My sister and her friend Donna made it here safely from Maryland, and in good time too! I believe I have beat her 12-hour drive from Maryland to here by a bit over an hour – but I tend to drive FAST – and years of driving on the Tri-State Tollway (where doing 55 MPH driving on a donut in the breakdown lane will get you dirty looks) has made me not notice exactly how fast I’m driving (another reason Rich does most of our long-distance piloting).
We had assorted munchies – fresh veggies, roasted garlic hummus, a horseradish cheese spread I’m playing around with, pita, crackers, marinated stuffed peppers and olive bombs. For dinner, I showed Dale how we peel asparagus (she is not convinced), and grilled some buttermilk/maple syrup marinated chicken and served it with a very pleasant Russet potato salad and a nice Argentinian Malbec – Don Miguel Gascon.
Tuesday will be an exploration day – Dale wants to check out this cool Italian deli in Kenosha, and I thought we’d make a day of it continuing up to Milwaukee and visiting the Public Market.
We’ll prepare for our journey by starting out with a ham quiche (Quiche au Jambon) for breakfast along with some berries, mango and lemon yogurt.
Quiche was, at one time, a major trend in brunchery. If you didn’t do a quiche – you didn’t count. I haven’t made one in a while, but thought this recipe would be a good chance to revisit a classic. It comes from an old cookbook based on ‘La Bonne Cuisine’ – a French food magazine which I think may be no more.
I used leftover Ham from Easter that I had stashed in the freezer and a nice block of Swiss cheese that I shredded in the Cuisinart.
INGREDIENTS
For the pastry:
•1-1/2 Cups all purpose flour
•1/2 tsp salt
•1/2 cup butter, cut into small pieces
•1 egg yolk
•3 tbsp cold water
For the filling:
•1/2 pound ham, cut into small pieces
•1/4 cup Swiss cheese, grated
•4 eggs
•1 tbsp flour
•1 cup milk
•1/2 cup heavy cream
•1/4 tsp salt
•Freshly ground pepper
•3 tbsp melted butter
I’m going to assume you have a food processor (if not, email me and I’ll send the original instructions). Combine the flour and salt in the bowl fitted with the metal blade and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until you have a coarse meal. Add the egg yolk and water and pulse until it starts to form a ball. Remove from bowl, wrap in wax paper and chill for 30 minutes.
After the dough has chilled, roll out in between two wax paper sheets (there are other ways – but this works for me) and fit into a 9 inch pie plate. NOTE: I use a deep pie dish. Sprinkle the ham and cheese around the shell.
Combine the remaining eggs, flour, milk, cream, salt and pepper (I also added a heaping teaspoon of a nice coarse-ground mustard) and pour over the ham and cheese. Drizzle melted butter across the top and bake at 400º for 30 minutes.
I made this Monday morning, let it cool and chilled it; and plan to gently reheat it for an easy brunch on Tuesday.