The Cheez-It Dream Comes to Fruition

When most visitors come to Alaska, their purchases of choice include Alaskana such as ulus, blueberry syrup, birch bowls, Native carvings and other craft, et cetera. However, when SA came to visit, he, as an American expat living in Japan, chose to prioritize in his suitcase space generic American junk food, which he can't get in Japan. On the list: Chips Ahoy, Cheez-Its, and a bunch of other nutritional horrors my brain has blocked out. When we got back to my cabin after this shopping extravaganza, imagine SA's disappointment to find that he had accidentally grabbed white cheddar Cheez-Its instead of jalapeño! There wasn't time to go back, so he left them with me.

The following weekend, the rejected white cheddar Cheez-Its joined an engineer, a physicist, a biologist, two dogs, and a kitten on a road trip to Manley to visit a farmer. The drive to Manley is quite LONG (about 4 hours that time), but C and M (and the animals) are treasured friends and pleasant company, so the time passed gently enough. At one point, the Cheez-Its came out, and we discussed how something can possibly be so disgusting and so addictively delicious at the same time. We then hatched the idea of the Cheez-It pie crust. And, my friends, the Cheez-It pie crust, in all its glory, came to fruition yesterday. In the words of the inimitable Enforcer, Hot Damn!

Mmmmm Cheez-its:

Mmmmm Cheez-it crumbs:

I browned the crusts first:

and made the quiches with bacon, spinach, onions, and, oh yeah, MO CHEESE!

Aaahhhhh.... 'tis a thing of beauty, it is!

It was disgustingly, sickeningly delicious!

Two Cheez-It quiches, a large pot of salmon chowder, and miscellaneous contributions from around the 'hood, serve a friendly crowd of fourteen humans and three dogs:

Four! Four fuzzy things in my cabin! Ah, ah, ah!

And now I have emptied my kitchen of all of my winter fat-building components. The bacon is gone, the salmon is gone, the heavy cream is gone. These are things I do not crave in summer. And the Cheez-It pie crust was declared a smashing success.