When MARY STADNYK was a little girl

     

 the only picture I have ever seen of Mom as a young girl

     Mom told me that before she went to school her forehead was covered with warts.  In the early spring, when the moon was new, her father told her to take her shoes off.  Then John carried her outside and set her down on what was left of the straw pile (the animals had eaten most of the straw during the winter).

 “Don’t look at the moon,” John warned Mary. 

He took 3 steps with her counting, “One, and two, and three.  Now, Mary, pick up the straw that’s under your foot and rub your forehead with it while you look at the moon.”

They repeated this ritual 3 times.  By the next new moon, all the warts had disappeared from Mary’s forehead.

And they never came back.

*********

Mom loved to read and she always subscribed to Chatelaine Magazine.  I have a lot of the old issues she saved for me, and that’s where I found this quiche she would have enjoyed:

ZUCCHINI LEMON QUICHE

        From Chatelaine, August, 1978

Pie pastry for a 9 inch Very Deep Pie Plate (I used a deep, square casserole AND, of course, Mom’s pastry recipe:  http://eleanorstadnyk.blogspot.ca/2013/06/company-and-pie-crust.html)

3 medium zucchini (about 6 or 7 inches long and 1 and ½ inches in diameter)

¼ cup butter

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

Grated lemon peel from one lemon

3 eggs

1 cup half-and-half cream (or try using milk)

¼ cup milk

1 cup grated Swiss cheese

1/8 tsp nutmeg

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1.     Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

2.     Roll out the pastry and line your pan with it.  Don’t prick.  Cover the bottom with foil to keep pastry from lifting up while baking.

3.     Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove and set aside.

4.     Reduce heat to 350 degrees.

5.     Coarsely grate the unpeeled zucchini and place on kitchen towel.  Squeeze to remove all the moisture.  There will be about 4 cups of zucchini.

6.     Melt butter in a large frying pan.

7.     Add and stir zucchini, garlic, and lemon peel for 3 minutes.  Set aside.

8.     In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, milk, and cream together.

9.     Stir in zucchini, cheese, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

10.                         Bake until set.  The recipe says 35 minutes but mine took 55 minutes.

Serve hot.

  You can turn off the oven and let it sit another half hour before serving if you want to keep it hot.