Breakfast for dinner

Since I will be on the road again tomorrow, I thought I'd post my Friday recipe today. It's a good one.  SUPER tasty.  Can't wait to be making it with my own home-laid eggs.  That's gonna be a tasty day.  You're invited.

Anyway, I harvested all of those tomatoes and so I went looking for something to do with them. A quiche sounded tasty, especially since I had a pie crust in the freezer that was waiting for something.  I would have put more tomato slices on this but instead I ate them.  Oops. Yum. 

By the way, nothing in any of my recipes is exact and usually it's just foodstuffs I happen to have in the fridge.  If you only have a couple of crumbles of goat cheese or you are in the middle of nowhere with no goat source and only have cheddar, just use that.  Assume that all measurements in my recipes come with an -ish at the end, for instance, one cup-ish of milk. 4 small sausage-ish patties. Don't be so literal.  Live a little.

Here's the recipe for Sausage Tomato Quiche.

One pie crust
2 eggs plus one egg yolk
1 cup of half and half or whipping cream
4 small sausage patties
1/2 cup goat cheese
1/2 cup of shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese or both. Whatever.
A sprinkling of parmesan cheese if you've got it
1/2 tsp salt or so
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp dried oregano
fresh tomatoes sliced thin

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

• Saute crumbled sausage patties until brown.
• Beat eggs, cream and spices together with a fork. Or a whisk.  Just beat them.
• Cover a cookie sheet in tinfoil.  Put the pie plate (with crust in it obv.) on the cookie sheet. 
• Cover the bottom of the pie crust in the crumbled sausage.
• Crumble goat cheese on top of the sausage.
• Put cheddar on top of goat cheese.
• Pour egg mixture on top of cheese and sausage
• Top the whole thing with tomato slices.  If I hadn't eaten them all, I would have put them overlapping in a circle but I have an impulse control problem. It is mine to bear....
• Sprinkle a tiny bit of sea salt on top of the tomatoes. If you have high blood pressure skip this part.
• Place cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes then lower the temperature to 300 degrees and bake for another 40 minutes.
• Take out of the oven and you have a delicious quiche that should be eaten. If you're making it for dinner, definitely take some for breakfast the next morning. It's even better the next day. I promise. Share only with people you love. Screw the rest of the bastards.

Home cookin'

My grandmother's name is Bubbles.  I'm not kidding. I didn't know until I was nearly a teenager that she had another name. My grandpa's name was Babe. Babe and Bubbles. My grandpa died a few weeks ago and we miss him a bunch.  He was a really good guy.  He loved bowling, playing golf and pool and his grandkids. He was born in Boston, but came to L.A. at 7 months old and grew up with his Orthodox family in the West Adams neighborhood, with 3 brothers they called the little Capones. One day I'll tell stories about the little Capones running around L.A. Needless to say, they got into a heap of trouble.

Grandpa Babe, Grandma Bubbles and mom, June 1946, West Adams, Los Angeles CA.

My grandma also came to L.A. as a baby. They moved to the Edendale area and then all over the place but eventually ended up in the Fairfax neighborhood.  Grandma went to Fairfax High school and grandpa went to Dorsey. Which makes me a 3rd generation Angelena; something I'm pretty proud of.  Anyway, my whole damn family lived in L.A. growing up. Great grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, great aunts and uncles, crazy-ass third cousins removed a couple of times and they all came to family events. If the event was at brunch time, this dish was ALWAYS served.

I'm not sure where my grandma got this recipe originally, only that when I was a very young child in the 1970s I did not like it.  I can't imagine why as it is basically eggs, cheese, butter, some more cheese and Ortega chilies.  Perhaps it was the chilies. I've grown up since then and now I love the hell out of it. It is also super easy to make. Basically you mix all the ingredients and throw it into the oven.

There is some seriously cheesy goodness here.  It couldn't be made vegan by any stretch, but it is very easily made gluten free and you can't tell at all.  I've made it GF before and other than sticking to the pan a bit, it tasted no different. I can't imagine how it would stick to the pan as there's about a ton and a half of butter and cheese, but it did.  I've included the GF measurements in the recipe as well. By the way, this recipe can be modified 8 ways to Sunday. Feel free to make all kinds of substitutes, I'll include some below, hell, mix in some bacon if you're feelin' it.

 Enjoy!

Chili Egg "Souffle"

10 eggs (or an even dozen if you want)
1/2 cup flour (or GF flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
16 ounces small curd cottage cheese (or regular curd, fat-free, full fat, whatever, it still tastes good)
16 ounces shredded jack cheese (or half jack and half mozzarella or cheddar or whatever you have)
1/2 cup butter (or less if you want, but it doesn't get as crispy on top)
8 ounces diced green Ortega chilis (canned)

1. Beat eggs until a light lemon color. Add everything else. Mix up with a fork or your KitchenAid or whatever you have to mix with.

This is what it looks like going into the oven.

2. Pour into a 9 x 13 Pyrex dish (or two smaller ones). Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes or until top is brown and center is firm. Serves about 12 or so.

This is what it looks like hot from the oven for brunch with some cheap champagne.