Parmesan-Asiago Spinach Quiche

One of my favorite things to make is quiche. Especially this Parmesan-Asiago Spinach quiche. It's super easy to make. You see, I love to cook and bake but honestly, I can be a bit impatient so you can forget about me trying those labor intensive recipes. This quiche here is one of the easiest (and tastiest!) quiches I ever made. I actually found the recipe on Pillsbury website.
The original recipe uses chicken but I almost never made this recipe with chicken in it. I also used parmesan cheese instead of the cheddar cheese.  And I also added garlic and onion powder in the recipe. I have made this quiche many many times and it never failed me!

Audrey and face painting

My daughter, Audrey, loves to go to the Saturday market with me. Mainly because I always let her get face painting. She'd get different one almost each Saturday we went. These pictures are actually from about 3 weeks ago.

She was happy here.........

Then we were done and I asked her to pose. I said," Audrey, look at mommy and smile..."
This is what she did:

Then I asked her again.

And again....

And....last try.....
I stopped right here before she threw tantrums.

Saturday market fun

Audrey and I went to the local Saturday market yesterday. Weather was lovely. We stopped by the fruits and vegetable vendors. They had deliciously sweet Apples and Nectarines so we bought one basket of each. Audrey ate one whole nectarine on her own! I ate 2 once we got home. They were so delicious. I am going to make Apple galette with the Apples I got. Then we stopped by several bakers. We bought a box of french macarons, one Blueberry pastry, and one chocolate pastry. I was pretty hungry when I got there and I tried to look for my favorite Knish vendor but they were not there yesterday. So for lunch I bought myself some vegetarian Samosas. Delicious. Then we passed by a vegan muffin baker and of course I had to try it. I bought Blueberry muffin and Triple Pineapple muffins. Surprisingly, they were very moist. I liked the Triple Pineapple muffin a lot. All and all, the market was fun. Audrey and I enjoyed our time there. She even got to dance with a belly dancer!!

Kimbap Dinner

I haven't been feeling too well for the last 2-3 days and have been craving for some comfort foods. Being an Asian, comfort food = anything with rice. Tonight I went to the local Korean market to get some raw rice so I could make rice soup. Once I got there, I saw they had Kimbap! I got some for dinner. Audrey ate some and I ate the rest. They were pretty good. I ended up not making the rice soup dinner since these Kimbap were pretty filling.

 

I heart NYC

I went to vacation in NYC recently. Amazing city! I am a big-city-girl at heart and I have visited NYC plenty of times already but even so coming back to visit NYC was always very exciting. I didn't want to leave. I stayed at the New York Palace in Midtown, NYC (Madison avenue and 50th street)---the perfect location. I walked everywhere in Manhattan. Personally, if you ever want to visit NYC, stay in the Midtown area. Hotels are a bit pricey in that area but worth it. I got the hotel thru Priceline. I've been using Priceline for 13 years and I always have great experience with them. I even got a deal with my NY plane ticket through priceline. I flew JetBlue, which btw, I highly recommend!!! The weather was lovely most of the times we were in NYC so walking was not a big deal.

Here are some of my personal recommendations if you want to visit NYC:

1.  Book your hotel and airline tickets through Priceline! No, I am not affiliated with Priceline but I can genuinely say that they are awesome! Try their Express Deals--for hotels. Look for hotels in the Midtown or Empire State Building area.

2.  If you thought of going to a Broadway show, book your tickets in advance!!!  I didn't book the tickets in advance because I saw the ticket prices were so expensive ($250 per person).  Long story short, got lucky!! Went straight to the theater and looked for tickets. Luckily, there were some available. Went to see the Book of Mormon the musical. It was super Hilarious!!!! Highly, highly, highly recommend it! 

3.  If you like funny things, go see comedy show around Times Square, Broadway Street is conveniently located right around Times Square, you can walk it easy. You can get the tickets from one of those people who offer tickets for comedy shows (they're everywhere around Times Square; tickets are fairly cheap; $15 per person). Personally, I really enjoyed the comedy show. Very entertaining!

4.  Forget buying CityPass! Museums will list their "suggested" admission price between $22 - $25 (depending on which museums you go to). But really, you can pay $1. 

5.  During peak season, lines going to Statue of Liberty is crazy busy (ticket is $17 per person in case you are wondering). If you have all day to wait, that's cool but if you don't, you might want to consider taking the Staten Island Ferry (free!) that is going to take you to pretty much cruise in front of the Statue of Liberty. This ferry won't stop at the Liberty island however, you still get a good view of the Statue of Liberty from the ferry.

6.  HoHo (Hop-On-Hop-Off) buses are a great way to get around the city! They take you to pretty much every tourist attraction in the city. I used the GreyLine HoHo bus and ticket was $59 per person for 2 days (purchased the tickets from the hotel concierge). The GreyLine HoHo bus is busier than other HoHo buses. They have other HoHo buses, so it might be a good idea to avoid the GreyLine one and buy tickets for other HoHo bus.

7.  There are so  many things to see and do in NYC, so I highly recommend you to stay at least 3-4 nights to explore the city. IMO, one week in the city would be ideal.

8.  Don't forget to visit Central Park, the Greenwich village (at night), Little Italy and Chinatown (very quirky! and they're right next to each other).