I barely have a second to get this post up today.  So this is all I have to say, “If you know of a more delicious deviled egg in the entire world, please send me the recipe.”  In my humble opinion, these cannot be beat!

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The best thing about this breakfast or brunch dish is that it can be prepped the night before. In the morning, just fill the cups and pop in the oven while you leisurely make the coffee and read the newspaper. Plus it may easily be doubled or tripled. Add a layer of cooked chorizo, mix in roasted poblano or red bell peppers, green onions, or whatever floats your boat!

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There are some dishes that should be saved for company, just like some people save the good towels for the guest bathroom. This is one of those dishes, it is a treat and should only be had on rare occasions to keep it that way. We’ve had a special guest for the weekend, so I made this for the family on Sunday morning. So nice to have you stay with us Albert, have a great semester at UA and practice up on the ping-pong!

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Quiche is such a versatile dish. It is perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner. It’s wonderful on it’s own or alongside a salad, drizzled with a vinaigrette. Delicious served hot from the oven or at room temperature… No wonder real men not only eat, but love quiche! Bake this the day ahead, reheat and enjoy on Christmas morning as gifts are being opened.

Believe it or not, I’ve never used a frozen piecrust before. I really enjoy making crust from scratch, but a friend told me that the new pie crusts at Trader Joe’s were as good as homemade, so thought I’d give them a try with a quiche recipe.  Here’s what I’ve discovered; the frozen crusts look great, you can see the little bits of real butter in the dough, just as with a homemade dough, a good start! After reading the ingredients, found there is palm oil… not good… but it is the third to the last ingredient listed with only water and salt after it, so I’m hopeful there isn’t too much in there. The crust shrunk quite a bit more than a homemade one would during the blind bake, but the real test – the taste? Pretty darn good, I’d give it about an 8 out 0f 10, with homemade crust being a perfect 10.

So what exactly is blind baking? It is when you bake and brown a crust without the filling. Blind baking a crust is necessary when it will be filled with an unbaked filling or when the filling has a shorter baking time than the crust needs to become cooked through.  Blind baking also helps prevent the crust from becoming soggy from its filling. To accomplish this you can either poke the uncooked pastry with a fork, or line the pastry shell with foil or parchment paper and weight it down with ceramic or metal pie weights. This allows the steam created by the butter to escape in the case of poking, or prevents the crust from puffing up, when weighted. If you do not want to invest in pie weights, no problem, just weigh down the shell with dry beans or raw rice.  You can use the beans or rice a couple times for this purpose, but after that, toss them in the trash. As they bake over and over, they will loose their natural moisture and no longer be heavy enough to be effective.

The technique for caramelizing the onions for this quiche is different than the methods I’ve posted here before. Adding water and bringing the onions to a boil, allows the onions to completely soften without a chance of burning. Once the water has dissipated, the onions caramelize evenly and easily.
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This evening I was helping set up for the Key To The Cure event that is tomorrow morning. My friend and neighbor, Ronnie, and I rode together and afterward stopped for a little something to eat and drink on the way home.  We went to Blanco, a fun “taco & tequila” restaurant, here in Scottsdale, which is another in the wonderful line of Fox Restaurant Concepts, YUM!

I brought home a “doggie-bag” with a couple wedges of leftover cheese crisp and made it into a dinner for Dave by topping with two fried eggs.  I love cheese crisps, as you can see here, they are so easy and versatile. Honestly, they can be breakfast, lunch, snack, or even dinner!  And they can be as simple as a tortilla topped with good old cheddar cheese or dressed up as this one is with fun Mexican and Spanish cheeses and a variety of toppings.  All these cheeses are white and I think it makes for a prettier and more interesting crisp!
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Marissa drove home yesterday and stayed overnight, just a pit-stop on her way to Las Vegas for a girls’ weekend. She and I took Dave out for his belated birthday dinner.  Our family tradition is to take the birthday boy/girl out for a nice dinner to a place he/she has never been before, and it’s always a surprise to that person right until the moment we pull into the parking lot. I chose a seafood restaurant that has been here in Scottsdale since 1971, but for whatever reason, Dave has never been there. I had not been there since I was in high school, I  don’t know why!  It’s this cool “old school” place called The Salt Cellar and the seafood was as good as any we’ve ever had on either the East or West Coast!  Dave had a Maine lobster and Marissa and I each had crab legs.  So Good!!!  We had several left over crab legs and those high-end leftovers are what inspired this “have fun in Vegas – but please be Careful and Safe!” breakfast.

If you don’t have an oven-proof skillet, meaning a skillet with a handle that won’t be ruined under a broiler, just tightly wrap the handle of the skillet several times with aluminum foil, now it is oven or broiler-proof.
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