Experimenting...

I have a freezer full of left overs still from the holiday (well, we seem to be in the home stretch...)

I've got about 1lb of pork roast from Christmas Eve and am going to try this recipe (from recipezaar.com) tonight, obviously substituting the pork for ham. Wish me luck!

Ingredients
4 cups sliced, peeled, and cooked potatoes
2 cups fully cooked, diced ham
2 teaspoons minced onions
2/3 cup butter or margarine
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups milk
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
Directions
Combine potatoes, ham and onion in a greased 1 qt casserole dish and set aside.
Melt butter in a med saucepan over med heat.
Stir in flour until smooth.
Gradually add milk, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and bubbles.
Add cheese, salt and pepper.
Stir until cheese melts.
Pour over potato mixture and stir gently to mix.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until bubbly.

It's about the method - not the recipe

Ok, I've recently had a light bulb come on over my head. It is kind of a simple idea, one I've heard from other people, but just recently figured out how it applies to me and how I cook. Once you are comfortable with a recipe - any recipe - part of the fun is figuring out how to mix it up and still get a great result.

Quiche
- store bought prerolled pie dough (this stuff is a miracle)
- 6 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- filling - this can be any combination of meat/cheese/veggies - works great for leftovers. I recently made this using the leftover spinach stuffing from the ricotta stuffed tomatoes. I've also done it with a bacon and cheese filling.

Preheat the oven to 375 and bake whatever you've cooked up for 40 minutes.

One of the tricks to this is to use a 9" cake pan instead of a pie plate. Line the pan like you would with a pie plate. Why? You end up with a "deep dish" quiche. Much more manly.