simply irresistible mini quiches

Our local radio station played eighties music for the whole of August culminating in a party on Saturday night.

Listeners could win tickets and one Wednesday afternoon on the way home from swimming lessons, I managed to get through. The girls wanted to hear me on the radio, so as an untimely Queensland storm rolled in, I stood outside sheltering under a sparsely vegetated Frangipani tree hoping I wouldn't be the Coast's first on-air lighting strike.

Then my moment of truth...

"Amanda, who's poster did you have on your wall in the eighties?"

So, with my girls and the rest of the Sunshine Coast listening, I told them....

"I had a poster of Tom Cruise on my ceiling, before I even understood why people put posters on their ceilings!"

I won the tickets. So, on Saturday night my mate Sonia and I donned our fingerless gloves, neon accessories and blue mascara and danced with our new mate; a bloke wearing a leotard, women's swimmers and two wigs (only one on his head).

The costumes were fantastic - I'd forgotten what fabulous characters the eighties produced. There was loads of double denim, a kiwi version of Richard Gere in Officer and a Gentlemen and even a lady who'd turned herself into rubik's cube.

The grog was plentiful, the dance floor packed and the tucker fancy. While the sweet potato mousse tartlets were delicious, I became nostalgic for eighties appetisers. (Not all the eighties appetisers mind you - devon wrapped mashed potato should stay in the past).

simple irresistible mini quiches

Mini quiches, the stalwart finger food of the eighties, deserves to make a resurgence for two reasons:

1. They're simple to make - the Big Sister whipped these up in twenty minutes.
2. They're delicious - two dozen of these tasty morsels disappeared within half an hour of coming out of the oven.

Ingredients:

1 leek
150g bacon
6 eggs
½ cup cream
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp mustard powder
3 sheets puff pastry

Method:

Thaw the puff pastry sheets and using a glass or scone cutter, make twenty four circles from the pastry. Place in greased muffin trays.

Fry the finely sliced leek and bacon over a low heat. Allow to cool slightly.

Whisk together the eggs and cream. Add the mustard and parmesan cheese and stir though.

Distribute the leek and bacon between the pastry cases, then pour the egg mixture into each quiche.

Bake at 180ºC for ten-twelve minutes or until puffed and golden brown.

I learned a few things at that eighties party. Song lyrics I'd misheard and sung wrong for years, the codpieces of He-man costumes are inadequately stuffed and there are some fellows who are still legitimately wearing double denim.

My favourite discovery of the night was realising that there was method in Michael Jackson's one-gloved madness; taking your fingerless gloves off every time you need to go to the toot is painful!

do you remember the eighties?

did you have a TV Hits poster on your wall?