Quiche

I made two quiches for MOPS this morning (that is to say, we had MOPS this morning but I made the quiches last night).

The trick to non-soggy crusts (according to America's Test Kitchen Cookbook) is to blind-bake the crusts: put the crust in the pie pan, cover with a double layer of foil (I only used one layer), add pie weights (I emptied my coin purse, worked just as well), then bake for 25-30 minutes at 375.

While the shells are baking, lightly brown the onions and meat in a skillet and gather the rest of the ingredients. I made two different quiches: 1) ham, onion, spinach; and 2) sausage, onion, and craisins. I didn't measure the goodies, just sort of eye-balled it, but I think it was about 1/2 an onion for each quiche, and probably 1/2 cup of craisins. I have no idea how much meat was in each, I just kept cutting it up until the amount looked right! Also, cheese (shredded). We like colby-jack, but cheddar or monterey jack are good too. Even Swiss would be yummy if you're a fan of it (I'm not). If you use frozen spinach you'll need to defrost it first and be sure to squeeze the extra liquid out.

Ingredients I did measure:

1 cup of whole milk (you can use half-and-half or heavy cream or some combination thereof. I wasn't in the mood to use up my half-and-half (coffee drinker here), so I used Daniel's whole milk. He didn't mind).

3 eggs, lightly beaten.

Mix milk and eggs together, preferably in something that has a pour spout. (I love my Pyrex 4-cup measuring cup - I use it as another mixing bowl!)

The important thing is to fill the partially-baked pie shell while it's still warm so that the egg starts to cook immediately and doesn't soak through the crust. So, when the timer on the pie shell goes off, take it out of the oven (reduce the temp to 350), sprinkle a layer of cheese (cover the bottom, 1 cup? 1 1/2 cups?) and add your goodies (meat, onion, veggies, whatever). It's better if you try to even out the top so you don't have a mountain in the middle, so spread everything around. Pull out the oven shelf part way and put the pie pan on it. Pour the egg and milk mixture into the pie pan, then push the shelf in and close the door. Bake for 40-50 minutes at 350 or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. I think you're supposed to let it stand for 10 minutes before serving. Of course this is moot if you're making it a day ahead. I baked both at once. The ham/spinach quiche was done after 45 minutes but the sausage/craisin quiche took 55 minutes because I had put 1.5 cups milk in (I had more than one recipe I was following, but I think it only needed 1 cup)

Here's my little confession: Since I was taking them to MOPS in the morning and I didn't want to forget them, I covered them with foil and put them in the car before going to bed. It wasn't going to get above freezing and I figured that was as good a refrigerator, without the hassle of rearranging stuff so they'd fit in the fridge and no potential to forget them!

I'm sorry at how convoluted this recipe is, think of it more as cooking notes than a recipe ;-)