I am incredibly adventurous when it comes to eating other people’s food. My own? Not so much. I buy the same thing at the grocery store almost every time I go and my daily menu is usually some variation on the following:

Breakfast:
Plain, fat-free yogurt with cinnamon and whole wheat

Snack:
Apple
Peanut Butter
Peanut Butter
More Peanut Butter

Lunch:
Tuna salad on whole wheat or peanut butter

Dinner:
Rice or whole wheat pasta with Cascadian Farm sweet peas or Roasted Brussels Sprouts washed down with lots of red wine or Jameson

Dessert:
Peanut Butter

Such a diet might make it easy to stick to a $50-a-week budget, but as I mentioned last week, I recently joined my local CSA. The $25-a-week share provides me with vegetables, bread and various staples that normal people might already have in their fridges including a half-gallon of milk and a dozen eggs. I have never been able down a glass of milk on its own—though I’ll buy it by the pint for my coffee—so a half-gallon is excessive as far as I’m concerned. And I rarely buy eggs unless I’m making something that requires them.

As I was standing in front of my fridge yesterday—already feeling guilty about draining all of that energy—I worried the eggs and milk might go to waste. Any time I buy more than a pint of milk it always sours before I can finish it, and to make matters worse, I’m leaving for Bonnaroo, a music festival in Tennessee, tomorrow.

I had plans to attend a roving vegetarian potluck last night and wondered what I could make; eggs and milk… eggs and milk… eggs and milk… custard! I was extremely proud of this idea because 1. I’d never made a custard before and 2. the weekly event often lacks dessert.

I looked online for the basics of making a custard and found that it is ridiculously easy. So easy, in fact, that I felt shame for all of the milk and eggs I’d let go to waste over the years. I decided to modify this recipe because, as anyone who’s read the intro to my book knows, I never follow a recipe from start to finish—even if I have no idea what the hell I’m doing. Luckily it worked.

Emily’s Easy Custard

Ingredients
4 cups milk
6 large eggs
2/3 cup brown sugar (you can use white sugar, but this is all I had)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions
Preheat oven to 325ºF.

Heat the milk in a medium sauce pan over medium heat until hot—careful not to scorch it! (You can also heat it in the microwave)

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs until smooth. Add the milk and stir. When the milk and eggs are combined,  add the sugar, salt, vanilla and cinnamon and mix well.

Pour the custard into a 2 1/2 or 3-quart baking dish and bake uncovered about one hour or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool before serving.

Because I didn’t have any flour I decided to go sans crust (which I think just sort-of made it a flan?). Custards are usually served with caramel sauce, but in the spirit of using what I already had in the pantry, I melted some unsweetened baker’s chocolate (a purchase made when I was dieting and very incorrectly thought it could satiate my chocolate cravings) with butter, milk and sugar and drizzled it on top with crushed pecans (also from the CSA). I couldn’t help myself from trying a little before I left for the potluck. I think I may have over cooked it a little, but it was damn good. Here’s a crappy camera photo for your viewing pleasure.

Now, I still have six eggs and half a bottle of milk to use before I leave town in the morning. Frozen custard? Savory custard? Other ideas?

Image via GinnerRobot’s flickr