Good Luck

Have you ever thought about how people say "oh it's good luck for rain on your wedding day" or "it's very good luck for a bird to poo on you"?

Well I had the pleasure of enjoying a whole lot of "good luck" if the latter of the two is actually true, because a few days ago I was walking down road and felt the most enormous wet splatter all over me.

This was no ordinary bird either; he had to be huge. It felt like someone had leaned out a window of the building I was near and poured a bowl of pudding on me. I was completely covered from my feet to my hair to hands and everywhere in between.

So to enjoy my so called "good luck", I decided to take a few eggs and create a quiche with them. Maybe that will teach the birds a few manners.

Here are a few of my tips for a yummy and easy quiche.

Quiche Tips

• When you make pastry for a pie, make one and a half recipes to save to a quiche later that week. I think the messiest and most time consuming part of making quiche is the pastry. Here is my simple pastry recipe that works well for sweet and savoury dishes. 
• Fill the quiche to the brim with as many fresh veggies as possible. I think most veggies taste great together so making a quiche is a great way to use up many fresh, already cooked, or frozen veggies in your fridge or freezer. (Try my new favourite combination of chopped fresh broccoli, grated fresh zucchini, leftover caramelized onions, and sliced fresh tomato.)
• Make sure that you use flavours in your egg mixture to make the dish pop. For my basic quiche I always start with using 4 or 5 eggs (depending on the number of veggies), a cup of milk, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, and a pinch of salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. I pour this over top of my veggies and cheese and then add another extra beaten egg if there's still room left. 
• Be adventurous with your cheese. Try cheddar one time, then mozzarella, then harvarti, then Parmesan, and then a combination of the above. The possibilities are endless, so keep trying something new!
• Fresh herbs make all the difference. Even just a few leaves of fresh basil breathe new life into a quiche. 
• Be patient. Even though you're hungry, you don't want to cut into a quiche and serve up raw eggs. Cook the pie for about 50-60 minutes and then poke a knife into the centre. If you see liquid still, leave the pie in for a little longer.  
• Let the quiche rest on the counter before serving. It's kind of like a steak. You'll lose all the juice and pie won't be the same if you cut in too fast. In fact, the pie will fall apart as you're serving it if you don't wait. 
• Now for my last tip...

Unless you're like my sister as a child, I am sure you are not interested in eating raw pastry dough leftovers...

So instead of throwing them away, try making this quick cinnamon sugar roll up. Trust me, you'll never throw any leftover pastry away again. You might even find yourself whipping up a batch of pastry to make these specifically. 

Cinnamon Sugar Roll Ups

Leftover pastry, any amount
1 tablespoon butter or margarine at room temperature**
1 tablespoon brown sugar**
2 teaspoons cinnamon **

** All amounts are estimates as you could have a lot or a little leftover pastry. Just use your taste to measure the amount.

1. Roll leftover pastry into a long rectangle.

2. Smooth a thin layer of butter from tip to tip.

3. Sprinkle with a thin layer of brown sugar and top with a thin layer of cinnamon.

4. Roll up pastry like a log and bake with your quiche at 350 degrees until the top starts to brown.

My Cinnamon Sugar Roll Ups never take as long as my quiches, so I watch the oven to check if the top is brown. This usually takes about 30 minutes and the Roll Ups are sometimes eaten while waiting for the quiche to finish cooking.

So birds, take that. I hope you all make a quiche and use a tip or two from me to show the birds who is the boss.

Who has egg on their face now?