Playing around on Easter. No words.
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© 2014-2017 Judy Wright. All rights reserved. Photos and text may only be used with written consent.
Last year, our friends, Maribeth and Michael, hosted an impromptu and festive Easter Brunch. I volunteered to bring something eggy. The morning of the brunch, I looked at what I had in the fridge: eggs, cheese, and bacon, with green onions and kale growing in the backyard. I decided on quiches. 
I had a Trader Joe’s pie crust in the freezer. All I needed from the grocery store was heavy cream. Easy-peasy. It doesn’t take much to make a quiche which is just a mixture of custard (eggs and cream), cheese, vegetables, bacon if desired, and pie crust. You can easily make do with what you have on hand: mushroom and onion, spinach and goat cheese, tomato and corn, whatever you have in the fridge. This week, I went for the kale and green onion version because once again, I had both growing in my winter garden.
The kale and green onions wintered-over under hoops covered with agricultural fabric as I described here.
Yield: This recipe makes 2 single-crust quiches.
Ingredients:
2 9 inch pie crusts (I love Trader Joe’s frozen pie crusts)
1 pound of bacon, crumbled
1 cup sliced green onions
1 cup chopped kale or spinach
1 cup Swiss cheese, shredded
1 cup Gruyere cheese, shredded
10 large eggs, beaten with a fork or blender
4 cups whole milk (ok), or half-and-half (better), or heavy cream (best!)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
a pinch or two of freshly ground nutmeg
Mise en Place:
To prepare bacon:
Here’s an easy way to cook a pound of bacon without making a mess. Preheat oven to 375º. Place a sheet of parchment paper or foil on a 13 x 18-inch baking pan. Set the bacon on a cooling rack and place it over the lined baking pan. Cook bacon for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown. When done, throw parchment paper in the trash as soon as it is cool enough to handle, before it has a chance to stick to the bottom of the pan. No messy splatter to deal with or dirty pans.
Wash and slice green onions. Wash, spin, and chop kale leaves.
Instructions for putting it all together:
Preheat oven to 425º.
To make the custard: beat eggs together first and then add cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Place a single pie crust in each pie plate. Flute edges to make them look pretty. If using Trader Joe’s brand, keep the plastic wrap on the crust while you roll it out and transfer it from the countertop to the pie plate.
Layer pie ingredients as follows:
Bacon
Onions and Kale
Cheese
Egg Mixture
Bake pies at 425º to ensure that the pie crusts cook. Undercooked, doughy crusts are not very appetizing. After 20 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 350º to cook the custard interior. When you reduce the heat, take pies out of the oven and line their edges with foil or pie plate shields to keep crust rim from burning. Bake for about 25-30 minutes more. A knife inserted in the center should come out clean. Note to self: purchase another 9″ pie crust shield– they are so much easier to use than foil.
Let quiche rest about 15 minutes before serving. You can make the day before and reheat in the oven.
How big IS that egg, or a few words about egg sizes.
In the olden days, farmers would gather eggs from their hen houses and use this Jiffy Way Egg Scale to measure the egg’s weight and grade, from small to extra large, for marketing purposes.
My friend, Patty, gave me this scale with the marketing logo “DeKalb Chix” printed on it. I treasure it!
Our chicken eggs range in size from medium to extra large, so often times I have to weight them to get the right amount of eggs for a recipe.
Medium to extra-large.
A little more or less volume won’t matter with a quiche, but it would definitely matter with a cake or pastry recipe where the ratio of dry to liquid ingredients needs to be accurate. This recipe called for 20 ounces. I use my modern digital scale for weighing!
The more you know…
LET’S STAY CONNECTED!
Follow my photos of vegetables growing, backyard chickens hanging out, and dinner preparations on Instagram at JudysChickens.
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© 2014-2017 Judy Wright. All rights reserved. Photos and text may only be used with written consent.
When I was nine years old, my grandmother took her daughter, Rachelle, my cousin, Carol, and me on an airplane trip to Arizona to visit relatives. It was my first plane ride. We flew from Boston to Phoenix on TWA, “Traveling With Angels” I would tell everyone with a proud grin on my face. The flight was memorable for many reasons; chief among them were the perfectly coiffed stewardesses who told us we could write all the letters we wanted, and they would send them for us via “Air Mail.” That struck me as nothing short of amazing. They lavished us with decks of cards, airplane pins, books, and meals so noteworthy, my cousin and I both wrote to my mother to tell her what was served for lunch: steak, carrots, peppers, onions, rice with gravy, a salad with French dressing, a choice of milk or Coke, and a piece of apple pie.
What do I remember about Phoenix? Navel Mary. “Navel Mary” is the name we girls gave to our Great Aunt Louise’s next-door neighbor. Naval Mary had a grove of navel orange trees in her backyard. We visited every day. She taught us how to cut oranges, lickety-split. She probably could cut five of them in under a minute. Obviously, it made a big impression on me because here I am, fifty years later, writing about it. To this day, when my cousins and I talk about that trip, one of us will say, “Remember Navel Mary?”
How to cut an orange the Naval Mary, way:
Works for grapefruits, too!
And, for other citrus fruits!
Related Story:
Grapefruit and Greens: A Refreshing Winter Salad
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© 2014-2020 Judy Wright. All rights reserved. Photos, videos, and text may only be reproduced with the written consent of Judy Wright.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love that the sweet equals the tart.
I love the cakey center and the crunchy crust.
You are irresistible and please the crowds.
You are Italian, so you are a cookie after my own heart.
You gladden the heart of my brother, Charles, too.
For that, I will continue to make you all the days of my life.
RECIPE TIPS
Mise en Place:
There is a fancy cooking term called, mise en place (me-zahn-plahs). It means to “put into place” which in the kitchen means to measure all the ingredients ahead of time so they are ready to go when you start cooking. I’m frequently in a rush and don’t bother to do this extra step, but today, I decided to give it a try. It was so calming! I plan to make this a regular practice.
How to Zest and Juice a Lemon for your Mise en Place:
As part of my mise en place strategy, I did all the prep work on my lemons first. I used a fine-holed Microplane grater to zest the lemon peel. Adding lemon zest to batter is a great way to add intense flavor to whatever you are making. Be careful not to grate past the yellow peel as the white pith below it is bitter.
Next, slice the lemons in half and squeeze the juices out using a lemon squeezer.
You could make your own ricotta using this recipe: How to Make Whole Milk Ricotta. It is surprisingly easy.
Lemon Ricotta Cookies
Yield: 4 dozen
Ingredients:
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 stick butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs (a large egg equals 2 ounces, do not use xl eggs)
15-ounces whole milk ricotta cheese, room temperature
1 lemon, zested
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (juice of one 4-5 oz lemon)
Glaze:
1½ cup powdered sugar
1 lemon, zested
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (juice of one 4-5 oz lemon)
Mise en Place:
Instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 375º
2) Line three cookie sheets with parchment paper. If you don’t have parchment paper, lightly grease the baking sheets with canola oil.
3). In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar on medium speed for two minutes. Beat for two full minutes as this will incorporate air into the batter which will make for a lighter cookie.
4) Add eggs and beat for 30 seconds.
5) Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and ricotta and beat for one minute on medium speed. Be sure to use a spatula to incorporate the ingredients that have settled onto the bottom of the mixing bowl into the batter.
6) Add the flour, baking powder and salt mixture and stir (the lowest speed on a mixer) for a minute. Do not overmix or whip. We don’t want to awaken the gluten in the flour, so the batter becomes elasticky. We want the cookies to have a cake-like texture.
7) Use a tablespoon to drop the cookie dough onto the pan. Use about one heaping tablespoon of dough for each cookie.
8) Bake for 15-20 minutes. After 10 minutes of cooking, rotate your cookie sheets in the oven. Cookies are done when the bottom edges just start to darken.
Leave cookies on the pan to cool for 10 minutes. Peel cookies off the parchment paper and place directly on a wire cooling rack so the bottoms can air dry and become crisp.
Mise en Place for Glaze:
1) Mix together powdered sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a small bowl and stir.
2) When cookies are cool, use a knife to spread a thin layer of glaze over each one. Let glaze harden for at least three hours before stacking.
Most Popular Holiday Recipes:
Grandma’s Italian Fried Cauliflower
Cranberry and Hot Pepper Jelly Brie Bites
Mrs. Walker’s Cranberry Nut Pie
My Favorite Rollout Butter Cookies
Mary’s Award-Winning Chocolate Chip Cookies
How to Fold A Tree-Shaped Napkin
Check out Holiday on the MENU for more recipes.
If you enjoyed this post, please share it with a friend and become a follower. When signing up, be sure to confirm the subscription on the follow-up letter that will be sent to your email.
Follow Judy’s Chickens on Instagram and Pinterest @JudysChickens.
Always check my blog for the latest version of a recipe.
© 2014-2020 Judy Wright. All rights reserved. Photos, videos, and text may only be reproduced with the written consent of Judy Wright.
@judyschickens 