Posts tagged ham

Quiche

Spinach Ham and Gruyere Quiche

0
5 months ago

I wonder where the ‘real men don’t eat quiche’ nonsense comes from… I bet they won’t say it to my husband’s face. lol Now, I will admit that he pretty much KILLED the whole thing so I will say that if you plan for you and the kids to get a bite in, recognize that a “real man may be looking for some bacon on the side” lol. This was terribly simple and makes for a great brunch dish as well.

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 ½ shallots, minced
  • 8 oz. deli sliced ham (kinda thick)
  • 1 bag flat-leaf baby spinach, roughly chopped
  • Coarse salt and ground pepper
  • 4 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (about 1 cup)
  • 1 Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crust
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 ½ cups half-and-half
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions

 

  1. Prepare your pie crust by gently unrolling into the pie dish. Push it down into the pan making sure the dough hangover is pretty even around the pan. (If it doesn’t come out perfect don’t worry. Look at mine, lol. I think that it gives it a homemade feeling and rustic quality. :)   Here is a link to directions on crimping your crust: http://localfoods.about.com/od/piestarts/tp/crimping.htm Totally simple!
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks set in lower third. In a large skillet, heat butter over medium. Add ham and shallots, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Add as much spinach to skillet as will fit; season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes and toss, adding more spinach as room becomes available, until wilted, 2 to 3 minutes. Make sure all spinach is used.
  3. Transfer spinach mixture to a colander. Press firmly with the back of a spoon to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Put spinach mixture into pie crust, top with cheese. Place crust on a rimmed baking sheet.
  4. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, half-and-half, nutmeg, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Pour egg mixture into crust.
  5. Arrange baking sheet on rack, and bake until center of each quiche is just set, 55 to 60 minutes, rotating sheets from top to bottom halfway through. Let quiches stand 15 minutes before serving.

 

I would’ve doubled the recipe but I was kinda peed off that I couldn’t find my other pie dish so I lashed out by starving everyone. lol If there are more than 4 people, double up! Also, play with your favorite meats and cheeses etc. It’s impossible to mess up, really. Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Casserole

You can’t have ham without yams!

0
2 years ago

This recipe comes to you by way of my boss. She makes this for our holiday party every year and it is ALWAYS a hit. I doctored it up a little with vanilla, cream and cinnamon to give a little more fierceness ; )  but it was still great as it was.

While doing the meal planning with my friends at work we discussed having mashed potatoes vs sweet potatoes and I was the only one to insist the lunacy of NOT HAVING YAMS with our ham!! I was really passionate about it and realized they were all looking at me like I was crazy, lol. But really, mashed potatoes? Come on….

Ingredients:

  • 5 large mashed sweet potatoes (approximately 6 cups)
  • 2 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 4 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 2 teas. Pure vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/4 heavy cream*
  • 1 tea. cinnamon
  • 1 tea. salt
  • 1 cup melted butter

*you can definitely use all (1 ½ c.) milk if you don’t have cream.

Topping:

  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup flour
  • 2/3 cup melted butter (salted)
  • 2 cup chopped pecans (one 6 oz. bag.- try to get the pecan halves (instead of pre-chopped) and chop yourself. The closer they are to you cracking them open yourself, the fresher and better. And the lack of uniformity in the pieces gives the dish a real homemade feel in my opinion.)

Preparation:

Boil the potatoes until fork tender. Peel and mash. To the bowl with the mashed potatoes, add the beaten eggs, milk, cream, cinnamon, salt, vanilla, brown sugar and melted butter. Pour into a buttered casserole dish. In a separate bowl, mix the topping ingredients together and sprinkle over dish. Bake at 350° for 30 to 40 minutes, until hot and browned. (I ended up baking mine for an hour because of the depth of my pan (2 inches), so check it and make sure that it’s hot.)

NOTES: I am going to work on cooking for two, but in the meanwhile, this recipe can easily feed 12. Please halve it, lol. Literally, cut the measurements for the entire recipe in half. I have a conversion page in the works and will do my best to make them more suitable for a regular sized family and not the one I grew up in. : )  Additionally, baking the potatoes would have been better because I noticed that my boil water was reddish brown in the end and I was sad b/c I knew that I’d lost some of the good, natural, sweet potato flavor. (However, I did make the mistake of piercing one and it fell open so it could have just been the product of it not having it’s protective skin for the duration of the cooking)

YUMMY! THAT CRUST IS SICK!! No marshmallows needed, Donyale. I promise. ; )

Go to Top