Quiche is the Word

One late afternoon last week, I was mulling over the monumental decision of what to make for dinner. I always have chicken and salmon that can be quickly defrosted. But didn’t want chicken again. Not salmon either. I typically buy beef the day I intend to cook it so didn’t have that on hand. Hmmm. I wanted something lighter and none of this was giving me inspiration. Then I remembered that I had a formed pie crust in the freezer from my recent pie dough mania. Maybe Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche but I announced to my husband that quiche was the word, or more specifically, quiche is what’s for dinner! Now to figure out what to put inside said quiche.

Start with a basic quiche recipe

Everyone should have a basic quiche recipe that they like and can modify with different veggies and cheeses. I’ve made Joanna Gaines’ Asparagus and Fontina Quiche a number of times and so turned to her recipe for inspiration. She uses a mix of Gruyère and Fontina cheeses, which I really like. I also sometimes opt for other Swiss cheeses, a sharp cheddar, pepper jack, and even parmesan for the top. For the veggies, I started with asparagus since this beautiful green veggie says spring to me. Also, asparagus has been plentiful and on special at my grocery lately. Mushrooms seemed to be a good addition. And at the last minute, I decided to add bacon.

My riff on Joanna Gaines’ recipe

Inspired by Joanna Gaines recipe above, I switched it up a little. Here’s my ingredient list:

Ingredients

One Flaky pie crust, blind baked (store bought is fine too!)

½ pound asparagus, cut into 1-2 inch pieces

4 slices bacon

Handful of mushrooms, sliced

1/2- 1 Tbs butter

6 large eggs

1 cup heavy cream

5 ounces Fontina cheese, grated

5 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated

½ tsp lemon zest

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Several grinds of black pepper to taste

Dash of red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Take your flaky delicious pie crust from freezer. Line crust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or beans. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and carefully lift weights out. Turn oven down to 350°F.

Asparagus: Cut the asparagus into 1-2 inch pieces. In a double boiler or a pot with steamer insert, bring 2 inches of water to a boil. Add the asparagus, cover and steam until tender, about 3 minutes. Rinse the asparagus under cold water to stop the cooking. Drain well and set aside.

Mushrooms and bacon: In small skillet, cook bacon. It’s probably easiest if you cut it up first and then saute in the pan. Although I did the reverse this time. Once it’s almost cooked,, add the sliced mushrooms with butter to the bacon grease - if you don’t have much grease, or drain some off and add butter for flavor. Saute until mushrooms are tender and bacon is crispy.

Egg & cream mixture: Whisk together the eggs and cream in a large bowl.

Salt & zest:: Use your fingers to rub the lemon zest together with the salt. This will give you a better mix in and not a random bite of lemon.  Set aside.

Assemble the quiche: Meanwhile, add the pepper, salt and lemon zest, and grated cheeses to the milk and egg mixture. Line the bottom of baked shell with the chopped bacon and mushrooms. Pour the egg mixture into the pie crust. Add the asparagus pieces making sure some of them are peeking out of the surface. Sprinkle red pepper flakes across top if desired.

Bake quiche: Bake on 350°F until the center is set (45 minutes). You may want to check at 40 minutes. The top should get golden brown, that’s fine. Let it stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Man cannot live on quiche alone, so he gets a side salad

I was quite pleased with my “Side Salad for two” basically thrown together from what I had in my fridge on this Wednesday night.

I like salads where you can see the ingredients and often use a plate instead of a bowl. I took two handfuls of mixed greens — just enough to make a bed of lettuce over a dinner plate or small serving plate.

Then I sliced oranges about ¼ in thick. Cut each slide in half and removed the peel. I used pretty-in-pink raspberry oranges.

Everything is better with avocado. So I sliced up 1 avocado.

Pull a jar of Pickled red onions from fridge. These are great for topping salads, burgers or sandwiches for a little extra “crisp.”. (you could use raw onion if you’d like)

Couple sprigs of cilantro. Just because.

Make a simple dressing drizzle. I did a couple squirts of honey, a few squeezes of lime juice and 1-2 tsp of olive oil, shook it up and drizzled it over the salad.

Of course, fresh ground pepper is a plus and I sprinkled some Himalayan pink salt on mine. Thinking I should have added pistachios or pepitas.

Voilà! Dinner is served in a beautiful display of color.

Spring has sprung!