Pizza love

I’ve been really into pizza lately. It’s an easy way to use a lot of the vegetables I get from my CSA. Last week, I made two, a cauliflower and a mushroom – inspired from My Bread. These were two of the best pizzas I’ve made, ever. The cooking god’s were with me last week.

The pizza dough recipe makes enough for two pizzas.

Basic pizza Dough:

3 ¾ cups flour (The recipe calls for bread flour – I just use all purpose doing ½ whole wheat and ½ regular.)

2 ½ tsp active or instant dry yeast

¾ tsp salt

¾ sugar

1 1/3 cup room temperature water (I had to sprinkle a little bit more on top of mine to get everything to stick.

Whisk all dry ingredients together and then mix in the water for 30-60 seconds – just until everything is combined. Mixing any further will overwork it, the gluten will start to develop and then things will just get complicated.

Let sit for 2 hours – until doubled in size.

After it’s finished it’s first rise, dump it onto a floured surface and divide into two. Shape into two balls and cover with a damp cloth. Let sit for another 30 minutes.

I know that this seems like a long time but let me tell you – I’ve done this the shortcut way (cutting out the last 30 minutes) and the right way. The right way is best. Cutting out the last 30 minutes left me with a very rough crust. It was hard to spread out on the pan and then it was more cardboardy than delicious.

After the thirty minutes, I take one ball, put it in an oiled ziplock and throw that puppy in the freezer. It will keep one day in the fridge. I ended up taking it out of the freezer a few days later because I was short on ideas but not on mushrooms and tomatoes.

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On Monday I made cauliflower pizza. I took the easy route by throwing everything in the food processor.

For the cauliflower pizza I used:

½ cauliflower head –
¼ cup parmesean cheese
3 tablespoons of olive oil
½ bread crumbs
¼ cup chopped basil leaves
salt and pepper to taste
3 cloves of garlic

Mix everything in a bowl after grating in the food processor. Incorporate olive oil and spread out evenly over the pie. Take the topping all the way to the edges. They will brown first and the topping slows this down a bit.

Have the oven preheated to 450 – cook for approximately 30 minutes. This will depend on your pan and oven. I checked mine at about 20 minutes and then waited for the crust to brown up a bit.

This recipe varies slightly from original from the book. Less dishes and a few less steps but I am happy to report, after having the real thing at the Grandaisy Bakery this weekend, that there’s was very close in taste. The extra love in mine pushed it ahead just a bit.

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I did the same thing with the mushroom pizza on Thursday – which I have pictures of below.

1 small container of shitake mushrooms + 4 baby bellas.
1 small red onion
1 clove of garlic

All chopped and grated in the food processor. Dump in bowl and mix in:

¼ cup of chopped basil
3 tablespoons Olive Oil
salt and pepper to taste
Appoximately 1 cup of scamutz cheese chopped into small cubes – located at Di Palo’s
1 cup chopped cherry tomatoes

I've never seen Cherry tomatoes shaped like this before - they are delicious!

1 cup chopped spinach

Once spreading out the dough to fit your pan – spread topping over dough.
I topped with some grated Parmesan cheese. Cook at 450 for 30 minutes. Check status at 20 minutes.

Hot pepper party (in my fridge)

I’ve been a little obsessive lately about things. Like corn. Soon, there will be no corn in the farmers market and that’s depressing. So to prolong the corn supply in this house, I’ve been buying up corn at the market and then boiling, blanching and bagging for the winter months. Sure, people all over the world do this, but for some reason, right now, it just seems like the best idea ever and I don’t know why everyone doesn’t do it. Sure, lack of time and having a life may be a good reason but when the beauty of this summer’s corn is at stake, some sacrifices have to be made.

Yes, like I said, obsessive.

Also, to preserve some of the many, many, many carrots I’ve received from Basis I decided to make hot mix. My parents continuously have this in their fridge it’s pretty delicious with sandwiches and salads. It’s basically a tasty thing to have on the table at all times – especially during the summer months.

For this you need:

Hot banana peppers – I put in three but will potentially add more after I see how things taste next week
Cauliflower – 1 head
Carrots – however many you want

Chop all of this up into bite-sized pieces and throw in Tupperware container you won’t need for awhile.

Garlic – throw 2 or 3 whole cloves into the container. I had some wonderful hard neck garlic from the market that is very fragrant. If I was using store bought, shipped from China (shudder) I would have put a whole head in there.

Salt – ¼ cup
Vegetable Oil – ½ cup
Vinegar – 2 cups
Tap Water – 1 ½ cup

Pour on top of vegetable mix. No need to mix before hand

Pepper – to taste
Oregeno – to taste I started with 2 tablespoons and that was enough for my mixture
Dill – to taste

Once everything is mixed together, let it sit out for a day or three on your counter top. It’s pretty warm in my apartment so I only left it out for a day. After it’s room temperature sitting time, give it a little taste test and see if it needs more spices or peppers.

The biggest thing to remember is that the vegetables should be covered in the liquid. You are essentially pickling so whatever isn’t covered will potentially go bad. I had to double the liquid recipe because I had a lot of carrots. This is not a bad thing, just remember the liquid ration and it will be alright.

As you can see, mine is pink.

I had some purple carrots and it turns out – the purple bleeds off. So….this is what I have. Dad said I should start over but that would kind of defeat the purpose of preserving what I didn’t want to go bad, no? I also put in celery. This does not work. The celery has a weird texture. Things might get better next week after it sits a bit but I say that about a lot of things and it hasn’t been true yet.

Berry Berry

Waking up to grinding metal doesn’t help the day. My, uhh personal/mental health day. Those are allowed right? I feel like I’ve been taking a lot of them lately, but when I look at the calendar, I’m still under my allotted amount. So maybe those days are happening at work and I don’t even realize it?

Either way, things get done. Numbers are crunched, sentences are written, social media is explored and cake is shared.

Last week I made a Blackberry Buttermilk Bundt cake after an inspiring pursue through the Tasting Table website. Although it wouldn’t seem like it, the berries are pretty fantastic at the Farmers Market. Get them before they are all gone!

I took the liberty of substituting ½ cup of whole-wheat flour. With all the butter, buttermilk and sugar, things still tasted 100% white. I’ve decided to make the move to 100% local flour, which has proved to be an interested and tasty decision. My bread has an awesome texture and my cakes have been fluffier. If you can spare the extra $$ it’s totally worth the move. And even if you can’t (like me) I would give it a try anyways.

2⅔ cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus additional for the pan
1¾ cups sugar (I used about 1 cup – hello berries are sweet!)
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk
2 pints blackberries (about 1 pound), rinsed and dried

Orange Glaze
½ cup fresh orange juice (from about 1 medium orange)
½ cup confectioners’ sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a 2-quart nonstick Bundt pan with butter, then spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray. (I only sprayed. I should have known better but I was feeling lazy. I paid the price when I flipped my cake onto the plate.

2. In a small bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder, salt and baking soda

3. Cream the butter and sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until incorporated. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and mix in half of the flour mixture. Mix in the buttermilk, then the remaining flour mixture. Gently fold in the blackberries with a wooden spoon.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan. Bake until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a serving platter.

4. Make the orange glaze: In a small saucepan, whisk the orange juice with the sugar and simmer over low heat until the sugar dissolves. I was out of powered sugar but a quick search on the Internet taught me that I could make my own powdered sugar by just throwing regular sugar in the blender and pulse on high until it’s the right consistency. It couldn’t be that easy? It is! Granted, my portions were a bit off but that’s to be fine tuned at a later date.

5. Using a skewer or long, thin knife, prick deep holes all over the surface of the cake. Slowly spoon half of the glaze over the cake, letting it seep into the holes. Let the cake cool for 20 minutes longer. Spoon the remaining glaze over the cake and let set for 10 minutes. Slice and serve.

As you will see from the picture, my cake stuck because I skipped the butter and flour skip in the beginning. It doesn’t pay to be lazy, but this cake was DELICIOUS so the small whoops was overlooked pretty easily.

scrubbing clams. shucking corn.

My troubles melt away on my couch. As I sit here typing, sipping my morning Stumptown French press, there’s nothing that bothers me. I think about how delicious the greek yogurt I’m about to eat is going to be. I think about how lovely it is that it looks like one of my jade plants is going to survive. I spotted new green leaves poking out of the brown stumps this morning. And I think about how nice it is that I have a dirty floor that is all my own and I couldn’t give two shits if it is dirty.

I don’t think about other things. Other things that plague me throughout the week. Things that weigh on me, cause me distress, and generally make me upset. So many little boxes piling on top of one big box, if I pull the big one from the bottom, will it make everything better? Can I pull it out fast enough to keep the little ones from crashing and breaking? Time will tell I suppose.

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It’s been a busy, busy week. My couch misses me. I miss it and I have 3 netflixs piled up in the corner calling my name. Unfortunately today will not be the day either. The day too beautiful with lots of goods needing to be baked and a floor that needs a scrubbing. Never mind yoga and brunch.

Lots of delicious things got cooked this week in all of the craziness. The best thing being Wednesday night dinner. C and C came over for a pre bingo feast including heirloom tomato bruschetta and corn and clam stew. Oh My!

The bruschetta, including these tomatoes which we selected after a carefully survey of the farmers market, was awesome. Unfortunately I don’t have a recipe for this. I have made bruschetta frequently over the past six or seven years and I have always gone solely on color. You should be able to spot an even spread of garlic and basil throughout the chopped tomatoes. I take care to chop the tomatoes smallish and uniformly. Add salt and pepper to taste. The heirloom tomatoes were not as salty as regular vine tomatoes so it seemed that no matter how much we added it wasn’t enough. We eventually decided on adding a thin slice of hard provolone under the tomatoes. Thank you Di Palo for rocking my world this week.

The main dish, Corn, Bacon and Clam stew was pretty stellar. We decided again bacon and went with smoked andouille sausage that we picked up at the meat man. The entire meal, sans the wine, cheese and bourbon was 100% local. The flavors popped and left us completely incapacitated for the rest of the evening. We did not make it to bingo.

wiggle waggle

I have my mother’s ass. When left unchecked, it blossoms. Flowering in all directions making it nearly impossible to fit into any pants. Child bearing hips my grandmother used to say. I had been making vain attempts to work out. The elliptical occasionally. Yoga regularly up until my nasty fall rendered me unbendable. This had kept me in complete denial about how large my ass had actually become until I attempted on Friday to squeeze into my skinny jeans. Never mind the fact that it’s been too hot to wear pants, much less attempt to put them on.

I was once comforted at the gym seeing a very skinny girl wiggle into her jeans. She was thin. I always had the misconception that thin people didn’t have to work to get into their pants. Boy was I wrong. She struggled (possibly more in my head that in reality). One leg and then the other. She looped her fingers into the belt loops and pulled. That didn’t work so she went for one hip and then the other. And then pulled again. It was then and there that I realized it was okay to struggle a bit. Just because they were skinny jeans it didn’t mean that just skinny people could wear them.

Regardless, there was no squeezing this watermelon into those sticks on Friday. So I’m back on track. Walking everywhere and running three times a week. It is time to get back in fighting form.

With that in mind, I’m making this blackberry bunt cake tonight after my trip to the farmers market. Super excited.