I hate how these don’t photograph well. Actual truth: I need a few thousand lessons on food photography. Because they. are. good and deserve all sorts of accolades and I had to share them with you no matter what they look like.
I never knew until a few days ago, actually after I originally posted this, that this is actually my aunt’s recipe. My mom never told me! So this post needed to be updated so I can talk about my auntie.
I don’t have a big extended family. Growing up, the only extended family that we spent a lot of time with was my mom’s brother’s family and my dad’s brothers’ families. Although I was closer in age to the cousins on my dad’s side, my mom’s brother and family lived closer and so we spent many a weekend over there. My auntie was a great cook, even though she would say the opposite. Her food was classic, consistent, and always good. I have many a fond memory sitting around their dining room table. In a family full of people who averaged 5’9 and taller, she was petite, but she could hold her own. And she did.
She came from a large family with a lot of siblings so perhaps that’s why she was used to feeding a lot of people? I don’t really know, but what I do know is there was never just one thing to eat at her dinner table; there were proteins and carbs and veggies. I distinctly remember plate after plate of food being passed by me and I ate every one, whether it was a vegetable I liked or not. That was the rule in our house, you did not turn down food that was served to you. It’s a good lesson that I appreciate to this day.
Her family originated from Czechoslovakia, so there were a lot of similarities in the food between her culture and our Ukrainian one. She made something called holushki/halusky (these Eastern European foods have at least two different ways to spell them it seems). They are dumplings, plain or with sauerkraut, and hers were delicious. Nobody else in our family made them, so every time we went over there, I hoped and wished that they would be on the table. Usually, my wishes came true. How can such simple foods taste so good?
This quiche is one of my auntie’s recipes, and it’s a great one for a few reasons. One of them is you don’t have to fuss with individual wrappers, or fill and repeat over and over like a lot of the other mini quiche recipes out there. You simply press the pie crust along the bottom of your pan, pour in your quiche, and bake. Cut into whatever size pieces you want and off you go. You could even cut it in 6 large pieces and eat it for dinner. Go ahead. I won’t judge.
Yes, I know, it’s not tall and fluffy like quiche is. You can make it in a smaller pie shaped pan and it totally will be fluffier. But frankly, I’ve always liked how dense and packed full of ingredients each bite is. I have made this recipe in pie pans also when we sold them at our cafe, but they don’t cut into cute little bite sized pieces.
I used to shy away from making these because I didn’t feel like whipping up a pie crust. So what I’ve been doing for years is when I do make pie crust, I double or triple the recipe and keep the crusts in the freezer so I can pop them out whenever. It makes pie making less daunting when the hard part of it is already done.
I promise I’ll work on my photography if you promise to make this and serve it at your next wine and cheese party. They may not be fancy, but they’ll be gobbled up faster than any of those glittery appetizers.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 cup milk
- 4 eggs
- 2 TAB cornstarch
- 3 cups grated cheddar or Swiss cheese
- 2/3 cup chopped green onions
- 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 double pie crust recipe
DIRECTIONS:
Make double pie crust recipe and put down on a greased 15×10 jelly roll pan.
Preheat oven to 350. In a large skillet, brown beef until cooked through, set aside. In a large bowl, add mayonnaise, milk, eggs, and cornstarch, and whisk to combine. Stir in meat, cheese, onion, salt and pepper. Turn mixture into pan. Bake 35 minutes or until knife goes in and comes out clean. Let rest ten minutes before cutting.
ORANGELOLLS 