birthday girls brunch: pancetta and vidalia onion quiche and baked french toast

the new stove arrived on saturday morning...thank god! i love it, i love it, i love it !!!! can not believe i waited this long to get a really good quality stove. it has dual fuel (gas burners on top and electric convection oven) ....and ok the gas has been installed at the house but the gas company has not hooked up the gas to the stove yet.... so now....as ironic as it may seem i have an oven but no burners.....crazy....and to add insult to injury it will be 2 weeks before they can get someone out to complete the hook up.......  but who cares...has been so long since i have had an oven i am working at using it anyway i can. breakfast.....brit brought home a challah for french toast...so here we go baked french toast and pancetta, onion quiche.....wooo hoooo!!! this is the brit and kelsey birthday brunch celebration. (they are born on the same day 3 years apart.... a story for another day) britany did the internet research to find a recipe that did not require an over night soak since it was now already sunday morning.   the baked french toast recipe is inspired by ree drummond the pioneer woman.

oven baked french toast warm and yummy goodness

pancetta and vidalia onion quiche puffy cheesey yummy

recipes after the jump


first up baked french toast

• 1 loaf challah bread
• 8 whole eggs
• 2 cups half and half
• 1 cup 1% milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2  teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• pinch of fresh ground nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons of maple syrup
• topping
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 stick cold butter, cut into pieces

use a large casserole dish and grease it well with butter.  rip up the challah bread and put it in the casserole dish.  crack the eggs, whisk them with all of the other ingredients and dump it on top of the torn challah.  next make the topping.....mix the dry ingredients with a whisk then add the cut up cold butter and mix with a pastry cutter until crumbly and sprinkle all over the  top of the bread and eggs mixture.  bake in the oven at 350 for 45 minutes.  serve warm with warm maple syrup....ah ah ah this is lovely.  leftovers are great cold or heated up.  

Next up the Quiche

this is a recipe inspired by something i found on line and copy pasted into a word doc....... i have no idea where i got it... it was a very loosey goosey list of ingredients without many definitive measures.... i have adopted that list to the way i like to make a quiche...this uses a puff pastry crust and you can change up the veggies and add bacon or ham or pancetta based upon what you have on hand.  it is particularly good with leeks...which i did not have on hand this time.  

preheat the oven to 400 degrees

you will need: 

a 9 inch square or rectangular tart pan ($10 on sale at marshalls)

one sheet of defrosted puff pastry

4 eggs 

1 cup of heavy cream

1 vidalia onion

6 oz of chopped pancetta

4 oz of jarlsberg cheese grated (you can use gruyere or what ever you like)

1 teaspoon of dijon mustard

salt and pepper to taste

fresh parsley

dice up the onion and cook in a saute pan with the pancetta on medium heat about 6 minutes until the onion is soft.  (note: i had to do this in one of tilly's actual skillets on my gas grill ...was kind of fun...the best part of camping is cooking outside who needs the sleeping bag anyway)  then set aside to cool.   unwrap the pastry dough and roll it  out on  a floured board or on floured parchment paper (foolproof)  to make it  about an inch bigger on each side. (eyeball it against the size of the tart pan until it looks like you are there)  then put the dough in the tart pan...if it is too big anywhere i roll the sides under a bit...(i don't cut off the excess).  take a fork and lightly dock the bottom of the crust only not the sides (don't poke all the way through).  then using a pastry brush lightly brush the mustard all over the inside of the crust (bottom only)  distribute the onion and pancetta evenly over the tart. top that layer with the grated cheese...saving a little cheese to put on top at the end.  now put the tart pan inside a sheet pan..... next whisk the eggs and cream together  pour over the onion and pancetta in the crust top with the reserved grated cheese, salt, pepper and parsley.  put the tart in the oven and cook about 20 minutes...check to make sure the middle is set. 

using tilly's skillet on the gas grill

the quiche ready to go into the oven

in the oven puffing up nicely ...oooohhhh

take it out and cool for about 5 minutes.  cut into squares and serve.  this makes you look like a genius!  this was a wonderful brunch. happy birthday to my two awesome girls!