Welcome Spring with Ham & Asparagus Quiche

Real men do eat quiche.

I know this for a fact.

And real men eat omelets. Regardless of spelling. Omelette or Omelet.

But they don't have to eat either one, and I'm okay with that. It's not like a requirement, you know?

Hi, I'm Ruthy and I eat quiche. I first had quiche at a tearoom luncheon years ago in a quaint place called the Yellow Rose Cafe and it was a seafood quiche... and it was delicious.

I don't eat unmixed eggs. Ever. Not hard-boiled or fried or "dippy" or "dunky" eggs... or over hard, easy or any other way you have a yolk involved. But once you whip them up, I'm there! Except once at a writers' conference where the scrambled eggs were so uncooked I didn't even recognize them. There were little squares (clearly knifed with a back-and-forth pattern in the part of the pan that was cooked) and they were swimming.... literally.... in uncooked egg.

I eat raw cookie dough.
I eat Caesar salad.
I can make and eat French l'creme pastries and know that silkiness is raw egg, but it's mixed with other things and that makes me happy. Squares of slightly cooked scrambled egg floating in uncooked egg is gross.

But that's me.

And that brings us to quiche.

I love custard pies. Plain... buttermilk ... Coconut.... and flan! I love flan!

So omelets and quiche are two go-to faves only I rarely make them for just myself and Dave isn't a big fan. This week was different because after this very long, drawn-out winter, we're finally cutting the FIRST ASPARAGUS.

It's May 20th as I write, and we are often cutting ten days before this, but not this year. Way too much water, and far too cold. So this is exciting!
It's happy dancing time!

We had some leftover ham from the other day, some gorgeous Swiss Cheese with the tiny holes, that little bit softer than the norm.... and lightly steamed asparagus that I made last night... I cooked double so I'd have some for the quiche...

Right then I knew...

QUICHE!!!!

The recipe is simple... I'm using a crust but you can do a low-carb friendly quiche and just bake it in a lightly sprayed pie pan or tart pan and have crustless quiche, but I wanted traditional and I had a pie crust in the freezer... and I only keep them in the freezer for two or three months because I want them to taste good.... so I thawed and rolled out the pie crust, put it into a pan, crimped the edges... stuck a fork into it for holes... and then froze it for fifteen minutes while the oven heated up.

And then I pre-baked it for 7 minutes at 425 degrees.

 For the filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
4 large eggs
1/2 pound ham, cubed or chopped
1/2 pound lightly steamed asparagus
1/4 pound cheese (I used the Swiss with a gazillion little holes in it)
Pepper

Whisk eggs in medium bowl. Add milk and cream and whisk until thoroughly blended.

Put ham into cooked crust. Top with cheese.

Pour in milk and egg mixture:

 Place on baking sheet for even baking and so if it puffs and/or drips, it's not all over your oven. This wasn't a problem in the pie pan, but tart pans are shallow...

ADJUSTED THIS FOR REALITY!!!! Bake at 375 for about thirty to thirty-five minutes or so... Sides and middle should be firm and lightly golden top. My first attempt followed the web directions for leaving the middle slightly loose.... Nope. Don't do that. Cook it thoroughly, top should be pale tan in color.

Cool for a few minutes before serving or cool completely and warm up to serve. Great plan-ahead dish!

And this can be frozen.... when ready to bake, bake without thawing.

Much better results that way!

So last weekend four little Jamisons came to stay at my house because Mom and Dad had a wedding to go to in Maine... and we had so much fun!  This is Lena making waffle mix and it is not easy to whisk/stir this batter...

She refused to give up. Such a funny kid!

And another grand-girlie, MacKenzie scored wonderfully at the New York State USA gymnastics championships on Saturday night... Such a hard-working girl and an amazing talent... And so much fun to watch.

And the boys?

THEY GOT MUDDY. It hasn't stopped raining here, and mud prevails and it was finally warm enough to play in the mud. And they did!!!

We have wind and sun today, hopefully we'll start drying out. That's the goal... I've begun planting pumpkins in trays... and we'll get ground worked up as soon as it dries out enough to be worked one last time... and it begins.

There's nothing like farm season... it always makes me think of Ecclesiastes 3:1 "To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under the heaven..."

Words to live by!

Multi-published, award-winning author Ruth Logan Herne loves God, her family, her country and she's really, really fond of chocolate, coffee and food and her dogs and her mini-donkeys and all things bright and beautiful... but she really loves little kids, medium kids and big kids.

You can find her website at ruthloganherne.com, e-mail her at loganherne@gmail.com or friend her on facebook where she posts far too often... but with such pizzazz and fun that no one really minds.

Or so she tells herself!