When Sarah came to visit this past weekend, we were talking about food (of course), and it came up that we had both made quiche last week. I wonder if the beginning of Autumn triggers some subversive quiche cravings in the modern mind. Regardless, I promised to post something about the wonderful conjoining of pie crust, egg and cheese. A week later, after a diagnosis of possible mono, I'm finally getting around to it. Because it's so tedious to sit down and write about eggs, right?

So, my quiche story is quite recent. It was never something that I had growing up. It's funny to discover these foods and wonder how on earth you've missed them for so long. . . . especially something like this. It seems like quiche (well some of them) would have been perfect on fridays during Lent. Goodness knows that I wouldn't have complained if we ditched the tuna salad sandwiches from time to time. Alas, it took going away to college for me to discover this, apparently German, culinary delight which has been popular in America since the 1950s (aka long before I was around). http://www.foodreference.com/html/artquiche.html

I can't say that I remember the first time that I ate quiche, but I do have fond memories of the first time that I cooked quiche. One of the grocery stores in town decided to stock feta - which doesn't seem like a bad idea at all. However, the population of Natchitoches, Louisiana, apparently didn't feel a need for feta at the grocer's. . . which left them in a real pickle. To clear the shelves, God bless them, they marked down all of the feta to 50 cents a package. Being an impoverished college student, I decided to purchase an unseemly amount of cheese. The lid of the feta container included a recipe for quiche - which seemed too easy to be true. Now, I had a ton of feta, a recipe for quiche, and eggs are super cheap. . . so we hauled out Crissy's copy of Where's Mom Now that I Need Her? http://www.amazon.com/Wheres-Mom-Now-That-Need/dp/0961539011/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253802089&sr=8-1 (a book that every graduating senior should get as a gift) and found an even easier recipe and got to cooking. The feta stayed that cheap for months, and we ate an excessive amount of quiche that semester.

I'm not going to tell you that I don't like quiche with all kinds of fun meat and veggies in it. I was even looking at a recipe recently for a Spanish version of some sort with potatoes and will probably try it soon. However, when I think of quiche, I think of this very simple method of combining those few main ingredients which create cheesey, eggy perfection. I never use a recipe anymore, so this recipe is going to sound like one of those annoying recipes that you get from old people who have been cooking their whole lives and are just guessing at measurements. Fortunately, eggs are cheap, so if you screw this up (and how could you really?) just pawn it off on some unsuspecting and hungry person and start another, tweaking things to your taste.

Quiche
1 frozen pie crust (I prefer the deep dish crusts)
6-8 eggs
1 pkg. feta cheese
1/2 c. cream (or whole milk)
salt and pepper to taste

Simple as pie. . . preheat the oven to 350. Scramble the eggs in a large mixing bowl. Add the cream, salt and pepper. Sprinkle the cheese on the bottom of the pie crust. Pour the egg mixture on top, and bake until done. I think that this usually takes 30-45 minutes in the oven, but you'll really just need to keep an eye on it. The top will start to turn a light golden. That's when you'll want to take it out. And voila!

This past Independence day, I celebrated my freedom by eating hot dogs and various grilled meats with my compatriots. Amongst the smorgasbord of meat, there was a dessert or two and I may have had one or two helpings of each. In particular, I was impressed with my pal Rebecca's holiday themed trifle (see picture above). The recipe for her delicious and adorable trifle is below, but, first, let's do a little Internet research (aka 'Googling') and figure out what the heck a trifle is.