Real Men Make Quiche

Do you remember that book from the '70s, Real Men Don't Eat Quiche? It garnished my mind with images of wimpy guys in berets navigating the travesty of egg custard pie laced with green veggies and imported cheese. I didn't buy what that book was selling. The Real Man I had married was learning how to make quiche from his best friend, another certified Real Man. Guess what I learned: Real Men aren't afraid to cook. We're not talkin' can opener and microwave cooking here. This is a man in the kitchen, making breakfast. Or dinner. Or lunch.

A Real Man who cooks goes at it very differently from the Little Woman. He doesn't waste time on finicky details and esoteric methods. He cuts his veggies big enough to tell what you have in your mouth, big enough to chew. Fast, skillful and efficient - Real Men love efficiency - simple, robust one-pot meals, cooked in a cast iron skillet. Potatoes, onions, and other vegetables all fried together with shredded chicken or hamburger. Fried rice. Casseroles. Chicken with dressing. And of course, quiche.

He'll whip up his grandmother's pie crust in a flash. Doesn't matter which grandmother. As a boy, he sat in both their kitchens and watched salt, flour, lard and water turn into pie crust faster than it took to boil potatoes. He watched and remembered.

Like his grandmothers, he chills the dough for half an hour before quickly pressing it into that 10-inch iron skillet with hands larger and stronger than mine. Now, I know why my pie crust always failed - I futzed with it too much, let it get warm so the fat melted into the flour too much. When that made it sticky, I'd mix in more flour. Wrong.

He adds a dash of baking powder, along with a whisper of cinnamon to the egg filling. Cinnamon? He says his grandmothers did that with egg custard, so why not. He does tend to get carried away, filling his quiche with frozen corn and peas, fresh spinach, ham, cooked chicken, cheese....even a little yogurt for body. My favorite is nothing but lots of corn! I have to admit the cinnamon somehow enhances the flavor of the corn.

I'm sure his grandmothers never heard of yogurt or quiche, but I'll bet they would have loved his, once they got over the shock of a man cooking.