The BEST Quiche EVER!

Quiche has always been somewhat of a cop-out meal in my world; it's something that I make when I'm feeling lazy or I'm crunched for time. I whisk together some eggs and milk and throw whatever veggies and cheese I have in my fridge into a pre-made piecrust with the eggs. It always tastes fine and Maeghan loves it (mostly since she can coat it in ketchup...). But! As of last weekend, my quiche cooking has been forever changed, and all thanks to my sister! 

"Family Day" (a relatively new holiday here in Canada), is an important holiday for my family. Despite all of us living in various cities across the province, we try our best to all make it home to Mom and Dad's to spend the day together. This past family day fell on one of the coldest weekends we have had all winter, with temperatures reaching -45C with the windchill...you honestly felt the water in your eyes freezing when you stepped outside...For this reason, my family decided to skip the outdoor activities and spend the weekend doing what we do best: cooking and eating.

See, I come from a half Italian family so I'm sure you can understand our deep love of home-cooked food. The weekend was full of delicious meals such as hand-made gnocchi with fresh sugo (Italian pasta sauce), gourmet home-made Italian pizza (of course on from-scratch secret recipe dough), and to finish the weekend off, a DELICIOUS quiche made solely by my sister. 

When I entered the kitchen and noticed her thinly slicing raw sweet potato into the bottom of the pan, I'll be honest, I was a little concerned about the fate of my lunch. However, what she created out of random ingredients from my parent's fridge turned out the be the BEST quiche I have EVER had. No word of a lie.

She was kind enough to remind me of the ingredients and the process to make this mouth-watering meal, and I am so happy to be able to share it with all of you!

Ingredients:
1 whole sweet potato, peeled and sliced thinly (about 1/8 of an inch)
5 eggs

1/3 cup of milk

Your choice of chopped veggies (we used spinach, tomatoes, onions, peppers, left over roasted veggies such as zucchini and mushrooms, and olives) but you can add to or omit from this list to suit your taste buds!

Your choice of cheese (we used feta, but cheddar or another type of mild cheese would be delicious!)

Your choice of meat (optional, but we added Italian sausage on half)
Fresh ground salt and pepper

Cooking Instructions:

1. Place the thinly sliced sweet potato coating the bottom and edges of a well-greased pie plate (this acts as the crust, so keep this in mind while laying down the potato slices)
2. Bake the sweet potato crust at 400F for 15 minutes or until the potatoes have softened a bit.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk, adding in the salt and pepper as you whisk.
4. Mix the chopped veggies and cheese into the egg mixture. If you wish, keep some of the veggies, cheese, and meat to lay on top (shown in the photo with the sausage and tomato slices).

5. Pour the entire mixture into the pie pan with the sweet potato crust.

6. Bake at 375F for 30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean from the center.
7. Let the quiche rest for 10 minutes before serving.

8. ENJOY! 

Getting Crafty and Sentimental

I'm back! It's been a while and things in my world have been super hectic but I'm back! Maeghan and I are up to our necks in wedding planning; our apartment's wedding "corner" is now beginning to take over our entire apartment and there are to-do lists everywhere. Although stressful and hectic at times, we are having so much fun with it all and are still remembering what this day we are planning is all about.

For all holidays and celebrations between our engagement and our wedding, Maeghan and I decided to spend little-to-no money on one another and put the cash towards our wedding and honeymoon. So for Valentine's Day I had to get creative and crafty in order to come up with a gift that was thoughtful, not too cheesy, but really showed Maeghan that I love her.

I'm sure most of you are familiar with the "52 (or) 365 Reasons Why I Love You" gift (52 usually being written on playing cards and representing the number of weeks in a year, and 365 for the number of days). For my Valentine's gift I used this idea and put a wedding spin on it.

February 14th marked 182 days until Maeghan and I's wedding, and with the chaos of wedding planning filling our every day, I thought giving Maeghan a jar full of reasons why I want to marry her would be the perfect gift. So for the next (now) 174 days, Maeghan gets to read one reason why I can't wait to marry her and be reminded why we are planning this huge party in the first place!

Do you and yours skip V-Day altogether, go for material gifts, or try to cheese-it up as much as possible?