Jury Duty and Quiche

Well, it just looked too pretty, so I HAD to take a picture of the quiche!

Today I had jury duty, which I really didn't mind because jury duty in Collin County, Texas is well organized, not too crowded, and in the beautiful city of McKinney. I did not get picked to serve on a jury, so I had a pleasant hour reading my book (Dean Koontz's "Brother Odd") before they told me to go home.

That gave me plenty of time to make the leftover ham into a Ham, Leek, and Three-Cheese Quiche. Instead of reciting the whole recipe, I'll just give you the Epicurious.com link: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Ham-Leek-and-Three-Cheese-Quiche-234261. This is a GREAT recipe and not too hard once you get into it. Instead of shredding the three cheeses suggested by the recipe, I used three cups of Albertson's Italian cheese blend, which had two out of the three suggested cheeses in it anyway.

I used the leftover ham and the crème fraîche that I made on Sunday in the quiche, so I'm still on track to stick to my cheap but nutritious menu for the week. And I made my own pie crust.

My mother always made her own pie crust, disdaining any store-bought ones, and I agree with her. The ones from the store always have a funny cheap shortening taste to them, in my opinion, and it's REALLY EASY (hear me, people!) to make your own, especially if you own a food processor. Here's the recipe from the old Betty Crocker cookbook, for a two-crust 9" pie crust:

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup margarine
4 Tablespoons cold water

Process the flour, salt and margarine on high and then, while it's rotating add the water, 1 Tablespoon at a time, just until the mixture rolls up into a ball.

Separate the dough into two balls. Put a nice layer of flour on your counter or wherever you're going to roll the dough out, and sprinkle flour on the dough. Roll it quickly with a rolling pin until you get it thin enough to put in a pie plate, carefully fold it in half and lift it into the pie plate, unfold it, and crimp the edges. There you go, homemade pie crust!

A FEW TIPS: If you're making a sweet pie, add 1 Tablespoon of sugar to the pie crust mix. Since I was making a savory pie today, I omitted the sugar. Also, even though I didn't need two pie crusts, since this is an open-faced quiche, I always make the two-crust recipe and roll out both, freezing one in an aluminum pie pan. That way when the mood hits you to make a quiche or a chocolate pie, all you have to do is reach into the freezer and pull out your very own ready-made crust.

Jennie and I are the only ones who truly like quiche, so we had some for a late lunch. For dinner, though, I had that chicken. I decided to cut it up and grill it. I looked around for some marinade, had none, so just threw some Worcestershire Sauce on the pieces and let them sit in the fridge until I was ready for them. During the last five minutes of grilling, I brushed the barbecue sauce on, so it wouldn't burn, and it came out quite well. We had a bottle of Bogle 2007 Petite Syrah that was delicious!

Tomorrow is wine tasting at Parker Wine Cellars, and I'm really looking forward to it. Dinner, on the other hand, since it's Thursday and I'm starting to run out of steam, will probably be nachos and/or barbecue sandwiches, pulling ingredients from whatever I have in the freezer. Or quiche, if there's any left!