Let Them Eat Quiche - Bacon, Spinach and Swiss

I was in a quiche mood the other day... Eggy, custard canvas just waiting to be filled.

I made two this day, one a bit of a classic... this one filled with spinach and bacon and flavored with a classic nutty Swiss cheese.  I also made the crust from hash browns with a bit of my garden peppers tossed in.

I also made a bit of a spectacular experiment...

Spicy Salami, sharp provolone cheese and sweet banana peppers to balance out the flavors..

I am not sure what happened, as I baked each an equal amount of time and basically used the same process.  But in the bacon, spinach and Swiss version, the "fixins" rose to the top and the spinach caramelized (fancy name for that dark color, not quite burnt, but a bit crispy.  In the spicier version, the top was more a golden brown... But you will have to check out today's post on my sister blog, Inspired by eRecipeCards.com to see the details of that quiche.

So, let's talk about this tasty treat... very easy to make and delicious.

The crust comes together easy with a food processor using the shredding blade.  For each I shredded

3 medium sized russet potatoes,
1 medium yellow onion and
1 green pepper (picked fresh from my garden!!!

Once everything is shredded, squeeze as much of the liquid out as you can.  There is plenty, well over a cup.  If you skip this step you will get very soggy potato crust.

Preheat your oven to 375.
spray a pie plate with non stick canola oil
line the bottom and sides of the pan with an even amount of the potato mix... about 1/2 an inch.
Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.

This gets the potatoes crispy and firm.  Again, if you skip this step you will have soggy potato crust.

While this is baking, dice up about 1/3 of a pound of bacon into pieces about the size of a dime.  Saute these until they are just cooked and most of the fat has rendered out.

Shred about 4 ounces of Swiss Cheese

Whisk together
4 eggs
1 cup Half and Half (can use whole milk)

Cut your spinach into thin strips.

When the crust has finished it's par-baking time, line the bottom with half of the cheese.  Again, this prevents the eggy liquid from making the potatoes soggy and losing their crispness that the par-baking session does.

add the bacon and spinach and fill to the rim with the eggy mixture.

Top with the remaining cheese.

Return to the 375 degree oven for about 45-50 minutes until the center egg mixture does not jiggle.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Add a dollop of sour cream, a few sliced green onions and salt and pepper (I used my Sodom and Gomorrah Low Salt Substitute mixture of Salt, Garlic Flakes and equal parts Black and White Sesame Seeds).

Breakfast lunch or in this case DELICIOUS Dinner!

Stromboli - More Pulled Pork Leftovers

Ain't the little piggy plate cute???  Twenty Five cents at a garage sale.. Who could resist?

And my Strombli sandwich... Who could resist this?

It is mostly a Philly Cheese Steak inspired rolled pizza.  I used my cold rise go-to pizza dough...

Pizza Dough...

4 1/2 cups chilled Flour
1 3/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp instant Yeast
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1 3/4 cups COLD Water (40 degrees)

Makes 4 pizzas

OK, did you read the 2 cold ingredients. Takes an extra hour or two of planning, I measure the water and the flour and pop them in the fridge for a couple hours to get cold. The small amount of yeast, relative to the amount of flour and the cold will make for a flat bread, almost no fermentation (rise). Just enough to soften the taste, but not make a big rise.

In my pre Kitchenaid days, I mixed and kneaded this recipe in a gallon size ziplock bag. Worked great, largely I believe because of the oil in the recipe. Without that, the dough would be too sticky to mix in a bag. But this sure made clean up easy.

Here's what I did...

• Mix the dry ingredients first
• add the water and oil about a fourth of each at a time
• mix well until all the flour is hydrated and you form a large dough ball in your bag 
• continue kneading for about 10 minutes, or if you use your kitchenaid, use the dough hook attachment, and allow the machine to knead for 7 minutes
• And now, time to divide... Generously sprinkle a work surface with flour. Also, prepare 4 ziplock sandwich size bags (bigger works fine as well) by spraying the insides of them with spray canola oil.
• Plop the dough ball into the flour and coat well. Divide into 4 equal parts (or fewer if you know you are making larger pizzas). Put each dough ball into a prepared ziplock bag and refrigerate at least 6 hours, and preferably overnight.

The "guts" of the sandwich is a bit like that Philly famous sandwich...

Pulled pork in place of the steak

Grilled Peppers and Onions

Cheese sauce (I made a provolone sauce)

It is optional to add a bit of BBQ sauce, especially if the pork has dried out a bit while it morphed into leftovers.  If your pork is still fork tender and juicy, I prefer to skip this ingredient.

OK... The sandwich is very simple to make...

Roll out a rectangle shape pizza

Top with your ingredients

gently roll the rectangle to form a tube

Moisten the edges either with water or an egg wash

Brush the egg wash on top, add some decorative tasty toppings... Me, I used my beloved SODOM and GOMORAH low salt substitute of equal parts coarse sea salt, garlic flakes, white and black sesame seeds.

Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes checking to make sure the dough is turning golden brown and delicious!

Like this...

Pulled Pork Savory Bread Pudding from Left Overs

Left overs... My very favorite ingredient!

Omelets and pizzas come to mind as something that is usually (at least for me) something I never shop for.  Time to clear out the fridge... Time for an omelet party.  Just enough meat for a sandwich left... make a pizza instead.

But for this dish, I was inspired as I was hollowing out a Big roll of sandwich bread.

If you saw my post on, You've seen this sandwich before; you read where I hollowed out the bread in order to add more of the good stuff to a sandwich.

This is what I did with the leftover bread....

A trick to a great bread pudding is to use stale dried out bread.  If you have to, cut into small pieces and dry it out in a warm oven for awhile.  The Alton Brown science of this makes sense... If the bread is still moist tender and delicious, there is no room for the bread to absorb additional moisture.  There is already saturated moisture in the bread.  Once it has dried out, the internal moisture evaporated into the air, the bread is ready to absorb the creamy, eggy, custard mixture.  If you have ever had a bread pudding where you can make out bread cubes, the cook used fresh bread.

As to a savory bread pudding... They are GREAT!  Bread Puddings, They are not just for dessert anymore.  Just skip the Rum Sauce ;)

I do not really measure anything for this dish.  If you have more meat, GREAT
If you have more egg than cream... GREAT
If you make this with just vegetables... GREAT

But, for this particular one, here's (my best approximate guess) on what I did...

2 cups Stale Bread
1 cup Minced Pulled Pork
4 Eggs
1 cup Heavy Cream
1 diced tomato
1 small minced onion
1/2 cup grated Provolone Cheese
4 large Basil Leaves cut into strips
Salt and Pepper (and garlic flakes and some toasted sesame seeds)

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees
2. Spray a baking dish (Pie plates work great for this, or a 9X9 pan would work as well)
3. Whisk together the Egg, Cream and spices.  Soak the bread.  It should be the consistency of a wet stew, not too soupy, but wet.  If you need to, add milk to the mix.
4. Add the Pork, vegetables, Cheese and 1/2 of the basil
5. Mix well and pour in the pan.
6. Bake for 40 minutes until the center is almost set, add the remaining Basil and bake for about 10 minutes more.

A good breakfast

A better lunch 

and a WONDERFUL Supper!

Saturday Garden Photo - Cherry Tomato in the Rain

You've seen this sandwich before, but I improved on it...

Today's post is a tip, tomorrow will be a recipe

 Dramatic presentation...

Ooozing and gushing with...

Pulled Pork
Lettuce
Provolone Cheese
Pickles
Cole Slaw
Raspberry Chipotle (my own) BBQ sauce
on a fresh made Bread Wreath

What could be better???

Look close at the next two photos...

See the difference???

I hollowed out the top of the "bun" so that it was an easier to eat sandwich (and held more of the good stuff).

BUT  with the bread, it was just enough to make a...

Pulled Pork Savory BREAD PUDDING from the leftovers!

Now THAT's a BETTER SANDWICH when you make it easier to stuff more of the good stuff in, make it easier to eat AND have a beauty of a breakfast...

Come back tomorrow for the recipe to the puddin!

Grilling Asparagus

Just a quicky tip today...

I LOVE asparagus, but always had a tough time grilling them.  They roll around, many end up rolling through the grate and getting an even cook was tough.  Some were burnt (caramelized when i lie to my wife), some still too hard, not cooked enough.

Then I found this tip... Soak several toothpicks in olive oil.  this way they slide into the hard raw asparagus easily.

Put five pieces of asparagus on the toothpick, then repeat on the other end so you have something you can move with a set of tongs.

Easy to keep an eye on them.  easy to plate and much easier to get a perfect batch of grilled asparagus every time!

Cajun Crawfish Boil - Road Trip!

A Big Pot
A Big batch of Crab Boil seasonings
Corn
Red Potatoes
Garlic
Sausages
Shrimp
And a couple dozen pounds of LIVE (well, they started live anyway) Crawfish!

And as spectacular as all that sounds (and indeed it was SPECTACULAR), the fun of the day was the third annual (first for Jackie and me) "East Tennessee Blogger Get together" (now updated to East Tennessee,  North Carolina and Kansas)!

 I will admit that it was a bit of a drive.  Quite a commitment to haul ourselves 1/4 of the way across the country just to hang out with people we had never met before for an afternoon.  But all of these folks are dear friends that we had we "meet" every few days.  Little by little, bit by bit all of these folks have become an important part of my life... Well worth the trip to put a face and a laugh with the friends!

And besides, just to break up the trip I got to stop at Metropolis, Il... Home of the giant Superman statue!

Jackie and I arrived the day before the get together and were invited to stay with Chris and Alexis (Chris who I introduce to my wife as the "Man with TWO Big Green Eggs", but you probably know him as the mastermind behind Nibble Me This blog).

In exchange for letting us crash in his guest room, Jackie and I offered to take his family out for dinner.  Instead, he recognized the invitation for what it was... us just being polite.  What I really wanted to do was to taste a bit of his talent and to see the Egg pro in action. I was not disappointed!

 Chris cooked up an appetizer of " quick appetizer of grilled ribeye steak kebabs (Greek marinade) with Tzatziki sauce, olives and grilled flat bread wedges".  This is my shot of Chris taking a photo for his blog.  I am always intrigued by the photo set up bloggers use.  To take a look at the dish and his selected image, take a hop over to his post... (Click HERE).

It was so much fun to start the weekend off watching, learning and enjoying Chris's work... the perfect host!

But of course, Saturday night with Chris and Alexis was just a prelude to the Main Event...

Sadly, I was meeting, greeting, enjoying myself so much I really do not have all the photos I need to show the day in it's total glory.  But fortunately all of the bloggers there took a few shots and have already posted their take on the day.  So, take a jump over to...

Larry and his wife Bev's post at Big Dude's Eclectic Ramblings

Chris and his wife Alexis's post at Nibble Me This

Katherine and AJ (The REAL deal, displaced Cajun's, settled into East Tennessee and MASTER Crawfish Boil Cooks) post at Smokey Mountain Cafe

Penney and her husband Dave of the Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen blog

And last but not least, Sam and her husband Meakin of the My Carolina Kitchen blog.

There were a few extra guests enjoying the day without food blogs, but if you click the blue letters you will see how the day went for the other bloggers!

Here's the few photos I took you might enjoy...

Our cook AJ... His wife Katherine who taught us all how to "Suck the Heads"

And aside from the food...  The fellowship, camaraderie and taking a "Blogger Buddy" friendship to true friendships made Larry's bit of Heaven rock with laughter throughout the day...

It was exhausting for all!

Oh and one more image just in case you do not believe these guys started their day alive...  Hard to eat anyone you name, but I named this guy Marvin...