egg pie.

I'm not big into eggs. We didn't have a lot of traditional breakfasts at my house, so I got eggs when I was visiting somewhere else or when my dad periodically scrambled them with ham for visiting company. My dad has a lot of good qualities, but his scrambled eggs are runny. I don't make good eggs either, because I never feel the urge. Josh loves eggs and wants to raise chickens someday. He makes breakfast on Sundays and always asks me about eight times how I want my eggs. He cannot believe that I simply don't care that much. It's mostly the same to me. I prefer over-medium to over-easy, but in the end, it's still just eggs. There's a limit to how much I'm going to get out of it. So he scrambles them or fries them or makes an omelet. I eat it, and I don't mind it, but I don't get the same enjoyment out of it that I do with the bacon that sits next to it.

I do like things made with eggs: brownies, for instance, or shrimp cakes or chocolate pie. I like eggs a lot more as an ingredient than as a food in and of itself. It's sort of like flour or vinegar.

One possible exception to my overall indifference to eggs is quiche. You might argue that eggs are again just an ingredient in quiche, but I would counter that eggs are just an ingredient in an omelet. Either way, I like quiche.

My standard quiche recipe, Quiche Lorraine, is in regular rotation. I like it for many reasons. For one thing, it's simple. Easy ingredients that I always have on hand, and you're done with the whole thing in an hour (if your pie crust is already made). Secondly, it's a good way to use up a leftover pie crust from a chocolate pie, since the crust recipe I use makes two crusts. Or, it creates a leftover pie crust, which can then be used to make chocolate pie. I promise that my life does not revolve around chocolate pie. It just revolves around someone else whose life revolves around chocolate pie.

Sometimes, I think about finding another quiche recipe, since it's very versatile and you can put just about anything inside. So I browse a bunch of different recipes and ideas, but in the end, those other recipes sound complicated and require ingredients I don't have, so I always end up back here, at Quiche Lorraine. You could certainly add some spices and whatnot to this, maybe some nutmet or white pepper, but it's pretty darn good as is. It's even good the next day, cold.

Quiche Lorraine
from Allrecipes

• 1 9-inch single crush pie pastry


• 6 slices bacon (see notes)


• 1 onion, chopped


• 3 eggs, beaten


• 1 1/2 cups milk


• 1/4 t salt


• 1 1/2 cups Swiss cheese (see notes)


• 1 T all-purpose flour

1. Bake pie crust however you see fit until crust is set.


2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.


3. Cook bacon, crumble, and set aside. Reserve a small amount of bacon grease (2 T or less) in skillet. Cook onion in reserved drippings until tender and slightly browned. Drain and set aside.


4. In a large bowl, mix together eggs, milk and salt. Stir in bacon and onion. In a separate bowl, toss cheese and flour together. Add cheese to egg mixture; stir well. Pour mixture into pastry shell.


5. Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until knife inserted into center comes out clean. Let quiche cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Note: I never have Swiss cheese in the house. I usually use either mozzarella or a mix of Colby and Monterey Jack. Also, I bet you could signficantly cut down the amount of bacon used. Maybe try three or four slices instead of the full six. The real flavor delight in this recipe is not the bacon, but the onions cooked in the bacon grease. For those of you who do not eat pork, you could try turkey bacon or soy bacon or Francis Bacon. Or maybe you should just rethink the whole pork issue.