Today was a good day, a very good day really. As my regular readers know, this Winter I am working in the Hilltop kitchen two days a week while the main chef has his days off. Our other chef has gone back to visit his family in the Czech Republic during our winter months.
Things have slowed right down. There are a few tourists around, mostly Australians, but it has been QUIET! Last week, on my two days in the kitchen, I think I can count the number of plates I made on one hand. YIKES, that’s not only slow and boring, it’s a bit scary, business-wise.
So, we have started a major austerity program. Absolutely NO purchases for anything that is not entirely essential. We will endeavour to use existing stock and inventory, as we do seem to have a surplus of a number of things (our fault - we have not been double-checking the requests for orders). We have also cut our part-timers hours down to, uh, zero! (Sorry, Sue & Donna, but if you still want a job in November, we've got to make some cuts now)We just don’t need their help at the moment and certainly can’t afford to pay them if we don’t need them. So, with the help of The Extremely Supportive Man, it is my job to get the bills, the inventory and the wages under control. I can do it, I must do it and I WILL do it.
The good news is that in a few weeks, things will pick up slightly as the northern hemisphere school holidays (AKA summer vacation) start and the ski slopes open down here. We are just in that cruddy period in between.

So, this past summer we regularly offered a Pear, Walnut and Blue Cheese Salad with a Balsamic Vinaigrette. The taste combination is amazing and it sold well. In past seasons, we have done various twists on this including a Pear, Walnut, and Blue Cheese Pizza! The home-made pizza base is spread with caramelised onion jam and a bit of blue cheese, warmed in the oven and then topped with mixed greens tossed with the sliced fresh pears, toasted walnuts, a bit more blue cheese and the dressing. It sounds weird but the pizza base is almost like the crouton of the salad. Between the wet and dry crunch of the pears and walnuts and the sweet of the pear and onions against the saltiness and tang of the blue cheese and tartness of the vinegar, it is amazing in the mouth. But, alas, salad weather is behind us and we have left-over pears and blue cheese.

Today the deli is looking a little empty, but so little has been turning over, I am not sure what to make. There are only two pieces of Bacon and Egg Pie left, one of our ever-present staples, but I did not allow the bacon order to go through earlier in the week (already flexing administrative muscles), so we will have to come up with something else. Hmmm, we have about 10 pears left and about a pound of blue cheese very close to its best by. For some reason, we have 3 containers (Uggghhh! How does this happen!!!) of caramelised onion jam. Can you put pears in a quiche??? Why not? Why not at least give it a try. I can either throw away the blue cheese and pears in a week or I can throw away the blue cheese and pears in a pastry shell, if it doesn’t work…
I toasted some walnut pieces…



I sliced up two pears. I sliced them fairly thin so they would ‘poach’ while the pie was baking.

I gently mixed together about 10 eggs and ¾ of a cup of full cream…



So, I blind-baked the pastry with some black beans and baking paper…

When the pie crust was done, I spread a nice layer of the caramelised onion jam on the bottom.


Then I layered the pears and poured in a little of the egg mixture and topped it with some crumbled blue cheese and walnuts…

Another layer of pears, more blue cheese, walnuts and eggy mix… I topped it off with six nice slices of pear (this will make six portions) and some more blue cheese.

Close up...

I baked it at 180 C (about 350 F) for about 45 minutes – until the centre looked set and no longer ‘jiggly’.
Then, I had to wait impatiently for it to be cool enough to slice.

Then we had customers! Hungry customers!!! Not a massive rush and nothing I couldn’t cope with but people were paying for food and paying for me to cook it!!! We did two Steak & Kidney Pies and one Chicken Pot Pie (low priced items, but good to see the deli turning over).

Then, Fish & Chips and a Bacon Cheese Burger (Note to self -- don't take pics with heat lamps on -- sorry gentle readers!)

Some Nachos.


Another Bacon Cheeseburger along with a Gourmet Lamb-burger (with grilled haloumi and minted aioli) for a very nice American couple.



And, just as we started to clean-up, I cut the quiche. OMG – a party in my mouth! No, a full on festival of flavour! Wow! I have seriously impressed myself! So, I put the new quiche in the deli as a couple, our last customers of the day walked in.

He had our signature Green-lipped Mussel Chowder (Gotta love the Home-made Honey Whole Wheat soup rolls from AR!)

and she had (drum roll)

Pear, Walnut and Blue Cheese Quiche!!!

Yes! We can do this, we must do this and we WILL do this!