It's the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, kids. And you know what that means? Onions. A FUCKTON of onions. Below you'll find one of my favorite recipes (and the impetus for said onion-chopping), an amazing poem by the lovely Suji Kwock Kim called "Monologue for an Onion," and a question that is all together too personal. I hope you'll answer it.
And I very much hope you're having fun out there, celebrators.
Caramelized Onion Quiche
(recipe makes two quiches)
INGREDIENTS:
6 large eggs
2 cups heavy cream
8 ounces shredded Parmesan (or more, depending on your taste)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon granulated garlic (strangely, this works better than fresh in the recipe because it mixes throughout better….you can also add some fresh if you like, too, but it’s not necessary)
1/2 cup butter, plus extra for greasing pan
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
7 medium-sized Vidalia onions, thinly sliced
Two 9" pie or quiche crusts (recipe of your choice. If you need a good one, let me know.)
8 ounces of mozzarella cheese
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Prepare two pie/quiche crusts in pie plates using the recipe of your choice
In a large bowl, stir together the eggs, cream and Parmesan, reserving about 3 ounces of the parmesan cheese for later.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cayenne, and garlic.
Stir the flour mixture into the egg mixture and set aside.
Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until caramelized. This will take forever.
Stir the onion mixture into the egg mixture and spoon into the pie crusts. DO NOT OVERFILL crusts as the pudding will rise some while setting.
(TIP: There is often leftover quiche filling. You can freeze any leftover it in a freezer safe container and thaw it out to use as a quick brunch or dinner dish. After you thaw it, you can put it in another pie crust, use a pre-made crust or cook the mixture alone in a casserole dish--it will set just fine without crust.)
Bake until the pudding is set, about 30-40 minutes. Add parmesan and mozzarella to the top when pudding is just set and cook until brown and bubbly.
Monologue for an Onion | ||
by Suji Kwock Kim | ||
I don't mean to make you cry. I mean nothing, but this has not kept you From peeling away my body, layer by layer, The tears clouding your eyes as the table fills With husks, cut flesh, all the debris of pursuit. Poor deluded human: you seek my heart. Hunt all you want. Beneath each skin of mine Lies another skin: I am pure onion--pure union Of outside and in, surface and secret core. Look at you, chopping and weeping. Idiot. Is this the way you go through life, your mind A stopless knife, driven by your fantasy of truth, Of lasting union--slashing away skin after skin From things, ruin and tears your only signs Of progress? Enough is enough. You must not grieve that the world is glimpsed Through veils. How else can it be seen? How will you rip away the veil of the eye, the veil That you are, you who want to grasp the heart Of things, hungry to know where meaning Lies. Taste what you hold in your hands: onion-juice, Yellow peels, my stinging shreds. You are the one In pieces. Whatever you meant to love, in meaning to You changed yourself: you are not who you are, Your soul cut moment to moment by a blade Of fresh desire, the ground sown with abandoned skins. And at your inmost circle, what? A core that is Not one. Poor fool, you are divided at the heart, Lost in its maze of chambers, blood, and love, A heart that will one day beat you to death. |
And your question, friends: What was the last thing that made you cry?
Answer: giving away kittens. 4 of them, one at a time.
Posted by: Terry | November 24, 2010 at 02:20 AM
Watched The Elephant Man on instant netflix the other night (directed by David Lynch) and balled. Also, thanks for posting the delish recipe!
Posted by: kellianne | November 24, 2010 at 02:53 AM
Finding out my CT scan showed no evidence of cancer anymore.
Posted by: Laura Orem | November 24, 2010 at 07:23 AM
Laura's comment.
Posted by: Stacey | November 24, 2010 at 09:41 AM
Laura: we don't know each other in person, of course, but rest assured: while I wasn't crying the day you found out your news, when a very relieved Jilly told me about it I was jumping up and down and clapping and dancing. For real.
Posted by: JP | November 24, 2010 at 01:03 PM
Jess, I remember the first time you made that onion heaven goo you're calling "quiche" - thanksgiving in salt lake! craig and robin and my sister and you and i all trying to cook in one house and almost not killing each other, and right now that memory is probably the last thing that made me cry. i miss you.
Posted by: Rebecca | November 24, 2010 at 02:18 PM