Quiche

Quiche is one of the dishes, that I've been obsessed by lately. I used to consider it difficult and time-consuming to make, but I came upon an idea for the crust, that revolutionized my understanding of the dish and quickly turned it into a staple.

I've gathered some pictures from the last two quiches that I baked recently, but the varieties are endless - quiche is more an algorithm, than a recipe.

The main feature of the dish is the crust, which I prepare into the chopper.

Ingredients:

• 90 g wholegrain flour
• 85 g white flour
• 60 g water
• 55 g sunflower or other vegetable oil
• half a teaspoon of salt

Preparation: 

Mix the ingredients in the chopper with short pulses, until a dough is formed. Place the dough in a form and spread it evenly on the bottom, forming a border of 2-2.5 cm on the side. Cover the dough with baking paper and baking weights (I use a bowl of designated beach stones).

Bake in a preheated oven for 20 min at 200C. Take the dish out of the oven, remove the baking paper with the weights and bake the crust further for 5 min.

Meanwhile prepare the filling. For my Quiche Lorraine I cooked a handful of chopped mushrooms, which I spread on the crust.

Then I prepared a mixture of 3 eggs, 140 g milk, 60 g flour and ham, chopped into small pieces, which I poured on the mushrooms. I covered the filling with grated yellow cheese.

I baked the quiche in the oven for about 25 min, until ready.

This dish is equally delicious warm and cold, served with white wine or rose.

The quiche can be also vegetarian, here I made one with two zucchini, lightly cooked with olive oil and chopped dill. Once they were ready, I covered them with a tablespoon of wholegrain flour, to bond the moisture. The filling is made of 3 eggs, lightly beaten, milk, flour and cubes of feta cheese and yellow cheese, spiced with black pepper.

I'm a big fan of the zucchini version, and I've tried the same recipe with broccoli. The brilliant thing about quiche is, that it is an extremely flexible dish, adjustable to the contents of your fridge :)

Alinsky Monastery in the Autumn 2025

Today we were planning a hike a bit far from home, but at the last minute we decided that the weather was not promising and the long drive was just not worth the short hike under gloomy skies. 

So, we chose Plana and the trail to Alinsky monastery and I am absolutely delighted with our choice. The drive was at least an hour shorter, the trail was lovely and lonely - we met nobody during the entire hike and the weather, though mostly cloudy, was invigorating and atmospheric.

St. Kyprian chapel at the start of the trail. The iconic tree of the chapel is now completely broken, but still miraculously alive. 

The trees are catching up with the cold weather and the leaves are turning yellow and red

Hike info:

Date:  10 October 2025

Destination: Alinsky Monastery

Mountain: Plana

Total length: 13 km

Elevation gain: 220 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 3 hours and a half

Average difficulty: 3 / 10

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxers, Burda cargo pants, Burda blouse, remodeled Black hoodie

I: lingerie, Sinclair blouse, Burda hoodie, leg-warmers

We had our tortillas and beer on a hill above the old church. Somebody up there must love us, as the sun broke the heavy cloud cover and shone on us during our picnic - it was divine!

And back along the same track

The first skiers are already enjoying the snow on Vitosha, but we prefer to watch it from afar - I'm not done with autumn yet :)

An encounter on the track - a medium size Aesculapian snake

Pasarel - Lanina Mogila 2025

Our part of the world is being hit by a catastrophic atmospheric setup - a combination of a strong Mediterranean cyclone and an intense cold air outbreak from Russia. The result - heavy rain and floods and early snow in the areas above 600 m altitude. However yesterday was a temporary lull in the overall unstable synoptic situation and we had full use of it - we packed our backpacks and went to Pasarel Reservoir to hike again the Lozen mountain, but along its southern slopes.

Our trail started at Pasarel Reservoir.

On this hike I used one of my recent birthday presents for the first time - a hydration system, consisting of a 2l water bag and a drinking hose with a mouthpiece. I was surprised how much more water I drank during the hike and how easy and accessible drinking was every time I felt the need - and a couple of months ago I had never heard of hydration systems for hikers! I wholeheartedly recommend it now!

Lanina mogila - the final destination of our hike

The high peaks of Rila, freshly covered with snow

Hike info:

Date: 05 October 2025

Destination: peak Lanina Mogila (1188 m)

Mountain: Lozen

Total length: 15 km

Elevation gain: 490 m

Total duration (plus picnic): 5 hours and a half

Average difficulty: 4 / 10

We climbed the southern slope of Lanina mogila gliganing style, as we usually do from the south, directly up, finding openings between the trees and bushes. There isn't a proper track to the peak from this side of the mountain, but enough people try to climb it this way, so there were clear traces and enough openings for it to be fairly easy and doable.

Half of Vitosha is now covered with deep fresh snow. Today the rain down in Sofia and snow up in the mountains continues, so the snow cover will be even deeper. Still, I hope the cold weather is just a fluke and we'll have our Indian summer and proper golden autumn sometime soon.

We were not sure what we would find on Lozen, as Lanina mogila is tall enough, but if there was any snow during the heavy snow and rain fall, it had melted.

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

 

Husband: men's boxers, Burda cargo pants, Burda longsleeve, remodeled black hoodie

I: lingerie, Burda raglan blouse, remodeled blue hoodie, legwarmers, Nalu fingerless mitts

Part of the time on this hike I wore my new hoodie - a ready-made hoodie I bought recently, which I remodeled, adding double welt pockets and a zipper.

We had our extra delicious tortillas and tasty beer with this gorgeous view to Lozen, Plana, Rila and Iskar dam. I've been joking with husband, that when people ask us why we hike, we could answer - to have a lunch with a view :)

We went down the mountain along the marked trail to the west. Only two weeks previously we hiked this part of Lozen with Gaby, dressed in top tanks.

The forests are not ready for the cold weather and are still mostly in their summer mode.

And back to Pasarel Reservoir.

Husband is also wearing a ready-made sweater, which I recently remodeled into a zippered hoodie, adding new sleeve cuffs, a new hem and a zipper.

Once we reached the bridge over the reservoir, we decided to continue along the trail by the shore, to see where it would take us. This part of the trail was not marked on the map, but it obviously existed, so we followed it. It turned to be probably one of the most beautiful parts of the hike - a narrow forest path, running right by the gorgeous green waters of the lake.

The path continued along the lake up to the reservoir wall and an old bridge, now out of exploitation, adding some 2.5 km of picturesque sights to our hike.