Quiche

I love quiche, but we don't eat it as often as I would like because my husband is not a huge fan of eggs. So anytime he has to work late or has other plans, this is our dinner! And then breakfast and lunch the next day too.  I love that I almost always have some sort of combination of ingredients that will work for this.  I can make it as fancy and gourmet as I want with brie and mushrooms and dijon, or simply use a block of frozen spinach and some shredded cheddar cheese. I have always used the frozen premade pie crusts, because they were so easy and the ingredients were pretty minimal.  (This is for the frozen ones only, the refrigerated ones use lard. Gross.) But we didn't have any and I figured it's about darn time I figure out how to make a good pie crust from scratch. I've tried many times before to no success. But my friend Renae just recently told me that you're not supposed to mix it all the way, the chunks of butter are what make it flaky. Ooooooohhhhhhh, so that's what I did wrong. Armed with this new knowledge, I used my All Recipes app on my phone and found the simplest one possible.  I tweaked it a bit because as I was mixing there just was not enough liquid to pull it together. (It called for 1/3 cup water. I used more like 3/4 cup). It was my first really great homemade pie crust. And the recipe made two so there is still one waiting in the freezer. Even better!

SPINACH AND CHEESE QUICHE

THE CRUST
1 cup butter, chilled
3 cups all purpose flour
3 tbsp white sugar
3/4 cup ice water

Combine flour and sugar in bowl.  Cut butter into tablespoon size pieces.

Add butter to the flour mixture, use a pastry blender to cut the butter and flour together.  It should remain pretty lumpy. While stirring the mixture with a fork, slowly add the water(You may need less, so add a small amount at a time, starting with about 1/4 cup) Stir gently not to really blend the ingredients, they should come together but not be an even mixture. When it starts to clump, but before it forms a ball, stop stirring.  Lightly form into two balls.

Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and chill in the freezer or fridge for about 30 minutes.

While you are waiting for the crust to chill. Prepare the innards of the quiche. I only had frozen spinach, some onions and cheddar cheese on hand. So that's what I used.

QUICHE FILLING

1 block frozen chopped spinach

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 tbsp olive oil for sauteing

1 tbsp chopped garlic

salt and pepper to taste

Defrost and squeeze the moisture out of your spinach while you are sauteing your onion.  Once the onion becomes translucent add spinach, garlic, salt and pepper.

Cook until the spinach begins to lose a bit of its "green-ness"

THE EGG MIX

4 eggs

1 cup milk

2-3 cups shredded cheddar cheese(depending on your love of cheese)

1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese, reserved for the top

Pepper to taste (I find the cheese has enough salt for me, but if you like salt you may want to add a bit in to this mixture as well)

Beat the eggs with the milk. Stir in cheese.  Season with pepper.

Now you are ready to roll out your crust. If you have wax paper, do it on that. Save yourself a headache. I didn't. Lay a big piece of wax paper on the counter.  Roll out your pie crust on top of that.  Roll as little as possible, so the butter pieces remain in pieces.

 Turn over into a glass or metal pie dish. Pinch up the edges of the crust. It's very forgiving if you need to grab some from one side to add to another. I don't worry about it looking too nice, but I like it kind of high so I can really pile my ingredients in.

Spoon your spinach mixture into the crust.  Pour the egg mixture on top, making sure you don't over fill.  (Egg that spills over the edge of your crust and burns in the bottom of your oven will smell terrible!) Use a fork to gently mix the spinach with the egg. Sprinkle a little extra cheese on top. Put in the oven at 375 for 45 minutes.  If you are worried about it spilling, put a cookie sheet under your pie dish.

Let stand about 10 minutes before cutting, to ensure the pieces actually hold up.  Enjoy!  Noorah LOVES her quiche!

Quiche is such a forgiving dish. You can really add whatever you like depending on your tastes, or like me, whatever you need to use up before it goes bad.  I love it with broccoli, mushrooms and feta. Ricotta is great in it, as it goat cheese. If you do brie, lay a few slices on the bottom of the crust then slather with dijon.  Add veggie and egg mix.  Bake for 15 minutes, add some brie strips to the top then bake for another 30 minutes.  After you get it right once, experiment, try new combinations.  And good luck!