Real men will eat this

It's only the start of my second week of the term at Washburne Culinary Institute. But I can already tell that Monday's are going to be loooong days.

We will never set foot in the kitchen. Instead, we'll have more than five hours of lecture. First, about the history of baking and pastry. Then, in the afternoon, it's about food safety and sanitation.

Even the chef admits that's it's not exactly scintillating stuff. Today, for example, we started in the Neolithic Period with the very early humans who figured out how to make sprouted grain porridge, dry it out near their newest invention -- FIRE! -- and make the very first "bread."

That part was actually pretty fascinating.

But then we moved on to sanitation and there was lots of talk about "bloody diarrhea" (sorry) and how our food had the potential to kill people and my eyes kind of started to glaze over. (Sorry again -- especially to the chef, if she's reading this.)

Maybe I was just hungry.

I was daydreaming about this quiche, which I made yesterday with plenty of fresh corn from Angelic Organics, along with some cute little bell peppers and jalapenos from the CSA box. Sure, it's made with heavy cream and eggs and a stick of butter ... but it's packed with veggies (bacon's a veggie, right?) so it must be healthy, right?

OK. Maybe not.

But it's sure to perk you up after a long day. Or give you plenty of energy in the morning to get ready for such a day.

Spiced-Up Roasted Corn and Bacon Quiche

Adapted from "King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking"

One quiche, serves 6-8

Crust

2/3 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

3 to 5 tablespoons ice water

Filling

4 ears fresh corn, peeled and husked

4 sliced bacon

1 1/2 cups diced sweet onion

1 medium bell pepper, diced

1-2 jalapeno peppers, diced

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups half and half

1 cup sliced scallions, white and green parts

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

Salt and pepper, to taste

To prepare the crust: Grind the oats in a food processor until fine, about 30 seconds. Add in the flour and salt. Pulse a couple of times until mixed. Add the butter and pulse until dough is unevenly crumbly. Sprinkle in (or drizzle through feed tube) one tablespoon of water at a time, until the dough is cohesive. To test, grab a handful of dough and see if it holds together easily. Dump the dough out onto plastic wrap. Form it into a 1-inch thick disk and wrap it. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes or up to 3 days.

If stored longer than 30 minutes, remove disk from refrigerator 30 minutes before assembling quiche, to take off the chill.

Flour your work surface. Roll dough into a 12-inch circle. Place in a regular 9-inch pie pan. Trim and crimp the edges. Store crust in refrigerator while preparing the filling.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Heat a large, dry, nonstick skillet over high heat for several minutes. Place ears of corn in skillet and roast, turning every five minutes or so, until nicely charred in places. Remove corn from heat and cool.

Turn down skillet to medium. Put in bacon and cook, turning occasionally, until crisp. Place on a paper-towel-lined plate to drain. Crumble when cool.

Drain off all but a couple tablespoons of bacon fat (or leave it all in there if you're feeling frisky) and add in diced onion, bell pepper and jalapeno. Cook until soft, about 5 to 7 minutes. Remove pan from heat and set aside to cool.

Using a sharp knife, cut the corn kernels off the cobs and place in a large bowl. Add the cooled onion mixture and the chopped scallions.

Whisk together the eggs, half-and-half, salt and pepper and smoked paprika. Pour over the vegetables and stir well.

Pour the filling into the prepared crust. If there's any left over, pour it into ramekins that have been treated with cooking spray.

Bake the quiche for 35-40 minutes (possibly longer), covering the crust with a pie shield or foil if it starts to burn. When the quiche is done, the center won't wobble when you jiggle the pan and a knife inserted one inch from the edge will come out wet but clean. Remove the quiche from the oven and let cool at least 30 minutes before serving.