The Intersection of Quiche and Frittata

While the internet and my four shelves of dedicated cookbook space are mightily helpful, sometimes I need some real time brainstorming. Enter DAD GANSIE.

My friend Raya was throwing a brunch time birthday party for her boyfriend Chris and we all were to bring something well, brunchy. Of course I think eggs.  But I didn’t have enough eggs for a giant baked egg dish. I did, however, have a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix on hand. I wanted to create some sort of eggy-corn cakey thing.

I call my dad. I explained what I wanted, except that I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted. But more, I was terrified of messing with a “baking” recipe. The Jiffy box directions are simple: corn muffin mix, one egg, 1/3 cup milk. Stir. Bake. Now, I’ve messed with Jiffy before. But it’s been with extra ingredients, not really changing the egg to mix ratio.

So after discussing for almost 20 minutes, DAD GANSIE helped me put together an action plan.

Eggy-Corn Cakey Thing*

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and butter a medium/large pyrex dish.

Sautee half of an onion in butter, then add in 3 or 4 minced garlic cloves. Add kosher salt and pepper and when fragrant, remove from heat and reserve. I love putting everything into cute little bowls. So do that and you’ll feel like you’re on a cooking show. It’s fun.

And this is kinda weird, but my dad suggested that the eggs should be at room temp. Well, that’s not weird, but he had me put 5 eggs in a bowl of warm water. The eggs really did get warm and they cracked much easier than cold eggs. It was kinda cool.

Okay, in a bowl I mixed my “wet” ingredients. I was really proud of myself for retaining the knowledge to separate the wet from the dry ingredients while baking.  Wet bowl: 3 eggs (stir), 2/3 cup milk, tablespoon coarse Dijon mustard, one package of defrosted spinach (chopped), one jar of marinated artichokes (drained and chopped), lemon juice, 3/4 cup of smoked cheddar cheese, lots of salt and pepper.  Stir well to combine and then add in the mix, half the mixture at a time.

Spread the batter into the pan and bake for 10 minutes or until slightly thickened. While that is baking, beat 2 more eggs and add in another 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the cheese.  Take the pan out and gently spread the egg-cheese mixture on top.

See, I wanted it extra eggy so my dad envisioned an extra puffy egg layer on top of the more dense corn cakey bottom letter. Kinda like a quiche. Kinda like a frittata. Pretty much delicious.

Bake for another 10 minutes until the top egg layer is cooked through. For extra browning, throw it under the broiler for 30 seconds.

*I’m taking recipe name suggestions