QUICHE LORRAINE

This is the perfect quiche recipe. I had the pleasure of taking a cooking class from a chef who owned a restaurant called "Paris Bakery". I learned so much from this frenchman and baking quiche was one of those things I want to share with you now. Every Friday he served a seafood quiche that was heavenly and I always bought extra to take home for the weekend. I could put a piece in the microwave to reheat and it would taste the same as it did at the restaurant and mine always had sort of a leathery texture when reheated, so I asked him why mine was so different and the answer shocked me. Being the ultimate cheese lover that I am, I always thought you could never have enough cheese, but I was so wrong. He explained that most Americans felt the same as I did and we added too much cheese to our egg mixture and therefore the texture of the quiche was changed when reheated. I looked through many recipes and started cutting the cheese in half and the perfect quiche recipe follows.

QUICHE LORRAINE

1 prepared 9" pastry shell
1/2 cup Oscar Mayer peppered bacon pieces
1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 cups diced onion, caramelized
6 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prick your pie shell with a fork all over so that it will not puff up as you pre-bake it for 5 minutes. I use a store bought pie shell, Marie Callendars, it tastes as good as I would make and the time saved makes it taste even better. Set the shell aside to cool while you assemble the remainder of the ingredients. Place a pat of butter in a small skillet along with your onions and cook until they are just showing a bit of color, not a dark caramel color, and then set them aside to cool also.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, cream, salt and pepper. I use free range organic eggs, you can usually find them locally by checking on the web for local growers. It is well worth the trouble as there are so many benefits. They are usually cheaper than what you can find at the grocers and fresher and and one of these eggs has 1/2 the cholestrol as a store bought egg, plus the flavor is fantastic.

Sprinkle your bacon, cheese and onions into your pastry shell and then pour your egg mixture over.

Bake at 350 degree for about 30 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Allow the quiche to cool about 10- 15 minutes before cutting into wedges. Enjoy it today and then again tomorrow.

You can always substitute any of your favorite cheeses, make it vegetarian, whatever you want to create. My husband loves green chile quiche and I substitute 1 can of diced green chiles for the bacon and extra sharp cheddar for the swiss, or sometimes pepper jack, just depending on our moods. As far as the cheese goes, if the above recipe isn't cheesy enough, add more cheese to the finished product and you will still maintain the custard filling and have your cheese too. I usually just add it on top of a warm slice and then if I reheat the next day I can put some on that piece too. Then it always seems fresh.