Once upon a time I had a co-worker who had chickens. Since she lived alone, her chickens laid more eggs than she could use, so she shared her extras with me. Well, I lived alone, too, so I looked for egg recipes. I did an Internet search for quiche and found hundreds of recipes. Well, after reading through pages of them I realized I could mix almost anything with a few eggs and some cheese, put it in a pie shell and create a quiche.

Food historians tell us the origin of quiche goes back to ancient Romans who made a cheesecake-like dish called patinea. But the dish as we would recognize it first appeared in medieval Germany. The ingredients of that first pie were eggs, cream and bacon on bread dough. The kingdom where cooks created the dish was Lothringen, which late became France's region of Lorraine. The word quiche comes from the German word for cake.

Quiche first appeared in American cookbooks as early as the 1930s, but became really popular in the 1970s. The basic Quiche Lorraine, the bacon and eggs dish invented by the Medieval Germans, gave way to many creative savory pies. So, have fun and make up your own quiche recipe. It is a great way to use leftovers and makes a nice "un-expected company" meal. Just make a nice salad to serve with it and enjoy.

 

I don't make my own piecrusts. I used the frozen ones in the aluminum pie pans until I had a bazillion of those pans in my cupboards. Then I learned about the crusts you find in the canned biscuit section of the grocery store. I know. You are thinking, "Where has she been, living in the woods? How can she not have known about those pie crusts?" These crusts are flakier and tastier than the frozen ones. I have a Seagrove Pottery deep pie dish and one of those crusts fits it with some to spare. The salmon recipe requires a deep pie dish; the other two fit a regular sized pan.

Sausage Quiche (my first quiche. I had all the ingredients on hand)

 

2/3 lb sausage meat browned, add herbs as preferred. (I used about ½ tea cumin, ½ tea chili powder, and ½ tea ground sage.)

8 oz sharp grated cheese

4 eggs

½ cup milk

 

Mix and pour into pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees 45 minutes to one hour. Test with knife to see if done.

 

Crabmeat quiche

 I ate my first crabmeat quiche at the Green Dolphin Pub in Manteo, North Carolina. It was simply devine!

This recipe is best made with fresh crabmeat, of course!

3 eggs

1/3-cup sour cream

2 cans crabmeat or one cup fresh crabmeat

One cup grated cheese (I have used cheddar and the shredded parmesan, which I liked best - not the kind in the can but with the other shredded cheeses)

1/2 tea tarragon

1/2 tea thyme

1/2 tea salt

1 Tb red onion

2 Tb chopped fine bell pepper

 

Put in pie shell and bake at 350 about 40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean when you poke it.

 

Salmon Quiche (my favorite)

 

1 deep pie shell

 

Mix well the following ingredients:

 

1 can salmon - drain and save juice.

½ cup chopped onion - sauté in butter or margarine first

1 tea thyme

½ cup grated cheddar cheese

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

3 eggs

Add sour cream to salmon juice to make one cup and stir till blended

½ tea salt

Pepper to taste

 

Pour into pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees 45 minutes to one hour. Test with knife to see if done.

 

Now, I haven't experimented with dessert quiche yet, but I am thinking chocolate and raspberries . . . Share your favorite quiche recipes with me in the comment box.