I had a lovely simple recipe of potato and bacon torte planned for dinner last night but I decided I was going to sabotage it by adding more than it needed…kept adding things and made it a quiche.
FAIL: This resulted in the egg and cheese mix erupting all over the oven and all around the baking sheet I had placed it on. Today I have a lovely smell of this burnt mix. If you know those “demotivational” posters that have the word ‘fail’ and a depiction of the definition, I would like one for cooking. I would like my face the moment I opened the oven to see the mess and a look at what was to be a quiche. Here is an example of what I’m talking about and another.
When things like this happen, Greg and I usually claim “this is why we can’t have nice things.” He knows I tend to have bad luck and it’s amazing I’ve come this far without having a mess in the kitchen every day. I’ve spared a few failed recipes but I am embracing it from here on out and laughing at these cases, although you can bet I am not satisfied when I encounter these precious moments. Sometimes I have so many misfortunes so close together that Greg comes home and asks what happened for the day and I sadly have a few stories. He loves to laugh at my tales. Despite this mess, what was leftover was tasty but I have adjusted my recipe back to a torte. To add insult to injury, when I heated a piece in the microwave it cracked one of my favorite plates….I didn’t realize it was not to go in the microwave. Note taken. I have one of those plates left anyway.
I hope I can get this smell out of the apartment before my family visits. I just cleaned the oven last week. Pish posh.
Potato, Bacon and Cheese Torte
Serves 6
Ingredients:
2 pie crusts (I used an already made pie crust with an 8 inch pan)
3 slices of bacon, crisp
1-2 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced
2-3 small golden beets, peeled and sliced- optional
1/2 small red onion, diced (or another kind)
salt/pepper
1/2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley-optional
1 tbsp gorgonzola or blue cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup whole milk or heavy whipping cream
1 tsp herbes de provence (or sage)
1/4 tsp white pepper-optional
1/4 cup Swiss cheese or cheese of choice, grated
butter (to brush the top with)
Preheat oven to 375. If you are making your own pie crust, go ahead with that. Arrange potatoes, onion and beets in the bottom of the crust. Season with salt/pepper, add crumbled bacon, parsley and gorgonzola or blue cheese. Repeat another layer of this. Then, combine in a bowl the milk or cream, herbes de provence, pepper and Swiss cheese (or cheese of choice). Pour over the layers and add the second pie crust to the top, adding a few slits to vent and crimp crusts together, brush with butter. Place on a baking sheet and bake until crust is browned for 35-45 minutes.