Invited by the Locals: Mini Quiches

One of the interesting things about traveling is getting invited over to people's houses. OK, I've been to Barbara's place for Christmas, etc many times, so it's not being invited someplace new. She's hosting a Christmas orphan potluck dinner for about 8 of us. Elena signed me up for appetizers, so after some looking on the internet, I decided to try little mini-quiche type thingies. I did a dry run today since my recipe is basically an untested amalgam of the recipes out there.

Using Tenderflake frozen mini pastry shells (18 per pack), I made 6 experimental Mexican-inspired quiches. I browned about a 1/3 pound of ground beef, drained off the fat, added some chili powder, salt, and cumin, and mixed in an egg and a sprinkling of shredded TexMex cheese. I mixed and put a dallop into each mini-pastry shell. I added the rest of the liquid from the bowl since I figured it was mostly egg and the egg is needed to set the appetizer. I baked at 375 (wild guess on the temp) for 17 minutes. Then I let them cool a little and added a spoon of salsa to the top of each one.




Results? Super yummy!!!

Tomorrow when I make the real thing, I'll make 8 of each of three types:

Mexican-inspired: ground beef, tex-mex cheese blend, cumin, chili powder, with salsa on top
Italian-inspired: chicken, parmesan cheese, oregano, with pesto on top
Chinese-inspired: chicken, broccoli, soy sauce, with hot mustard on top

And about 1 egg per 8 mini-quiches.

I only made one mistake. I forgot Elena works half a day and I ate my entire experimental sample run right before she got back and didn't save any for her.

Update:

Here are the pictures of the real thing out of the oven.



And close-ups of the Chinese-inspired and Italian-inspired.