I've been blogging about challenging myself to "use what you've got" to make some new jewelry pieces recently and decided I should extend that challenge to dinner as well. Tonight on the menu is Caramelized Onion and Bacon Quiche, Homefried Potatoes and Tossed Salad.
Quiche Ingredients:
(this is basically a slightly modified Quiche Lorraine)
10 strips of bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 medium onion, sliced thin
1 ready to use pie crust
4 eggs
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup shredded cheese (we chose a cheddar/jack mix because the kids don't like the traditional swiss)
salt and pepper to taste
Homefried Potatoes Ingredients:
5 large russet potatoes, peeled and cubed (about 1 inch size)
1 small onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 TBSP olive oil
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste
Quiche:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and place your pie crust into a 9" round pie dish or quiche dish. 
Next, prick the crust with a fork and "blind bake" it (pop it in the oven with nothing in it) for 6-7 minutes. As soon as it just begins to brown, remove it from the oven and set aside to cool off.
While the crust is in the oven, brown up your bacon bits in a large pan, drain onto paper towels, reserving the fat.
Remove half the fat from the pan and set aside for use later. Add your thin sliced onions to the pan and cook over medium heat until they begin to caramelize (10-12 minutes).
Add the bacon, caramelized onion and shredded cheese to the bottom of the crust.
Whisk together eggs and heavy cream, salt and pepper. 
Pour egg mixture over the top of the other ingredients and place in the oven for 12 minutes. 
After 12 minutes, reduce the heat to 300 degrees and bake an additional 30 minutes or until a knife inserts into the top and comes out clean.
Homefries:
Add cubed potatoes to a pot of salted water and boil until just tender, about 6 minutes. Drain and set aside. In the same pan that you caramelized your sliced onions, add the rest of the bacon fat back into the pan (still on medium heat) and cook your diced onions until they begin to brown. Add garlic and cook 1 additional minute.
Remove the onion/garlic mix from the pan and heat your olive oil (still using the same pan). Add the potatoes to the pan, season with salt and pepper, turning every 6-7 minutes until browned on all sides. 
Add the onion and garlic back into the potatoes, sprinkle in the paprika and toss to coat everything evenly.
Cook another 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a serving dish and cover with foil to keep warm until the quiche is finished.
Enjoy!
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