sausage pizza

Here's the huge pizza with sausage that I made today. As always, my little dog was delighted with the pizza crust.

quiche lorraine

Quiche Lorraine is delicious for breakfast but substantial enough for dinner, as well. If you don’t like the bacon-onion-swiss filling, feel free to substitute ingredients. My mom and I like to experiment with different flavor combinations, depending on what we have in the refrigerator.

Quiche Lorraine

1 pie crust
1/2 lb. bacon
1/2 medium onion, diced
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. whole milk
8 oz. Swiss cheese, chopped
1 tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook bacon until crisp, drain on paper towels, and crumble. Remove all but 1 tbs. bacon fat from pan. Saute onions until tender.

In a large bowl, lightly beat eggs and milk. Stir in cheese, bacon, and onion. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into pie crust.

Bake 45 to 50 minutes, until set and lightly golden.

brooklyn flea

Today, my family and I went to the Brooklyn Flea Market. Local vendors were selling a variety of products: vintage clothing, jewelry, scarves, vinyl records, and lots of food. We reluctantly passed on the thin-crust pizza from Pizza Motto and the lobster bisque and rolls, and, instead, we went with papusas and AsiaDog.

We ordered two papusas: one cheese and one pork-cheese-jalapeno.

AsiaDog specializes in hot dogs with Asian toppings, but, having run out of hot dogs, they gave us a topping-filled sandwich instead; the Chinese BBQ pork belly was tasty, but it would have been much better on a hot dog, as intended.

On our way out, we picked up muffins from a bakery in Fort Greene. The Morning Muffin was light and sweet and tasted like carrot cake!

brussels sprouts

We found fresh brussels sprouts, still on their stalk, at Trader Joe's!

pasta with broccoli and garlic

After hearing that my sister was having a rough day at work, I decided to make one of her favorite dishes for dinner: pasta with broccoli, olive oil, and garlic. It’s so simple to make that it doesn’t really require a formal recipe. Cook one pound of pasta (we prefer linguine or spaghetti) in boiling salted water, adding broccoli florets to the water for the last minute or two. Drain and save about one half cup of pasta water. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat, and add five to six cloves of minced garlic, sauteing until light golden. Add pasta, broccoli, and pasta water, toss, and season to taste with salt and crushed red pepper.

h&h bagels

While moving my older sister into her new apartment in the city, my family and I worked up an appetite. We picked up some bagels from H&H for a quick lunch.

snickerdoodles

My mom tried these snickerdoodles at work the other day, and she was amazed at how chewy they were. She picked up the recipe, and I decided to give it a try. My cookies managed to achieve the same chewiness, but they spread too much in the oven. My guess is that the temperature of the butter was not right; I started with frozen butter, grated it, and beat it for a long time, in an effort to get the butter to room temperature. Next time, I will be sure to take the butter out of the fridge ahead of time, and, hopefully, the cookies will turn out better.

Snickerdoodles

For cookies:
3 1/2 c. flour
1 tbs. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. butter
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon corn syrup
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

For topping:
3 tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. With an electric mixer, cream butter with sugar. Add eggs, corn syrup, and vanilla; mix thoroughly. Add the dry ingredients, and mix just until blended. Chill dough 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll tablespoonfuls of dough in cinnamon sugar mixture to coat. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, until puffed and slightly cracked.