Two simple things that bring me joy are: harvesting food from my garden and using it to make a delicious and nourishing meal for my family.

I picked some vegetables today. I picked lettuce, beetroot, zucchinis, spinach (perennial spinach) and spring onions. We ate most of the vegetables in salads but I decided to make a spinach quiche for dinner. I haven’t been very adventurous in the kitchen lately. I have been making healthy and delicious meals for my family but I haven’t been trying anything particularly fancy or even very new.

A quiche is an easy meal, especially for the summer, although I have not been making my own pastry. I have been reading recipes and I can see that it looks easy enough, but I remain lazy in this area. I can cook a quiche easily in the convection oven; I miss our Esse because we have not been running the fire in the summer. I have been using electrical appliances for cooking and we have been having bbqs as well.

Anyway, I picked enough spinach to fill two tiers of our electric steamer, probably the same amount that you would buy in a bunch at the shop. After rinsing and soaking, the way I would do for lettuce, I steamed it for 25 minutes and then squeezed as much moisture out of it as I could, whilst mashing up the leaves at the same time. I ended up with about a cup of cooked, mashed spinach and it smelled delicious.

I talked about the process of making the quiche with my darling Georgie, who helped me make the dinner. Recording my simple but very yummy recipe is not just a way of recording the meal we made, but that we made it together.

Spinach and bacon quiche
Ingredients:
1 sheet frozen shortcrust pastry (thawed)
1 cup cooked, mashed spinach
3 bacon rashers, diced (optional – this would be lovely with feta instead of bacon!)
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup milk

Method:
:: Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees
:: line a quiche dish or a 20cm square pan with baking paper
:: when it is thawed, place the pastry sheet in the pan and shape it nicely
:: place spinach onto pastry and spread it around evenly, being sure to have squeezed as much moisture out before doing so
:: on top of spinach, place diced bacon and spread it evenly. Do the same with the cheese.
:: in a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and then add the milk and cream. Mix well
:: pour the custard over the spinach, bacon and cheese, trying to do so evenly. Shake pan gently to even out the custard
:: bake quiche in oven for 20-25 minutes. When the custard is firm and the top of the quiche is light brown.

Do you want to know something else? Matthew ate his slice of quiche. This may not sound like a big deal but for a boy who has refused to eat spinach his entire life, this is brilliant. We reminded him that on the plane to Adelaide, he ate a spinach and cheese roll, and enjoyed it, and lived to tell the tale. He said the quiche was delicious! There is hope for the fussy eaters in our family!