Abe says

For me there are really two options for making something new:

1. Research it: check several recipes, read up on the history and context to the extent that Wikipedia or similar offers, watch related videos if a new technique is involved, check recipes again, determine a version or variation, and build a precise shopping list.

2. Throw something together. I am hungry.

In many cases I prefer #1. The process by which Ann and I usually end up eating dinner does not lend itself to this, however. It usually involves resolving to make a decision, later, and then going back and forth between options that one of us comes up with and the other rejects, before coming to an awkward consensus. Thusly last night we resolved on making bánh mì, which I don’t think either of us has ever had. (I am to understand this is a form of felony in foodland.)

The resolution though, the moral of the story, is that even an inauthentic, uninformed bánh mì is delicious and can be made quickly and easily from generally off-the-shelf parts.

We got some chipotle-lime roast beef (we wanted the flavors to go together) and Provençal pâté (it was the cheapest) from Whole Foods. We would have gotten daikon, except for (1) it only came in huge pieces, and (2) it mysteriously disappeared after we returned from the bulk goods. Weird.

Inauthentic Bánh Mì

serves 2

2/3 baguette, halved and opened
1/4 lb prepared pâté
a few slices of ham, medium or thin-sliced
some meat, maybe roasted pork or chicken or beef or meatballs
a couple inches of English cucumber, thinly sliced
1 serrano pepper
a small bunch of cilantro
a small bunch of basil, preferably Thai basil
3 Tbsp mayonnaise
sriracha, or other chili sauce

For Pickles

1 small carrot, or 1/2 a medium carrot, julienned
1-2 radishes, or a little piece of daikon, julienned
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp coriander seeds, lightly crushed

Bring vinegar, 1/4 cup water, salt, sugar, and coriander to a boil in a small saucepan. Add carrot and radish and let stand at least 15 minutes. Drain and rinse.

Mix mayonnaise with a few drops (or several, to taste) of chili sauce. Spread mayo on one half of the bread, and pâté on the other.

Pile on everything else. Eat.

Ann says

In light of how stressful work been for Abe (and how boring doing nothing has been for me) we decided that we ought to take a vacation of some kind before I start working and am unable to get vacation days for at least a year (that’s how it works in nursing).  Abe, also, just really really needed some time away.  His workload has been completely unacceptable of you ask me.  And since you are reading this, you are clearly asking for it.

My friend from school, Linsday, moved to Portland to live with her soon-to-be husband.  Her new last name will be Henke, sort of pronounced “Hankey” like “Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo.”  This, of course, makes me very happy.  What does not, is that I never get to see her anymore, so it became a desire of mine to take the 4 hour train ride down to Portland to see Lindsay and get a bit of the city’s best in in one long weekend.  It was appropriately rainy and Northwesty down there and it was great to see her again.  I think Abe even had a good time, too.

We ate SO MUCH.  There was so much good food to be eaten!  The home of Stumptown Coffee Roasters it had a location very close to our hotel, the Governor.  Christopher Kimball once said on the show, “America’s Test Kitchen,” that Stumptown Coffee was his favorite in the United States, and I have been a believer ever since I had it here in Seattle.  Wonderfully smooth and round, flavorful and complex, it is without a doubt the best latte/cup-of-drip/Americano/cappuccino I ever had.  We also made a very anticipated visit to Voodoo Doughnut near the waterfront.  With doughnuts such as Maple-Bacon and the Miami Vice (pink  and blue frosting with sprinkles), cake and risen and filled doughtnuts of many amazing sorts, and some with cereal on top, it was de-fucking-licious.  I kid you not, the bacon on that doughtnut was awesome.  I also got your classic cream filled doughnut with chocolate frosting, and it was the best I ever had.

Abe says

I also recommend the thyme iced tea at Stumptown and the lemon cruller at Voodoo.

Ann says

I’ll be returning to Portland again with renewed hunger and a desire to once again tromp around Powell’s City of Books.  Linsday, I’ll see you again soon.  Portland, you are one tasty place.

Abe says

I did even have a good time. It is odd how that happens sometimes. We didn’t really…you know, plan, very much before going so we may not have hit all the foodie-critical spots, but I think we made out pretty well. In particular on Saturday night, after shenanigans earlier in the day where we got a different room from what Orbitz promised us, the concierge (front desk, really) not only got a reservation for us at Andina, but at the end of dinner we got cookies and port, compliments of the hotel. Andina didn’t even have open seats on Open Table. Sweet. I don’t know if they do that for everyone, even those without shenanigans, but it worked well for us. The cookies, alfajores, were some of the best cookies we’d ever had — something like tiny dulce de leche sandwiches. It was also critical that we, at some point, drink port in Portland.

We also made it to the Rogue Ales Public House, where they gave us free beer samples, Teardrop lounge, a very trendy bar, Serratto, Deschutes brewpub, the Classical Chinese Garden where there is a wonderful little teahouse, and Kenny & Zukes, the closest thing to a Jewish deli I’ve been to since when I was in Pittsburgh. It has also been quite some time since I’ve sat down for dinner already full.

Ann says

Two weeks ago we had the first week in our new place that was somewhat…settled.  No more boxes everywhere, and no more building ikea furniture.  I was home for most of the day as I studied for the last test of school, and the weather had finally gotten cool.  Lovely and cool! So I made something slow-cooked.

This, my friends, is probably my favorite thing I’ve ever made.  Oxtails cooked low in reduced red wine for three hours and a rich, chewy farro cooked like a risotto.  Holy. Crap.

Did I eat vegetables with this meal?  Probably, but I can’t remember them.  They were ECLIPSED.

Yes, this meal takes a long time to make, but it’s so delicious and so satisfying.  Oh my.

Red Wine Braised Oxtails and Farro Risotto

Serves 2

Ingredients:
6 oxtails
1 leek
1 small onion
1 shallot
1/4 cup grapes
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon coriander
1 bottle red wine

Preheat oven to 325°F.

I made this with about 6 oxtail pieces for two people.  The original recipe called for two bottles of wine and I didn’t want to go to the store to get two  bottles of three buck chuck, so I reduced the majority of one bottle of wine, save for two glasses so Abe and I could drink some, and just reduced it in a pan on a simmer by 1/3.

While you’re doing this brown the oxtails in a big heavy pot, big enough for some veggies and the wine and extra liquid to cover.  You should be able to put this pot in the oven.  Brown the oxtails on all sides and remove them from the pot.  Now add some roughly chopped leek, shallot, onion, grapes, and crushed garlic as well as a big pinch of fennel seed and coriander.  The grapes are for a bit of sweetness to round everything off, and it doesn’t make anything taste like grapes. Use carrots if you don’t have grapes.  Salt and pepper the veggies and cook until soft.  Pop the oxtails back in, and by now your wine should be ready to go, so dump that in as well.  Cover and put the whole thing in the oven and let it go for about three hours.

During this time start working on the farro risotto.

When the oxtails are done remove them from the pot and set them aside in something that will keep them warm. Pour braising liquid through a fine sieve into a large saucepan and toss the leftovers cause they’re not really good anymore. Boil the liquid until thick and shiny and then whisk in about a tablespoon of butter.

For farro risotto:

1 cup dry farro
1/4 cup olive oil
splash of red wine
1 Tablespoon butter
either 1 shallot  or a couple Tablespoons onion or a combination
1 quart chicken broth
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Soak 1 cup farro in cold water 20 minutes and drain and rinse it. Bring 8 cups water to boil in medium saucepan. Add  few glugs (about 1/4 cup) olive oil and the farro and boil for 20 minutes. Drain in strainer. Melt 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon oil in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots or onion and sauté until the onions are translucent or for about a minute. Add farro, another small splash of red wine and enough chicken broth to cover. Simmer until almost all liquid evaporates, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Continue to add the chicken broth 1 cup at a time and simmer until liquid is absorbed and farro is just tender, stirring frequently, about 20 minutes total. Stir in 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

Scoop mounds of the farro in the middle of the low bowl and set the oxtails on top.  Pour the sauce over the top and serve.  Maybe you should have a salad too.

Well it’s basically like Ann told it. I bought a place, a loft on the Hill, and we’ve moved in (goodbye, gorgeous roof); a multiweek undertaking whose epic scope was utterly lost on me until a week before closing. My job in the glamorous world of software has also alternated between busy and crushing. Ann graduated. The short of it is, in front of the sympathetic nerve firing squad food really wasn’t on my mind. Thankfully, I have found some pictures to show for all of it.

6/4: Pulled pork sandwich from Maximus Minimus, during a food blogger event hosted by Sugar Mountain, owners of Beecher’s and Pasta & Co. among others. (I didn’t know it was all the same people, did you?) We met some awesome fellow bloggers, of Sonja’s Kitchen, Loving Local Food, and Mary Eats, and saw Hungry Grrl again. The $5.50 sandwiches are pretty delicious, although I think I wish there was more pork fat in there.

6/7: Old School Frozen Custard. We badmouthed them but never posted our followup once we’d visited. They, too, have cones with cleverly folded tips, which I certainly approve of. It was tasty but didn’t knock our socks off. The vanilla flavor was basically a mass-market vanilla and not any trendier vanilla bean or somesuch, but I don’t consider that bad. There are times when that’s just what you feel like. Overall the focus on classic flavors and hot dogs could bring them wider appeal, but while I have seen the place busy I have yet to see long lines snaking out the door.

6/19: Our introduction to the R2 commercial food processor at Jani. We were impressed. My Cuisinart is jealous.

6/27: The aftermath of a sauces-themed dinner party, which included my first hollandaise (embarrassing, but delicious) and a truly good slow roasted pork shoulder. It was all very tasty but wasn’t cohesive. The variety of leftovers bits, though, was one for the ages.

7/10: Scallop seviche at Anchovies and Olives. The outdoor seating is beautiful, at least in July.

7/14: Bastille Day wine tasting at Licorous. Cotechino monster says, “Bonjour!” It is a fresh pork sausage that was made in-house, in this instance with currants for eyes. A week later we attended an invite-only “John and Wiley’s Counter” at the bar which was huge fun. About half the courses came with wine pairings — most excellently the other half with cocktail pairings. The word was that they’re thinking of opening the events to the public.

8/7: Sidewalk eggplant. 15th Ave. Does anyone pick and eat them? They’re totally ripe.

8/11: Ground cherries and a new camera. I know we haven’t been hiding our point-and-shoot photos very well, but I at least have been trying. The new one is an Olympus E-P1 and so far it’s great, although we’re still figuring it out (please forgive the depth of field in the mean time). Our trusty compact PowerShots will continue to prevail in many places, but I’m excited at the mere prospect of setting the aperture and using an actual macro lens. ALSO. Ground cherries are not real cherries, but are related to tomatoes and tomatillos and taste of tropical fruit. Pretty clever if I say so myself. We got them from the Broadway farmer’s market but for the life of me I can’t remember which farmer.

8/12: “Jaime’s Speakeasy”, another invitation event (no Ann this time), this time at work. The chef was previously sous chef at Restaurant Zoë, but these she days does “chef’s tables” and now “speakeasies” for lunch on Wednesdays, pretty much putting the Googleplex cafeteria to shame. Here they’re plating really, really good duck confit and cauliflower tortellini with sage brown butter and chevre.

Also you know, come to think of it I think we ordered wine at the Bastille Day event and never picked it up. Ahem.

Ann says

What happened to the last two months, I really could not accurately tell you. However I will, at this time, try.

Abe would tell me, “don’t explain why we haven’t posted.  Just post a recipe.”  But I feel too guilty; I feel too tired to just jump back in with the vim and vigor that some other, more sane person, might have.

Abe says

Pfff. The internet deserves to know. It is the will of the people.

Also I’ll get to talking more in our next post; for now Ann has made us delicious mixed drinks.

Ann says

I am 9 days away from graduating from nursing school.  Projects, research papers, clinical hours, volunteer hours, and ridiculous tests plus job searching and studying for the nursing boards has left me dazed.  On top of that, Abe and I just moved in together.  YES!  It is glorious.  I get home, he gets home, we are both home.  No packing up a change of clothes and work out shoes and remembering my hair brush anymore!  No driving/walking/bike riding back and forth!  But oh, the move.  I moved the day before the hottest Seattle day ever recorded (103 degrees) and the day after a 5 day stretch of 12 hour work days.  What the crack was I thinking.

Then, the next day, when it was 103 degrees in Seattle, I got to be here…

That’s my friend Peter, me, and Lyndsay from school. and I was on his big-ass boat in puget sound.  DAMN.  I actually got chilly.

It is my suspicion that a few people out there would like to see a recipe from us.  Perhaps some of you were thinking, “those two are flaky, inconsistent blog posters.”  You would be correct.  That is exactly what I am.  I am a nursing student, people!  What. the. crack.

Remember the last post from oh-so-long ago?  My now ex-roommate, Mara, and her boy, Ricardo, were being raw vegan.  Well, they’re not anymore, but while they were, Mara’s birthday rolled around.  And I offered to make her a birthday cake.  o_O

Abe and I sampled some raw deserts from our local market, Madison Market, aka Mad Market.  We enjoyed it thoroughly, but it was much more of a mousse than a cake and therefore needed a mold.  I toyed with the idea of pureeing a bunch of stuff and holding it together with nut flours and whatnot….but I imaged thick, dense, gooey crap.

There was the option of dehydrating.  But folks, it was like 80 degrees outside.  Hells no.  So I decided to make an ice cream layer cake with some sort of chocolaty sweet gooey crumble between the layers…something reminiscent of the Dairy Queen ice cream cake of my childhood birthday parties.

Coconut-Pineapple-Strawberry Layers.  Woo! It came out cool, sweet, very fruity, but also rich from the coconut and crumble layers.  Clean plates must mean success!

Raw-Food Sorbet Layer Cake

Ingredients:

2 lbs fresh strawberries
18 oz of the flesh and juice of coconuts
1 pineapple
1 cup honey (1/3 cup for each batch)
1/2 cup rice milk
a pinch of xanthan gun or splash of vodka for texture (if you’re being loose about it)
2 cups raw cashews
1 1/2 cups pitted dates
2/3 cup cocoa nibs
1/2 cup cocoa butter
3 Tbs honey

Start one or two days ahead to allow enough time to make the ice cream layers and keep the ice cream maker cold.

Crumble layer: 2 cups raw cashews, 1 1/2 cups pitted dates, 2/3 cup cocoa nibs, 1/2 cup cocoa butter, 3 Tbs honey.  Chop in a food processor until crumbly and sticks together when pressed.

In a 9 inch spring form pan place a piece of parchment paper on the bottom.  Oil the sides with a flavorless vegetable oil.  Press 1/3 of the crumble mixture as a crust into the bottom of the pan.

Cocount layer- puree the coconut and 1/3 cup of honey. Taste and adjust for sweetness if desired.  If using, puree in the xanthan gum, vodka, or both. Follow the directions on your ice cream maker.Spread on top of the crust and freeze until firm.

Pineapple Layer- Cut up pineapple and place chunks in a food processor.  Puree the pineapple and add the honey; adjust as above and add xanthan gum or vodka as before.  Do this with the next one too. Ice cream it.  Evenly coat the coconut layer with the second batch of crumble and the spread the pinapple sorbet on top. Freeze.

Strawberry layer- Puree the strawberries and put them through a siev to get the seeds out.  Add the honey and rice milk etc.  Ice cream it.  Spread the last bit of crumble on the pineapple layer.  Spread the strawberry sorbet on top of that.  Freeze.

Serves 8-10 people.

Ann says

My roommate and her lovely boyfriend have recently decided to go raw for a little while.  Raw vegan, of course, because all raw foodists insist that meat and other animal products are evil-toxic-poison.  Well, Mara and Ricardo don’t think that, I’m pretty sure, but Juliano certainly does.  If done the right way, it’s actually a fantastically healthy diet; and I can’t imagine these people go more then three hours without a bowel movement.  Seriously.  It’s like, I think I will have a half cup of sprouted beans, three peaches, and an avocado for lunch and some rejuvelac!  How are these people able to travel?  My god.

Abe and I will probably give this diet a go at some point this summer, which I think will be pretty fun, and Juliano’s cookbook is full of very fun and delicious looking recipes.  But personally, I have a love for good meat.  Meat that has been raised the way my grandparents (who really did have a farm) would have raised it.  My grandmother would shake her head at the way Americans raise their animals when they went on road trips.  But to kill an animal so I can eat it I could easily do.  I don’t like to kill, but I love to eat, and I love to eat meat and dairy.  I am very careful about where my meat and dairy products come from and how they are processed.  It’s not a fad, and I’m not riding the wave of organics and no-antibiotics that has come about.  I have always been this way and the countries my family comes from have always eaten this way.

That said, I made some freakin’ delicious meatballs the other day.  It really does pay to add a little pork to your beef for meatballs if you have it on hand.  I don’t go out of my way to buy it if I don’t, but this time I had some pork sausage hanging out in the freezer along with some very nice looking lean ground beef.  I was already making the really delicious looking summer squash gratin that 101cookbooks posted, but I was craving that iron-laden protein punch that only beef can deliver (and a few other meats, granted).

Organic; no-antibiotic; locally grown beef and sausage meatballs!

serves 3 or 4 people

Ingredients:

3/4 lb organic grass fed beef
1/4 lb organic vegetarian fed pork sausage or pork (if you don’t have pork sausage, consider adding some herbs and spices that you like; I use Italian seasonings)
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs (or store-bought, I won’t tell)
1 small shallot
1 Tblsp ketchup
1 teaspoon soy sauce (I know it’s kinda weird)
1 egg
salt and pepper
Begin warming a large heavy skillet to a little lower than medium high heat, but not quite medium.  Pour in about two tablespoons of your favorite cooking fat and let it get nice and warm while you mix the ingredients.  Throw all the ingredients into a large bowl and gently mix with your hands or a spoon.  You don’t want to smoosh everything to much, just lightly mix until it’s all very well incorporated.  Over squishing makes the balls too dense.  Shape the meat into 1 and 1/2 inch diameter balls and place inthe hot pan.  Turn the meat every minute or so until it is well browned on all sides.  To check for  doneness I just sacrifice one and cut it open to see.  Remove from the pan and you’re done!

These go very well, I think, with any large portion of veggies, be they a big salad, a summer squash gratin, a grated beet and carrot salad, or anything else really!  The meetballs and juicy and rich, so they go great with something lighter.  The summer squash gratin is not, actually, light, but it’s super tasty.  Wonderful for these random rainy, 60 degree days of summer…

Ann says

On my first turn in Abe’s and my dinner ring, I used David Tanis’s cookbook, “A platter of figs and other recipes” to make one of the three course meals presented in there.  It was a Moroccan style chicken thing with pumpkin and harissa and a carrot salad and walnut cigars with honey for dessert.  It was pretty tasty.  Last weekend when my time rolled around again I decided to do something that I could cook pretty fast and something that included bread.

So, fast bread means pizza, right?  Remember that pizza I posted about a couple of posts ago?  That’s the one, minus the sausage plus everything grilled instead of sauteed.  I did this with the AIR CONDITIONER that Abe and I bought running at full throttle, and just in time for when people arrived.  There were some bruscetta with fresh mozzarella and roasted red peppers.  We used the ghost chili oil as a condiment, which went over pretty well.  Sangria was delicious, and I made it my favorite way, with plenty of juice and a bottle of red wine.  The highlight of the evening, however, was eating on the roof with my friends.  That was great.  And I got to give Shaina her Christmas present, finally.  Oh yeah, I made almond paste, apricot and strawberry pastries for dessert. They were pretty good, but I need to work on the dough.

Additionally, the Broadway Farmer’s Market is open and going well.  It’s expanded this year!  I got some sorrel, and so soon will come some sorrel soup.  The tomato guy is back, and of course so is my intense desire to like the flavor of tomatoes.  I just tried a beautiful looking little orange cherry tomato a minute ago, and I just hate the flavor of tomato.  It’s that fresh tomato essence…it makes me gag.  Meh.

Jani is coming up, and I really want to make some fresh Janu siers.  It has caraway seeds in it and is kind of an acquired taste, but I love it.  That, and a big batch of piragi.  So much food and so little time.  I mean, I have finals right now and here I am, sitting and writing this post.  Ah…here are some pictures…

Abe says

The evening, as far as I’m concerned, had two highlights. First was eating dinner with friends on the gloriously nice roof I am fortunate enough to have on my building. Second was that the dinner included Ann’s supremely good pizza. It  was just as good without the sausage.

Also worth mentioning is Mara’s salad, which, while not on bread was very tasty. It had sunflower seeds, beets, carrots, greens, and dill. The dill was great.

We’ve eaten a lot of other good food over the past week, as well, that we haven’t been able to write about yet. A picture post will follow.

Abe says

Usually I get myself thinking I am comfortable cooking everything I enjoy eating. When it comes down to it, you take some good ingredients, add just enough, and cook until done — all familiar territory, whether or not I’ve made it before. Really. Right? Like many of the things I tell myself, patently, this is false.

Shellfish in particular are somewhat baffling, at least for me. They aren’t anonymous chunks of meat which I can straightforwardly sauté, in part, because they all oddly enough have shells. I remember as a child sitting in the kitchen while my parents peeled and deveined shrimp, and the huge hassle that seemed to be. I’ve never dealt with raw shrimp. Lobster has that issue of being alive and then dead, and I’ve never made lobster either. Bivalves — clams, mussels, and so forth — also start off alive, until you cook them, but for some reason no one worries about sea-rocks as much as sea-bugs. (Ann points out that Death Star trooper helmets also bear a striking resemblance to clams.)

I received a bit of impetus from the chef’s tables at work, where Chef Jaime has made a few variations on clams and chorizo. As these preparations all cooked both seafood and sausage in front of me in just a few minutes, I had enough reason to believe it was something I could do without much trouble. Clams are also cheap, which all else considered is good impetus on its own.

The consensus: fast, easy, inexpensive, and delicious. There was some ambiguity about whether or not these clams were sandy, however as tends to happen this didn’t occur to me until already in the middle of cooking, and very hungry. I made do with an uneducated 10 minute soak in cold water, for my reputable-store-bought mollusks. For the better-prepared the intertron is full of both good ideas and less-than-good ideas — guys, I am not a physicist but running water over a spoon will not electrically charge your water and draw out more sand, magically, scientifically, or otherwise. Trust me, I am a master of science. My unelectrified soaking water got the slightest bit cloudy, and the finished product was just fine.

Ann says

Seriously, guys, he is a master of science, and those helmets look just like twisted clams.  This food was really tasty even though it aggravated my GERD.  But on a better day it would not do such  thing and I would enjoy mounds of this stuff, because really, so yummy.

I think the trouble with sea bugs vs. sea rocks is that sea bugs have eyes and legs and hands, and so they remind us of ourselves a bit. Sea rocks remind me of rocks, and so I do not worry about it.  Additionally, sea rocks seem to die faster because they are smaller.

Think about it.  You are an early homo erectus who has made his or her home near the ocean. A good choice.  You are very hungry.  You are trying to survive. I, as a late homo sapiens, also become very hungry, and I am always in the business of survival.  I, too, don’t give a crap if a bunch of sea rocks get really hot for a moment before they die.  I am over-heated in Abe’s steam-cooker of an apartment every day!  I think I will soon have to graduate to chilling and knifing lobsters in the head in order to restore balance to my small, small universe.  Just for clarification, it’s called Ann Land. In Ann Land, we eat clams.

Clams and Chorizo

Adapted from Gourmet

serves 2

1/3 lb bulk fresh chorizo sausage (such as from 1 sausage in casing from the Whole Foods meat counter)
1 bell pepper, preferably orange or yellow, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 cup dry white wine
2 lb littleneck clams
3 Tbsp chopped parsley
2 Tbsp butter

Accompaniment:
baguette or other crusty bread

Scrub clams clean and soak in a bowl of cool water for about 20 minutes. Discard open clams that don’t close when you tap them.

In a wide, coverable sauté pan over medium heat, brown and break up chorizo, about 5 minutes. After some fat has rendered out, remove the meat, either draining the fat or adding olive oil to bring the amount to 2 Tbsp. Add pepper, onion, and garlic, and cook until softened, 7-9 minutes.

Add wine, bring to a boil, and add drained clams and cooked chorizo. Cover and boil until clams open, about 10 minutes. Stir in butter and garnish with parsley. Discard clams that are shut tight. Slightly opened clams can usually be tapped against other clams to open them up. Serve in low bowls with the liquid, and bread.

Ann says

It’s really easy to make tasty, wholesome, homecooked meals when at some point on the weekend  I think, “Oh wouldn’t this food or such and such be nice this week….”  I then make a happy walk to the store and get the few ingredients I need to add to the staples I already have, or to replenish a little bit.  It’s so, so nice, and when I have the time to think at all I think these thoughts a lot.  You know, I think a lot about food.

This week I thought about pizza a couple of times. I am not the biggest pizza fan in the world, particularly after a concussion incident when I was three led to extreme nausea at the smell of pizza followed by many experiences of pizza with way way too much sauce.  I hate too much sauce because I hate the flavor of fresh tomatoes like the fury of a thousand suns.  I know I am a freak.

My mom makes really really good pizza.  There was one particularly memorable time when the crust was so chewy and thin and crisp and just oh so good…

So I thought, I would like some of that. Particularly, I would like it with mushrooms, thinly sliced zucchini, and sausage, and thyme.  And mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.  No weird cheeses on my pizza, thank you.

Making pizza dough is way easier than making other breads, partially because you only have to knead it once, and partially because there is oil in it, making it easier to handle without it getting too dry.

The pizza I made turned out to be one of the tastiest I have ever made. Again, I didn’t measure anything (aside from one whole zucchini) so I’m having a guess at some things here…adjust as you see fit.  But basically, this recipe should make one large, tasty pizza.

Abe says

Guys, this is super good.

Right now my sinuses are hating me and my head is woozy, a result of a run in with a friend’s cat at an excellent dinner last night, so I am tempted to leave it at that, but doing so would be a great injustice. The crust was thin but crisp. Despite Ann’s tomato-aversion this really has just the right amount of sauce. The toppings are also many, but worth it. Aside from possessing a comfort, expertise, or luck with yeasted doughs which I do not possess, when making this I suggest picking the best Italian sausage, zucchini, and cheese that work for you, since they’re the flavors that stand out most.

Sausage, Zucchini, Mushroom Pizza (with Thyme and Onions!)

For the Crust:

2 1/2 cups bread flour (or 2 1/4 cups flour plus 1/4 cup gluten powder, like I use)
3/4 cups warm water (about 110 degrees)
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 packet or about 2 1/2 teaspoons yeast (regular type)
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Mix the sugar into the water along with the yeast. Let this sit and bubble for a couple of minutes while you measure out the flour into a large bowl.  Mix the salt into the flour.  Pour the yeast mixture into the flour along with the 2-3 tablespoons olive oil.  Mix this all vigorously until it is mostly incorporated.  If it seems totally unmanageable (too wet) add a little but of flour at a time until you can take it out and knead it on the counter.  Knead it on the counter for as long as you can tolerate, or about 15 minutes. Take this time to reflect on your life, and the lives of the yeast beings.

Place the rounded dough in a clean bowl coated in olive oil.  Get the top oily and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it sit in a warm place for about an hour.  Now start to prepare your ingredients.

For the Toppings and Cooking:

1 zucchini, very thinly sliced
1/2 lb good sausage (no antibiotics please! or this pizza is perfectly delicious without meat)
2 cups crimini or button mushrooms, thinly sliced (I prefer crimini)
1/4 onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
olive oil, salt and pepper
some tomato sauce, like 1/4 cup or so (I use a very thin, simple Muir Glen tomato sauce that has no chunks, which is very important to me)
1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F or as high as your oven will go.  If you have a pizza stone or a large, flat, cast iron grill with a flat side put that in the oven now, flat side up, near the bottom on the oven.

Heat a medium skillet to medium low heat and add a bit of olive oil, sliced onions, and salt and pepper.  Cook these slowly all while you cook the following things.  Stir occasionally until caramelized and delicious.  Set them aside when they are done.

Head a very large non-stick skillet to medium high heat and place the zucchini in in a single layer.  Cook until slightly browned and then turn over to do the same on the other side.  It’s a few minutes per side.  Salt and pepper, and set aside in a dish.

Next up, the mushrooms.  A touch more olive oil; throw in your mushrooms.  Cook until tender and until they have given up a good bit of their juice…we don’t want a wet pizza.  Salt and pepper and set aside with the zucchini.

No extra oil needed, bread up your sausage in the pan and cook until done.  I throw the thyme in with the sausage.

Assembly:

You have a preheated oven with a large, hot flat thing in it.  if you don’t, you should roll and streatch out your dough on an appropriately sized (and oiled or parchment papered) pan.  If not, do what I did.  Since I used a rectangular shaped grill pan I used a long piece of parchment paper.  If you have a round stone, get some parchment that will fit on that.  Roll and stretch your risen (doubly)  pizza dough onto the parchment paper.

Lightly brush some oilive oil onto the pizza dough with your fingers or a brush.

Next, use a spoon to put a very thin layer of sauce onto the pizza, leaving a little crust around the edges.

Next, spread the mozzarella cheese onto the pizza evenly.  Not the Parmesan.

Now, sprinkle on the mushrooms and onions.  Then lay out the zucchini, then sprinkle on the sausage.  Oh man.

Finally, sprinkle the Parmesan all over the top.

To get the pizza into the oven, slide the parchment paper onto an upside down pan the shape of the stone or cast iron you are using.  Then slide the parchment paper (with the pizza on it) directly onto the surface of the hot stone or cast iron in the oven.  The pan does not go into the oven.

Cook at 500 degrees for 8-12 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and crust is brown.  Pull the pizza out by pulling the parchment back into the upside down pan.  You can see how important the parchment is.

Now, eat!

Ann says

This is a quick post; similar to the amount of time it took to make this dinner tonight.  I have made many a variation on a simple chicken and rice.  It can be made very sticky and sumptuous with bone-in and skin-on chicken thighs and white short grain rice and onions….or it can be made healthier and still delicious like I did tonight.

Tomorrow is my last day of clinical EVER.  So tonight, I needed something…savory
o_O

Abe says

This would also be delicious with some grated parmesan cheese mixed in at the end. Also, for the uninitiated, clinicals are when they air drop students into hospitals and have them help out and/or follow people around.

Chicken and Rice with Kale

serves 2-4

Ingredients:

About 2 cups of kale, roughly chopped
4 chicken boneless skinless chicken thighs (or whatever you have)
1 cup brown rice
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp coriander (I freshly grind mine, but whatever)

Start out by putting your rice and chicken stock in a pot: bring to a boil and turn the heat down to low.  Salt and pepper well. Let it simmer while you cook the following things.

In a large non-stick skillet put a tablespoon of oil and the chicken thighs on medium-high heat.  Salt and pepper these, too.  Brown them on both sides and remove to a plate.

Add a little more oil to the same pan.  Add the kale and toss to coat in the oil.  Put in a couple of tablespoons of water and the coriander and cover the skillet.  Allow to cook for about 5-10 minutes until wilted and pretty tender.

By now your rice should be nearly completely cooked-just a little al dente.  Tear the chicen into pieces and toss it all into the pan with the kale. Toss in the rice and any extra liquid too.  If there isn’t any extra liquid, consider adding a little more chicken stock or water at this time.  Stir it all together and taste for seasoning.  Adjust as needed.  Cook this, covered, for about 5 more minutes and stir again, and cover for another couple of minutes.  It should be sort of gooey by now.  Enjoy!