Asparagus-Bacon Quiche with no Crust

This was a pretty, tasty, and easy Easter weekend brunch.

5 eggs, 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese mixed.
1 onion and 1 garlic clove sauteed.
8 slices bacon, cooked.
1 lb asparagus (8 spears trimmed to about 5 inches, rest cut to about 1 inch. Microwave 2 minutes.

Combine everything except the 8 asparaus spears and 2 strips of bacon.
Pour into buttered very large pie pan.  Mine is 11 inches across at the top.
Arrange the 8 asparagus spears like spokes on top.  Divide the 2 strips of bacon into 4 pieces each and place between spokes.

Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 35 minutes.

Strawberry Semifreddo

Semifreddo just means partially frozen.  There is no specific recipe-most seem to be a combination of fruit and whipped cream and various other ingredients, (eggs, yogurt, mascarpone cheese).  I just found out about semifreddo today, but it reminds me of the strawberry-rhubarb quark pie I recently created.  I had put that in the freezer for a little while just to set because my strawberry-rhubarb sauce was still warm, but then refrigerated the pie.   I think recipe will be more like a light ice cream.


My semifreddo recipe will be Easter dessert tomorrow, but I wanted to write down what I did before I forgot. 

4 cups partially thawed strawberries, slices, and pureed in food processor with 1/4 sugar.
1 cup Meadowbrook Farms heavy cream, whipped with about 1 T sugar and about 1/2 t vanilla.
2 egg whites, whipped until holds a peak.

Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap.
Put a layer of the strawberry puree in the pan. about 1/2 inch?
Combine the strawberry puree with the whipped cream. Fold in the whipped egg whites.
Add mixture to the loaf pan.
Cover with saran wrap and freeze.
Tomorrow, unmold upside down onto serving plate.
Slice and serve on individual plates.

I made some strawberry-rhubarb sauce the other day that I may serve on top.
May garnish with whole strawberries too.

Note: I am not afraid of these uncooked egg whites as I know where these brown eggs came from.  We'll see what happens when you freeze whipped egg whites in this dessert. I tried to cook the 2 yolks over a double boiler, but got distracted and got scrambled eggs, so I left the yolks out.  I saw recipes that cooked just egg yolks, no whites, and another that cooked and eggs whites and yolks together, and recipes with no eggs at all.  No loss not having egg yolks as that is less calories and the mixture tasted really good.

Easy Strawberry-Rhubarb Quark No-bake Pie

I made up this recipe, liked it a lot, so I made it again for Sandra's Birthday Cake, and this time took a picture.  I needed to use rhubarb and strawberries still in the freezer from last summer since we will soon have a new crop, plus I had a tub of Quark and a small bottle of Meadowbrook Farms heavy cream left over from baking for last week's fundraiser.   And a unopened box of graham crackers in the cabinet I don't even remember buying.

Crust: 1 package of graham crackers, crushed in food processor. Mixed in about 5 T melted butter, and patted into pie plate.  Put in freezer while preparing the rest.

Fruit:  In saucepan, bring to a boil, a large bag of frozen diced rhubarb and frozen strawberries.  Add some sugar.  Boil and stir until rhubard dissolves and becomes thick.  Sweeten to taste. Put some in a bowl and put in freezer to cool faster.  Maybe a 1 cup?

Quark Filling:  Beat 8oz heavy cream with a little sugar and vanilla.  Meadowbrook Farms cream is so thick, this takes all of 30 seconds.  Beat in Quark quickly and add more sugar to taste.  Stir in the cooled or chilled strawberry-rhubarb puree.   Pour into the pie crust and put in freezer to set for a little while.  When set, decorate top with more of the chilled strawberry-rhubarb mixture.

Made it again August 2012

Quark is low-fat, but adding the heavy cream does away with that benefit.  It might not be as light and fluffy, but it could probably be made by leaving out the heavy cream and using a little gelatin to make the quark not weep, and/or drain the quark before beating.  Any fruit would work, but I really love the tartness of strawberry-rhubarb.  When I asked Phil what he thought of this creation, he said, "well, I am cutting a 3rd slice right now..."