I have an obsession with quiche. I seem to be on a never ending quest to find the perfect recipe. This is of course complicated by the fact that I make really terrible pie crust. I’m learning to accept that I may never perfect the art of rolled pastry dough and therefore I stock up on the pre-made stuff. It’s not that bad. In fact, I really like it. It’s crispy, browns well, and makes for an elegant presentation which is not something I can say about some of the hideous stuff I’ve created from scratch.

While I was doing my obsessive planning for the holiday party I found a recipe for a basic quiche that I had clipped and saved. I used it to make a ham quiche and a mushroom herb version, but while mixing up the eggs, cheese, and various vegetables and meats I realized that I had a ton of filling leftover. I was probably a little heavy handed with the extras I’d added but it felt like a horrifying waste when I tossed a bunch of it down the disposal.

Fast forward to earlier this week. I had a bunch of vine ripened tomatoes and zucchinis that needed to find a home (in my tummy) and two leftover pie crusts. Obviously these ingredients just screamed quiche, so I whipped up the below recipe using two pre-baked pie crusts. Remember, quiche is an all day appropriate meal. The more the merrier! Or you can just toss one in the freezer to heat up at a later time. Another thing that I really like about this recipe is that it only uses 4 eggs and 8 ounces of cheese, which you then split between two pies. So not withstanding that whole “bad for you” pie crust thing you’ve at the very least lowered your potential egg and cheese calories (or that’s what I tell myself). Plus you filled up those pastries with veggies galore. That has to count for something. So pull out those leftovers and crack a few eggs. Delicious meals don’t get much easier than this.

Note: If I were you I wouldn’t skip the step that indicates foil lining your baking sheet. Quiche have an annoying tendency to overflow and you will so not enjoy scrubbing your favorite baking sheet or (the horror!!) the bottom of your oven for a week.

What To Do…What To Do…	Dry Those Tomatoes
Slice & Chop	Cook
Fake It With Pride	Grate, No Nibbling!
Whisk	Mix It All Up
Protect Your Investment	Layer
Fill: One For Me, One For You	Sprinkle On Top
Bake	Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner

Tomato and Zucchini Quiche (Inspired by the Basic Quiche Recipe from Real Simple Magazine)

Yields: 2 Complete Quiche and 8 Large and Tasty Servings

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4 tomatoes, sliced, lightly salted and patted dry
2 medium zucchinis, sliced
1/2 pint grape tomatoes, sliced in half
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
4 eggs
3/4 cup half-and-half
8 ounces Gruyère, grated
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 store-bought frozen piecrust in tins

Heat oven to 375° F.

In a large skillet, over medium heat, heat the oil. Add the onion, zucchini, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper. Cover and cook until the onions and zucchini are softened, 5 to 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs and half-and-half. Stir in the Gruyère, herbs, nutmeg, the remaining salt and pepper, and the onion and zucchini mixture.

Place the pie crusts on a foil-lined baking sheet. Scrape the egg mixture into the pie crusts; they will be very full. Top with sliced grape tomatoes. Bake until the filling is set and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve.

Sometimes I crave Toll House Pie. For instance yesterday I was sitting on the couch enjoying having Monday off and watching Wives and Daughters via Amazon’s very cool “Unbox” feature on the TiVo, except all I could think about was chocolate. Finally I paused my movie and started peering into cupboards in the kitchen. I noticed a packet of wonton wrappers that I’d purchased and I had an idea. What if I used the wonton wrappers to make mini Toll House Pie Tarts…and so I did.

I based the cooking time for the tarts on the Nasoya Wonton Mini Quiche recipe and lowered the baking temperature to 350 degrees. For the filling I halved the traditional Toll House Pie recipe and used an ice cream scoop to fill each tart. Each cup was made by layering two wontons diagonally in order to get a maximum amount of coverage in the muffin tin. You can whip these tarts up in around 30 minutes and they’d definitely travel well if you’re looking for something rich and sweet to bring to Thanksgiving.

Mix Batter	Stir in Chips & Nuts
Layer Wontons in Muffin Tin	Scoop in the Batter
Have a Few	Or Share With Friends

Toll House Pie Tarts (Based on the traditional Toll House Pie recipe from Nestle)
Makes 12 Tarts

1 large egg
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts
24 wonton wrappers

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Layer two wontons into each muffin cup.

Beat egg in large mixer bowl on high speed until foamy. Beat in flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat in butter. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Using an ice cream scoop, spoon one scoop of the mixture into each wonton cup.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes and cool before attempting to remove tarts from the muffin tin.

I’m so glad that Halloween is almost over so I can start obsessing about holiday baking. Now this is MY favorite time of the year. Cookies, cakes, pie, turkey, eggnog, wassail, fudge you name it — I want to make it! This morning I received a friendly email update from Trader Joe’s and they really jumpstarted me into super holiday mode with their featured baking shortcut products. I can’t wait to try out their very affordable versions of ready made pie crusts and puff pastry. I know you’ll probably call me a cheater but I’m more than aware what my limitations are in the kitchen and they mainly consist of pie crust disasters. Note to self: make some space in the freezer for all that dough.

Speaking of pie, is everyone else as in love with ABC’s new show Pushing Daisies as I am? I get positively green with envy every time one of those perfect pies appears on screen. If you’re a member of Bakespace you can add the Pie Hole profile to your friends and be updated when new recipes inspired by the show are released (and you can add me as a friend as well). So far they have the following recipes listed: Chuck’s Mixed Tomato Cobbler With Gruyere Crust, Olive’s Deep-dish Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, and Ned’s One-Minute Blueberry Pie. Maybe I should give pie making one more shot…If you haven’t tuned in to this fabulous show yet it airs Wednesday nights on ABC at 8:00 PM EST.

I don’t get the obsession everyone and their brother has with bacon. Personally I’ll eat it on occasion, but honestly since I was a kid I’ve hated the way the smell of cooked bacon lingers in your house for what seems like years after it’s been eaten. My mother and I both go to great lengths to not have that happen, but some creative people over at Super Sized Meals have decided that bacon is the ultimate apple pie addition. I’m a little horrified but thoroughly admire their neat and tidy presentation and since the dessert was described as being “om nom nom” I might just sample a slice if one was offered. As long as they didn’t try to bake it in my house.

Dave MacLachlan, a Mac software engineer at Google was granted a “culinary scholarship” to spend time helping prep in the famous Google cafeteria kitchens. Apparently, even the chefs are called culinary engineers. I like the sound of that title. I’m hardly a chef, but do you suppose it’s safe to call myself a chocolate chip cookie engineer? Anyway, Google is the coolest company ever.

Amy Finley, the winner of the latest installment of The Next Food Network Star, will debut her new show, “The Gourmet Next Door” this Sunday, October 14th a 1:00 PM EST. I’m planning to watch at least her debut episode, but poor Amy looks like a terrified deer paralyzed by the headlights of an oncoming car in every single publicity photo so I really don’t have very high hopes.

I realized this week that I’ve been making apple picking trips to the Nashoba Valley Winery for the last 3 years. My first trip took place in late fall of 2005.  On a whim, Chris and I decided that we wanted to pick apples  and simply followed red “apple” signs until we ended up in Bolton. Of course I was over the moon when I realized that the particular orchard we’d happened upon also doubled as a winery. Unfortunately since we’d gone so late in the season we essentially picked whatever leftover apples were still on the trees and not rolling around at our feet, but it was still a great experience in a beautiful setting with gorgeous foliage as far as the eye could see. We used the apples we picked to make a pie. Now neither one of us had ever made a pie before. We had to buy everything to make this happen — even the pie plate. It turned out a gooey mess, but we ate it happily anyway.

The following Fall we made a point to pick apples before Halloween and honestly I count the brief time that we spent there that morning as one of my top 5 absolute favorite memories. We arrived early and the air was crisp and cold; a perfect New England day. Once in the orchard we proceeded to take a million silly staged photos of trees and apples and one another. I also made a pie from the fruit we picked that day — fake Pillsbury crust and all.

Fast forward to this year when Chris and I were joined on our traditional excursion by our friend Anna. It was a bit of a mob scene with dozens and dozens of families milling about and even a wedding taking place on the grounds, but all in all it was a controlled chaos. We ended up picking a gigantic bag of apples and guess what?! I made another pie. But you’ll have to wait until Monday to hear all about it…

So if you’re in the neighborhood or looking for a chance to get out of Boston for the day, I’d definitely recommend taking the short trip to Bolton and the Nashoba Valley Winery. The gift shop is fully stocked with a huge selection of wines, hand crafted beers, and distilled spirits in addition to a large number of unique gifts and tasting opportunities. It’s a little more difficult now since I live in the city, but in the past I’ve frequently purchased their wines and given them away at various holidays and birthdays. Everyone loves locally made wine! In addition to the great shopping opportunities the winery also offers tours of their wine making facilities and have an onsite restaurant called J’s that I’ve yet to try, but the menu always sounds mouth watering so If you’ve had the pleasure of dining there please let me know how your experience was.

Embarrassing adolescent confession time: I had a crush on Uncle Jesse. Uncle Jesse was Greek and therefore in honor of Uncle Jesse I give you the quintessential Greek dish:

Spanakopita (Originally published in I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris)

5 eggs
3 10-oz packages of frozen, chopped spinach, defrosted (ring out any water using cheesecloth or dishrag)
8 ounces of cream cheese
8 ounces or more of crumbled feta cheese
8 ounces of small curd cottage cheese
Olive Oil
2 bunches of chopped green onions, sauteed
1 tablespoon of parsley
Dill, fennel (optional)
3 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese
1 1-lb box of phyllo pastry
1 stick of butter

In a mixer, beat the eggs until fluffy. Add everything else (except the phyllo dough and butter) gradually, just until mixed.

Melt the stick of butter. Using a pastry brush, butter a 9×13x3 inch pan.

Line the bottom of the pan with half the box of phyllo, buttering between each layer. Add spinach filling and spread evenly.

Top with a little extra crumbled feta, if you have some left.

Place the remaining phyllo on top, again buttering between each sheet.

“Baptize” the top with a little water and bake at 350 degrees until brown and crispy on top, approximately 45-50 minutes.

If the phyllo starts to get too brown, cover with foil.

Melt	Green Onions
Fluff the Eggs	Drain the Spinach
Combine with Cheeses	Brush Each Sheet with Butter
Add Filling	Continue Layering
Bake	Get Your Greek On