Bacon Brunch Quiche

You may not automatically equate quiche with tailgating, but it's actually a match made in heaven.
It's a perfect tailgate item for an early game, OR for when you have overnight guests (we tend to have more friends visit in the fall for some reason...) because you can make this the night before and just give it a little re-heat before chowing down!

Our first home game of the season was a 12:30 kick off, and we made plans to meet friends downtown on campus at 9:30am so I had to think of a tailgate menu that would be delicious and brunchy. I made Dorie Greenspan's basic biscuits using whole wheat flour and brought fresh berry jam, we grilled a bunch of chicken apple sausage, and since I've been on a banana bread kick this month (that post is on it's way) I made banana blueberry muffins. This quiche was the savory centerpiece to this picnic tailgate brunch, it was super easy and incredibly delicious.



Serves 8-10

1 9 inch prepared pie crust
1 cup milk
3-4 eggs
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
6 pieces bacon, fully cooked, cooled and chopped into little bits
3 dashes hot sauce
1 cup shredded cheese
Salt
Pepper

Lightly grease a removable-bottom-non-stick tart pan and pre-heat the oven to 450. Lay the pie crust as centered as possible into the pan and lightly press a piece of foil on top of the crust. Bake for 10 minutes, remove foil, reduce heat to 350 and bake another 5-7 minutes, pull out of oven and sprinkle hot crust with 1/2 of the shredded cheese, set aside and let cool.
In a medium pan saute a the onions and bell peppers with a little butter, about 3 minutes until they get a little soft...
In a medium bowl beat the eggs, add milk, a few dashes of hot sauce, salt, pepper and stir to incorporate all ingredients. Sprinkle the chopped, cooked bacon and the onion/pepper mix as evenly as possible in the pie crust on top of the cheese layer. Pour the egg mix in and top with the rest of the shredded cheese. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Let cool, slice up and ENJOY!

Breakfast to go! Lil'omlette cups~

I get pretty bored with weekday breakfast pretty quickly. I mean, how much SpecialK and plain oatmeal can one gal eat?!? So I love making these from time to time to mix it up a bit and have a yummy portable egg breakfast that is also low in calories and easy to heat & enjoy!

My favorite way to do this is make a batch on Sunday evening, then have 2 of these little pups for breakfast 3 days the following week...



Makes 6 lil'egg-muffins
5 eggs
1/4 cup non-fat milk
1 piece non-fat cheese
1/2 c frozen chopped spinach
1/3 c frozen diced onion
3 frozen veggie sausage patties- thawed and chopped into bits
Dash of hot sauce
Pinch of salt & pepper to taste

Spray a 6-muffin-tin with non-stick cooking spray.
Whisk the eggs, milk and hot sauce. Then add the onions and spinach, and stir in the chopped up veggie patties until all mixed up. Use a ladle to fill each muffin cup almost to the top (they do rise just a bit). Tear the cheese into 6 equal pieces and float a piece on top of each egg-cup.

Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes (the egg will appear totally cooked and look a bit golden when finished).




Serve with MORE hot sauce!! (the above mix ins are just one of a zillion ways to make these,use veggie bacon, a little dollop of goat cheese, fresh herbs- anything you can think of!

Bacon & Eggs Salad

After the tartar, I wanted to make sure we had some good veggies (other than the mashed potatoes) with our big meaty dinner, so I made a spinach salad with bacon & eggs.
Since I was already hitting the Japanese market for the tuna & sake, I grabbed a package of quail eggs for the salad because they are so cute and delicious!!

I had no clue what kind of dressing I was going to make and literally while I was mixing the tartar, Andrea of Pairings with Andrea on the Food Network (also on Fine Living I believe), whipped up a dressing that I had all the ingredients for!!




Bacon & Eggs Salad with Andrea's Sesame Honey Dressing
Salad by ME, Beth G.
Dressing inspired by Andrea Robinson original recipe HERE

1 bag of cut baby spinach, washed and patted or spun dry
4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
10-12 quail eggs, hard boiled & cut in half

3 T Mayo
3 T Balsamic vinegar
3 tsp honey
2 T sesame oil
pinch of pepper

Combine dressing ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk until well combined.
In each serving bowl, place a hand full of spinach top with 4 egg halves, a pinch/ sprinkle of bacon & drizzle with dressing.

To make OVEN BACON: My favorite!!
Line a baking sheet (with edges) with foil, place bacon on foil & bake at 325 for 12-15 minutes or until desired done-ness is reached, move bacon to paper towel covered plate to cool- let grease cool and harden, then wrap up foil and throw away!!

To Hard-boil the Quail eggs:
In a small sauce pan, place the eggs in about 3 cups of water and bring to a boil. boil about 3 minutes then turn off burner, cover and let sit 5-7 minutes. Let cool a bit before peeling and halving.

Little Devils...Deviled Eggs

We are both big fans of deviled eggs, and have not made them in a long time. This was a great starter to our dinner that we snacked on while watching football before sitting down for the big meal.

Nate's Deviled Eggs
6 Hard Boiled Eggs
3 Tbsp Mayo
2 tsp yellow mustard
1/2 tsp spicy brown mustard
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp paprika, 1/8 to garnish

Split the eggs and mix the yolks well with the mayo, mustards, salt & sugar, 1/8 tsp paprika. Use a spoon or pastry bag with tip to fill the whites of the eggs with the yolk mix. Garnish with paprika and refrigerate covered for 1 hour, then enjoy!

French Toast

Nate has been super sweet to me this weekend (he always is!), so since the time has changed and we got a whole extra hour to sleep I used that extra time to make French toast for our Sunday morning breakfast. I have not made this in AGES, and forgot how much I love it!
Nate had some fried eggs with his and I usually make this with bacon or breakfast sausage, but we didn't have any...



Beth's French Toast

4 Slices wheat bread
2 eggs
softened butter
sugar
cinnamon

Butter both sides of each slice of bread. Lightly coat each buttered side with sugar and cinnamon. In a bowl big enough for a piece of bread, mix the 2 eggs well with a fork. Heat a medium skillet on the stove, on medium head- spray it with non-stick spray. Using the fork dunk the prepared bread slice in the eggs, flip the bread over to make sure it is coated in egg. Place egg'd bread in heated skillet and cook on medium for about 2-3 minutes or until golden brown, flip and do the same on the other side. Repeat for other pieces!
Serve with syrup and powdered sugar.

Pulled Pork Omlette

I was still recovering from a week of being super-sick this morning, and while I relaxed on the couch, Nate made this amazing omelet. We made Pulled Pork on Thursday for dinner, and I had leftover mozzarella cheese from the Baked Penne and he brought those two yummy leftovers together into this brilliant breakfast.

3 Jumbo Eggs
Leftover Root beer bbq pulled pork
Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Spray a large skillet with non-stick cooking spray. Mix eggs with a fork and pour into heated, sprayed pan. Let the eggs cook until just the very top is not cooked, Add pork and cheese to half the circle of eggs and flip one side over to make the omelet. Flip once after about 1 minutes and flip again after 2 minute.
Serve with hot salsa.

Nate's Weekend Breakfasts

I'm one lucky lady! Nate made me breakfast this past Saturday AND Sunday!! Saturday was a fun experiment gone right~ Breakfast Souffle

Recipe, improvised
He followed the Biscut instructions on the bisquick box and that was the bottom layer in a corningware dish

Then he whiped together
4 eggs
dash of salt and pepper
1/4 of a sweet white onion, chopped
1/2 cup cubed sharp cheddar cheesse
~next time we will add a 1/2 cup of cubbed ham as well!~
Then bake at 325 for about 20 minutes (our oven is whack, so keep an eye)

Day 2 (Sunday)
Was good ole fried eggs and biscuts, I love a man that cooks!