The next recipe from the January Sweet as Pie collection was Pioneer Woman’s quiche. Now, it’s no great secret that I’m not a fan of eggs. Or, for that matter, breakfast food in general. That doesn’t mean that I don’t like breakfast – I eat breakfast every day. But, my breakfast usually consists of leftovers from last night’s supper, a sandwich, chicken, etc. Basically, I’m far more likely to eat any of the other Sweet as Pie recipes for breakfast (and did – leftover Twice-Baked Potatoes make for an excellent start to the day) than I am quiche. Phillip, however, loves breakfast food and I knew he’d be happy to have an actual breakfast one weekend. So, I gathered the ingredients for the quiche and got to work. I have made my own pastry before, but for this recipe I decided to just go with the store-bought dough. I also didn’t have a fancy quiche pan, so I used my trusty 9-inch springform (the cheesecake pan) and hoped for the best.
Pulling this pan out of the cabinet reminded me that I need to try to make cheesecake soon.
I started out by frying up some bacon.
Next came a thinly sliced onion. We got a mandoline for a wedding gift, but alas, I think I already packed it away in preparation for the house being put on the market and the subsequent move.
As the onions saute, a side note on the amazing wooden spoon: all-purpose, non-stick friendly, and generally extremely useful. And the most amazing part to me? In a world of endless kitchen gadgets, high-tech plastics and coatings, and specialty tools, pans, knives, etc., the thing I use most frequently in my kitchen are my wooden spoons. The same cooking utensil that has been used for MILLENIA. You can't improve on perfection, folks.
In go the mushrooms.
The recipe also called for artichokes, but I skipped these, because frankly, I just don’t like ’em.
While the onions and mushrooms cooled, I pulled out the box (mine's actually a triangle) grater to grate 2 cups of swiss cheese. Where's all this cheese you speak of, you ask? Being held captive in the cheese grater tower, of course.
To the seven eggs, you add some heavy cream, which I had leftover from making Jennifer's Ditalini al la Nona earlier in the week (delicious!).
I added a few dashes of cayenne, although would probably have added more or kicked in some hot sauce in retrospect.
Mixed in the cheese...
And after adding the mushrooms, onion, and bacon, poured it into the pastry shell
Ready for the oven. Thank goodness it didn't run over - you definitely need a deep dish for this recipe.
So, my ready-made pie crust came in a package of two. What to do with an extra piece of pastry? Why, make it into mini apple, blueberry, and strawberry pies, of course!
An experiment - although it wasn't perfect, a little practice could really pull these cute individual pies together.
Right out of the oven - very springy and smelling wonderful.
The springform pan worked beautifully with this dish!
Our fancy quiche for Sunday brunch. We were only missing a mimosa (for Phillip) and a bloody mary (for me).
The quiche had a nice flavor and smelled wonderful, but in the end, it was just too egg-y for me. I wish I could rave about it, but I just can’t and that’s not the recipe’s fault. Phillip really enjoyed it though and I think other egg enthusiasts would as well. This would probably be a great brunch option to make when we have house guests. They can enjoy the quiche and be impressed by my fancy cooking skills, and I’ll just stick with my leftover pizza.
