Game Day Quiche

Today, we went to a WINNING FOOTBALL GAMEEE!! in the largest football stadium in America. Besides the win, I would say that the highlight was singing Journey and Gangnam Style with over 100,000 people. WOO WOO! WE ARE...

So after the game we came home, walked the little bean, turned on the TV just in time to watch USC lose, and settled in to make quiche. Today is a very exciting day. Today is the day that I premiere my first ever recipe that was not based off of someone else!!! I have been making quiche since my first college kitchen, and as my father has told me with several other recipes, you probably won't mess it up, so don't stress out about it. So without further ado,

CharChar's Quiche

Why you should make this recipe:

Quiche left overs are AWESOME. The are great for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They are super easy to take with you in a tupperware, they are deeeelicious with coffee, they can be microwaved, or as my dad would say, “nuked” to absolute perfection. Quiche left overs are fantastic. We now have easy breakfast for the next 4 days. Quiche can be frozen, it can be baked to re-heat, it is the greatest and most utilitarian of the left overs. This will ALL be devoured and nothing will be wasted. So grab some eggs, a pie tin, and a frying pan, and get cookin'!

Ingredients

Crust (This is my forever crust recipe. It has turned out amazingly well for apple pie and now for quiche, and it is just simple, tasty, and generally a sure bet. I would guess that if you added a little sugar, cinnamon, and/or vanilla, it would be even better for pie, but that is besides the current point.)

-1 ¼ C flour

-1/4 tsp salt

-1/2 C / 1 stick of butter

-3 tbsp. Cold water.

NOTE: this amount will make for 2 full crusts or one top and bottom. Since this recipe only needs a bottom crust, you can always halve it. We will be using ours for our chicken pot pie later this week.

 

Filling

-5 pieces of cooked bacon

-1 small white onion

-1 medium white potato

-4 eggs

-1/2C cream

-1/2 C cottage cheese

-1 ½ C shredded cheddar and swiss cheese

-olive oil

Ingredients to taste/estimate since it's in raw egg:

-chili flakes

-parsley

-basil

-paprika

-salt/pepper

Directions

Step 1. Le Crust. Mix pie crust ingredients in a bowl in the order given. Once it is a cohesive lump, ball it up and put it in the fridge to set. This will chill it out and make it a little easier to work with later. The great thing about making your own crust is that it is SUPER DUPER CHEAP compared to frozen crust, it is SUPER DUPER easy, and you feel like you're on the Food Channel in your own show when you're making it because compared to spaghetti or baked chicken, it's basically gourmet.

Step 2. Heat Everything so you Don't get Food Poisoning Part 1. Cook the bacon. Once the bacon is done (David does this so don't ask me), place the pieces on a paper towel on a plate. Take the potato, pierce it with a fork and (forgive me mom) microwave it for about 3.5 minutes. Slice the onion and chop it all up. Once the potato has cooled to the touch, cut it up in cubes. Saute the potato pieces and the chopped onion in the bacon grease (yay for easy clean up!). Feel free to add any seasonings for the time being to this mixture. We want the onions to become clear (I don't know the official word) and ideally the potatoes would be a little crispy. If this takes too much time, don't worry about it, just make sure the onion is cooked enough for your liking.

Step 3. Make it Look like Pre-Dinner. In a separate bowl combine: eggs, cream, cottage cheese, and shredded cheese. Tear or cut up the bacon and throw that in too. This is also where you can add all the spices you want! I have recently decided that when it comes to spices, salt and pepper, go big or go home. I think I've said this before but I find that if there is either too much salt or pepper, you can generally add some of whatever there is less of to the top of the dish and it will even it out. You may also notice that for the first time in world history, we did not add garlic powder or minced garlic to this recipe. That is because I have found out in the past (the hard way) that quiche can be easily overpowered if there is one glaring spice (ex. too much oregano). Just keep it equal and it will be tasty.

Step 4. Don't Forget the Starch and the Onion. Once the potatoes and onions are done, or once you are satisfied with them, add them to the egg mixture. Set aside.

Step 5. Heat Everything so you Don't get Food Poisoning Part 2. Pull the pie crust dough out of the refrigerator. Take half of the crust (or all of it if you already halved the recipe) and roll it out to fit the pie tin. Grease the pie tin with olive oil and lay the crust down in the tin. Pour in the filling and bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

Options: I forgot to add spinach to this, but that is often a good idea. The ingredients that are necessary for a quiche are: eggs, cream/milk, shredded cheese of some type, cottage cheese (if you know what's good for you) and bacon depending on your definition of “necessary.” You can also make like, a 'Cheese and spinach” or “Mushrooms and Onions” or whatever. I prefer the all or nothing approach. Also I do not believe that potatoes are traditionally in a quiche, but in Spain they have what they call tortilla, but it is a crust-less quiche with large pieces of onion and potato and it is served at room temperature. It's a great game day finger food there. STORY TIME! When I went to Spain, during the World Cup Semi-Finals in 2010 between Spain and Alemania (Germany), my roommate and I went to a bar to watch the game where we knew the bar tenders because we spent so much time there in the afternoons bc they had air conditioning and wi-fi (wee-fee in Spainish...that's not a joke). When we were there, a man came who's mother had cooked a large tortilla for him to take to the bar to share with his friends. We ate it and it was basically the best food that I ate the entire time I was in Spain because Spanish food is not delicious. (Even the Spanish Rice-a-Roni is gross. Always get the Mexican Rice-a-Roni).

Moral of the Story: Make quiche because you will have food for a thousand meals, and never buy Spanish Rice-a-Roni because Mexican is probably what you actually want and you just don't know the difference.

Happy Sassing!-Charlotte