The past week has been so full of deliciousness I don't even know where to begin. Friday night was Tu Casa with Ron and Diane. Otis and Ron both destroyed enormous Plato Montaneros (steak, rice, beans, plantain, avocado, fried egg) while Diane had some taquitos and I attempted, and failed, to eat an entire burrito. As usual, everything was delicious, cheap, and the hot sauce flowed like water. Mmm.

Sunday was the wedding shower for my dear friend Alysia, at her parents' house in Falmouth. The spread was incredible, with fruit salad, shrimp salad, bagels, cream cheese, and lox, pound cake, pineapple walnut cake, and the two quiches and a strata thing brought by yours truly. The quiche was a big hit-- it's the same recipe my mother has always made, and it's absurdly easy and completely non-authentic (no custard needed!). I'm going to include that recipe below. The strata/baked bread is my mother-in-law Jane's recipe, and it's delish, with lots of cheese and linguica.

Luckily for us, we never lost power during the crazy storm, although the wind was blowing so hard it was hard to hear the dialogue on the James Bond movie we were watching. Oh, the humanity! It was such a nasty day even the dog didn't want to go outside. Which made it perfect for comfort food: roasted garlic mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus, and chicken breast with a black-pepper/balsamic reduction pan sauce. Even though I overcooked the asparagus (bad Marya! Shocking!) it was a delicious and cozy meal to enjoy while the wind howled outside.

On Tuesday we met Ravinder and Katey for burgers at Wild Willy's in South Portland, on a tip that they serve the best burger in town. I wouldn't go that far, but they were tasty and pretty cheap. My main complaint was that my medium-rare was more like medium, which is pretty damn annoying.

And finally, last night Otis prepared mustard-crusted wild salmon, adapted from Mario Batali's wonderful Babbo Cookbook, with scallion quinoa and fennel salad.

We are so spoiled.

I'll try to get it together to include more recipes later. For now, here's my mom's quiche. The fun thing about this recipe is that you can do whatever you want with it, and it's practically impossible to mess up. (Once I forgot to add the eggs. It ened up pretty watery, but still tasted pretty good.) It doesn't rely on a traditional custard base, so it's not going to break. I like it vegetarian, but you could toss in some ham or cooked bacon lardons. Or use a mix of cheddar and monterey jack, use red and green peppers for the vegetables, and add some minced chipotles in adobo.