A Quiche o' my Heart

Broccoli is usually one of my favorite winter vegetables. However, when I peered in at the three heads lurking in the back of my fridge a few days ago, my lip curled up involuntarily. Ugh. Not broccoli again. What am I going to do with these?

And then I remembered.

I haven't made a quiche in a looong, long time. I must remedy that immediately.

It's even fun to say.

Quiche!

I found this recipe in one of my parents' Williams-Sonoma cookbooks and copied it onto a 3x5 card like the food-nerd that I am. It's travelled with me through college, and beyond.

a) ready for round one

b) um, be sure to use pie weights, because I didn't. And this is what happened. :/

a) I've found it's easier to just sprinkle the spices on the ingredients in the shell, rather than mix them in with the eggs. It's easier to get even distribution this way.

b) Yes, we have a flooding situation, which is not ideal. It resolves itself, you'll see.

So hard to wait out those 15 minutes for cooling! I always cheat and cut into that sucker after about five. ;)

Don't worry; that stuff that looks like blood is a beet/cabbage mixture. I decided to get all cuh-razy and serve the salad over sliced pears. Whacky, huh? You never know what's going to happen next 'round here!

This quiche makes fantastic leftovers, served either hot or cold. Try it for breakfast with sliced cantaloupe sometime. It's to die for!

Broccoli and Goat Cheese Quiche

1 pie pan

pie pastry

1 c. small broccoli florets

3 eggs

2 green onions, sliced

1 1/2 c. milk

1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

1/8 t. nutmeg

6 oz. goat cheese

Heat oven to 425 F. Put pastry in pan and prick with fork. Make a double-thick 12-in square out of aluminum foil. Poke holes and press into the pastry-lined pan. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 4 minutes. Remove pan from oven; reduce oven temperature to 325. Cook broccoli until tender, 2-3 minutes. Beat eggs and stir in remaining ingredients. Place broccoli and goat cheese chunks into pie shell. Pour in egg mixture. Bake until knife inserted in center comes out clean, 35-45 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Does anyone have favorite broccoli recipes they'd care to share?

BR Boots

These boots are haunting me:

I don't generally shop for Banana Republic clothing, but they always seem to have a nice, reasonably priced and fashionable shoe selection. I love visiting their Edition store in the SF mall, where they have nothing but really fun jewelry AND shoes. Heaven!

Enter the Eliza slouch high-heel boot in Taupe. Oh yes, I have tried these on and pranced around in them for several minutes. Whee! I think they look more grey in real-life, which I like. And more slouchy, which I like. They have a nice hidden platform which increases the hotness factor. Large enough in the calves to tuck jeans in, but tight enough to look good over tights... oh yes. The only reason I haven't sprung is because they aren't quite appropriate for work, in my opinion. I think they're a little too sexy-shmexy. ;)

Less usability = less likelihood to buy at full price

Can we get some math-minded peeps to come up with an equation for dilemmas like this? Seriously... cost divided by times per wear plus versatility. Hmm... too bad I was a liberal arts major...

Basically, I'm waiting for first discount on these. Waiting, waiting, waiting... any time now. Come on, people. Markdown, already!

Does anyone own these? Likey/no likey?

Inspiration: Pastoral France

Sorry, but this wedding planning business has me thoroughly distracted -- even from zee fashionz!

Well, excepting wedding dresses. But that could be a different post topic altogether. And I do love some of the fashionz featured in the images below, so hopefully this post won't be a complete loss.

Here are some wonderful images that are inspiring me...

Louis XIV and Moliere, by Jean Leon Gerome

Gorgeous garden-style flower arrangements by this talented lady.

Incredible styling from Shana Faust. I love the colors.

Stills from the movie Moliere. (including the three below)

Mmmm, foppish man-boots.

Oh la la, le colors. J' adore! I die!

I figured you all could use a little chest hair on your Wednesday. And I love those poppies. Yeah, that's right. The poppies...

Ooh, look! Macaroons! :)

More gorgeous garden-style bouquets from here.

Clearly I'm nurturing an unhealthy obsession with 17th century France and the french playwright Moliere. And chest hair.

Please, send help quickly.

Home again, home again...

It was nice to know that on Saturday, while we were running around like headless chickens, my parents' cat was back at home, holding down the fort.

Literally.

Yesh?

All that hard work must wear her out! Time for a lil' stretch and then a nap, methinks.

Zzzzzzzzzzz...

Squeaker needed her beauty sleep before the big Halloween party. ;)

Weekend recap: we were super-productive, and managed to check off everything on our list -- minus the visit to JCrew. We got to visit some friends for a Sunday brunch, however, which was much more valuable than shopping time. :)

I hope everyone had a nice (or creepy or scary, or however you wanted it to be) Halloween weekend!

SB Wedding Reconnaissance

Well peeps, we are off to SB this evening to do a little (or a lot) of weekend wedding scheming! I already have an eye tic. This is going to be a looooong 10 months.

Our itinerary, so far:

A) Meet with our lovely wedding planner, who I also went to highschool with. Excitement! (and relief, and lower blood pressure. This whole thing is kind of overwhelming)

B) Check out a few potential venues: overpriced, off site, and everything in between.

C) Spent quality time with my family and their precious cat. Which I think of as mine.

D) Continue our ongoing argument over what kind of song to play for the First Dance.

Him: a waltz, of course!

Me: Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-A-lot, duh! (If any of you think I is talkin' crazy, go see this video now and you'll see my point.)

E) Scope out the SB JCrew!

I'll leave you with a few inspiration boards put together by 100 Layer Cake that I am lovin'. I love these color combinations... plus the succulents in the bouquet on the bottom right in this one!

Loving the warm/cool tones with some nice neutrals...

Maybe it's all the Halloweeny-ness that's inspiring me, but I definitely am leaning towards orange/yellow contrasted with blue/silver.

I hope everyone has a great Friday, and a Happy Halloween tomorrow!

Wearing Today, 10.29.09

Well peeps, I am super excited to go see Ravi Shankar and his daughter, Anoushka Shankar, perform tonight! My fiance was on the ball and purchased the tickets over the summer. I'm so ready for some crazy sitar-playing tonight. ;)

I wanted to wear some Indian-inspired bright colors to get in the mood, choosing from what I already have in my closet... which isn't much in the way of brights. So in comes the super 120s dress in Tea Rose. (I wish I had JCrew's new printed wool wrap that DaniBP features here to complement it. What a fabulous color combo!)

The only question is which belt to wear. I know it doesn't make a huge difference, but the paisley on the right is a pattern that originated in India, so it would be more in theme. Or I could just stick with the girly flowers on the left. Deep thoughts here, people. ;)

If anyone has a belt preference, please let me know! :)

(and... apologies on the whiteness of my legs.) ;)

Chocolate and Shoes!

Ah, is there any better combination?

I met a friend over in the Hayes Valley neighborhood of SF last Saturday. She had suggested we meet at Christopher Elbow, an artisan chocolate shop I haven't ever been to before. Chocolate, you say? Yes, please!

I had the Venezuelan Spice hot chocolate, which was very good, although pretty spicy. It was an interesting combination, worth trying for sure. I told them to go easy on the chocolate; apparently if you don't ask, it will be really chocolaty. I also picked up a few little somepin' somepin's, but can't say anything else because the recipient might be reading this. ;)

Mmmm... edible artwork.

Above two images from here.

After good conversation and while still in a comfy chocolate haze, we crossed the street to check out her favorite shoe store, Gimme Shoes. It was super pricey, but incredibly fun to drool over the amazing shoes. She tried these on:

Dries Van Noten, $578

Killer snakeskin heel! (none of it was real snake, just treated leather)

At this point I had to back away slowly while making sure my credit card stayed put in my purse, haha. Very fun stuff in that store, let me tell ya!

I was squealing over these little pretties:

Sigerson Morrison flats, $488

Black suede with gold sequins, I die!

Um, yeah. It was definitely a "look-but-don't-touch" situation in there.

But still fun to pretend I might buy something. ;)

Above two images from Gimme Shoes' website here.

If you ever happen to be in the Hayes Valley neighborhood, be sure to stop by Christopher Elbow and check out Gimme Shoes while you're at it. They are both feasts for the senses. :)