I have never been a huge fan of the traditional quiche. They never tasted as good as they looked to me for the work you had put into them. Strata’s are just so much easier, no crust needed! However I found a recipe for a quiche with the crust being shredded hash browns; it piqued my interest. I bought the ingredients a few weeks ago and never got around making it. Having an extra-long weekend and the weather at the beginning being pretty sucky I had time to play a little. The quiche was pretty successful. My guys and I had a few critiques that we think would make it better. This happens more often than not, they are very opinionated.

This morning sitting at the island drinking my tea with my husband and his coffee; I asked what would he like for breakfast. He said something with egg in it. Big help he is! I had some leftover hash browns to use up and have always wanted to make hash brown egg cups. I saw them on the cover of a magazine a few months ago. So I looked up the basics from the magazine and got out what I hand on hand and what was close enough to get by with. They used prosciutto which I did not have; I had bacon and ham on hand. I usually try to make a dish the way I find it and then change it to our taste but sometimes I have to use what I have on hand; actually that happens more often than not They were delicious we liked the ham better than the bacon.  Before we ate my husband asks me if I took a picture of them. After we ate he asked if I was going to blog about them, I was thinking about it, he said you totally should.

A good friend of ours went to the Azores a month or so ago and brought me back some sweet paprika that he enjoyed while there. This was my first opportunity to try some, it was excellent.

While my guys had definite opinions for the quiche the egg cups were a huge hit. The only comment was when can you make these again?

When cooking I really don’t measure anything, so I will give you my best guesstimates for the cups. As you can tell I didn’t have enough hash browns to fill all of the cups.  Use what you have on hand!

Frozen shredded hash browns–thawed and squeezed of all their water use enough to fill 12 cup muffin tin about 1/2 full. (this part is very important if you want them to release from the tin)

1 tsp kosher salt

½ tsp black pepper

1 tsp fresh rosemary chopped

½ tsp sweet paprika

mix all the above in  bowl to combine, you want to make sure the potatoes are seasoned

Bacon Prosciutto or ham or any combination works

(12 cups is 6 slices of bacon)

12 room temperature eggs (take out of the fridge at the start and that should be fine)

Chives for garnish

Spray your tin well. Add hash brown mixture, the bottom matters more than the sides, but you want an indent so the meat and egg fit in. Spray the hash browns and bake at 375’ for about 30 minutes. take out of the oven and place the meat you are using in the center. If bacon slice in half and then half again; crisscross them. They can hang over a little. Crack an egg in a small bowl and then carefully transfer them to the each tin. Bake for 10-15 minutes, I watched them because I wanted the whites cooked but the yolk runny. There is a fine line so cook to how you like your eggs. Scrape around the edges to release.