mini cheese & bacon quiches - "big purses, big hair, big men"

I live by this rule: The bigger, the better. Big purses, big hair, big men, ...and I should probably stop this here. I follow this philosophy probably because subconsciously it makes me feel smaller. Now, I know I'm no huge obese whale, but I'm definitely not a teensy tiny twig. To contradict everything I have just said (haha), I actually love mini-sized food. Okay, I can actually put the two concepts together- Miniature foods allow me to portion control my food intake, thus keeping me a smaller size. (Complete blatant lie- I end up eating more in the long run.)



There's just something about tiny cutesy edible things that are so fucking adorable. I'm obsessed with the concept of appetizers, and I think every meal of every day for the rest of my life should consist of tiny handheld balls of cuteness (that's what she said). Completely unrealistic, especially seeing how long these things can take to create. I actually cut my time drastically by rolling my dough into balls and flattening them out, opposed to rolling the entire thing flat and cutting individual sized circles.



I had this grand image of me creating tons of mini appetizers and making assorted plates of deliciousness for all of my grandma's friends. Didn't happen. After doing the crust of these quiches (a minimum hour), it was time to create a filling. I whipped together what we had in the fridge- assortments of cheeses and meats. I then attempted to pour them into the muffin tins with the differences noted in my head. Unfortunately I forgot where I put what. Fortunately, although not purposely, they all tasted the same anyways.



I used a pate sucree (how you like them French apples?), which is a pastry crust made for tarts and similar shit. It's on the sweeter side, but I figured I'd go with it anyways because this dough is just a thousand times easier to whip up than regular pie crust.


So what exactly does a sweet crust taste like with a savory filling? Unusually satisfying, that's for sure. I guess I never took into consideration how that contrast would play out in the final step. Well lucky for me- I have a very huge sweet tooth!

For those not so keen for the sweetness, I have actually attempted savory quiches- My mexican quiche tart came out extraordinary, as did my previous mini cheese and bacon quiches.

cream cheese deviled eggs - let me upgrade yaaa

I love my grandmother to death and I try to visit her as often as I can. Since I have begun my recent rollercoaster journey through cooking-enjoyment, we have learned to create a systematic plan of how my trip generally goes. The first day of my arrival, we fill the shopping cart to the brim with all essential groceries I could ever possibly need; we pick out a few cooking magazines/books; then we begin our plan of attack. I then write all possible recipes I plan to recreate, and then organize them in a timely manner. Amidst all of my calculations, I usually let my grandma flip through some of the recipes to see what she'd like to make.


Really grandma? You want to make deviled-frikin-eggs? There's hundreds of recipes in these magazines- everything from french onion soup to red bean chili to eggplant parmigiana- and yet she picked the most basic and easiest one.


Whatever grandma wants, is what grandma gets. Although not entirely- I'm planning on sprucing it up a bit. Cream cheese and bacon- absolutely nothing can go wrong with this combination.


Fun fact: The smell of fresh hard boiled eggs makes me dry heave. After my near vomit experience, I shoved the creamy cream cheese filling into a large ziplock bag, creating a makeshift piping bag (I'm so nifty with this shit).


And voila- fancy shmancy curly piped delived eggs. Can it get any cuter? (Answer: Yes. Scroll down).



Little bits of crispy bacon! I made it rain on them hoes.


The bacon first and foremost lent a crunchy texture that the soft filling needed. Equally important (in my aesthetically-driven mind, at least), the bacon helped create a gorgeous contrast in color. And last but not least- the little adorable deviled eggs tasted fucking delicious. Mission accomplished.

spaghetti carbonara - perfect for those who need to be fed constantly

Wednesdays are usually my "relax" days. I only have class late at night, so I typically spend my day with my boyfriend running errands or just hanging out. But since my little cousin was visiting me, we spent it bonding and being gay and girly. I really missed spending time with her, but more importantly I enjoyed getting to know the new woman she has become. Anyways, (enough mushy crap), in between our "bonding time", my boyfriend came over with his puppy, hungry as usual. What to do with two constantly hungry people at my house? Cook obviously.


Honestly, I'm not very good at feeding other people. On the average day, I eat a bland salad or I crack open a can of tuna and eat it out of tin. I guess this gave me more of a reason to go all out and make fancy meals for others. Somehow, after almost an hour of deliberation, we ended upon spaghetti carbonara. While I prepared the pasta, my cousin and/or my boyfriend readied the bacon.


The reason we decided upon carbonara was probably because of its ease. Once the pasta had cooked, we threw it in the bacon (and bacon juice), then poured our cheese mixture atop.


And then basically we were ready to eat. With such simplicity, this was definitely the most perfect recipe to feed two hungry guests.


Even though this meal was meant for my ravenous visitors, I still had to have a bowl for myself.


Pretty damn good, I must say. Especially since we used no recipe yet again (I mean, you should know by now that being around my cousin and my boyfriend, that we'll most likely never use a recipe).


So I was grateful that first of all, I nourished my two favorite people in this world, and second of all, I got to eat a deliciously cheesy pasta. Two birds with one stone- awesome.

---RECIPE---
Very loosely adapted from About.com.

ingredients:
1 lb spaghetti
1/4 cup heavy cream
4 eggs
1/2 lb bacon, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

directions:
1. Fill a large soup pot with cold water and add a handful or so of Kosher salt. Stir and taste; it should taste like seawater. Cover the pot and heat the water until it boils.
2. Add the diced bacon to a cold sautee pan and cook slowly over a low heat for 10 to 15 minutes or until crisp. Remove bacon from pan and drain on paper towels.
3. Drop the spaghetti into the boiling salted water and cook according to package instructions, about 6 to 9 minutes or until al dente, or tender but still firm to the bite.
4. While the pasta cooks, combine the eggs, cheese, cream and olive oil in a bowl and beat with a whisk until completely mixed.
5. Drain pasta, toss with the egg and cream mixture, then add the cooked bacon and chopped parsley. Serve right away, with additional grated cheese if desired.

mexican-inspired quiche - we ended up eating scrambled eggs instead

While waiting for our assortment of scones to bake and cool, my cousin's stomach began to rumble. What I learned after spending every waking moment with her was that she apparently has an out-of-this-world feeding schedule. And by feeding schedule, I mean having to feed her like a puppy every hour on the dot. I looked in my fridge and found a ton of eggs and some leftover bacon. We could take the easy way out and simply make fried bacon and scrambled eggs... Or we could go all out and make a quiche! Needless to say, we opted for the quiche. We even made homemade pie crust- how do you like them apples?


Back to the food processor, and back to the rolling board (P.S., my grandma sent me this nifty Tupperware rolling board thing. Isn't she the sweetest little thing?).


The crust rolled out pretty nicely (even due to the fact that my cousin attempted to ruin the dough by cutting the circumference without measuring it in the pan first). Yeah, I'm a nazi at this shit.


I placed my makeshift baking beans (uncooked rice) over the pie crust so it wouldn't puff up, while my cousin beat the eggs.


While the crust baked in the oven, we prepared the filling. Apparently all I had in my fridge were onions and bell peppers, so I guess that had to do.


After the crust finished baking (we eyeballed the timing because my cousin doesn't like to be precise), we filled the cute little tart up to the brim. What should be especially noted was that we used no recipe for this entire dish (not counting the pie crust, because that needed to be exact). We guessed how many eggs to beat and surprisingly 6 was just the right amount. We also guessed the amount of bacon, onion, and bell pepper to perfectly spread throughout every bite. But let's not forget the cheese....


I had the final say on the amount of cheese we added- which was obviously a very good amount. Speaking of which, the only type of cheese I had in my fridge was the "Mexican Blend". It was on sale and I had no idea what it tasted like, but I figured it would go with our newly-Mexican-inspired quiche.


To be quite honest, the quiche came out deliciously. We winged the entire process, even down to baking time, and I was surprised that it came out flawlessly. The only tiff I had was that the crust dough wasn't baked thoroughly and was sort of soggy. If only we baked the crust longer, the quiche would have been impeccable. Also, by having both bell peppers and the Mexican cheese, it was like a little Mexican-fiesta in your mouth.


The best part of this whole ordeal was that the quiche was taking so long to bake, the scones were too soggy, and my cousin began having fainting-spells because of her lack of food. Luckily my boyfriend was over and saved the day with his cream-cheese-eggs and bacon breakfast (my favorite). So yes, we did actually end up eating eggs and bacon for breakfast, which was what we tried to avoid in the first place. I ain't complaining though; we had a tasty breakfast and a delicious lunch.

---PIE CRUST RECIPE---
Taken from Cook's Illustrated.

ingredients:
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour , plus extra for dusting dough
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter , chilled, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
3 tablespoons vegetable shortening , chilled (we just used more butter)
3–4 tablespoons ice water (we don't have an ice machine, so the water was just moderately cold)

directions:
1. Mix flour, salt, and sugar in food processor fitted with steel blade. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture, tossing to coat butter with a little of the flour. Cut butter into flour with five 1-second pulses. Add shortening and continue cutting in until flour is pale yellow and resembles coarse cornmeal, with butter bits no larger than small peas, about four more 1-second pulses. Turn mixture into medium bowl.
2. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons ice water over mixture. With blade of rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix. Press down on dough with broad side of spatula until dough sticks together, adding up to 1 tablespoon more ice water if it will not come together. Shape into ball with hands, then flatten into 4-inch-wide disk. Dust lightly with flour, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes before rolling.
3. See, the recipe doesn't state as to how long/what temperature you should bake the crust. Which is why we had to resort to eyeballing it, hence the sogginess.)

---QUICHE RECIPE---
Made up by my cousin and myself.

1. Cook half a pack of bacon, and use the fatty leftovers to sautee half an onion and half a bell pepper.
2. Beat 6 eggs with desired seasonings (we probably only used salt, pepper, and perhaps Italian seasoning- which would be the only thing I own).
3. Pour everything, including eggs, bacon, and veggies into baked (and by baked, I mean baked) pie crust. Sprinkle with cheese (I'd go with the Mexican cheese- yum) and place in preheated 350 degree oven.
4. Bake until firm-ish!