Over the years of meal preparation I've baked endless variations and combinations of the eternal quiche egg-pie. Recently, looking through some recipes my search for something palatable and unusual for a bit of a change led me to a recipe that was called 'Garlicky Swiss Chard Pie'. So I looked at the ingredients and thought that's a little different and thought I'd give it a try.

The recipe gave an alternative for Swiss chard, recommending kale. When I went shopping the bunches of Swiss chard were so large they put me off that as an option and I chose instead smaller fresh bunches of kale.

And then I proceeded to put together this quiche which wasn't called a quiche, consisting of:

2 tbsp. olive oil                                2 tbsp. butter
half red onion, chopped                   salt and freshly ground pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced                    1 large bunch Swiss chard  (for 1 cup chopped stems,
5 eggs                                                              plus 4 cups leaves chopped)
1 cup milk                                        1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled          One 9-inch unbaked pie shell

1. Preheat oven to 350.    2. Heat olive oil and butter in a skillet over medium-high to saute onion until translucent, just beginning to caramelize, about 20 minutes; season onion with salt and pepper. 3. Add garlic and chopped Swiss chard stems with onion; saute about 5 minutes; cover pan and cook until stems begin to soften, about 5 minutes..   4. Add chopped Swiss chard leaves and saute again until leaves are completely wilted, another 5 to ten minutes. Set aside.   5. In large bowl whisk eggs. Heat milk just until teaming, about 2 minute in microwave, add in a thin stream whisking hot milk into eggs.   6. Pour egg mixture into pie crust, and spoon chard mixture evenly into pie. Sprinkle top with cheeses.   7. Bake quiche for 30 to 40 minutes until browned on top and set in middle. Cool for ten minutes before serving.

I substituted kale for Swiss chard, used one large garlic clove, and a full, very small cooking onion. Since I wanted to make a smaller pie for two people, I used three eggs, and halved the milk. For the cheese I used a combination of mozzarella and sharp cheddar shredded, and I placed half of the cheese directly on the bottom of the pie shell before scattering the cooked onion-garlic-kale mixture over, and then the rest of the grated cheese, sprinkling small bits of blue cheese over before pouring the milk-egg mixture over all, and proceeded to bake the pie.

This is par for the course for me; I take cooking/baking ideas and simply alter them to suit my own preferences. This quiche was left in the oven somewhat longer than I meant it to, so the top really was brown; we'd had a telephone call that needed to be tended to and couldn't break it off, interfering with dinner. We'd already eaten a small salad as an appetizer, so I served the quiche a bit later than I meant to, which had no bearing on its taste. Which was pungently garlicky and extremely pleasant both in texture and in taste combination. We concluded the meal with fresh blueberries.

My husband complimented me on the piecrust, claiming I had mastered the perfect crust for all occasions. He enjoyed the scent of the pie and the taste-consistency of its interior but took great care to pick out every vestige of kale that he could manage to separate. He is not readily adaptable to vegetables he hasn't had an intimate acquaintance with over the years, and kale is not one of his favourites, but then neither is Swiss chard. He recommended the pie be repeated, using spinach.

I sighed.