Got eggs?

....real men don't eat quiche

My husband will not eat quiche-----well, unless we are at someone's house and they serve it. His mom and dad taught him to be polite.  He may even ask for seconds, but he decidedly does not care for the dish.  Frankly, neither do I, so, it's not a problem at our house. But, we have chickens and since we have started heating their feed and cooking up too-small potatoes from our garden to give them also, they are producing like it is July! We do have a couple of customers who will buy eggs from us and we give eggs to our kids---those that live near us. But we still have too many eggs.

So, I need to plan meals or other dishes to make using eggs. Of course we love them cooked in any fashion for breakfast or the occasional breakfast-for-dinner meal. And I have been using the winter squash we grew last year with the eggs to make custards which kind of taste like crust-less pumpkin pie.

I do have some recipes that use a lot of eggs-----Chili Relleno Casserole, angel food cake, pound cake to use up the yolks from making angel food cake, pumpkin pudding, omelettes...and so on. But here is an out-of-the-box idea I'd like to share.

Breakfast Egg Loaf

• scramble and then whisk eggs (I use six in a glass bread loaf pan, you can also use a muffin tin---use more or less depending on how many eggs you have and how many you are going to feed this to and for how long----mine usually lasts 3-4 days) until just  blended, not too much or you'll end up like I did last week with a giant bubble on top of what tastes like scrambled eggs (my squash custards).

• now, go to your refrigerator to see what you find there to add to the eggs. These are things I often use in this recipe---not all of the ingredients just a few:
  -mushrooms
  -tomatoes
  -avocado
  -onions
  -peppers
  -cooked zucchini and or spinach (raw will give off too much water and spoil the loaf)
  -any other veggies you like that lend themselves to being paired with eggs
  -cooked ground meat, shredded beef or sausage
  -cooked chicken
  -cooked fish
  -cooked ground turkey
  -cheese
  chop, slice or grate---whichever you'd like depending on the way you want it to look and how long it will take what you choose to put in it will take to cook.
• now, go to your pantry and see what else you can find to add. Again, just choose a few:
  -spices
  -sauces, salsa
  -canned beans
  -leftover bottom-of-the-bag chips
  -corn tortillas (fried in ripped or cut pieces)
• take a loaf pan or a cake or pie pan, grease or spray it
• put all the ingredients you have found into the pan, spices go in with the eggs. I have layered the ingredients nicely in the pan only to have the light things  float to the top when the egg was added, so, now I don't bother.
• I usually bake this without any cheese but sometimes I do use grated cheese or top it off with dry Parmesan on occasion.
•  bake at 350* until egg is thoroughly set up.
• Cool it a little bit and put it in the refrigerator with a cloth over it to keep it from drying out. Foil or plastic wrap can make it too moist. Do whatever works best for you.
• I use this cold or warmed up for breakfast or lunch especially when I am in a hurry. Sometimes I grab a slice of  it and go, or I take it in a baggie or container and at other times I pour salsa over it or a dollop of real sour cream. I cut it so that I am taking only about 2 eggs or less. For lunch I sometimes heat it up and serve it atop a bed of romaine or sprouts with some sliced tomatoes and or avocado.
• It's very versatile, easy to make, great for using up eggs and other leftovers. I have even put broken tortilla chips in the bottom for a slight crust.

No, my husband doesn't especially like this any better than quiche. But if I heat it up, with melted cheese and salsa he will eat it. I just save it for myself.
I have even divided it up into single servings and frozen some of it.
And it works well put in a flour tortilla with some sprouts or lettuce to go.
Don't keep it too long.
Use your imagination putting just about anything in it that you like.

Enjoy!

Kathi~