Catching up on a few long promised recipes, I'll start off with the Avocado Quiche. (Kristen, tomorrow I'll post the ravioli, I promise!)
Our veggie delivery last time included something like 9 avocados. Some of you may think that sounds like heaven, I did, but since they soften and over ripen quickly, that many avocados means overdose. Same goes for the several pounds of mushrooms we received in the same box.
Back to the quiche at hand. For the crust, I basically use the cracker recipe from 101 Cookbooks. It's probably not the best crust recipe, but it's also not so distractingly rich as to take away from the fresh and tasty eggs we gather from our hens. The cracker recipe makes enough for 2 crusts or one crust and crackers for snacks later. I roll it out, fit it in the pie dish, trim the edges then fork some holes in the bottom to keep it from puffing up in the oven. I then pre-bake it for about 10 minutes, so it's nice and crunchy even after the eggs go in. When the crust turns a bit golden and crunchy, it comes out of the oven to cool, while I prepare the eggy concoction. At this point turn your oven from 450 to 375.
For the egg filling, gather the following ingredients:
5 large eggs, maybe even 6 depending on how well the other ingredients fill up the crust.
1/2 onion, thinly sliced into rings
4 medium sized mushrooms (I used baby portabellas--the caps were about 2 inches diameter)
2 avocados
3/4 of a cup of finely shredded cheese.
Saute the onions and mushrooms in butter or oil (your choice, according to your own tastes. Real butter is my downfall, so I use 1/2 tablespoon of butter in a well-seasoned-for-a-vegetarian-house iron pan.) Cook until the onions are transparent, golden and sweet, beyond their somewhat acrid raw taste. Set aside to cool a bit (you don't want them precooking your eggs, right?)
Thinly slice the avocados and lay them along the bottom of the crust in an even and thin layer.
Beat the eggs, mix in half the cheese, salt and pepper as you desire.
Cover the avocado layer with the mushroom/onion layer. Pour the eggy mixture in over top of them to fill the crust. Sprinkle with cheese.
Bake on 375 until the eggs are cooked through. Check after 30 minutes by pressing the top of the filling with a fork. You'll see runny eggs if it's not fully cooked. If you need to, bake another 10 minutes or so and check again.