holidays, festivities, and a quiche recipe

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It’s the last day of 2012! To be honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of New Year’s Eve. Aside from one particularly crazy year in which my college best friend and I attended the official MTV NYE party at Spirit in NYC, I’m apt to choose staying in, cooking a big dinner, and drinking wine at home over a large celebration. This year is no different– Boyfriend and I will cook dinner and ring in 2013 together in our cozy New England apartment.

Christmas was spent in PA with Boyfriend’s family, all of whom basically feel like my family too. It was the perfect combination of relaxation, good food, and good company.

We did spend one awesome day in New York City because I received tickets to see Bare off-b’way for Christmas. I am one lucky gal and Boyfriend earned some serious bf points with this gift. The backstory…. Like many fans of this show, I fell in love with the music about five years ago. Because it rarely gets done, all I had was my playlist on my iPod or the burned CD in my car, where I’d belt out the lyrics to “All Grown Up” or “Plain Jane…” while driving along i-95 to and from work. When I learned that it was making an off-Broadway reappearance, I was so psyched, so you can imagine my excitement when I was surprised with tickets to actually see it. Despite the fact that it was entirely different, with new songs and rearranged lyrics, it was an amazing production.

Have I convinced you? www.baremusicalnyc.com

In addition to that present, there were many more…..

We should start doing a guessing game, akin to “guess the number of jelly beans”….”guess the number of presents underneath the tree”!! Among the awesome gift contenders: “survival” kits, jewelry, gift cards to my favorite stores, and boot socks:

My new favorite accessory. Aren’t they cute??

Thanks to an at-home gel manicure kit, the ladies of the household were able to enjoy long-lasting freshly painted nails all week. The kit we used came from CVS and was much cheaper than those found at Sephora. I was pretty pleased with my glittery greenish-blueish nails, and they lasted the entire holiday week.

Of course, a holiday post wouldn’t be complete without a recipe. My vegetarian contribution to Christmas eve dinner was a replica of the dish I always make for my family’s Thanksgiving: a sweet potato and caramelized onion quiche, with parmesan and cheddar cheeses, and basil.

Recipe. Yep.

You will need…

• 1 pre-made pie crust (the roll-out dough kind), brought to room temp
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled & diced
• olive oil
• salt, pepper
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup combined shredded cheddar and parmesan cheeses (plus a little extra for sprinkling)
• 1/4 cup torn basil leaves
• 3/4 cup light cream
• 2 tbsp soy milk
• 2 tsp dijon mustard

Method…

1. Heat olive oil in a medium skillet on med-low heat. Add onions, season with salt, and begin to caramelize. Cook over the med-low heat, stirring frequently.
2. While onions are cooking, add the sweet potato chunks to a pot of boiling water. Boil until soft, approx 8 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.
3. Back to the onions. When they are most of the way to being caramelized (approx 15 minutes), add the balsamic and brown sugar. Stir vigorously to combine. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place the pie crust dough in a glass pie tin (8 or 9″). Arrange pie weights if you have them.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs. Add salt, pepper, cheeses, basil, cream, soy milk, and mustard. Set aside.
6. Bake the pie crust in the preheated oven for approx 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and reduce heat to 350.
7. Spread the sweet potatoes on the pie crust, followed by the caramelized onions. Pour the egg & cheese mixture on top, spreading with a spatula to make sure it is even. Bake in the oven approx 40 minutes at 350 degrees. If the edges begin to brown, cover with foil.
8. After 40 minutes, the quiche should be almost done. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and broil for 2-3 minutes to finish it and melt the remaining cheese. Remove from oven and enjoy!