Donut Army

  I enjoy having a quiche in the house - good for an easy lunch or dinner, and certainly great for breakfast leftovers. Couple this with some side potatoes and a salad and you've got a meal that feels healthy and diverse and also filling. Spinach & Gruyère Quiche The quiche dough comes from Epicurious, but no longer appears to be available online. The quiche is based on a recipe from this source, but improved upon: Once Upon a Chef. Quiche Dough 1 1/2 c flour pinch salt 8 T unsalted butter, chilled, in small pieces 5-6 T cold water Put flour, salt and butter in a food process to mix. With processor running, add water until the dough forms one large ball. Remove and roll out on a floured surface. Quiche 1 T butter 1/2 c shallot, thinly sliced (I didn't have enough shallot so also used scallion) 10 oz spinach, chopped 4 eggs 1 1/4 c heavy cream pinch nutmeg 3/4 tsp tsalt 1/8 tsp cayenne 1 c gruyere, shredded Preheat oven to 325. Make crust Heat butter i...

These are my go-to potatoes, especially for breakfast. Homemade Hashbrowns Stomach Love 2-4 potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/2" cubes 4 T olive oil Preheat oven to 425°. In a medium sized saucepan cover cut potatoes with water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Drain water and add olive oil, salt and pepper. Replace lid and shake to coat potatoes. Pour out into a rimmed baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes, flip potatoes, and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Bake until desired crispiness.

Rather than venturing into sourdough, I've been spending a portion of the pandemic exploring baking English muffins. I had never attempted an English muffin before. And as I pulled down various cookbooks, I soon realized the many variations in ingredients and technique from multiple qualify sources, each purporting to offer the best English muffins. It seemed like the only way to resolve the situation was to try as many of them as possible. I had originally set out to try 11 separate recipes. I wound up trying only 7, with 2 clear top contenders and the rest falling to the wayside. The most common errors were in yielding bland muffins with an ok texture, or, recipes that produced adequate flavor but consisted of a roll-like texture. The entire testing process was extremely informative on best tips in making muffins overall, and my final recommendation (below) is actually a modified version of the original online source. The modified version incorporates several "best ti...