Who’s in the kitchen It’s a wrap!....actually a quiche

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Last Wednesday, the house next door to mine was the setting for the upcoming movie, Blood Ties, starring James Caan, Mila Kunis and Clive Owen. My house was used as a rest area in lieu of their trailer, which was parked a few blocks away. My son, Jeremy, got to meet and speak to Jamie Hector (Marlo Stanfield of HBO’s The Wire, who also starred on Heroes) for over a half an hour, as well as Domenick Lombardozzo, also on The Wire. My daughter, Jordana ended up in the wedding reception scene of Mila and Clive. Needless to say it was quite an exciting day. It brought back memories of stargazing on my trip to L.A. in 1981.

My friends Lynn Mael, Miriam Greenspan and I went to California to meet up with our friend Lisa Ehrlich, who spent the summer taking courses in U.C.L.A. The plan was to travel to San Francisco, take in the sights, and then head back to L.A. with a pit stop at Yosemite National Park. Lynn was kind enough to volunteer to drive first. While on the road, we kept passing fruit stands. The hungrier we got, the more inviting the fruit stands looked. Should we stop? Shouldn’t we? We couldn’t decide. Then, one of us, I can’t remember who, said, “Let’s stop.” Lynn, maybe not realizing that she was driving 65 miles an hour, spotted a fruit stand just then, and turned sharply into the parking area missing the watermelon stand by about a foot. Gravel flew every which way and people ran for cover. I was sitting in the back and the force pushed me into the back of Lisa’s seat, which pushed her (still not sure why her seat moved forward) shy of the windshield. It was like a scene out of a movie. Miriam looked at Lynn and said “Lynn, it’s fine, it’s really not your fault. We were the ones who told you to stop, you just didn’t realize how close you were when you veered into it at 65 miles per hour. This is just like riding a horse, you fall off and you just get right back on. So after we buy some fruit, you get back in the drivers seat, and continue to drive, right girls?” To which Lisa and I looked at each other and replied, “um….no!” We did welcome her back behind the wheel a little while later and she was a perfect driver the rest of the trip.

S.F. was fun and Yosemite was definitely an experience for me. At dusk, the rangers came around and told us to pack away all food and leave it in the car so the bears would just walk by us instead of stopping to pick at the food. Walk right by us? Nah, I had other plans. I slept in the car while the others camped in their sleeping bags. Morning couldn’t come fast enough for me. I decided I was more of a Beverly Hills kind of gal. I was looking forward to brunch at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Word was, back then, that on any given Sunday, there were always movie stars having brunch and if you were lucky, you could score an autograph as well.

So on our last Sunday in L.A. we headed to Beverly Hills to try our luck. We were escorted to our table and handed our menus. Of course we couldn’t eat anything as it wasn’t kosher, so we decided to just get the cheapest selections on the menu. I ordered a mushroom quiche. While waiting for our orders to arrive, I spotted her; there she was looking just as outrageous in person as she did on T.V. It was none other than Phyllis Diller. Not quite Robert Redford, but hey, she was famous back then. She was actually very nice and gave all of us her autograph. Mission accomplished, we met a real life, first rate, second-rate Hollywood starlet. After scanning the room and not finding anyone else of importance, we sauntered back to our table and played with our food to make it look as if we were eating it.

I can still remember how wonderful the quiche smelled and how much I wanted to taste it. Years later I came up with a recipe that tasted as good as I imagined that quiche would have. It was worth the wait.

Why not try it out this Yom Tov.

Mushroom Quiche

Ingredients:

n 2 Tbs olive oil

n 2 Tsp garlic, minced

n 2 shallots, small, diced

n 2 C mushrooms, sliced

n 6 eggs, beaten

n 2/3 C heavy cream

n 1/3 C grated cheddar cheese

n 1/3 C shredded mozzarella

n Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat olive oil, add garlic and shallots, cook until golden brown. Add sliced mushrooms and thyme along with salt and pepper. Cook till mushrooms are tender. Beat your eggs in a bowl add the heavy cream. Pour mushroom mix into a 10” greased quiche dish. Add cheddar and muenster cheese, then pour the egg mix over top and bake at 350 degrees until set about 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Funny, I had to travel 3,000 miles to see Phyllis Diller, and my kids get to walk next door to see Mila Kunis and Clive Owen. But, I wouldn’t trade that trip for anything. It was a wonderful two weeks spent with life long friends which precipitated treasured memories along with an autograph that I have safely tucked away, I think, in a box, somewhere….along with about 10 long lost credit cards, a few store credits and at least one set of car keys to every car I’ve ever owned.

Judy Joszef can be contacted at Judy.soireé@gmail.com.