Goat Cheese and Mushroom Quiche

With several dairy goats, I find myself often overwhelmed with large quantities of milk.  An easy way to condense the goat milk down to to make lots of goat cheese, ricotta being the easiest.  Unfortunately there gets to be a point where I'm swamped with goat cheese.  An easy,  goat cheese involving, recipe I like is to make quiche.

Crust:
1/3 cup salted butter
1.5 cups flour
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp white vinegar
~3/4 cup cold water

 Place all ingredients except water into a bowl.  I like to hand combine the ingredients as the key is to have pieces of the butter still intact.  You can use a food processor.  After the butter is broken down and mixed in, add water little by little until you get a ball that is compact and sticking together but not wet.  Put the ball in the fridge for 10 minutes while preparing the filling.


Filling:
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 medium onion, peeled and diced
1 large garlic glove, peeled and diced
4 ounces of mushrooms- use your favorites, sliced
4-6 oz of goat cheese, depending on how you like your quiches.  I've used up to 8 or so oz to clear some freezer space.
8 eggs
1 tbsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt

The mushrooms, garlic, and onions can be sauteed on medium in the olive oil for about five minutes until the mushrooms are soft. 

Whisk the eggs, basil, oregano, nutmeg, and salt and pepper together.


Putting it together:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
roll the dough out to cover the bottom of a 9" pie plate
scatter the cheese and mushroom mix over the bottom of the pan
Then pour the egg mix over the cheese and mushrooms.

Bake for 35-45 minutes until a fork inserted comes out clean.  The center is puffy and is no longer fluid when gently shaken.  Enjoy!  It's great for breakfast or even dinner with a salad.

Getting Whiskey to a New Home

 

This is Whiskey Shine.  He's our new buck!  Getting him home from six hours away in West Virginia proved to be more of a hassle than I expected.  My idea was to fit him in the back of my husband's Jeep Liberty which was at least much larger than my Toyota Echo.  I can barely fit our dog in the Toyota Echo, which doesn't stop Harry the dog from trying to get in it all the time since he loves car rides, even if he does prevent us from seeing the back seat.

On arrival with the Jeepaloo at Chestnut Springs Farm, I was all ready to load up the goat.  Slight hitch; Whiskey is a bit massive and there was some debate about whether or not he would actually fit in the Jeep.  We then looked at Whiskey, looked at the car, Whiskey, car, Whiskey, car.  You get the picture.  I was outvoted 2 to 1 about putting him in the car.  What if got scared they said?  There goes a window, a three hundred plus pound goat and probably whoever was in the car behind me.  

Fine.We'll get the goat home another way. 

New plan: My dad meets Chad, the CSF man, up in PA to bring him home, now only a three hour trip from home.  While our ford truck was a truck, it's kind of old and we have no idea how it manages to survive at all.  Hauling the massive Whiskey proved to be a challenge for the truck.  Up every hill it chugged like the little truck that could before whooshing down to the bottom before starting the next hill.  But it made it home with Whiskey.

At home, he was installed into a new pen to be isolated for important biosecurity reasons.  He got bored after two or three days and busted through the back of his house to join the baby bucks.  We were afraid he'd hurt them but he actually really likes them.  They try to tag team him to beat him up but since one is a nigerian dwarf and comes up to Whiskey's knees I don't think Whiskey even notices it when they hammer him.  Life lesson learned: the next buck I buy will be a baby or I need to buy a truck.