Cauliflower Quiche

This week has been junk food heaven.  I've baked pastries and have frequented the local junk food spots with hubby all through his "staycation". For fun,  I've baked and cooked for several family and neighborhood occasions over the past 10 days, but in between, every junk food or sweet craving has been satisfied.  For some balance...tonight was vege night.  I decided to go through the fridge and find lots of neglected veges, due to our eating out agenda, and make good use of them.  I found 14 juicy peaches that would not keep another day, so last night at midnight I turned them into peach pies... today we indulged ourselves until they were devoured (along with ice cream and chocolate syrup, and mounds of whipped cream).

Peach Pie With Sugar Sprinkles

As for the veges, we ate mashed potatoes topped with turkey in gravy, watermelon wedges, fresh corn on the cob, and I made a cauliflower quiche using two heads of cauliflower found in my fridge...and, of course, the peach pies a la whatever we wanted.

For the quiche, I steamed, until fork tender,  the cauliflower in salted water after washing and separating the flowerets.  While the cauliflower was steaming  I fried a pound of bacon that I had cut into 1/4" crosswise strips.  This took about 15-20 minutes, giving me time to whisk 10 large eggs into 2/3 cup all purpose flour and 1 teaspoon of salt.  When this mixture was fairly smooth (some very small flour lumps are OK) I poured in 2 cups heavy cream, 1 1/3 cup whole milk and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg...freshly grated is best.  When this was all whisked together I added cheese from my fridge that needed using.  Some Swiss or Gruyere would have been delicious, however, with the children in mind, I used a combination or some fresh Mexican queso, American processed cheese slices, and some other wrapperless but very flavorful cheese that needed using.  I grated or chunked them all and added these cheeses to my mixture...about 1/2 pound of cheeses were used.  I then added a teaspoon of salt and several turns of freshly ground pepper.

I greased a large baking dish and covered the bottom with the steamed cauliflower.  I added the cheesy mixture, sprinkled the browned and drained bacon to the top, and then  placed the dish into a preheated 375^ oven where it baked for about 40 minutes or until my table knife inserted into the middle came out clean.

Cauliflower Quiche

 The top of the quiche was bubbly browned and the inside was creamy and smooth with the cheese chunks and other delicious ingredients.  I would suggest making only 1/2 this recipe for a normal family casserole 9 X 13 size.  But with our large crowd of hungry eaters tonight, almost the whole quiche was eaten.  The remainder has been refrigerated and will be used in the morning as part or our biker's breakfast...several family members ride for 20 or so miles every Saturday morning and they come home hungry!  If only 1/2 the recipe is used, the baking time will also be cut into about 1/2.

The idea for my quiche came from Dorie Greenspan's Around my French Table.  I adapted her "gratin" to meet my family's needs and to use what I had on hand.  I was attracted to the recipe as I went through the book and saw the mouthwatering photo next to her "Cauliflower-bacon Gratin" recipe.

Now that I have eaten so many lovely fruits and veges, I think I will finish the week with some baked goods and treats.