I love to cook but don't usually do it on a daily basis because of my work schedule. For the most part, Sunday is my day to cook for the bulk of the week. Last week, I slagged off and only cooked a small pot of split pea soup. My friend's father does a little farming in Georgia. He recently gave me a few onions from the family farm. Wow. What a difference from grocery store onions. You know how the skins get all sucked tight to the onion and you have to struggle to get it off? Not with these farm fresh babies! They were so juicy, The skins slipped off with no problem. I diced up six strips of bacon and cooked them until they were crispy and removed them for the pan for garnish. Then I carmelized the onion in some of the bacon drippings before adding a bag of split peas, sliced carrots, liquid and herbs.Although pretty delish, it only made a few servings, so we had to fend for ourselves with takeout lunches and cans of soup for the rest of the week.
This weekend, we made cooking a priority. Sweets started out our day on Sunday with pancakes he made from scratch. I finished up the rest of the opened bacon. For dinner, I made sandwiches with the breast meat from a roasted chicken with sliced gouda and all natural apple butter. Since the deep fryer is all set up now, I sliced up a sweet potato and a zucchini really thin and in they went for a flash to turn into yummy fries. Using that fryer is my new favorite thing to do. Good thing I only cook once a week!
For the rest of the week's meals, I made a few more dishes. With the rest of the roasted chicken, I made a quick chicken soup with stars. Inspired by a Martha episode earlier in the week, I decided to try making a quiche, too. I'd had a package of pie crusts in the freezer for a while. After a quick survey of what was in the fridge, I decided on the rest of the ingredients. This was so easy, I think I may be making more quiche soon.
My recipe for Mexican Quiche
frozen pie crust
1 cup diced chorizo sausages
two cloves garlic
box of frozen chopped spinach
one ripe tomato
2 oz cheddar cheese
3 eggs, plus one extra yolk
3/4 cup milk
salt & pepper to taste
Put a thawed pie crust on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes. It should be golden brown when it's ready. - You may want to put some parchment paper inside the crust and weigh it down with pie weights if you have them or some dried beans or rice. This will keep the bottom smooth. It will puff up if you don't do this but it won't hurt the end result at all. (I actually skipped this step myself.)
Let the crust cool completely once it's removed from the oven.
Dice up the chorizo into small pieces. Saute in a little olive oil with the garlic and some pepper. Once the garlic starts to turn golden, add the spinach. Watch it pretty closely. As it thaws, flip it over, scrape down the spinach and continue this process until the spinach is completely incorporated with the chorizo.
Beat the eggs and extra yolk. Add the milk, salt and pepper to taste. Grate the cheese and add to the egg mixture. Set aside.
Put the spinach mixture in the pie crust. Spread it evenly. (If you have more than you need, set it aside. You can either make another quiche later or use it in another dish.)
Pour the egg mixture into the pie crust. The cookie sheet below will catch any drips that may happen in transit to the oven or while baking.
Cut the tomato into thin wedges. Plunge them into the egg mixture in a ring all the way around the quiche. You want them to be visible but not totally dried out when it's done.
Now pop into a 350 degree oven for 45-50 minutes.
