Mini-Quiches Lorraine

I promised that I would post the recipe for the mini quiches from Home Chef from a couple weeks ago and because of travel and then the beginning of the school year, I never got around to posting.  So, here is the recipe:

Mini-Quiches Lorraine
Adapted from: Home Chef recipe

• 4 fl. oz. Liquid Egg (or 2 whole eggs)
• 3 bacon strips
• 1 shallot (or small onion)
• 4 puff pastry dough squares (frozen foods)
• 2 fl oz milk
• 1 1/2 oz shredded Swiss cheese
• Salt & Pepper

 Preheat oven to 400F.  Prepare a 6-well muffin pan (or a 12-well if that is all you have) with cooking spray.  Dice the bacon into 1/2 inch dice.  Mince the shallot (or finely dice the onion).  Thaw the puff pastry.
In a medium skillet, place bacon over medium heat.  Cook 5-8 minutes, stirring occassionally, or until crisp.  Remove pieces to a towel lined plate.  Separate the pastry squares and place each square in the muffin tin.  Lightly lift and press the dough into the cups.  The dough should cover the bottoms and sides, with the corners of each dough sticking over the edges.  Refrigerate tin while preparing remaining ingredients. 
Drain most of the bacon drippings from the skillet (leaving about 2 tsp) and a place over medium heat.  Add the shallots and saute, until the shallots have softened and started to brown.  Remove from heat and set aside.  
Mix the liquid egg (eggs), milk, shallots, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper in a mixing bowl.  Remove the muffin tin from the refrigerator.  Divide the bacon and cheese between the cups, then fill cups 2/3 full with egg mixture.  Roll and crimp quiche edges and place the muffin tin on a prepared baking sheet (in case they overflow while cooking).  Bake 20-25 minutes or until dough browns and filling is set (doesn't jiggle when pan is tapped).  Rest quiches 5 minutes before carefully removing from muffin tin.

 

Jack's Bacon

Every once in a while, I stop by Jack's Market to get bacon and sausage. They have the best thick - cut bacon. I also had leeks and spinach that I needed to use. I figured that would be a great combination for a quiche.

Bacon Spinach Quiche with Leeks

2 slices thick - cut bacon
1 med leek*
3 cups baby spinach, stems removed
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 eggs**
1 cup milk
Salt and pepper
1 cup Swiss cheese

Preheat oven to 350F.  Cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Transfer to paper towels to drain. When cool, chop into small pieces. Pour off all but 1 Tbsp bacon grease. Cut white part of leek in half lengthwise and then slice into 1/4 - inch slices. Heat pan and add leeks. Cook about 2 minutes. Add spinach and cook until just wilted. Add garlic and cook one more minute. Remove to paper towel to drain excess moisture.

Prepare baking dish with cooking spray. Place vegetables and bacon into bottom of dish. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs with salt and pepper. Slowly add milk until well mixed. Pour over vegetables. Sprinkle with swiss cheese.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a knife, inserted into center, comes out clean. Allow to set 5 minutes before serving.

*farmers market ingredients
**CSA ingredients

Brussels Gratin

I hate when the farmers market starts reminding me that summer is almost over (in reality).  While at the farmers market this weekend, I found some brussels sprouts, but they are starting to get bigger than I prefer.  I chose a pint that had smaller heads, but there were a few that were quite a bit bigger than I usually settle for.  But today, I decided I had better cook them because they are older and probably won't keep as long.  As I usually do, I got on Pinterest to get some ideas and saw recipes for Brussels sprouts gratin.  After reading a few of them, I decide to try my hand at coming up with a recipe since I had about 1/3 the amount of sprouts that any of the recipes called for.  I figured if I could make a proper sauce, it would be okay because I also had some small baking dishes that I could split them into.  But you can use a bigger baking pan and it will work just as well.  Here's what I did:

Brussels Sprouts Gratin

• 2/3 pound fresh Brussels sprouts*
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• salt & pepper, to taste
• 1 1/2 cups Swiss cheese, divided
• 1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
• 1 Tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 350F.

Wash Brussels sprouts; dry.  Cut bases of sprouts and remove the loose outer leaves.  Cut in half or in quarters (depending on size).  Place in a microwave safe bowl with 1/4 cup water.  Cook on HIGH for 7 minutes, or until sprouts are just beginning to cook.  Drain and set aside.

In a skillet, melt butter.  Add flour and whisk, cooking for about 2 minutes.  Slowly add milk, whisking the whole time to prevent lumps.  Cook until thickened, about 4 minutes.  Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper and add 1 cup cheese, stirring until cheese is melted.

Place sprouts into a prepared baking dish.  Spoon sauce over the sprouts.  Then sprinkle with remaining cheese and Panko bread crumbs.  Dot with butter.  Bake, covered, for 20 minutes, until sauce begins to bubble.  Remove cover, change oven to broiler, broil for about 5 minutes or until bread crumbs are golden brown.

*Farmers market ingredients

Strata time!

On Wednesday morning, I met with my orthopedic surgeon and scheduled my knee-replacement surgery.  Because I have not managed to lose any of the remaining weight, he would not agree to replace both knees at the same time.  He also said that he didn’t think the right knee necessarily needed replacement at this time.  I sure hope he’s right.  I will admit that I have been making every excuse in the world to not cook for myself lately.  I suppose the fact that people tend to feed you when there is a death in the family makes it easy for me to make excuses.  Whatever the reason, I really wanted something home-cooked this morning.  Since I don’t have to be anywhere until 11am this morning (when I will go for my personal training session), I decided to make breakfast.  I had a bunch of asparagus in the refrigerator and a few leftover biscuits.  While I normally make crustless quiches for breakfast, I decided to put those biscuits to use and make a strata instead.  This probably would have been better if I had decided to do this last night, however, stratas will work if you have a bit of time to let them sit before baking.  I am glad that I had asparagus because the warmer temperatures yesterday made me long for spring/summer.  I have signed up for my new CSA, but that program will not start until June.  I do, however, get to start getting farm-fresh eggs starting in May. 

Asparagus Biscuit Strata

• 3 buttermilk biscuits
• 1 bunch asparagus
• 1 cup Swiss cheese
• 5 extra-large eggs
• 1 ½ cups 1% milk
•  ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
• Italian seasoning, to taste
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350F.  Break up biscuits into a prepared casserole dish.  Cut asparagus into 1-inch pieces; steam in the microwave for 4 minutes.  Mix with biscuits in casserole.  Sprinkle cheese over fillings.  Beat eggs with milk, parmesan cheese, and seasonings.  Pour over fillings and allow to stand for at least 15 minutes (may make in advance and refrigerate overnight).  If made the day before, take casserole out of refrigerator and allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking.  Bake for 35 minutes or until a knife, inserted in the center, comes out clean. 

"Green" Quiche

I felt the need to cook this morning and had broccoli and asparagus in my refrigerator.  So, I figured it was time to make a "green" quiche.  I had Swiss cheese and figured that would go nicely with asparagus, so that was the cheese of choice this morning.

"Green" Quiche

• 2 cups broccoli florets
• 1 bunch asparagus
• 1 cup Swiss cheese, shredded
• 5 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup 1% milk
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• salt & pepper, to taste

Steam broccoli and asparagus in microwave for 5 minutes. Place in bottom of baking dish.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Beat eggs with milk and seasonings.  Pour egg mixture over vegetables.  Bake at 350F for 35 minutes or until top is browned.

Quiche du Jour

Various people in my life have introduced me to the homemade sausages from Jack's in Midland. One of our favorites is the German Ring Bologna. I happen to have some in my fridge right now, as well as really nice avocados. I figured I would use these as the basis for my quiche today.

 Avocado Quiche

•  5 eggs*
•  1 cup 1% milk
•  3 oz German ring bologna
•  1/2 avocado
•  1/2 cup sharp cheddar
•  1/2 cup Swiss*
•  1 tsp garlic powder
•  1 tsp onion powder
•  salt and pepper

 Place bologna, avocado and chesses into bottom of prepared pie plate. Mix together eggs, milk and seasonings. Pour over fillings. Bake for 35 minutes in a 350F preheated oven.

*CSA ingredients

Quiche!

I had a crazy craving this morning for Quiche Lorraine.  I actually got up this morning, cooked bacon, sauteed onions, whipped eggs and baked up a crustless Quiche Lorraine.  Of course, the fact that I haven't posted a recipe here in weeks probably had something to do with the urge to actually cook this morning, but I have to say that sometimes, there is just nothing like the combination of Swiss cheese, bacon, onions and eggs to get  you going in the morning.  If I had to do this again, I would increase the eggs and use real cream and milk, and use fresh garlic (I didn't have any), but what I did worked out very nice and it was very satisfying.

Crustless Quiche Lorraine

• 4 eggs*
• 1 cup fat-free evaporated milk
• 1/2 lb thick-cut bacon*
• 1/2 sweet onion*, diced
• garlic powder, to taste
• 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese*

Heat skillet over med-high heat.  Cook off bacon until just crispy.  Drain all but 1 Tbsp of bacon drippings and place back over medium heat. Saute the onions in the bacon drippings until translucent.  Break bacon into bite-sized pieces.  Mix the bacon and eggs and then sprinkle over bottom of a buttered 9-inch pie plate.  Sprinkle with Swiss cheese.  Whip eggs with evaporated milk and garlic powder; pour over the bacon and cheese.  Place in a pre-heated 350F oven and bake for 35 minutes or until a knife, inserted into the center, comes out clean.  Allow to set for 5 minutes and serve!

*CSA ingredients

Pork Shoulder

One of the best parts of these CSA packages are the meats we receive.  However, I have a small freezer, so I do have to be fairly consistant about making the larger pieces.  This weekend, it is a pork shoulder roast.  I have gotten 3 of these this winter and it's kind of funny because I buy shoulder roasts once every couple years normally.  The first, I slow roasted in the oven.  The second, I cooked in my crockpot.  Today, I braised my pork roast, and it turned out beautiful!  Since we had gotten a very nice brussels sprouts relish a couple weeks ago and I had just gotten some swiss cheese and turkey breast, I decided to make a variation on a Cuban sandwich for lunch.  It was so good, I cut a few slices to make sandwiches for tomorrow.  The rest, I pulled and put in a homemade BBQ sauce.  Here are the recipes:

Braised Pork Shoulder

• 1 5-lb pork shoulder roast*
• sea salt and pepper, to taste
• cayenne pepper
• 5-6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 jalapeno pepper, diced
• 1 med red onion, thinly sliced
• water

Rince roast and dry with paper towels.  Season with sea salt, pepper and cayenne.  Place in a large Dutch oven.  Add thyme, jalapeno and onion slices.  Fill the Dutch oven halfway with water.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer for 3-4 hours or until thermometer inserted into the center reads 160-180F.  Remove roast to plate; cover and allow roast to sit at room tempurature for 10 minutes.  Drain onions and peppers and place in a large bowl.  For Cuban sandwiches, slice a few thin slices.  For pulled pork sandwiches, pull meat, removing fat, and mix with your favorite BBQ sauce.


Betsy's Cuban Sandwich

• 1 thin slice pork roast* (see above)
• 2 thin slices roasted turkey breast
• 2 thin slices Swiss cheese*
• 1 tsp brown mustard
• 2 tsp Ann's Raspberry Farm Brussels Sprout Relish*
• bagel thin

Split bagel thin and spread one side with brown mustard.  Spread the other side with relish.  Layer pork roast, turkey breast and Swiss.  Close sandwich and either heat for 40 seconds in microwave on HIGH or grill.  Serve with chips or fruit (this is served with Heirloom Corn Chips*).

Sorghum Honey BBQ Sauce

Note: I was distressed to find out that I had not published this recipe when I made it for the last pork roast, nor did I save it.  This is what I remember from making the sauce.

• 3 C ketchup
• 1 C sorghum*
• 1/2 C cider vinegar
• 1/2 C honey*
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme (I would use fresh the next time I make this)

Place all ingredients in small saucepan.  Heat until boiling; reduce heat and simmer 1 minute.  Adjust flavors as needed (I did add a bit more honey because this seemed a bit tart).  For 2/3 of a 5lb pork roast, use about 2 cups of sauce.  Pull the pork, removing the fat, and then mix with BBQ sauce.  Serve on a roll or bagel thin.

Oh one more thing:  I wanted to show you the beautiful head of butterleaf lettuce I received in my CSA package.  I just wish it would stay looking like that.  I am going to try to talk my husband into using it tonight in place of rolls for the pulled pork.  We can have baguette for starch on the side.

Here is one of the lettuce rolls before rolling.  They were so good!!!!!  The bread is what's left of a baguette I purchased earlier in the week from Murray Hill Market.



*CSA package ingredients