Vidalia Onion – Bead Yarn & Spatula

Mushroom Quiche

I’ve had two frozen deep dish pie crusts in my freezer since a little before Thanksgiving. I purchased an extra pack just in case of a mishap while baking my pies for the holiday. Thankfully I didn’t need them. And then they sort of got buried in my freezer to make room for the frozen cookie dough I had stored in there for my Christmas baking. Once all the cookies had been baked though the crusts reemerged and I decided it was time to make something with them, something other than pie. And then I remembered I had photocopied a Mushroom & Sausage Quiche recipe from a cookbook I ultimately got rid of (I had one too many and needed to purge them). Which I then I decided to omit the sausage from and increase the amount of mushrooms and ended up with the Mushroom Quiche recipe below. Which I am happy to say will be made again and possibly with some baby spinach next time.

Mushroom Quiche

Ingredients:

1 frozen deep dish 9-inch pie crust

1 tablespoon butter

8 oz. sliced white mushrooms

1 medium sweet onion, chopped

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 cup cottage cheese, 2% or 4% milkfat

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon hot sauce

3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

1 8 oz. package shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place the pie crust on a baking a sheet.

In a large skillet melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and chopped onions and cook for 5 minutes, or until both are tender.

Place the eggs, sour cream, cottage cheese, flour, parmesan cheese and hot sauce in a food processor (or blender) and process until smooth. Scraping the bowl as necessary.

Transfer the mushrooms and onions to a large bowl and add in the egg mixture and cheddar cheese, stir to combine. Spoon the mixture into the pie crust (you may have some leftover). Cover the edges of the pie crust with strips of aluminum foil to prevent the crust from burning.

Bake in the preheated oven for 50 – 60 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the center is set. A toothpick or cake tester inserted in the middle should come out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes and enjoy!

Recipe adapted from a Mushroom & Sausage Quiche recipe found in the cookbook Paula Deen & Friends

Baked Onion Rings

I do my best to avoid frying anything; not because of health reasons but because I hate having to clean up oil splatter and inevitably I always end up with an oil stain on my shirt no matter what efforts I take to avoid it. So, whenever I can make one of my favorite foods that normally has to be fried baked I’m all for it – thank heaven for my doughnut pan! Today’s not fried but baked recipe I would like to share with you is Onion Rings!

To begin I sliced a small sweet onion and separated the rings. You can use any sweet onion to make these: Vidalia, Walla Walla, etc… Random fact, sweet onions have a lower sulfur content than other onions so you are less likely to cry when slicing them. I know this from experience! When I cook and am using onions they are always the last thing I cut so I can ensure I won’t end up slicing my finger while cutting other things because I am trying to control my onion crying fit.

Next I combined panko bread crumbs with olive oil, salt and pepper and baked it on a rimmed baking sheet until they were golden brown. I then transferred them to a shallow bowl. I also put flour and two lightly beaten eggs in shallow bowls as well and was then ready to prep my onion rings for baking.

I dipped the onion rings in the flour, then the eggs and finally in the bread crumb mixture and placed them on a baking sheet that I rubbed with olive oil. Once the sheet was full I baked the rings in a pre-heated 450 F oven for 12 minutes, flipping the rings once.

Right out of the oven….

After letting them cool for a few minutes I enjoyed them with a side of ranch dress – thank-you Johnny Rockets for introducing me to that winning combination! In case you are wondering, baking the rings still gives the crumb coating that crunch you are familiar with when frying them, but, I also think it makes the onion itself tender and sweeter!

Baked Onion Rings

Servings: 4
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Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 small sweet onion, sliced and rings separated

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450 F. In a small bowl combine the bread crumbs, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, salt, and black pepper. Transfer the crumbs to a rimmed baking sheet and bake until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes, tossing once. Transfer the crumbs to a shallow bowl. In two other shallow bowls place the flour and eggs.

Rub the remaining oil on 2 rimmed baking sheets. Dip the onion rings in the flour first, then the eggs (allowing any excess to drip off) and finally in the bread crumb mixture. Bake on the prepared baking sheets for 12 to 14 minutes, turning once.

Serve with your favorite dipping sauce; my go-to for onion rings is ranch dressing.

Recipe from Real Simple

Mushroom & Sausage Quiche

Usually I add ground sausage to my Thanksgiving stuffing, this year though I was on the fence as to whether or not to add it in. As you can guess from this post I opted not to add it, but then the question was what to do with it. I could have frozen it and used it another time but then I remembered a recipe I had for a quiche that called for sausage and mushrooms, another ingredient for the quiche that I had left over from said stuffing. The recipe – Mushroom & Sausage Quiche – is one I came across in a cookbook I picked up years ago and ended up not using. While it was filled with many recipes most of them weren’t appealing to me except this one – which I ended up photocopying and then donating the book.

I began by cooking the ground sausage.

While the ground sausage was cooking I chopped up half a Vidalia onion and sliced half-a-pound of white mushrooms.

After the sausage was cooked I transferred it to a bowl and wiped the skillet down and cooked the chopped onions and sliced mushrooms in a tablespoon of melted butter.

Meanwhile in the bowl of my food processor I combined eggs, sour cream, cottage cheese (those of you not fond of cottage cheese don’t worry once the quiche is done you won’t even remember it’s there), flour and parmesan cheese and blended them until the mixture was smooth.

I then stirred together the sausage, sautéed onions and mushrooms, the egg mixture and shredded sharp Cheddar cheese in a large bowl.

And then spooned it into my pie dish which I fitted with a refrigerated piecrust.

Following that I baked it in a 350 F preheated oven for about 50 minutes.

After letting it cool for about 10 minutes I sliced into it and enjoyed the every bite of it!

Mushroom and Sausage Quiche

Ingredients:

One 9-inch refrigerated piecrust, fitted into a 9-inch glass plate

One 1-pound package ground sausage

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

1/2 large Vidalia onion, chopped

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 cup cottage cheese, 2% or 4% milk fat

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon hot sauce*

One 8-ounce package shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

*I omitted this from my version

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Crimp the edges of the crust.

2. In a large skillet, cook and drain the sausage, and set aside. Wipe out the pan, and in the same pan, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and onion, and sauté for 5 minutes, or until tender.

3. Place the eggs, sour cream, cottage cheese, flour, Parmesan cheese, and hot sauce in a food processor and process until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

4. Stir together the crumbled sausage, mushroom mixture, egg mixture, and Cheddar cheese, and spoon into the piecrust. Cover the edges of the piecrust with aluminum foil to prevent the crust from burning.

5. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until golden brown and the center is set. Cool for 10 minutes and cut into 8 wedges.