What Can I Bring?

September 5, 2012

Quick Trivia for you:

 

What do Rachel Ray, Martha Stewart, Julia Child, and Ina Garten all have in common (besides being inspiring cooks)??

 

 

Wait for it…..

 

 

Wait for it………………

 

 

Answer:  They all had/have NO ‘families’ to cook for. None.  The only ones coming to their dinner table are a well-fed husband or friends (Martha has the only child in the bunch, a well-fed adult daughter, but no husband).  This fact makes me laugh when I think about home cooks that try to be perfect or hold themselves up to some bar that is just not possible for us mommies. (Please no complaints about how a married couple are a family or friends are our families. I easily concur. My point here is opening your 40th jar of play dough while you are cooking can slow things down a bit.)

In order for good food to get made at my house, it needs to be simple (or a weekend).  It also doesn’t mean we have to eat frozen meals either. Or frozen appetizers (ok, sometimes, I am thankful for them. But often they are kinda gross).

But now that I know how easy these are to make, I am never bringing their frozen counter part again!

 

Consider this a road-tested appetizer…I just brought them to a Labor Day party and people were grabbing them off the tray as my husband walked in with them.  Kids and adults both dug in. Michael from Germany told me in very good English how much he loved them four times.  AND they were super easy! They took me exactly 30 min. from pulling out fridge ingredients to walking out the door.

I don’t know about you but I sometimes leave parties hungry lately! I vow to bring something substantial from now on because chips and salsa and cold grill meat aren’t doing it for me.  Thus was my thought process when I settled on bacon and onion egg quiches.

It is the same as large quiches (which are also one of my favorite make ahead meals. I made 8 for our post-wedding brunch).

You saute bacon and onions:

 

Make an egg and cream and cheese mixture, plus parsley (it counts as a veggie right?):

 

I cut out circles from store bought pie crust, and placed them into a mini muffin pan.

 

I cooked the crust for 5-7 min first, then added the egg mixture. But you know what? I had extra filling and cooked about 10 of these with no crust, just some cooking spray in first. They were delicious! So if you are on a cave man/Paleo/low carb diet, or just forgot crusts at the store, these can be made with no crust.

Bacon & Onion Mini Quiches:

(adapted from a Cook.com recipe found here)

Ingredients

    • 1 package pie crust (2 crusts)
    • 6 slices bacon, diced
    • 1 onions, finely diced
    • 6 eggs
    • 1 cup cream (or use milk or fat free cream to go lighter)
    • 1 cup grated gruyere cheese
    • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (fresh is best!)
    • salt & freshly ground black pepper

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
  2. Cook the onion and bacon over a low heat until the onion is softened.
  3. Allow to cool a little.
  4. Mix together with the eggs, cream, cheese, parsley and salt and pepper.
  5. Using a pastry cutter or glass, cut 12 circles from each pastry sheet.
  6. Use these to line a mini muffin pan.
  7. Cook for 5 min. in 375 degree oven.
  8. Place about 2 teaspoons of the egg and bacon mix in each pastry base.
  9. Bake in a moderate oven for about 12 minutes per tray (or until puffed, golden and set).
  10. repeat with remaining pastry sheets and mix.

FYI:  The green leaves on the tray are Hydrangea leaves. I love this time of year when they are so big!

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