Grilled Pizza

Here's one of our latest culinary obsessions - making our own pizza.

Yeah, we've made our own pizza for years but always using pre-made crusts. Now, we're rolling the dough ourselves and it feels like we're doing so much more. Of course, we're also making a total mess of things so I don't know that more is better. But it sure is yummy!

This particular pizza concoction was sloppingly transferred to the pizza stone and transported to the grill. Look at the awesome mess I Joe made by rolling the dough in more of an oval so it ended up hanging off the one side!

Toppings on this one are homemade basil pesto, sundried tomatoes, grilled chicken and fresh mozzarella. Mmmm, so yummy. See how the cheese even turned nice and golden? That there is the result of almost burning it pure skill.

Since then, we've also made a ham, onion, thyme and Gruyere pizza but we did that one in the oven. We had better luck with the crust not looking like a mutilated tire on that one but I forgot to take photos before we dug into it.

Mmm, pizza...

Fix-It-Fridays: How to Boil an Egg

There's more than one way to skin a cat (is that an inappropriate reference for a foodish blog?) and there's more than one way to hard boil an egg.

Some people claim a very specific method to boiling eggs. They even make a very specific little uni-tasker for this purpose - the egg timer! Yet there's no method to my madness. Sometimes I bring the water to a boil first. Sometimes I throw the eggs in before it boils. I don't set any timers so I just boil them until I remember to go back and turn the stove off. Usually this is before all the water has evaporated from the pan. Is it possible to boil eggs for to long?

I've always wondered if there's a correct technique and yet I rarely have problems.

So, fix it! What's your version of the proper way to boil an egg? Do you add anything to the water? Submerge in cold water? Peel while still hot or wait until they cool down?

Gordon Ramsay's Escalopes of Chicken

For those of you who pay attention, this was originally posted on ShowMyFace on July 21. But I've made it several times since then, including last night, and it seemed worth reposting to this site.

On Friday, I took a mental health day from work. It was kinda necessary and I made great use of it but doing a lot of nothing.

Part of the nothing involved watching a couple of shows on the DVR. That is when I saw this:



If you can't watch the YouTube video because your employer makes you ask permission to pee blocks YT or if you choose to be disagreeable by not watching it because you want me to punch you in the face, here's what you're missing: Gordon Ramsay making an absolutely mouth-watering chicken dish complete with basil, tomato and fresh mozzarella.

Now, basil, tomato and fresh mozzarella are one of my favorite flavor combinations. Joe's also a fan so when I showed him the video, he agreed - we must make this!

Sunday night was the night. The video gave enough information that I could make it straight from that but I managed to find the exact recipe online. After a bit of translating (the only important bit is that 200°C is roughly 400°F), we were underway. I made sure to swear adequately at Joe while I was cooking - I don't think Gordon Ramsay recipes work any other way.

It was a quick dish, a simple dish, and an amazing dish. The only thing we did differently is that I used fresh basil from our garden even where the recipe called for dried and I used about half a cup of dry white wine when we were cooking up the tomato/sauce mixture. Oh, and I skipped his sides. Because it's my kitchen, you $%^@ing donut, and I wanted too!

The results? See for yourself:



Beautiful and delicious. Even Joe agreed that it was worth being called a stupid donkey if it meant he could eat this for dinner!

Now, $%@& off, all of ya!

Programming Note: Gordon's back on tv starting tonight - it's a new season of Hell's Kitchen. I'll be there!

Fix-It-Fridays: Grilled Cheese

As the weather begins to turn towards Fall, I start to think of comfort foods. On a crisp afternoon, I'm not sure anything is better than a nice bowl of tomato soup with a grilled cheese available for dipping. So today's "Fix-It" is grilled cheese. Because as much as everybody loves it unless they are weirdos, there are a million different ways to make it. From the bread to the cheese to other additives (tomatoes or peppers?) to the cooking method, the variations are endless.

Our favorite cheese is probably Jarlsberg, as inspired by the movie The Devil Wears Prada. It's a very mild cheese with a delightful amount of melt. If that's not available (but we usually have it on hand), we'll use Velveeta. Velveeta may be unnatural but there is something about the melty gooeyness of Velveeta "cheese product" that makes a lovely grilled cheese.

I'll admit to using whatever bread we have around - usually plain old sandwich bread - slathered in a lot of butter. Most often my cooking method is either a frying pan on the stove or our beloved Cuisinart Griddler. It's a much more squishy sandwich but still very yummy.

If we plan ahead, we're much more likely to experiment with other cheeses and breads. I haven't done much as far as adding things to the cheese other than occasionally some ham but I imagine tomatoes would be very yummy.

So, fix it! Tell me about your grilled cheese sandwich. Inspire our comfort food so we can be prepared for the falling leaves and frosty afternoons.

2007 Altos R Tempranillo

2007 Altos R Tempranillo
La Rioja region of Spain

This bottle of wine was included in our most recent Wall Street Journal Wine Club shipment.

The Altos R Tempranillo was a very smooth dry red and we paired it with spicy tacos. I'd like to try it with some lamb or bison. Though it was aged in French oak, the taste was not oaky at all. I'm finding I'm not a huge fan of heavy oak taste so that was a positive for me.

Honestly, I have no idea what I'm doing trying to review wines but I liked this one. It is listed around $15/bottle which seems like a very fair price for the bottle. I'd totally buy it again.

Lots of wine posts to come, by the way. We visited Napa and Sonoma recently and I have much to report! And so we begin "Winey Wednesday" - I have enough wines in the house to keep the posts coming for at least 3 months at this point.

Cilantro

I've heard there are two kinds of people in this world: I'm one of those who can't stand cilantro. Joe brought home our CSA/farm delivery this week and before he even had it sat down on the counter I could tell there was cilantro in it.

It doesn't taste soapy to me but it still tastes mightily unpleasant. I adore salsa but nothing ruins a batch for me quicker than finding it full of this leafy green stuff.

Note my cilantro is all wilty in the photo? This is because it took me a full ten days to work up enough cold in my nose intestinal fortitude to drag it from the fridge to snap its mugshot.

Know what's sad? I'm not even sure if Joe likes it or not. I'm so opposed, I didn't bother finding out or even attempting to do anything with it. I meant to bring it to work in case someone at the office might be more inclined (I'm not a fan of letting things go to waste) but I couldn't imagine being trapped in a car with it for my twenty minute commute.

Sorry, cilantro, you're no friend of mine.

Do you have an herb that you're violently opposed to or am I the only one so horribly offended by green flavoring-thingys?

Amish Friendship Bread

A couple of weeks ago we were visiting with a friend and his family for the evening. When it came time for dessert, I not only received a sweet treat but a total blast from the past - Amish Friendship Bread. She served us up a nice warm helping and also sent me home with a starter so I could make my own. When I mentioned this to a pal from Texas, she had never heard of it so I thought it might be worth sharing.

Here are the instructions/recipe:

Amish Friendship Bread

This is more than a recipe - it's a way of thinking. In our hi-tech world almost everything comes prepackaged and designed for instant gratification. So where does a recipe that takes ten days to make fit in? Maybe it's a touchstone to our past - to those days not so very long ago when everything we did took time and where a bread that took 10 days to make was not as extraordinary as it seems today.

The recipe comes to us from Mrs. Norma Condon of Los Angeles. Amish Friendship Bread is a great bread for the holidays. When you've made your bread, you can give your friends a sample and the starter that made it! Then your friends can make their own and pass it along to their friends. This is why the bread is called "friendship bread". It makes a great homemade birthday and Christmas present. Church groups and hospitals have spread a lot of love and cheer by making Amish Friendship Bread for their members. Many people make it regularly just because it tastes so good!

Amish Friendship Bread is a genuine starter bread. If you know someone with a starter, you are in luck. For those of you without access to a starter, we've done our research and found a great option. It's a special starter in powder form that can be activated with flour and water; it's safe, very inexpensive and we can send it to you. Starter for Amish Friendship Bread (G-110)

The Recipe

Important Note: Don't use metal spoons or equipment. Do not refrigerate. Use only glazed ceramic or plastic bowls or containers.

Required Main Ingredient
1 cup live yeast starter (see above)

day 1:
Do nothing with the starter.

days 2-5:
Stir with a wooden spoon.

day 6:
Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk. Stir with a wooden spoon.

days 7-9:
Stir with a wooden spoon.

Day 10:
Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Stir. Take out 3 cups and place 1 cup each into three separate plastic containers. Give one cup and a copy of this recipe to three friends. To the balance (a little over one cup) of the batter, add the following ingredients and mix well.

1 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl combine the following dry ingredients and mix well:

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 - (5.1 oz) box instant vanilla pudding
1/2 tsp salt )
1 cup nuts (optional)

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix and pour into two well-greased and cinnamon sugared bread pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

When I made mine, I just poured everything into a traditional-sized glass cake pan to bake. After an hour I turned the oven off and left the cake to finish baking in the ambient heat.

Also, the friend who gave me the starter told me she routinely freezes her starter so she always has some. I now have three plastic baggies of starter in the freezer just waiting to thaw on day 0 and then start at day 1 again.

Part of me does wonder how all that milk sitting out at room temperature doesn't develop some kind of mad cow disease or bovine flu and kill us all but I guess years and years of history can't be wrong, right? Just ask the Native Americans!

I know the photo isn't great and makes the bread appear dry - however it's very moist. I'd say it's really a misnomer to call it a bread because it's really much more of a cake consistency.

We've enjoyed this both with a bit of vanilla ice cream in the evening or in the morning with some butter alongside our coffee. The sweet cinnamon flavor works well in both situations.

I grew up in Upstate New York - not that far from the Pennsylvania Dutch Country so I'm fairly familiar with the culture and some of their crafts/yummies. I'm interested in hearing if you've heard of this before, as well as a bit of geographical information.