Monday, March 7, 2016

Bacon and Gruyere Cheese Quiche Recipe

Bacon and Gruyere Cheese Quiche

Ingredients
1 store-bought single pie crust (I bought the one in the foil pan in the freezer section)
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 c. medium diced yellow onion
Coarse salt
Ground pepper
6 farm fresh eggs
¾ c. heavy cream
¾ lb. bacon, cooked and chopped
1 c. shredded Gruyère cheese (if you can't find your cheese grater, you can chop it up into very small pieces)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375. 
  2. Brush edge of pied crust with olive oil
  3. Bake pie crust until edge is dry and light golden, about 10-15 minutes. 
  4. Meanwhile, cook bacon until crispy.  Chop into bite sized pieces
  5. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high. Add onion, season with salt and pepper. Saute until onions are translucent and no longer crispy. 
  6. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and cream together. 
  7. Add onion, bacon, and Gruyere cheese.
  8. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and mix together.
  9. Pour mixture into crust.  If you have any leftover quiche mixture, line a muffin tin with enough wrappers for the leftover mix and fill each 3/4 full.  
  10. Bake until center of quiche is just set, 35 to 40 minutes.  Muffin tin will be done earlier, so check after about 25 minutes.  Overcooking will "cook out" the Gruyere flavor.
  11. Serve warm or at room temperature. 
  12. Enjoy leftovers within a few days or freeze for later.



Quiche of Life


The closest restaurant to us is the Stockman's Cafe in Rapelje.  This is another unincorporated community although it is much larger than the one I live near.  Though they still don't have a gas station or grocery store, they have a church and this restaurant.

The place is set up like a community hall or center, with tables covered in cowboy themed fabric with clear plastic on top.  The food is fine, the specials are popular, they make their own fries which I highly recommend.  Their hours are mostly open for lunch with one night a week for dinner.  The decor around the edges of the dining area comprise local information, historical displays, a few shelves of books, display of brands and a freezer of Wilcoxson ice cream.

So in summary, this is not only the only restaurant in town, it's also a community meeting place, a museum, a library and the only place to buy "groceries" if ice cream is the only thing on your list.

On our third visit, the waitress said, "now that you're regulars, let me get your names."  She knew where we lived and we exchanged polite information.  We are also the only people that don't know anyone else there.  Everyone else chats to each other.

We went to pay our bill and I noticed a sign for farm fresh eggs, $2 a dozen.  I bought a dozen because not only are farm eggs much better than store bought, this is a pretty good price around here.  When I went into our fridge to put them away, I belatedly remembered that I already had one and a half dozen.  What to do?  Make a quiche.

The next night we enjoyed a delicious quiche made with bacon and Gruyere cheese.  We enjoyed the leftovers for breakfast the next day.  I hadn't made a quiche in quite a long time and I don't recall the previous ones turning out so well.  If you're curious, here's my modified recipe.

When I lived with four grocery stores within five miles from my house, I decided what recipes to make and bought the ingredients.  But I'm starting to switch that around.  More often now, the ingredients I have decide the recipes and meals.

Lamb chops from the sheep ranch just south of us dictate a grilled lamb chop meal with steamed vegetables from the freezer and mashed potatoes from the pantry.  Hamburger given from the neighbor's ranch made a meal of cheeseburgers with a side of tater tots from an unending bag in the freezer and steamed green beans.

Meals are planned in advance and there are still some ingredients I get to complete a recipe.  I purchased pie crusts (haven't learned to make decent ones) last night so I could make a pot pie today with leftover chicken from last week.  I am using what I have more than I used to.

And when all else fails, lets hope it's a Wednesday night.  Because that's when the Stockman's Cafe is open for dinner.

Friday, March 4, 2016

Wheel Life


A lot of people have told me that the roads out here are tough on tires.  One of the people at the garage we go to lives farther out from us, and he said he's tried about every kind of tire.  We kind of knew this because on our first trip out to view the Vintage House, we had a flat the next day.

We've had flats in "town" (Billings) but mostly we were able to pump the tire up and quickly get it in and fixed.  The tire place was just a block away.  However, living 25 miles out now is a different story.

On my to the recycling center last week, I hit the first cattle guard and then heard a metal on metal sound while I felt the truck "pull" a little.  I immediately stopped and checked the tires, the axles and the wheel wells.  Nothing.  I shrugged and kept on going.

I dropped off my garbage then started for home when I saw I had a flat tire.  It was completely flat.  And of course, no cell phone signal though I could text and had data.  Go figure.  A guy pulled up behind me and offered to help.  He works for the county and said this happens to him all the time.

"You need to unlock this to lower the spare tire," he said.  I stuck my key in and pulled out a plug covering an access hole.  "Behind your seat there should be rods to put in there to lower your spare tire."  I rummaged around and there was a package of tire rods.  I would have never figured this out by myself.  In no time flat, he had my spare on.  His tools were ready to go - a nice sized lift, battery operated lug nut loosener thing and the muscle to go with it.

"Next time," he said, "you can do it yourself now.  Just put the jack there," he pointed out the underside of the axle, "and make sure it's steady.  I usually carry around a block of wood to put on the ground."

I nodded and tried to look capable. With many thanks and a friendly wave, I was off on an unplanned trip to town to get my tire fixed.  Which is usually an hour wait time.  However, we had a problem.  It wasn't the tire.  The wheel was broken.  Something had gotten inside and scraped it up.  That was probably that metal on metal sound I heard.

One week later because they had to order the wheel and a couple hundred dollars poorer, the truck is rumbling down the gravel roads again.  The tire guys said this is rare, so I'm hoping they're right.  Because the gavel roads, they're just more fun to drive on.