Holiday Party Number One: A Cute Dog and Quiche!

We went to a holiday party at Ai sensei's house yesterday.  You'll remember Ai from other posts, most notably ones having to do with festivals, as we tend to go with her to local festivals.  After last year's lantern festival, her family invited us over for dinner.  Apparently they've wanted to have us back since then, and we finally were all free at the same time (more than a year later).  Ai had recently bought a new puppy, named Marron (French for "chestnut," which the Japanese use interchangeably with their native word kuri), and she was an adorable bundle of energy!  It was fun to play with her all night.

Here's two teachers at my school: Morozumi sensei and Ai sensei.  They started dating sometime before I arrived at Nagamori, I don't exactly know when, and they've decided to get married in 2012.  This was the first time he met her parents, so he was incredibly nervous all night.  She assured him, as they drove us home later that night, that he made a good impression and that they loved him.  In my opinion, her parents should love him, because he is sweet, loving, and kind to everyone, especially Ai.

The finished product!

My contribution to the feast was a quiche, made per Ai's request.  When she studied abroad in Australia she ate quiche a lot, but in Japan quiche apparently doesn't really exist.  Her parents had never eaten one, so I agreed to try my hand at making one in Japan.  I made the crust out of a lovely Bob's Red Mill GF pizza crust mix that Audrey brought me from the States after her last vacation home.  For the innards, we layered Camembert cheese, onion, tomato, spinach, and fresh ginger, covered it all with an egg/cream/milk mixture, and topped it with more spinach, tomato, and Gouda cheese halfway through the cooking process.

It was a big hit, thankfully.

It was a nerve-wracking process.  It took forever to cook in the small, single-coil electric machine they call an oven in Japan.  We even microwaved it for another 5 minutes after a few hours of cooking in the "oven."  I was afraid that the crust would come out soggy and unpalatable, and that the egg would be completely runny.  I think because of the cream the quiche came out softer, and more wobbly, than usual.  There was a bit too much liquid for the amount of egg used (eggs in Japan are small, I guess), which made it hard to judge when it was done.  But the lighter, creamy taste was perfect for our group, since Japanese people tend to enjoy soft, moisture-filled treats.  And the crust was just fine!  So I did it - I made a GF quiche in Japan.