on illness and quiche

Well, I'm sick again (what else is new right?). Dr. John, who I work for and who has been my doctor since I was 2 years old (they made me get a "grown up doctor" when I first got chronic stuff in '07, but I still see him for little stuff while I'm working) checked me today at work and said that my poor little throat was as red as my scrubs :( about this red. So now I'm on some loverly antibiotics once again as well as decongestants. February has been a bad health month, and I was seriously getting the blues about it earlier. I feel like I just sleep and do the bare minimum of house cleaning on the weekends (which I am blessed to have 3 days long) but my body is still constantly worn out and attracts these germs like a magnet! (I'm sure working at a pediatric doctor's office does not help...)

this is how I feel


this too

Well class, if you have been following along, you will remember that I like to eat eggs when I am sick. (I just had to buy 2 1/2 dozen more this week). I had also recently purchased some leeks with the goal of making some leek potato soup. That sounded good, but I feel that it's hard to make soup for just one person ('cause we know hubs won't be eatin' any!) and I was wanting something especially bad-for-you-comforting. Enter...mushroom leek & bacon quiche!!

Now this is an amalgamation of multiple recipes online and in cookbooks--I just considered what I had on hand and how much time I wanted to actually spend preparing and baking it, and threw it together. But it was GOOD. I considered eating, almost had, ok, definitely ate half of the quiche right after it came out of the oven *shame* It is just so good and gooey and savory and comforty. sigh.

So here is the recipe--I cheated and used a frozen pie crust and precooked bacon, but hey, a girl's gotta do what she can when she feels like crap!

Mushroom, Leek & Bacon Quiche

3 leeks--whites and a few inches of light green, sliced
8-10 small mushrooms (i used baby bellas), sliced
4 slices bacon (i used precooked, but you can fry your own and then saute the leeks & mushrooms in about 1 tbsp of the grease instead of the butter)
3 tbsp. butter
pinch kosher salt
approx 2 cups shredded cheese (i used a mix of mozzarella & "fiesta blend"--just use what you have on hand)
4 eggs
3/4 cup half & half (or a combo of skim milk & cream, which is basically the same ;) )
dash pepper
pinch nutmeg
1 unbaked deep dish pie crust

Preheat the oven to 350 F
-Saute the leeks and mushrooms in butter over medium heat until soft (about 10-15 minutes) add a bit of kosher salt if using unsalted butter. Add bacon to mixture towards the end to let it heat back up. Remove mixture from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes, then place in the pie crust.

-Cover vegetable/bacon mixture with cheese
-Whisk together eggs, half & half, pepper, & nutmeg. Pour over cheese, pressing down to make sure that all the dry ingredients are covered. (i sprinkled a few bits of bacon over the top...just for fun)

-Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
-Cool on a rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

yum


even yummer

Of course, you can probably make this healthier by using skim milk, sauteing in olive oil rather than butter, cutting back on the cheese and eliminating the bacon...but what sick girl wants to eat that?

One thing (other than the quiche) that made my day a little more joyful--I found a wonderful surprise at Walmart...

MEYER LEMONS!!!

So I had never even heard of these things before entering the blogging world, but for the past year I have been looking every time I go to the grocery and lusting after the recipes made with them online. I was so excited to find these! Bowling Green, while not such po-dunk country town is lacking a lot of the wonderful culinary treats that you see in cities that have such exciting places as Whole Foods & Trader Joes (I mean, you can't even get Dutch-processed cocoa powder here!). So I snatched these up with dreams (and trepidation) of what to make. Any suggestions? I won't be baking until the weekend (got to get over this bug) so if you have a favorite recipe highlighting meyer lemons, please share it! I'm hoping that the store won't break my heart like it did years ago with blood oranges--I find them once and then they never return :(

I also got the wheat germ which was intended for the TWD cookies this week, which I obviously didn't make. Hopefully will do those over the weekend (it's becoming Saturdays with Dorie for me lately)

Hope you are all staying away from illnesses!