A quiche is a delicious kind of pie that is acceptable to eat at any meal. Essentially it is like an omelet pie, filled with vegetables and eggs and often meat. I made sure that I used all soft fillings, since I got all of my wisdom teeth taken out on Thursday. I wanted some flavor and nutrition and fillingness in my food. Mashed potatoes and bananas were not satisfying meals.

Step 1: Pie Crust

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup ice water
few sprigs of basil and mint

Cut up butter into little cubes. Make sure the butter is cold, not softened. Put all ingredients in a food processor except the water and chop together. After the ingredients have been brought together in a crumble, add the water in very small increments, until you get a nice ball of dough (only a few spoons of water for me). Make sure not to have it wet, just balled up. Refrigerate for about an hour. The crust will not come out flaky if the butter is mixed in warm.

Using a food processor instead of hand mixing for a pie crust makes it take infinitely less time to make.

Step 2: Filling

Ingredients:
4 Eggs
1 cup of milk
2 small jars of marinated artichoke hearts
1 cup small cherry tomatoes
2 cups chopped spinach
a few sprigs of basil and mint
1 garlic clove
1/2 diced onion
1 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup cheese
pepper to taste

While waiting for the crust to cool, I chopped up the vegetables and grated the cheese.
Drying all of the vegetables in the salad spinner is very helpful and will prevent your quiche from being overly wet. The artichokes were spun the last since they were in an oily marinade. The tomatoes were seeded to prevent excess moisture in the quiche. 3/4 of the cheese was mixed in with the quiche, and 1/4 cup was saved for later.

Mix together 4 eggs and 1 cup of milk (or use cream for extra flavor). Add some pepper to taste and fold the liquid into the vegetable mixture.

If your dough still needs time to cool, you can cover the quiche filling and put it in the fridge.

Step 3: Modifying Your Pie Tin

It is almost impossible to get a pie out of its tin. The most ideal item to have for making pies in your kitchen is a tart tin. Sadly, I don't have one and they are a bit expensive, so I made a cheap version that cost me only $1.

I got a 3 pack of deep dish pie tins (similar to what you get with leftovers at some restaurants sometimes). I cut a hole out of the middle of one about 1 1/2 inch into the tin. I cut a full circle out of the bottom of the second tin and put the circle ontop of the hole. Cut off any sharp edges and make sure you wash it to prevent any shards from remaining on the tins. I used a steak knife to cut out the whole and kitchen shears to cut the circle.

Step 4: Blind Baking the Pie Crust

Once the dough has cooled for about 1 hour, take it out. It may need a little kneading to soften up some of the harder chunks in it. The easiest, cleanest method to roll out pie dough is to take the dough, and put it in between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. I didn't need to flour anything with this method. Roll the dough out to fit into your pie pan.

Place the pie crust in the modified pie pan (or your tart pan). Remove larger pieces of excess crust (which can be added to areas that did not have enough crust). Do not roll the crust over the edge, or else you will not be able to get the pie out. Shape some tin foil to the pie crust, and fill with either pie weights, dry beans, or be creative and find an object to weigh down your pie crust (I used rice). Blind bake the pie crust in the oven for 10-15 mins, depending on your oven at 375ÃÂ°F.

After pie crust is baked, let cool and add the vegetable and egg mixture. Bake for 25 mins at 375, and during the last 15 mins, put the last 1/4 cup of cheese on the top for a delicious melted top. Cook until the quiche does not have any more liquid (you may need 10 mins extra if your ingredients are moist).

Step 5: Bake the Quiche and Eat :D

After pie crust is baked, let cool and add the vegetable and egg mixture. Bake for 25 mins at 375, and during the last 15 mins, put the last 1/4 cup of cheese on the top for a delicious melted top. Cook until the quiche does not have any more liquid (you may need to add10 mins extra at a time if your ingredients are too moist).

Let cool until warm. Remove the pie from the pan by first loosening up the sides with a butter knife and then pushing the pie up from the whole. You can leave the flat circle of pie pan on the bottom or remove it if you wish.