Quiche Lorraine

Like bacon & eggs in a pie shell

Ahhh Quiche Lorraine... I remember my mom used to bring it home from the deli of our local grocery store when I was little. I never got into it. Then one time I was visiting my friends Maria and Kevin in Grand Rapids and Maria made quiche for breakfast. It was insanely cheesy and wonderful and full of bacon bits — surprise! It was Quiche Lorraine. I've been making the recipe she gave me ever since and it's now a family favorite. In fact, I made three quiches for Easter this year — on purpose, so we'd have leftovers. 

I doubled the recipe for three quiches(and added an extra egg + a splash of cream & milk to the third pie — it needed more liquid). For a single recipe (as written below) either buy/make a deep dish pie shell, or whip up some extra liquid and divide the filling between two regular pie shells. Not unlike other quiches I've made, I find it's really hard to screw this one up. Gotta love that!

- - - - - - - 

QUICHE LORRAINE

WHAT YOU'LL NEED: 
1 or 2 pie shells (I just used Pillsbury) 
8 slices of bacon
1 medium onion, pretty finely chopped
4 eggs
1 cup cream (or half-and-half)
1 cup milk (I used 2%) 
1/2 tsp salt
dash of nutmeg (I decided 2 pinches = 1 dash)
1 and 1/2 cups shredded swiss cheese
1 TBS flour
tomatos and parsley for garnish (optional)

WHAT YOU'LL DO: 
1. Line pie shells with foil and bake at 450 degrees for 8 minutes. Remove shells from oven and reduce temperature to 325 degrees.

2. In a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp (not blackened). Reserve 2 TBS of bacon drippings, then drain remaining drippings. Finely crumble cooked bacon and set aside. Cook chopped onion in reserved drippings until tender and fragrant (not browned). 

3. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs until smooth (I used an electric mixer and beat the eggs until just frothy). Add cream, milk, salt, and nutmeg and stir or beat together. Stir in crumbled bacon and onion. Toss shredded cheese with 1 TBS flour until cheese is coated, then add cheese to the egg mixture and mix well. 

4. Pour egg mixture into the pie shell(s). Bake at 325 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. If necessary, cover the edge of the crust with foil to prevent browning. Let stand 10 minutes after removed from oven, and garnish with tomatoes and parsley if desired. 

- - - - - - - 

In order to make Easter brunch easy and not too messy, I made the quiches the night before. I baked them for about 30 to 40 minutes, until the eggs were pretty set (still runny in the middle, but not at risk of making a huge mess). I then removed them from the oven, let them cool a bit, covered them with foil, and kept them in the fridge overnight. In the morning, I preheated the oven to 325 degrees and cooked the pies for another 30 to 40 minutes. Voila!