Easy Herbed Ham & Cheese Quiche

Why is it that it seems like everyone does brunch or breakfast for Mother’s Day? Growing up, we always made Mom breakfast in bed. Reservations for Mother’s Day brunches fill up quickly. Do moms prefer breakfast? Don’t they like dinner too? Who knows… Either way, we stuck with the cliche and made a nice Mother’s Day brunch for Ally’s mom with the rest of her family. We’ve had a hectic few weeks (moving, growing a human, working a ton, traveling almost every weekend, etc), so we were looking for some quicker and easier ideas that would still be fancy enough to honor Mom’s special day. (So sadly, doughnuts and bagels were out…)

In the end, we decided to throw together a simple quiche, made easy by the use of store-bought pie crust. It feels a little fancier because, well French words always sound fancier and because we went heavy on the herb! Tarragon was a nice choice and definitely an underutilized herb in our kitchen. We didn’t use fresh tarragon, another nod to our attempts to simplify our morning, though certainly that would probably only improve the dish. Other herbs would be nice here too – I’m thinking sage or rosemary. This quiche was only part of our brunch, as you can see in the pictures of our spread. Unfortunately our monkey bread, while tasty, wasn’t good enough to share just quite yet. We’ll keep working on it!

Easy Herbed Ham & Cheese Quiche

Ingredients: 

• 1 store-bought pie crust
• 1/2 of a small onion, diced
• 1 cup ham, cubed
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 eggs
• 3/4 cups milk
• 1 tbsp dried tarragon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Fresh ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• {Oil if needed}

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a pan over medium heat, brown the cubed ham. If the ham is fatty and releases fat (our was), you may not needed any oil in your pan. If not, add a little bit of oil in here.
3. After 2-3 minutes or so, add in the onions. Toss to coat in the fat/oil. Saute until softened and fragrant, another 3-4 minutes, and then add the garlic. Cook just another 2 minutes and then set aside.
4. Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs, milk, tarragon, salt, and several turns of fresh black pepper.
5. Press the pie crust into a pie pan. Pour the ham, onions, and garlic into the crust, followed by most of the cheese. Top with the egg mixture. Top with the last bit of cheese.
6. Bake for approximately 35 minutes.
7. Slice & serve!

Serves 6-8