Recipe: Killer Quiche

I call it killer for reasons that will appear obvious once you read the ingredients.

…It’ll kill ya. With awesomeness. And possibly a mid-life heart attack.

With our flock of almost-30 free-range organic chickens, I normally sell out of our eggs, but  I try to keep a private stash of two dozen eggs on-hand so we can bake and cook.

Sometimes, though, that stash grows to three dozen…or four dozen…and I’ve got to use them up. So we’ve started eating quiche for dinner once a week.

Let me back up….we eat quiche once a week; I make it once a month.

I make four at a time, freezing three and cooking one.

We don’t do frozen dinners like pizza or lasagna or whatever because of all the processed, chemical junk in them, so this is the next most convenient thing. This way Matt has an easy dinner already made to just put in the oven on nights I’m at work.

Recipe is adjusted to personal taste from one on allrecipes.com…as always, please consider using organic ingredients when possible.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 pound thick sliced bacon
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts (check out my apple pie recipe for a good pie crust recipe)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, finely diced
• 2 cups finely diced smoked ham
• 8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
• 8 ounces Cheddar cheese, shredded
• 4 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated
• 6-8 eggs (8 jumbo eggs will leave you with too much egg mixture)
• 1 1/2 cups half-and-half cream
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley

 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble, and set aside. Cook spinach according to package instructions. Allow to cool, then squeeze dry.
2. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Saute onions until soft and translucent. Stir in mushrooms, and cook for 2 minutes, or until soft. Stir in ham and cooked bacon. Remove from heat.
3. In a large bowl, combine spinach, sour cream, salt and pepper. Divide, and spread into pie crusts. Layer with bacon mixture. Mix together Monterey Jack, Cheddar and Parmesan, and sprinkle over pies. Whisk together eggs, half-and-half and parsley. Season with salt and pepper, and pour over pies.
4. Place pies on baking sheet, and bake on middle shelf in preheated oven for 40 minutes. The top will be puffed and golden brown. Remove from oven, and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes.

New Favorite Frosting Recipe

If you’ve been reading my blog since its beginning, you know how long my hunt for good frosting has taken.

I don’t want to jinx it, but I think I finally found it.

Really.

I used it to frost a few platters full of cupcakes for a kiddie Halloween party we had this week.

It’s rich, it melts in your mouth, and the first adult to have one of those cupcakes asked for the recipe–for the frosting…

This recipe makes enough for, like, a gazillion cupcakes…or four dozen. Somewhere between those two numbers.

This recipe has been slightly altered from one at allrecipes.com  …mostly in the directions.

RICH & REAL Buttercream Frosting

2 cups , softened, room-temp BUTTER (NOT shortening)

8 cups Powdered Sugar (gentle scoops, don’t pack it in there)

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp REAL vanilla (or whatever flavor your heart desires)

6 fluid ounces cream or half &half

…use organic when possible; I really do think it makes for a better tasting final product.

Ideally in a stand mixer, cream the butter. Add sugar, cup by cup, creaming it as you go.  Add salt, slowly, still blending. Add vanilla. Add cream/half&half. Beat until fluffy.