a quick quiche

i have been having the most wonderful five-day break from work.  after a long stretch of traveling weekends and hosting and working weekends, it’s been a little slice of heaven to not leave the house for two days.  i’ve chipped away at my big writing projects that come due in the next few weeks, i’ve done some sewing, i’ve done some cooking, i’ve done some napping, i’ve done some crafting… (full blog posts on most of these to follow in the next few days.  i have to pace myself here!) and my batteries are slowly recharging.  when i get these two writing assignments finished, then i will feel as free as a bird.  i can’t wait. in the meantime, i’ll do a little fun writing and tell you all about our dinner saturday night.

lately, i’ve been feeling somewhat uninspired in the supper department.  when the last meal of the day rolls around, mr. h-s and i play a quick tether-ball game of “idon’tknow, whatdoyouwanttoeat?” and we eventually usually end up putting off making a decision for so long that by the time we actually get around to cooking, neither one of us has the patience to wait any longer than about 12 minutes and we end up eating eggs.  or chili.  or taco salad.  or pb&j.  i’m becoming weary of our “quick and dirty” repertoire.  so on saturday night, i decided that it was time to cook something more interesting.  i knew we had a bunch of potatoes that need to get used–especially some new potatoes that were starting to sprout.  and we have a lovely big bag of spinach from the winter farmer’s market.  and we have lots of eggs (i overestimated how many we’d need to make our thanksgiving meal contributions).  i plugged all of those things into my favorite recipe search engine and came up with a few possibilities.  but nothing was really grabbing my attention and mr. h-s was deeply involved in something else and would offer no more feedback than a resigned, “whatever.”  (i think he’s leery of me trying new recipes.)  i realized that what i really wanted to eat was a quiche with a spinach salad on the side and one of our leftover wheat bread rolls.  but generally speaking, mr. h-s is not a big fan of quiche (or “egg pie” as i once heard someone call it.), but he’d given the “whatever” and not the “no way,” so i decided to go for it.  i had some pie/tart crusts in the freezer, so the hard part was already done.  i resigned myself to just sort of throwing some ingredients together and hoping for the best when, at the last minute, i remembered one of my favorite, but underused cookbooks–the peach tree family cookbook by cynthia collins pedregon.  this cookbook comes from the hill country of texas and is full of recipes used at the peach tree restaurant in fredericksburg.  although there are very few photos, i urge you to find a copy of this cookbook and make something–anything–from it.  every recipe i’ve ever tried from this cookbook is fantastic.  the main dish at our wedding (called “texas strudel”) was taken from this cookbook.  (almost) every year, i make the monterey chicken soup for our church’s winter retreat and i don’t often get to take home many leftovers.  ditto for the chicken pozole soup i made for the easter potluck at church for a few years.  but back to saturday night–i remembered that this cookbook has a number of quiche recipes, so i flipped quickly through them and found one that incorporated potatoes!  and jalepenos!  and bacon and cheese!  (with those ingredients, how could it go wrong, really?).  my tart crust was considerably smaller than the one in her recipe (10 eggs?!), so i cut the recipe in a-little-bit-less-than-half, baked it, and crossed my fingers.  when the timer went off 45 minutes later (small quiches cook faster than full-sized!), mr. h-s wandered up from the basement, bleary-eyed and feelinig like he’d suddenly bonked and needed food asap.  so, bypassing my offer of a fresh spinach salad and a bread roll, he just sliced right into the quiche and stood at the stove eating it.  while i made my salad.  the verdict?  he liked it!  enough that he had two more helpings and eventually slowed down enough to join me at the table to finish eating.  too bad he missed out on the spinach salad.  it’s from an everyday food recipe and is a tasty alternative to the bacon dressing standby.  and the dinner roll wasn’t half bad either.  all in all?  much, much better than pb&j.

at the risk of being a librarian breaking copyright laws, here are the two recipes from saturday’s dinner.  consider them a teaser.  if you bake them, you will understand why you need to go out and purchase these two cookbooks.  both are highly recommended by me.  (the everyday food one is fun because it’s organized by season and has a full-page photo for every recipe, right next to the recipe itself.  i’ve made quite a few of the recipes and liked them all!)

jalepeno-potato quiche from the peach tree family cookbook by cynthia collins pedregon, p. 104

1 recipe basic quiche crust 10″x2″ partially baked (sorry, you’ll have to come up with your own crust recipe or buy the book.)

1 c. sliced onion

1/2 lb. bacon, diced

10 eggs

1 tbsp. garlic

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. fresh ground pepper

1 tsp. salt

2.5 c. evaporated milk

2 c. cheddar cheese, shredded

1.5 c. cooked potatoes, cubed

1/2 c. pimentos, chopped (i didn’t have these, so i left them out.)

1/4 to 1/2 c. jalepenos with juice, sliced  (i didn’t have jarred ones, so i used fresh and it worked fine.)

garnish:  sour cream and green onions, finely chopped (totally forgot about the garnish until i wrote this post.)

1.  preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.  saute onions with bacon.  drain well.

3.  beat eggs in blender with garlic, cumin, pepper and salt.

4.  add evaporated milk to egg mixture

5.  in prepared crust, layer half of cheese on the bottom.  then layer the potatoes, bacon and onions, pimentos and jalepenos with juice.  sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

6.  pour the egg mixture over the layered ingredients.

7.  bake for one hour and 45 minutes or until knife inserted in the center comes out clean.  allow quiche to cool 15 minutes for easier slicing.  garnish with sour cream and green onions if desired.

serves 9-10.

spinach salad with dried cherries from great food fast from the kitchens of martha stewart living, p. 24

1/4 c. raw pumpkin seeds

4 tsp. red-wine vinegar

1 tbsp. dijon mustard

2 tbsp. olive oil

coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

8 oz. baby spinach

1/2 c. thinly sliced red onions

1/2 c. dried cherries

1.  preheat the oven to 350.  spread the pumpkin seeds in a single layer on a pie plate; bake until puffed and brown, about 10 minutes.

2.  meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, and oil until combined and thickened; season with salt and pepper.

3.  add the spinach, onion, and cherries to the dressing.  toss to combine.  top the salad with the pumpkin seeds and serve immediately.

serves 4