"Real Moms don't make quiche"

I beg to differ. I have gotten that email about what real Moms do and don't do. Near the end of the list is the part about real moms not baking quiche. I'm here to say UNTRUE!!!!

Quiche really are easy to do. You can throw just about anything in them and it will seem fancy. The mini quiche I made the other night were made out of the leftovers in my fridge. I had a red and an orange bell pepper that were just about at the end of their lifespan, basil from my garden!!! picture me doing the cabbage patch shouting "go me! go me!", some leftover bacon, and some ready-made pie crusts. I always have eggs and cheese on hand, so I figured that would suffice. I made mini quiche instead of one normal sized quiche because, let's face it, anything miniature or over sized is cute and fun except my over sized boo-tay.

Mamma Ducky's Mini Quiche

1 pkg. ready made pie crust (the kind that comes rolled up)

3 eggs

1 1/4 C heavy cream, half and half, or milk you decide, based on your desired waistline...I went middle of the road with half and half

1/2 C roasted red, yellow, or orange bell peppers (or any combination)finely chopped to roast a bell pepper, slice it in half, seed it, and brush it with olive oil all over. Place on foil lined broiler wrack and crank that broiler up. Broil until peppers appear slightly charred (mine took 5-9 mins.)

3 slices cooked bacon, chopped who has cooked bacon in their fridge? I do. Southerners tend to fry up bacon just to use the bacon grease in recipes and we're left with fully cooked bacon. Some of you may buy fully cooked bacon, there by having slightly cleaner arteries than myself because you did not use the bacon grease in some other recipe. Goody for you.

1/3 Cup frozen spinach, defrosted, squeezed see, I'm not totally without healthy thoughts.

2 leaves of fresh basil finely chopped

1 Cup shredded cheese of your choice (I used 2% cheddar cheese) feta, Monterrey jack or a smoked variety would be yummers too.

Why is there an unnecessary picture of shredded cheese? We all know what shredded cheese looks like after all. Because I heart cheese and it's my blog.

**most of this can be done ahead of time, like roasting and chopping the peppers, the bacon, shredding the cheese. If you have that all done ahead of time and ready to go, this comes together really quickly.

Remove the pie crust dough from the fridge and let it set out for 15 minutes or so (or put it in the microwave for 15 seconds on defrost setting). Unroll it on a mostly clean workspace. Now, I wanted REALLY mini quiche. Like tart tin size (for the little people, you know how it is). I scrounged the kitchen to find something that would work as a dough cutter. Now, if you're fancy-shmancy and have a round cookie cutter that is approximately 2 inches in diameter you're set. If you're like me, you'll take the cap off of the Flintstones vitamin bottle and use it.

I cut out 24 little circles, sprayed my tins with non-stick spray, then pressed the circles into the tins.

Next, beat your eggs and add the milk/cream/half & half. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Combine the roasted peppers, bacon, spinach and basil in a small bowl. Spoon slightly less than 1 tsp. of the mixture into each pastry-lined tine. Spoon appr. 1 T egg mixture into each tin. Sprinkle with cheese. Pop into a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Done and donerer. Serve warm or room temperature.

*NOTE* you can most certainly use muffin tins, you'll just need to use a bigger cookie cutter (or lid) and adjust the amounts put into each cup accordingly. If you're boring and just want a standard, pie sized quiche, put your dough in a pie plate and throw everything inside. You'll want to bake it until the center is no longer jiggly.

After the fact, I realized caramelized onions would have just made these little suckers to die for. As they stand they're pretty darn good, I just wouldn't jump in front of a train to save a tray of them.

The Dude strolled in the door as these were cooling on the counter. I told him to try one. ONE. He ate 13.