At Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine it took 120 of them! I recently visited the magazine to do a photo-shoot for an article that the magazine is running about me and my love for eggs. For the shoot, the test kitchen set aside 10 dozen eggs (120 eggs) to capture a total of 3 photos:  one of me making an omelet, one of me flipping an omelet into the air, and one of me simply cracking eggs into a bowl.

Before I arrived, the food department at the magazine asked me for my favorite “go-to” recipe. Rather than a formal recipe, they were looking for more of a “concoction” of ingredients that you have on-hand at the moment you need to feed people. I guess you’d call it a formula more than a recipe. You’d think that in my case it’d be an omelet, but it’s not. It’s a quiche! I call it – appropriately – “sudden quiche” because it comes together so quickly and no two are ever the same! You may remember this favorite recipe of mine as I have written about it here before!

The “formula” uses a combination of 6 eggs, a cup of milk or half & half, a cup of any kind of shredded cheese and up to two cups of anything in the fridge or freezer mixed together. The whole thing is poured into and baked in a frozen deep dish pie shell, which I always keep in the freezer for a main dish in a pinch. This weekend I made one with leftover chicken ala king. I also always keep a package of frozen creamed spinach in my freezer in case I need it suddenly for a “sudden quiche” occasion.

Back to my photo shoot… most of the eggs were used for a photo of me cracking eggs into a bowl (one-handedly, of course). The photographer was determined to catch one of the yolks as gravity grabbed it mid-air. Not an easy thing to do. Not easy for me, either. But you think that’s hard? Try flipping an omelet into the air with an eye on the camera, one on the fry pan it’s supposed to land in, and smile all the while. It took hours before the photographer finally said “that’s a wrap!” but I had the best time!

My “sudden quiche” will appear in the May issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine.  How appropriate because May is officially national Egg Month.  Be sure to check out the May issue, but until then…here’s the recipe!

SUDDEN QUICHE

6   Eggs, salted and peppered
1   Frozen deep-dish pie shell (or a sheet of refrigerated pie crust in a 9-in pie shell)
1   Cup of half & half or whole milk (or 2% milk, which is lower in fat but of course not as   good)
2   Cups of anything in your fridge that seems like it’ll work
1   Cup of shredded any kind of cheese

Preheat oven to 425-F.  Pierce the pie crust all over with a fork.  Bake, unfilled, for about 8-minutes.  Meanwhile, mix together the eggs, half & half or milk, cheese and anything else and empty it all into the pre-baked pie shell.   Reduce the oven to 325-F and bake for 35 or 40 minutes.  Let it rest for 5-minutes before serving.

Last week I attended the International Poultry & Egg Association convention in Atlanta, home of Mary Mac’s Tea Room. When it comes to southern food, there’s no place like it! It’s a 63-year-old institution that enjoys landmark status. I try to eat there every time I visit Atlanta. During my recent visit, I was able to eat there twice! Good for my appetite…not so good for my heart.

In my opinion, the best selections on the menu are all fried. Even better, they’re coated with a heavy and eggy “chicken-fried” sort of batter before being drowned in sizzling cooking oil. So, except for a side of mac n’ cheese and collard greens, everything I ate there on my first visit was fried. I was accompanied by 3 friends from South Dakota, Amish country in Pennsylvania and the easternmost tip of Long Island. Clearly, none of us are aficionados of southern fare. In fact, we all consider it positively foreign. But, we all love  fried chicken livers so much it was difficult to eat the many, many other dishes in front of us! Those included fried green tomatoes, fried oysters, shrimp and crawfish, the obligatory fried chicken, fried okra and a whole array of other fried foods, all as delicious as you can imagine.

A day later, I returned to Mary Mac’s for lunch, this time with 10 other friends from different places across the country. If you can imagine, we ended up with an even bigger array of southern specialties this time around. So much food was passed around our big round table that I lost track of what I was putting on my plate. There were plenty of the aforementioned battered and fried selections (especially the chicken livers) but because we had a professional nutritionist with us we ordered less caloric dishes, too. The “healthy” dishes included: “Hoppin’ John” (black-eye peas and rice), stewed okra and tomatoes, Brunswick stew (happily, the customary squirrel replaced by chicken), pork chops, spareribs and even a broccoli soufflé. Forget about light and airy where this soufflé was concerned. It was thick and rich and wonderful. I love going to southern food restaurants because it seems there’s always something different to try and new things about food to learn, all of it deeeelicious!

By the way, except for the “soufflé” there wasn’t a single egg-centric dish on the menu that I could find. When I asked the waitress about that she said to me, “Honey…we go through more eggs in our batters than Denny’s does at breakfast.” That made me smile.

Anyway, here’s a recipe for chicken-fried chicken livers. It was a favorite among all of us Yankees. Also, I included a recipe for fried chicken livers with eggs, essentially, a chicken liver frittata.

CHICKEN-FRIED CHICKEN LIVERS
1-1/2 lbs. washed chicken livers
3 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
1/3 cup light cream
¼ cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
2 well beaten eggs
Cracker crumbs

Sprinkle lemon juice on livers. Dip livers into mixture of flour, salt and pepper and then into mixture of cream, onion, eggs and garlic. Re-dip into  flour mixture so that they’re generously coated. Allow to set in refrigerator for ½ hour to set the coating. Deep fry.

FRIED CHICKEN LIVERS WITH EGGS
(Like a chicken liver frittata)
½ lb. washed chicken livers
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
4 well beaten eggs

Fry chicken livers in garlic and butter. Mix remaining ingredients together and pour over chicken livers. Stir. Cover and cook on very low heat until eggs are set.