Brunch for Four (plus Tegan)

Sunday, around mid-day, my niece, her husband, and their one-month-old daughter Tegan dropped in. They are moving from Brooklyn to DC and had come down to inspect the house they've bought. We're thrilled to have family living so close. My family is either in Tidewater VA, central and western North Carolina, or NYC. Ms. F's family is in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cleveland, Chicago, and Arizona.

Sarah is a veg, Dan is an omnivore, and Tegan is, well, almost one month old. So the challenge of cooking for mixed omnivores and vegetarians presents itself. Also, I'd rather be free to talk to guests than stuck stirring or flipping at the stove or grill, so the menu was quiches, salad, and bread.

Quiche is actually pretty simple. At its core, a quiche is a custard in a pie shell. I decided to make two quiches: one veg--asparagus, leek, and gruyere--and one not--bacon, leek, and gruyere. I also decided I didn't want to go whole hog and make the shells, so I bought shells--go ahead, judge me.

The ingredients are here:

Bacon, leek, and gruyere.

frozen pie shell
1 and 1/4 cups heavy cream or half & half
four large eggs
one leek
slab bacon (I used double smoked)
gruyere
thyme

Asparagus, leek, and gruyere.

frozen pie shell
1 and 1/4 cup heavy cream or half&half
four large eggs
three leeks
a handful of asparagus
gruyere

Get the oven started: set it to 350F.

Dice the bacon into good sized pieces. Toss it in a pan over medium heat. Once it's about halfway done add the white and light green portions of a leek--halved and sliced. Stir in some chopped thyme (or shake in a little dried thyme). When the leek is soft and the bacon is done, take it off and set aside.

Clean out the pan and start on the next batch of leeks and asparagus. Slice the asparagus into small (1/4 inch) pieces, reserving the tips at about an inch and one half long. Halve and slice the leeks, add a spot of olive oil and set the leeks and the small pieces of the asparagus on medium heat. Salt and pepper to taste--you might use white pepper. Once they are cooked through, take them off and set aside.

When this stuff's all done, you' re ready to start assembling. Set your crusts on a baking sheet, side-by-side. Add the leeks and bacon to one and the leeks and asparagus to the other. Then whisk the eggs in a bowl and stir in about three quarters of a cup of shredded gruyere. Pour this mix onto one of the pies; then repeat it for the other. Finally pour the cream or half & half over all of this. Set the asparagus tips atop the vegetarian pie. Put these in the oven and bake for about 50 minutes or until the center is set. (When you can slide a knife tip into the center of the pie and it comes out clean....)

Serve with a salad and bread.