Day 17: An Eduquicheon

One food I knew I could make with local products was quiche, I just had to find the right recipe. Conveniently, I needed to use up the rest of my garlic mashed potatoes and found a recipe with a mashed potato crust. But, in that recipe the innards weren't quite right, it called for broccoli and I didn't have any. So I combined the mashed potato crust with an Emeril recipe for Mediterranean Quiche. I knew this was going to be a multiple hour undertaking so I made some mulled cider to assuage my hunger.

I poured one mug's worth of cider into a small sauce pan, added about a tablespoon of mulling spices, and simmered for 20 minutes.


Back to the quiche. I altered the recipe slightly. I had to leave out the mushrooms, use dried thyme instead of fresh, and I didn't have sun-dried tomatoes. I knew that just tossing in chopped tomatoes might water things down so I chopped up some grape tomatoes and stuck them in the oven on 375 while the crust cooked, then broiled them for about 6 minutes. Also, instead of Gruyere I combined three of my cheeses from Mountain View Dairy.

Everything seemed like a real success, no repercussions from combining recipes, until I poured the egg/milk/cheese mixture over the veggies and crust. It was very full; if I had a turkey baster I could have removed some fluid, but instead I had to rely on my extreme balance and coordination to get that quiche in the oven without spilling.


Man alive do I need to clean my oven. Luckily after ten minutes of baking I was able to scoop out the eggy mess with a spatula, thereby avoiding any smoke that would reaffirm Leo's doubts about my cooking skills.

I mentioned in a past blog that every once in a great while I make something that is so great that I don't have to subconsciously convince myself I like it just because I put all the work into making it. This was one of those rare occasions.


This is what was left when I finally forced myself to put it away.


After the quiche I had a glass of milk. I was so full that I figured a salad before volleyball would complete today's consumption. And then I got lost in the woods. It all started out very innocently, Zoe and I went to Herkimer County Community College to use the nature trails. This time of year some of the trails get a little overgrown, we strayed from the trails a little so we could keep running without slowing down. Next thing I knew we were on the wrong side of a ravine with no trail markers in sight. It's not a huge wooded area, we were in no real danger and bound to hit a road at some point. Don't call me lost, just call me late for volleyball. Did I mention the abundance of pricker bushes in Central New York?


Sure I was a little scratched up, but it was well worth it: a tired dog is a happy dog.


After washing up there was no time for a salad, I had two maple candies and a glass of milk and headed to volleyball.



As filling as my quiche was, after spending an hour and a half post-volleyball watching people eat chicken wings and cheese fries I felt a little hungry when I got home. I had a slice of peach cornmeal upside down cake.


Now that I've completed the quiche, it's time to move on to the next thing on my list of foods to make. I'll give you a hint: it's cold and it rhymes with Rice Dream, but it's not a crappy processed milk replacement.