So who was "Lorraine" anyway?

Last night, in an attempt to try to use up eggs before we head off on vacation net week, I made a really fantastic quiche. I love my recipe for quiche, since it bakes up super fluffy and doesn't use a lot of strange ingredients. It is also not super complicated. The egg filling is straightforward, and it is easily customized to whatever ingredients you happen to have on hand. I even make the crust from scratch, so I don't have to worry about going out and buying a pie crust!

So let's start from the bottom up, because if you don't have a good crust you don't have a good quiche. I make my crust from scratch, and the recipe and method are super easy. In a medium bowl, mix 1 1/4 cups of AP flour and 1/4 tsp salt and stir to combine. Into this add one stick of cold butter, cut into very small chunks. Mix this together, making sure to incorporate all of the butter into the flour. At this point the dough should not be moist, and you should not see any chunks of butter. Slowly add cold water to the bowl, about 1 tbsp at a time. Be very careful not to add too much water - you only need enough to get the dough to come together into a ball, not to become wet and loose. Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours, though overnight is best. Roll out on a floured surface when ready to use - this will make one 9" pie crust with enough to have some leftover scraps.

Now let's move onto the quiche. For the filling, you will mix together 1/2 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of mayonnaise in a bowl, whisk together until it is smooth. Into this beat 4 large eggs until the mixture, and this is the custard base for your filling. Now, for any vegetation or anything else, you want to keep yourself to about 2 1/2 cups total, except for cheese. The cheese will melt in, so it won't take up a lot of volume, but with anything else you want to limit the size. I use about 8-10 ounces of cheese, generally cheddar. Pretty much anything can go in. Mushrooms, zucchini, peppers, ham, onion, spinach, and a lot of other things can go in. I made a classic recipe referred to as quiche Lorraine. This is a reference to a classic recipe that comes from the Lorraine region of France that was traditionally made with a salt-cured pork. Modern quiche lorraine uses bacon instead of the pork, and more often than not also includes wilted spinach. For this part of the meal, I cut up the bacon (about 6-7 slices) into strips and cooked them in a pan, then once they were cooked up I removed the bacon with a slotted spoon and then added in the spinach to wilt it in the bacon fat.

Once everything is assembled in the pie plate cover it with foil and pop it in a 400 degree oven on a cookie tray for about 40-45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10-15 minutes until the top is browned and the custard is set. Let the quiche cool and continue to set for about 10 minutes, then cut and serve. What do you like to put in your quiche? Let me know in the comments below or on Facebook!

The Lonely Spoon

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but what words are they? I took a picture on May 25th, and I want to tell you the story behind it. First, let me show you the picture:

Moments before this picture was taken my 1-year old son had come up to me with the jar of peanut butter and this little plastic cup in his hands. He will do this when he wants to eat a spoonful of peanut butter. We keep the peanut butter where he can reach it, as well as the plastic containers. He managed to carry it all the way from the kitchen into the living room, and his tone was desperate. Despite only just finishing lunch, he needed this peanut butter NOW. Since he normally doesn't eat too much straight peanut butter, I was happy to help him. I carried the jar and the container back into the kitchen, got him a spoon, scooped a portion of peanut butter with the spoon and put it in his container. He was happy. So happy he ran out into the dining room ahead of me as I put the peanut butter back in the cabinet. In that short span of time, he had become distracted by his older brother who was playing on the floor, and had decided to join him. So his desperate plea for peanut butter was lost to the toy of the minute, and the container of peanut butter was left lonely on the dining room table. You can see both of my boys in the background, playing on the floor in the living room. 

Thank you for letting me share this picture, and the story behind it, and thank you for reading. 

Egg Envy

So this morning was kind of crazy. I did not sleep well last night - for whatever reason I was up and/or tossing and turning half the night. Then with the kids up early and the alarm going off I was up way too early for how much I slept. But kids do not wait, so up I was getting breakfast cereal in bowls, kids changed out of pajamas and diapers changed. Somewhere between getting my wife out the door to work and dealing with the super-large emotions of a 6-year old boy I forgot to get myself breakfast.

It took me until about 9am to realize this, so thankfully it is a beautiful spring day and I got the kids outside and playing in the yard so I can get myself fed. Messaging back and forth with my wife, she realized she had not eaten either. So when I sent a picture of what I had made myself for breakfast, she was immediately jealous. Her response was "Oooh, are those eggs on onion bagel?" Yes, dear. Yes they are.

Fried eggs on a toasted onion bagel

Sometimes it is the simplest things that are nicest. This is nothing special, but the combination of the fried egg with the onion bagel is very tasty. The egg was seasoned simply with some kosher salt and pepper. I spread a little butter to the toasted bagel before topping with the egg, and then a few splashes of hot sauce on top for a little kick.

The trick to a nice fried egg is to get the pan nice and hot so it doesn't stick. Sometimes we think that more oil or less heat helps food not stick but the opposite is true. High heat creates a very thin layer of steam between the food and the pan, which reduces sticking. Also, you only need a very thin layer of oil - just enough to coat the pan and prevent the initial sticking and add a little flavor to the food.

Have I given YOU egg envy? Go forth and fry eggs! If you break the yolk don't despair. I promise after just a few tries you will get it down. That and they will still taste yummy. Worst case scenario is you end up scrambling the eggs, put the two halves of bagel together with a bit of cheese and you have a sandwich. How bad is that?