Aud Tales

Background...Miss Aud and I have lived in the same house for the last 20 years except for the first year I lived in Oklahoma.  Up until the middle of last year Aud did the cooking.  I occasionally cooked but the way the kitchen was set up was for a right handed person who should have been left handed, if that makes sense.  Plus everytime I cooked I had someone looking over my shoulder, so it was just easier to clean up the kitchen after we ate and forget about it unless she needed help, which did happen occasionally.

So now I am cooking.  That is one reason we have a new kitchen, couldn't stand the old one..there was no room and I spread out when I cook.  Mom says I make the biggest mess in the world other than one of her older sisters when she was alive.  I don't agree, but what do I know.

Our "supper/dinner" tonight was green salad and quiche.  I don't particularly like the recipe she uses for quiche, so I got out the Cotton Country cookbook from Monroe LA, which is wonderful!... and found 3 quiche recipes in it.  I wanted onions, bacon, and gruyere cheese in it and by combining all three recipes I figured it would work out ok.

Aud,how much bacon do you usually use in your quiche?
12 pieces
12 pieces?  this recipe calls for 4
Well I use 12.

Ok, twelve it is. I cooked the bacon,  and then added it,  the gruyere cheese, onions I had sweated in butter, half and half, and 4 farm eggs that a friend of mine gave me a couple of days ago.  The recipe also called for a pre-baked pie shell, and I knew the filling was going to be a little more than a pie shell would hold, so I got out the deep dish pie shell, unrolled the pie crust, put it in the plate, pricked some holes in it, and stuck it in the oven for 10 minutes.  Well, duh!  The darn thing shrank.  Of course it shrank!  That is what pie shells do, right?  That is why you crimp them around the outside of pie shells.
Ok, so it will just seep over, this is a non stick pan, no problem.  Well, actually it didn't have a lot of flavor, but was a little too salty for our taste , and I didn't add any salt.

I sure will be glad when you learn to cook again....
Well, you told me 12 piece of bacon
Well, it depends on what size, these are big pieces of bacon
Well, you didn't mention that, Aud
Would you have put 12 pieces of the size I used in your recipe?
Oh, probably
I will work on this recipe some more...or find the one I used to make when I cooked 20 years ago.  I love a good quiche.

Next up was my favorite pecan pie.  The recipe for it is also in the Cotton Country cookbook.  It is called the Best Ever Pecan Pie, and it really is.  The filling is made with browned butter, and I always get it really really brown, so the flavor is very rich.

Hmm, my pecan pies don't look like this and I have used that recipe before.
Yes, but you never brown the butter as dark as I do.
Well, it sure is greasy.  Sure will be glad when you learn to cook again.
Oh, dear..... this pie is so rich you can't eat much at one time, but it is very buttery.  I think I will decrease the butter by about 2 tablespoons.

A picture of my very delicious pecan pie.

In a past life I was an excellent cook, and Aud cannot understand how in the world I have forgotten how to cook... as she says, it's like riding a bicycle.....but the last time I rode a bicycle I fell off, so I guess I haven't figured out how to get on that bike again.