Mmmm...Mmmmm..Zucchini & Bacon Quiche with Sweet Cherry Pie

Veggie Garden Update:Bee balm (Monarda) and Borage flowers are taking over the tomato beds....with bees and all. Zucchini plants are just starting to spew out zucchinis. Cosmic purple carrots ready for harvest. The beans, peppers and cucumbers aren't doing as well as last year- the beans seem to be struggling when last year they just shot up the teepees. One lone volunteer sunflower towering over the carrots and onions. I just didn't have the heart to yank it out! With the arm loads of zucchini from my garden and from the Two Onion Farm CSA I've decided to try lots of different zucchini recipes. Last night I made yummy zucchini fritters...or critters as Annika lovingly called them.

Here's a positively divine way to use a large zucchini:

* Zucchini & Bacon Quiche!
Here's the link to the original recipe on Epicurious.

For my version (based on what I had & can be easily altered to fit whatever you have on hand):

Ingredients
One 9" baked pie crust (mine is from scratch)
Several slices of bacon (I had five or six leftover slices of cooked bacon)
One small onion, finely chopped
One large or 2 medium zucchinis, halved lengthwise and then cut crosswise into 1/8"slices
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tb olive oil
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream (I think you could get away with using 1 cup of milk instead of adding cream)
1/4 tsp black pepper
3 large eggs
1/2 cup grated Italian mix cheese (Swiss or Gruyere or Mozzerella would work as well)

1. Set oven temperature to 350F.
2. Cook bacon until crisp and transfer to paper towel lined plate (mine was already cooked). Chop.
3. Saute chopped onion in a little bit of olive onion (or use bacon grease) in a large skillet until soft but not brown. Add sliced zucchini slices and 1/4 tsp salt and cook on moderate heat until zucchini is tender and starting to brown (stir to keep onions from browning too much).
4. Transfer zucchini mixture to a plate lined with paper towels. Try to remove as much of the zucchini liquid as possible (this step wasn't in the original recipe but was recommended in the Reviews section).
5. Heat milk/cream, pepper, remaining 1/4 tsp salt in a pan until mixture barely reaches a simmer and remove from heat.
6. In a large heat-proof bowl whisk the eggs and then gradually whisk in the hot milk/cream mixture until combined. Stir in bacon, zucchini mixture and cheese and pour into the prebaked pie crust.
7. Bake until filling is just set- 25 to 30 minutes (mine took a little longer). Cool slightly and...
8. Enjoy!

* Yummy Oh- So-Sweet Cherry Pie!
I used Smitten Kitchen's Sweet Cherry Pie recipe...along with the cherry pie recipe in the "Joy of Cooking" cookbook.


Basically....
Pie dough for double crust (mine is from the "Joy of Cooking" cookbook)

4 cups of cherries, pitted (using my handy dandy cherry Oxo cherry pitter)
3/4 cup of sugar (more or less depending on sweetness of cherries)
1 Tb fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 Tb fresh squeezed orange juice
3 Tb quick cooking tapioca (mine was closer to 4 Tb)
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 Tb cold butter, cut up into small pieces

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Stir together the above ingredients in a large bowl (minus the pie dough and the cold butter!) and let stand for 15 minutes.
3. Roll out bottom pie crust and place in pie pan.
4. Add cherry filling and dot with the cut up cold butter.
5. Roll out top crust and gently place on top of filling (I did cut out a star shape before placing it on top). Fold overhang over and seal it. Crimp edges. Cut vents.
6. Sprinkle with a little bit of sugar.
7. Bake for 25 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350F and bake another 25-30 minutes or until cherry filling is bubbling. I usually have to wrap my pie crust edge with aluminum foil to keep it from getting too brown.
8. Let pie cool on rack.
9. EAT! (with vanilla ice cream)

*Shared on Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday post.