Late Brussels Sprouts

While at the farmers' market this past weekend, my mom noticed people walking around with Brussels Sprouts.  She knows that I adore them, so she kept an eye out for them and when she found them she pointed them out to me.  The sprouts were a little on the big size, as they often are this time of year, but I bought a bunch anyway.  This morning, I decided to make a quiche out of them.  I had a package of turkey bacon that I needed to start using up, so I added that and some cheddar jack cheese to the mix and here's what resulted:

Bacon Brussels Sprouts Quiche

• 1 lb Brussels sprouts*
• 4 slices turkey bacon
• 1 cup cheddar jack cheese, shredded
• 5 large eggs*
• 1 cup 1% milk
• seasonings (I used basil and sea salt)

 Preheat oven to 350F.  Trim ends of Brussels sprouts and remove the loose leaves.  Since this batch was big, cut in half or quarters and steam for 5 minutes in the microwave.  In the meantime, dice the bacon.  Mix the brussels sprouts and bacon and place in bottom of 8-inch round baking pan.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Thoroughly mix eggs, milk and seasonings until well-blended.  Pour evenly over the filling.  Bake, uncovered, for 35 minutes or until eggs in center are set.  Allow to sit for 5 minutes before serving.

*farmers market ingredients 

Squash and Egg Casserole

This morning, we are having a goodbye breakfast for our lab tech, Matt.  He has decided to leave us and head to the Big Apple to work at Sloan-Kettering while waiting for an answer on his medical school applications.  I decided that maybe it was time to do something a little different in saying goodbye to Matt.  So I asked him if he liked breakfast.  He responded with a resounding yes.  Instead of asking the boss to pay for lunch (and be limited to 3 restaurants because of the lab's allergies), I invited our colleague's lab to join us and asked everyone to bring a dish to pass.  My dish, because I am still trying to use up everything I got during the 2 weeks Renee was in Italy, is an egg casserole.  I decided on this because I knew I had turkey bacon and a summer squash in my refrigerator.  This morning, when I went to get ingredients together, I discovered a second summer squash.  So instead of making a strata type casserole (which is a bit of a problem for me and for my boss who is celiac), I decided to just use the squash and bacon.

Squash and Bacon Egg Casserole
Note: I used turkey bacon in this recipe because I had it in my refrigerator and it's easy because it's precooked.  If you prefer, you can use regular bacon (which we often get from the CSA), but you would need to cook it before adding it to the casserole.  And if you are cooking bacon, you might as well cook up some onions as well ;).  I didn't put onion in this casserole because it was sort of a dump and bake recipe today.  I would do it differently given the time and availability of ingredients.

•  1 lb smoked turkey bacon
• 2 medium yellow crookneck squash*, halved and sliced thin
• 4 cups cheese (I used sharp cheddar and Italian blend)
• 12 eggs*
• 2 1/4 cups milk* (I used skim)
• salt, pepper and dried basil, to taste

Dice the bacon; place bacon and squash into baking dish and mix well.  Sprinkle with cheese.  In a large bowl, combine the eggs, milk and seasonings; beat until smooth.  Pour egg mixture over squash and bacon.  Bake 10 minutes at 400F and then reduce heat to 350F.  Bake and additional 15-20 minutes or until a knife, inserted into the center of the casserole, comes out clean.

*CSA ingredients.