Noodle Nests - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 cup pasta, small variety, cooked (i.e. ditalini)
1/3 cup ham, diced (or other meat)
1/3 cup swiss cheese, diced (or other cheese)
1/3 cup onion, diced
3 eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream (half & half works too)
1/2 cup milk (I use skim without a problem)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 pinch nutmeg

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray, butter, or in some way lubricate your mini-muffin (or reg muffin pans) WELL, otherwise there is a good chance you will be digging these out of the pan (even silicon pans need a good oiling) and end up with a delicious mountain of destroyed nests. And muffin liners (even the foil ones) don't work well either, trust me.
Cook pasta (or use left overs).
Chop meat, cheese and onion; mix together with pasta.
In a large measuring cup (2 cup works well), beat eggs slightly, stir in cream, milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Evenly distribute the dry mixture among the mini-muffin pans, then evenly pour custard mixture into each muffin cup. There will be left over - there always is. These puff up, so you don't necessarily want to take the liquids all the way up to the top.
Bake for 35 minutes.
Remove from oven, run a knife around the edge of each nest to loosen from the sides of the muffin cups. Let cool 5-10 min before removing.
These are best warm, but usually consumed piping hot - be warned!
Check description for flavor substitutes and make ahead instructions.