so I thought I'd give it a try.  Plus the stars added extra festivity to the July 4 holiday coming up.

Family Fun Magazine

Ingredients

• Flour tortillas
• Sliced cheese (cheddar, provolone, or mozzarella)
• Chili powder or paprika

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 350º. Use the larger cookie cutter to cut out stars from flour tortillas (about 5 per 10-inch tortilla). It's easy for kids to do if you use a rolling pin to roll back and forth over the cutter. Bake the stars on a foil-covered cookie sheet for 5 minutes.
2. Use the smaller cookie cutter to cut out an equal number of cheese stars from the sliced cheese and place them atop the tortilla ones. Bake the stars for 2 more minutes or so until the cheese melts.
3. Sprinkle the stars with chili powder or paprika and let them cool before serving.

This recipe was much more successful.  It was also simple.  I used the star cookie cutters after warming up the tortillas.  I used 3 full sized tortillas and got 23 stars out of it.  I used three different cheeses: Colby, Muenster, and American.  The hard cheeses (Colby & Muenster) turned out better, probably because they were more thickly sliced.  I sprinkled chili powder over half of the stars.  I left half plain in case the kids didn't like the spice.

How did it turn out?

Amazing!  The bottom was crunchy, the cheese was soft and gooey.  I enjoyed both the seasoned and unseasoned stars equally.  I served it as a side to some enchiladas I made for dinner.  I'm trying to think of another spice that might be a good topper instead of the chili powder, maybe taco seasoning?  Any ideas?

What about the kids?

Both kids enjoyed eating the stars.  Walter even ate extra bites of his enchiladas and salad in order to get the last two stars on the cookie sheet.  Mara ate the cheese off the top of a couple of hers.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Impossible Quiche

I flipped through the new MOPS cookbook I received for Christmas from my sister-in-law.  I found a recipe with very few ingredients, all of which I had on hand.  I decided this would be a good place to start for my new "recipe a day" idea. 

I substituted Colby cheese for the Swiss because that is what I had in the refrigerator. 

How did it turn out?

It smelled and looked wonderful.  Unfortunately, I did not measure the salt and pepper, but instead just sprinkled it into the blender before blending.  My quiche was really salty.  This was a user error!  My bad!  I will definitely measure the salt next time.  It was still pretty good, and the Colby cheese was a fine substitution.   

Looks scrumptious, doesn't it!?

What about the kids?

Walt found the tiny pieces of onion immediately and picked them out. (he's my picky child)  He declared after one bite that he didn't like it.  He's done, and he's not going to eat any more.  Mara also said she didn't like it, but only after hearing Walter say it first.  I made them each eat five bites, and faces were made after most of them.   I'm blaming the salt. 

Recipe: 4 out of 5
Turned out: 1 out of 5