Well, fall is just flyin’ by, isn’t it?
The National Mall is dotted with shades of yellow and orange, and I couldn’t ask for a more beautiful season to end a particularly stressful week. One upside is that the pumpkin I carved after work with the @Energy digital team made it onto Politico, Science Mag, and the Huffington Post — how cool is that? Huffpo called it “the best Jack-O-Lantern they’ve ever seen.”
*Swoon*
Anyway, aside from finally achieving Jack-O-Lantern fame, the week’s been filled with infographics, meetings, and my newly reinstated fitness routine, which I’ve been working 2-3 days of yoga into.
Yesterday was Halloween, and I got the chance to walk around the National Mall for a bit with a camera (I was photographing a coworker, dressed as Amelia Earheart, at the Earheart exhibit in the National Air and Space Museum. It was amazing).
The colors in the leaves just happened to match the warm colors in the tart perfectly, so I thought I’d share that with you. Yesterday was a gloomy day, but the leaves — and Jack-O-Lantern fame — easily brightened up my afternoon.
Emily describes me as being on a perpetual diet. Let’s just talk about how I started Monday off with three delicious cookies for breakfast. My neighbor made them. They were amazing, and I do not regret it.
Asparagus, Red Pepper and Sweet Corn Quiche (recipe after the jump)
Filling:
Half of a bunch of fresh asparagus
1 small red pepper, seeded and diced
1 ear of sweet corn
3 eggs
6 oz. heavy cream
1 heaping handful shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper
Crust:
6.5 oz. all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter
Tools:
9-ish inch tart pan, or a pie pan
rolling pin
food processor
gear to saute vegetables and beat eggs
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, to heat while you prepare your pastry crust.
Dice the stick of butter into half-inch-ish cubes. Then, combine with flour and salt in a food processor, pulse-grinding until the ingredients form a dough ball in the processor. Remove the dough, and roll out on a flat surface (I find this easiest by rolling it between two sheets of parchment paper) to a circle about 12 to 13 inches.
Once rolled, I like to chill the dough in the freezer for a few minutes to make it easier to work with. Take it out, and peel back one of the sheets of parchment paper. Carefully place the dough into the tart pan, pressing down and peeling the 2nd sheet of parchment paper back at the same time. Patch any cracks or imperfections with the extra crust from the edges, and shape the edges of your tart with your fingers.
Use a fork to poke holes in the bottom of the tart. If you prefer to bake your crust first, line the crust with one of your parchment sheets, fill the tart with weights or legumes, and bake for 20 minutes. You could also bake the tart with the filling in it — sup to you.
Set aside a few stalks of asparagus, but finely dice the rest. Saute the asparagus with the red peppers for a few minutes — just to get some more flavor out of them, and then pour into the tart shell.
With a sharp knife, carefully shuck your ear of corn and add the kernels to the tart.
In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs until frothy, and then mix with the cream and cheese. Pour over the vegetables in your tart pan. Arrange the remaining asparagus stalks into a pretty design (food is art, I tell you), and bake for about 1 hour, or until the center of the quiche is set.