Great Aunt Billie's Artichoke Bake - A Good Vegetarian, Gluten-Free Potluck Recipe

For my first recipe, I thought I'd start with something that was both easy to make and easy to eat - Aunt Billie's Artichoke Bake. I made this for my book club, which includes one vegetarian and one gluten avoider. (Billie was always the life of any party, and I know she would have loved our book club). We just read The Help, so we had a southern-themed potluck. Since California is south of Oregon, I figured this recipe qualified:

Great Aunt Billie's Artichoke Bake

4 jars marinated artichoke hearts (drain, save the juice from 2 jars) Simmer in juice for 5 minutes:

• 1 large onion
• 2 cloves of garlic

Beat 8 eggs lightly. Add:

• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce
• 4 tbsp parsley

Chop up artichoke hearts. Add 4 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded. Fold everything into eggs. Pour in greased pan (7x11) and bake at 35o for 30 minutes until solid. Cut into squares. Note: "Great for parties."

I made this pretty much as written, although my dear husband bought the wrong kind of artichoke hearts (non-marinated ones in a can). I figure that Aunt Billie probably had to deal with similar upsets. I halved the recipe (making enough for seven adults) and added a bit more oregano and hot sauce. It felt wrong to simmer the onion and garlic in the artichoke juice instead of in olive oil, but I did it anyway.

The recipe resulted in a very tasty crustless quiche which disappeared pretty quickly. If I were going to make this again, I would sautee the onion and garlic in olive oil, add some canned Ortega-type green chilis, use the right kind of artichokes, and drain the liquid off before baking (30 minutes wasn't quite long enough to evaporate it all.) All in all, I would give this an 8 out of 10: easy and tasty. What's not to like?