Mai's Quiche: A Celebration of Friendship and a Moral Dilemma

About nine months ago, our family moved from Northern Virginia to my husband’s hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Perhaps, you’ve made a move before and can identify with the insecurities that often accompany the task of finding new friends after a move. Personally, I found my mentality mysteriously transformed to that of my fourth grade self in the late eighties when I attended a new school, wondering if my bangs were teased to the proper height or my jeans rolled tightly enough around my ankles. But instead of being a nine year old girl, I’m a thirty-one year old with four kids, still worrying if I’m cool enough for people to like me.

But then all those anxieties evaporate everytime I have the wonderful occasion to spend an afternoon with two of my best girlfriends from college who live about an hour away. We get together once a month, and my visits with them soothe my soul. So every time they come, I prepare something scrumptious for them to eat as a thanks for their beautiful friendship.

This recipe is from the brunch we had together a couple of weeks ago. I usually have qualms (I’d almost go so far as to say “a moral issue”) about putting chicken in a quiche. I’m not sure why, but I think any digging around there might uncover some mental tendencies in me that could put my new friendships in jeopardy so we’ll just move on.

Anyway, I found this quiche recipe that called for chicken, and it sounded so good that I decided to suspend my ethics and give it a try. What I present to you below is a recipe I concocted using hints from the original. It’s mind-boggling good and super easy, and-bonus-it doesn’t require a pastry crust like the traditional quiche! Beautiful!

Chicken and Ham Quiche

¾ c. chopped onions (My husband abhors onions so if you have a husband, or friends, with similar tastes, this is not the dish to serve to them, unless you are attempting to end the marriage/friendship.)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp. butter
6 eggs
¾ c. heavy whipping cream
½ lb. deli chicken, chopped (The original called for shredded, cooked chicken but I was short on time so I just made a quick stop to my friendly local deli counter and let them do the work.)
¼ lb. deli ham, chopped
2 c. cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tbsp. fresh flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
½ tsp. salt
Dash ground pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 9-inch deep dish pie plate. Cook onions and garlic together in butter over medium heat until onions start to soften. In a large bowl, scramble eggs with heavy cream, then add in chicken, ham, cheese, onion mixture, parsley, salt, and pepper. Pour into pie plate and bake for 30 minutes, or until eggs are cooked.

We ate our quiche with a delicious fruit salad of fresh cherries, blueberries, blackberries, mangoes, and strawberries, and decided that fruit salad with melon in it is no longer chic. Perhaps you agree. Perhaps you are a die-hard melon lover and take great offense to the very thought of melon-less fruit salad. Please, enlighten me with your opinion. I’m interested in the melon/no-melon debate going on out there.