Quiche and Bacon go to Brunch

Good morning! I hope everyone thoroughly enjoyed their Presidents' Day (I put the apostrophe after the "s" as my iPhone autocorrected the grammar on that one in several text messages) and that none of you had to work. Or if you did have to work, that you were basically alone in the building and could do one of those Breakfast Club-style slides down the hallway. No? None of that? That's a shame. Friends on the East Coast, are you hanging in there? How's the snow treating you? Do you have any good snowed-in stories? I feel like I'm doing a talk show and trying to connect with my audience with chit chat. Leave a note in the comments if you have any opinions to share re: the snowstorm that never ends, or if you just want to yell at us in SF for our too-beautiful weather. I'm not even bragging, I really think it's too-beautiful. I need a solid month of gloom at least once a year and so far December AND January have gravely disappointed me. Feb is ok.

A couple of weekends ago my friends Caitlin and Debbie came over to my humble abode (read: big-ish kitchen) to cook brunch! We all went to USC together and were in the same sorority. I'll give you a moment to snicker while I roll my eyes - don't worry, I'll wait! Ok now pay attention to this awesome brunch...

Caitlin is a total badass and got back recently from working in Haiti. Now she's visiting friends and family at home before heading to London. I'm actually going to try to visit her. Actually! Yes! Debbie has been living in SF for a long time but we didn't reconnect until we had a group brunch date with some other sisters visiting SF last fall. She tells me about all of the awesome fresh pasta places and restaurants to go to (and she even took me here!) and gets lunch with me sometimes at work since she works there too. Yay Caitlin and Debbie!

Now that I have introduced my friends, come see what we cooked up that day...

My contribution was pink peppercorn bacon. My mom made this for Christmas morning and I swear it was like she sprinkled little flakes of joy and narcotics on top of an already delicious food. I thought it might be hard to find pink peppercorns but the organic store down the street had them in little packets, and I just put them in an old peppercorn grinder we had in the apartment. They were a little difficult to grind up only because they were more flaky than their black peppercorn brethren but I think we managed.

To make: - bacon (no nitrates! nitrates are bad!) - pink peppercorns - peppercorn grinder

Start cooking the bacon on one side. As soon as the grease starts a-flowin (yes, that's a gross visual), grind peppercorns over that side until coated fairly heavily. Some of the corns will inevitably fall off. Continue cooking to desired texture (extra crispy for me please!) and flip. Coat side #2 with peppercorns. Drain the grease into a separate container towards the end, and save for cooking later if desired (example: pan frying brussels sprouts or asparagus.) Et voila, you're done! Pink peppercorn bacon. You're welcome.

Also, drink lots of coffee while you wait for the bacon to cook. It can take a little while and you need to be awake!

In case you're wondering why it looks peppercorn-less in this picture above, that's because we made plain bacon too. I had not yet convinced D & C about the amazingness of this bacon addition. I think they're convinced now!

I dropped the ball and didn't get any shots of Debbie mixing up this super fab quiche, but the ingredients are:

- pie crust (ha) - eggs - heavy cream - goat cheese - basil (sliced into strips) - sundried tomatoes (which I didn't tell Debbie that I don't really love, but this quiche was so good that I even liked them in this quiche. It's a sundried miracle!)

Cook at 350 degrees (I think) for about... 30 minutes? I could be making this up. The center part should be solid, and the egg should be a little browned. Like just a tiny bit browned.

Also, we apparently put a lot of egg in ours, because the pie crust just couldn't handle it.

Debbie took the liberty of making sure the center was fully cooked...

...and we set the table! Caitlin brought mimosas, which are a very important brunch addition.

Oh hey Debbie!

And that was the only picture I took of you when you're not squinting, Caitlin. Sorry! You still look adorable.

Thanks for coming over, ladies! Hope to do it again soon...maybe abroad?