Cheesy Potato Quiche

I love breakfast for dinner. I also love breakfast for breakfast and breakfast for lunch. Basically breakfast anytime is good for me.
This weekend I felt inspired to make a meal, but I really hate standing over the stove for an hour (or more). I'd much rather throw some stuff together, stick it in the oven, and DING! Dinner time. I realize I could create a pretty delicious and quick meal by purchasing boxed or frozen stuff, but the preservatives and crap found in those things freak me out. I'm lazy, but I'm not so lazy I can't chop some fresh veggies and put some love into the meal.

So I made a quiche! It turned out really, really delicious! I was so happy with the flavorful result that I decided to share the recipe(s) with the Internet world. Which, in retrospect seems a little ironic since I got the recipes from the Internet in the first place.... Anyway, here you go!

For the crust:

• 1 cup flour
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup refrigerated water

First, mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Then beat the oil and water together with a fork to thicken; pour into the bowl with the flour. Mix a bit with the fork, and then I usually squish the stuff around a bit with my hands until it's even. Press dough into 9" pie pan. Set aside.

For the filling:

• 3 medium potatoes, sliced or diced
• 1 tablespoon veggie oil (I used canola)
  
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 4-ish cloves garlic, minced
  
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 and 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 375* F. Boil potatoes until tender; drain. Here you could pre-bake your pie crust for about 5 minutes, but when I did this the crust came out a little tough. Heat the oil in a skillet over med-high heat, and add the garlic and onion. Cook until garlic and onion are slightly browned. In a bowl, mix well the eggs, milk, cheese, garlic, onion, salt, pepper and rosemary. Add the potatoes to the crust (try to make the distribution even). Pour the egg mixture over the potatoes, and cook until set. This took about 40 minutes.

There you have it! Yummy breakfast for dinner! (or breakfast or lunch...)

Love!

Happy Two-year Anniversary to me and D! ^_^
I made a red velvet cake to celebrate the occasion. Perhaps I will figure out how to post pictures on here.

My friends are getting married, having kids, moving places, doing things - big things... Big life-changing things. My best friends are thousands of miles away, and though I desperately wish I could be there to celebrate these great things with them, I can't. I'm here, and they are there. Lots of miles between us. Some days it doesn't phase me too much. These are the paths our lives have taken, and it's not really anyone's fault (as if there were some sort of "fault" in our paths - there isn't). We're doing our life things. We're pursuing our goals. We're moving forward.

But some days I feel really bummed out. I feel selfish for choosing to so hastily move to a foreign place so far from home. I'm missing out on my friends' lives. I'm sorry guys. Please know that you're in my thoughts every day, and I miss you all terribly.

I guess that's all I have to say. I miss my friends...

Two years

Today is a very special day for me. Today is June 13th. Two years ago, on June 13th, I left behind everything I knew in pursuit of LIFE. In fact, I think I'd like to change my birthday to June 13th. I don't know if I was really alive before I moved to my new home.

Sure I did a crazy thing by moving all the way out here, but I wouldn't do it any differently if I could go back in time. I love it here. I'm living exactly the way I want to.


^_^

Welcome back, Sunshine!

The sun has returned, the flowers are blooming, the trees look happy. I am happy! Today was a beautiful day for a bike ride next to the beach. I love watching the ocean waves any time of year, but when the sun is smiling down on me it just really makes my day! I am looking forward to the next several months of sunshine and beach visits. :o)

Also, the bf and I made a delicious blueberry pie for Pi Day. mmmmmm pie.
That's all. Peace, homies.

Quiet

It's evening. It's quiet.
At my side, my boyfriend is sleeping, weary from a long day at work and an oncoming cold. I gave it to him (the cold). Poor guy.

I love the quiet. Quiet mornings, quiet evenings. Today has been a good day for reflection and calming my spirit. I have been stressed and sick, but today has been good. I have a warm cup of tea in hand (when not typing), and the only sound to be heard is the soft breath of my Love sleeping.

I don't know why I chose to write this evening. It just seemed like the right thing to do, especially since I haven't updated in a while. So, I suppose you should brace yourself for some random thoughts:


After more than a year of searching, I finally got an interview for a second job. And it's not just any job, it's a job that I really really really want - barista!!!

I have a list of 100 life goals. I will not post them here today. Many of them involve experiencing other cultures and seeing other parts of the world. Some of them are silly. Some of them I may never know if I actually achieve. That's okay. One of them is to wake up next to someone I love. I've checked that one off the list. In fact, I wake up next to him every morning. It's pretty much one of the most awesome (if not the most awesome) things I get to experience every day. :o)

I am still unsure of my future career path. What I will study in grad school is still a mystery to me, though I think at least I am sure I want to go. I miss school, and I am certainly not done learning. Meanwhile, I am working, loving, living. Doing my best to be myself, if I even know what myself is. I am at least trying to be what I think myself is.

I don't know what else to write. This night is nice. Thanks for letting me share. I'm going to finish my tea and do some math now.

Vacation, Part 4

I have returned home from vacation. The trip was fantastic.

In other news: I hate drugs.

Vacation, Part 3

Rain? What? When planning a vacation, the thought didn't really occur to me that my plans might become foiled by kamikaze water attacking me from the sky.
Now what am I supposed to do????

Vacation, Part 1

I had a surprisingly hard time saying good-bye to my favorite three-year-olds this morning. They're just so darn cute, and it feels good knowing those kids are stoked to see you every Friday morning. I'm going to miss them while away on my journey.

Last items packed, I looked around the room, made the bed, and realized that I'm not going to be sleeping in my cozy twin for quite some time. I felt a little sad leaving such comfort and familiarity.

So now I'm sitting in someone else's bed thinking about all the cool places I'm going to visit and all the incredible adventures I'm going to experience in the next month. Strangely, it's hard for me to imagine what it will be like when I return back to the place I started. It's as if the last year has just been a fun little thing I decided to do for a while, and now I'm going back to my parents' home, never to return to my home.

But I have my own home, and in a month I get to come back to it!!! My friends will be here. My favorite restaurants will be here. My job will be here, complete with adorable little three-year-olds. My cozy twin will greet me with warm, delicious blankets for snuggling. My plush hippo friends will welcome me home with their stitched smiles and tubby hippo noses.

Enough rambling. Excitement commences! Time for bed...

Two Weeks

"Two weeks."
I remember exclaiming those two little words over and over again one year ago. In two weeks, I will have lived in this new home of mine for a whole year. Looking back, it certainly doesn't feel like I've been here that long. I'm still figuring out the seasons, getting lost and making friends.

I moved here with a rent check in my pocket and a rolly suitcase in hand. I had no job, and I had not yet met my future roommate face-to-face. And I made it!

I feel good. I am happy, healthy, for the most part financially secure. I am moving into a new home with my best friend, and I am excited about all the adventures waiting for us there. I have a fun job where I am respected by my coworkers and supervisors. Life is good.

I made it!

Frustration

Why can't I have my cake and eat it, too?

What to do???

What is one to do when she loves learning about everything so much that she could never pick one field of study over another???

One obvious answer would be to study them all, but that doesn't seem economically feasible... 

Here seem to be the options:

Theory vs. Lab

In Theory, she could pursue in great depth her love for pure mathematics. Algebra. Topology. Algebraic topology... Or she could tackle something slightly more applied like computational neuroscience and do some modeling of neuronal behavior with differential equations.

In Lab, she could suck it up and spend her whole life tied to a bench doing god knows what in a neuroscience lab. This sounds less appealing than the other options but definitely offers a better chance of self-sustainability and is much easier (for her) to do than the theoretical things.

She also loves history and philosophy and physics, but those would be harder for her to pursue a graduate degree in.

Deciding what to

study in graduate school

is too hard for me.

That is all.

Relationshps

A wise friend has informed me that relationships are complicated because they involve two people, and that's one too many.

Yeah.