Real Men Make Quiche

Real men sometimes even make quiche.

Despite the French name and a tradition of being food for the effete, quiche is really guy food. What else can you call a dish that is basically eggs, milk, and whatever is about to go bad in the fridge?  Guy food: quiche can be eaten for any meal, and no one will look at you sideways for having it for breakfast the way they might if you talk about that Italian sub you had for breakfast two weeks ago.

Oh sure, you can use sour cream, cottage cheese, half and half, or heavy cream, if you want to go all culinary on the thing.

But mix together four eggs, a cup of milk, two tablespoons of flour, and add anything about to go a bit long in the tooth. Hint: use a store-bought frozen pie crust. Salt and pepper too, twice as much as you would put on the pair you ordered over easy at the diner for breakfast. Or was it dinner? Four eggs, remember?  If the eggs are about to go bad too, even better and no worries: there is no mistaking a bad egg. No maybes about it. In the oven for 45 minutes at 350F more or less, let stand for 10 minutes or so, and there you go.

My first—and successful—attempt was a cheese steak quiche without the cheese. The cheese wasn’t quite ready to go bad, so I left it for another time. Some leftover meatballs got sliced into a store-bought frozen pie crust. Banana ring peppers and cooked onion came next. I suppose raw onions would have worked too, but I like cooked. Eggs, milk, and flour were mixed together then poured over the lot, and the result baked. Fifty five minutes later, dinner was served.

Note: A range of 40 to 45 minutes doesn’t help guys, who can be quite literal and cannot find the "40 to 45" mark on the timer. Recipes tell you to stick a knife or toothpick in and if it comes out clean (no raw egg sticking to it) you and the quiche are done. Worked for me.