Pictures of Food!

I had a few close friends over for a casual birthday shindig. As far as I’m concerned, the entire point of turning 30 is to have an excuse to eat cake. I decided on a chocolate-almond-espresso cake, which I got from the Upper Crust Bakery.

It went really well with homemade French vanilla ice cream.

I also made quiche for the party:

I’ve made quiche many times before, but this was a recipe that I made up on my own, and I was really pleased with how it came out. It is a carmelized onion, porcini mushroom, and bacon quiche.

Ingredients:

1 ten-inch pie crust

2 onions, sliced thin and caramelized
1 oz dried porcini mushrooms, rehydrated & chopped
4-6 slices of bacon, cooked & crumbled
1.5 cups gruyere cheese, grated

5 eggs
1.5 cups half & half
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp thyme

Preheat oven to 350. Put the caramelized onions into the bottom of the (unbaked) pie crust. Sprinkle the mushrooms on top of the onions. Sprinkle the bacon bits on top of the mushrooms. Spread the gruyere cheese on top of that.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, half & half, thyme, and salt. Pour egg mixture into the bacon/mushroom/onion/cheese-filled pie crust. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the center of the quiche is set.