Sharing a Meal

The burners are lit and today's menu includes a quiche-like entree. It was inspired by a Canadian cookbook, Looney Spoons, by Janet & Greta Podleski of Food Network TV fame. It lures you in with a Thanksgiving stuffing as the base and then satisfies the healthnut by allowing you to layer on any veggie that you happen to have. The beaten egg top layer is poured on last & voila- A springform pan full of the tastiest breakfast, entree or side dish! It serves up nicely when released from its collar, too.

Always one to add 'just one more ingredient', I was keen to add more veggies than the recommended mushrooms & sauteed onions. So I added a zucchini, peeled Japanese eggplant, onions, garlic, roasted red peppers from a jar (I am not that gung ho as to roast my own outside in the rain on a grill that is probably moldy from 3 months of Wet Coast rain), steamed broccoli, shredded carrots, spinach 'squeezed of its excess moisture' (about 3 months of freezer frost), and the icing on the cake, so to speak, was the cooked spaghetti squash. I smoothed it out with my heat resistant spatula (a must for all cooks who don't want to worry about that misshapen piece of rubber on a stick that you used to call a spatula), and then I poured my beaten eggs over it all. Needless to say, the squash formed a protective barrier against all incoming ablumen & yolk (I just love that word...). So to rectify the situation, while my 2 year old daughter tugged against my pant leg doing her best kissy faced impression of a yellow fish cracker, I quickly poked holes in the squash with a metal skewer to let the trickle down theory apply itself to my Thanksgiving Quiche. 40 minutes in the oven, a layer of cheese freshly melted on the top and I was happy. Happy that I didn't have to cook any more for dinner, that breakfast was in this same pan, and that a cold midday snack was also staring up at me. I think I will bake one every Sunday just to have one hand at the beginning of every week. Give Thanks.

(And give me a comment if you want recipe details.)