Quiche

One thing I consistently make is quiche.  My mom always brought quiches to family Christmas, so when our family dynamics changed a bit and I became old enough to cook, I was dubbed the new quiche-bringer.  My mom taught me her recipe, in which I imitated, however throughout my years as the quiche-bringer I have developed my own sort of "recipe" that consistently turns out AMAZINGLY yummy!

One thing my mom did was put the cheese on top of the quiche and bake it to a goldeny crisp on top.  The baked cheese was amazing, however I found that it left sort of a "mush" consistency right between the cheese and the egg mixture.  Now anyone who knows me knows that I don't do "mush."  I don't eat mashed potatoes (mushy), yogurt (mushy), oatmeal (mushy), anything mushy.  Another thing about putting the cheese on top was sometimes the cheese would cook perfectly to it's goldeny crispy color, however the egg below it was still complete liquid!  We can't have a slimy/uncooked quiche.

So I had to think of a new alternative, which was mix the cheese in the egg mixture as most recipes call for.

So below is my adapted quiche recipe that I have developed throughout years of trial and error:

Ashley's Quiche

• 6 Eggs
• 1 Pie Crust (I use the Pillsbury pie crust that can be found in the refrigerated section.  You could also make your own pie crust easily as well if you have the extra time.)
• 1/3 cup milk (I just eyeball it, but if I had to guess, I'd say about 1/4 to 1/3 cup milk.  Just enough to avoid having to use a 7th egg but not make it slimy)
• Half Package Frozen Spinach - thawed and drained
• Half Package Turkey Bacon (or normal bacon)
• 1 Cup Chopped Mushrooms (again - I eyeball it, use as much or little as you like)
• Handful of shredded pepper jack cheese 
• Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

 **Additional ideas:  sauteed onions, sausage, Canadian bacon/Ham, asparagus, bell peppers, etc)

As you'll notice, everything is a "half" of a package - it's a lot more convenient to make 2 quiches at once unless you want left over ingredients.  

The above ingredients I use to taste.  If I'm making it for someone who LOVES bacon and hates spinach, I omit the spinach and use a lot of bacon.  You can really play with the ingredients.

Preheat oven to 350.  While a pan on the stove is warming up (medium heat), begin chopping the bacon.  I like using turkey bacon, but that's a "me" thing.  After bacon is chopped, cook bacon.  While bacon is cooking, chop the mushrooms (if the mushrooms are small, no chopping is needed).  Remove the cooked bacon from the pan.  Add olive oil (and let it heat up).  After it is heated, add chopped mushrooms and saute.  When mushrooms are almost done, add the spinach (this helps to remove any excess water to avoid slimy quiche).  While olive oil is heating, whisk the eggs into a medium-large bowl.  Add milk.  Add bacon, mushrooms, spinach, and cheese to the eggs.  Mold the pie crust into a pie dish.  Add egg mixture to the pie dish.  Bake for 40-50 minutes.  I usually tell when it is done by inserting a fork and slightly pulling apart - if there's no liquid then VOILA!  Quiche!

Quiche with a lot of spinach (1/2 package)

Quiche with a lot of bacon and handful of fresh spinach