January 21, 2010

Leftover Ingredients Make Easy Dinners....

Tonight was  a busy night as everyone had somewhere to be.  I decided I was going to use up some leftover ingredients that I had in the refrigerator. I peered inside(found a few things that had overstayed their welcome) and came up with a plan.  Tonight would be Quiche Lorraine and a Strawberry Spinach Salad.  I literally had every ingredient in the house.  Love that!  I decided I would make my crust early in the day and then just make the rest of the quiche closer to dinner. It's a good thing I started early because I burnt the first crust! I was trying to be clever and par bake it so that it would be nice and crispy.  Back out came the food processor and the butter and I managed to quickly throw together another crust. It wasn't pretty but it did taste good.  Please don't ever buy one of those prepackaged pie crusts in the refrigerator section! They are so gross!! Any cookbook will have an easy pie crust to throw together- do it! It is so worth it. To me, I can't even take a bite of any pie with the "fake" crusts; I don't care how good the filling is, the crust ruins it.  I use a basic recipe from Martha Stewart and it really only takes about 10 mins to put the whole thing together. 

My simple dinner tonight really was just that.  The quiche was very good and the strawberry spinach salad so sweet! So nice to see some berries in the winter.   I made a quick olive oil/balsamic vinaigrette with a dab of honey - so easy!


Quiche Lorraine

1 pie crust, rolled out.
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups of half and half
2 tblsp chopped onion
8 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 cups shredded gruyere cheese
2 tblsp flour
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350.  Place pie crust in pie plate. Mix eggs, half and half, onion, bacon and salt and pepper.  In separate small bowl, mix flour with cheese, then add to egg mixture.  Beat well and pour into prepared pie plate.  Bake for approximately 40 mins until cake tester comes out clean when inserted.  Serve warm or room temperature.

Balsamic Vinaigrette (for Strawberry Salad)

1/4 cup olive or canola oil
3 tblsp good quality Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp Honey
Salt and Pepper

Mix well, pour over spinach leaves, strawberries(sliced) and sliced almonds.




3 comments:

  1. After seeing that salad dressing I ended up making it for a salad that mike and I had tonight- it was so easy and took two seconds and the honey made it especially good!

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  2. What you don't like packaged pie crust?

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  3. Look at the ingredients! Chemicals....

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