Vidalia Onion Pie

Back when I was a young bride-to-be my dear mommy bought me subscriptions to Cooking with Paula Deen and Taste of the South magazines.  This was before my cookbook collection grew to over 100, when the majority of my magazine subscriptions were fashion magazines such as Glamour & Allure...not home or cooking things.  But I sure adored those two cooking magazines.  I would pull them out and read every single page...marking the recipes that I would love to try when I had a kitchen of my own and was no longer living in a college dorm!  I will still "Miss Hospitality" back then, I just did slice and bake cookies and brownies from a mix ;) 

During those first few issues in the spring and summer of 2006, I kept seeing a recipe--an advertisement, not actually a Paula recipe--for a vidalia onion tart.  I had just started to appreciate onions and really wanted to try making it eventually.

Well, a few weeks ago I pulled out one of my old magazines (of course I still have every one...and bought all the back issues too...), found the recipe and tried it.

Honestly, I wasn't thrilled.  I love the flavor of the sweet onions, but the recipe only called for one egg and one egg yolk and it wasn't enough to really bind the diced onions together.  It probably didn't help that shortly after making it I got a stomach virus, and sadly, half of the tart ended up in the trash :(.  If I make this again, I would definitely increase the amount of eggs to give it more of a quiche consistency, and I think it would be wonderful in tartlettes at a baby or bridal shower or tea or something lovely like that.

Vidalia Onion Tart
Celina Tio f/m the American Resturant, as advertised in Cooking with Paula Deen May/June 2006
 *makes 1 12" tart, 12 servings


 5 cups diced Vidalia onions (small dice)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 cup heavy cream
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon finely chopped flat leaf parsley
1 teaspoon finely chopped chives
1 tart shell, partially baked (I was lazy and just used a frozen pie shell)

Cook the onions in the olive oil over medium heat until tender.  Keep covered to seal in flavor and prevent onions from browning.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add the heavey cream and simmer for 2-3 minutes.  Adjust seasoning, if necessary.  Allow to cool slightly.  Whisk the egg and egg yolk together and incorporate into the onion mixture.  Finish with teh chopped parsley and chives.  Pour mixture into the partially baked tart shell and bake at 325 degress for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (Since I used a smaller diameter pie shell it took at least 45 minutes for mine to bake)

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!

i'm sick and need to use up some veggies

...and, for some strange reason, i always crave eggs when i'm sick...put it all together and you get....

veggie quiche!!

so, in all honesty, this was not the best thing to eat with a stomach virus, but, for serious, all I want to eat when I'm sick (any kind of sick) is eggs. And I didn't want to make another omelette, and I knew the veggies in the crisper would go bad if I didn't use them soon, so, well, there you have it!

It is oh so simple:
-saute whatever veggies you have on hand in some butter or olive oil (use about 2 tbsp of fat) over medium heat until soft . I used mushrooms, red bell peppers, and onions, and then threw in some frozen spinach that I had thawed in the microwave. I also sprinkled in some kosher salt.

-roll out some pie dough using those dough scraps that have been hanging out in your fridge...or of course you can use a pre-made crust, or go crustless to save some calories...but when you're sick you don't feel like saving calories! **Note--I used some of my leftover go-to pie crust without thinking about the sugar in the recipe...it was a bit too sweet for this dish, so maybe you don't just want to use your scraps...**

-whisk together 4 to 6 eggs (i used 4 b/c I was using a super small pie plate) and 1 to 1 3/4 cup milk or cream, or a combination. Also include some pepper and you could throw in whatever other spices sound nice...I think next time I will saute my veggies in some smoked paprika as well...

-Arrange your veggies over the bottom of your pie crust. Top with shredded cheese (I used the last of the walmart fiesta blend that was in my fridge...about 1/2--3/4 cup...you can use more or less.) Then pour egg/milk mixture over the top. I had a little too much so I scooped some of the veggies and cheese out and put it in a little ramekin and topped w/the remaining egg mixture.

Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes, until knife inserted in center comes out clean.


This was a good little thing to eat while I was sick. It's yummy cold or reheated and it gets a bit of nutrients in! Of course, you can always make it more delicious with bacon or pancetta or something like that too...