the ramble

Last week I made my first attempt at pizza from scratch.  It came out lumpy, but utterly delicious. Here are the two recipes I used:

Dough:
2 cups warm water
1 packet yeast
1 tbs brown sugar or honey
1 tsp garlic
4 cups white flour (and a little extra for your hands)
Dash of salt
Olive oil
Dash of red pepper and/or basil

1. Combine yeast, water and sugar and let it get frothy.
2. Add 4 cups flour and mix. Add another cup if you need it and a dash of salt.
3. Mix in red pepper, basil and/or garlic.
4. Knead for 20 minutes. Form into 2 spheres and lightly coat in olive oil. Let it rise for 1 to 20 hours.
5. Toss in a circular shape.

Pizza #1: Red Sauce
1/2 jar Classico pizza sauce
1/4 red pepper sliced thinly
Mozzarella
Parmesan
Garlic
Cubed cooked chicken (sauted in chicken broth and pepper)

Pizza #2: Pesto Pizza
1/2 cup or so of homemade (or, in my case, Whole Foods-made) pesto sauce
Cubed chicken (sauted in chicken broth, pepper and basil)
Mozzarella
Parmesan
Red onion, thinly sliced

1/3 red onion, chopped
1 tsp garlic, finely chopped (or garlic powder or garlic paste)
1 small tub whipped cream cheese, plain or with chives
Smoked salmon, chopped
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. Mix onions, garlic, pepper and cream cheese well.

2. Add salmon and continue mixing to taste (some people like more, some like less salmon…I’ll let you work out the ratios).

3. Spread on a bagel (onion, everything, sun-dried tomato…having a flavored bagel adds a lot to the meal)

This week I tried a few new recipes. The first: a pumpkin pie recipe from French Women Don’t Get Fat.

The thing about pumpkin pie for me is this: I love the pumpkin part, but I don’t love the crust. Pie crust is bland and just always seems like a waste of calories. So, I made a few adjustments…ones that you might want to try if you’re making said pumpkin pie.

First, leave out the crust instructions. Then, make the sugar-nut mixture that goes between pie and crust, but either A) use it as a crust-like layer on the bottom or B) try pre-baking it a little per her instructions and then mix it in with the pumpkin mixture. Bake normally.

The second recipe I tried this week was Little Rags Soup (page 154, Cooking for Mr. Latte). And all I have to say about that one is YUM. Also, I diluted the chicken broth with a little water (maybe 1/3 water, 2/3 chicken broth) when I made it. Still very tasty.

Sunday night, I put one of the recipes of Cooking for Mr. Latte to the test (page 88: Papardelle with lemon, herbs and ricotta salata), and I must say that it was even better than I expected. Especially after the first couple bites. Something about that pasta dish gets better with every bite.

Before I could chop these herbs to perfection and boil my fusilli pasta and zest a lemon for the dish, though, I had to go shopping. And during said shopping trip I learned A) that no one at the regular grocery store knows where the regular ricotta cheese is, let alone the Ricotta Salata; B) Ricotta Salata is not the same as regular Ricotta; and C) papardelle pasta is a made up thing that no one sells.

But you know what all grocery stores do sell? Fresh bread. Mmmm.

And it worked out particularly well to serve said fancy pasta dish from said fancy book with one of my grilled cheese creations (Dutch crunch bread lightly brushed with truffle oil with Havarti cheese and marinated sun dried tomatoes and pepper) and a blueberry dessert (blueberries sprinkled with honey and brown sugar and baked in the oven, then topped with a dollop of whipped cream) that I made up on the spot (though it’s very simple, so probably someone else has also “made it up” before – I have no delusions of dessert-inventing grandeur).

Wonderfully, everything came together perfectly (at least in my opinion). I believe at some point in the evening I asked to be alone with my sandwich. It was that good. And, since Pookie the Raven had seconds and we all worked together to polish off the dessert entirely, I’d say the evening was a success for my taste-testers as well.

It really is the simple things in life that make it so delightful. Eating a great meal, getting dressed in the morning (particularly if I get to wear my leopard print belt), wine tasting, snuggling my Luna before bed. Even chopping herbs.

I spent last night eating mussels and fries at a French restaurant just outside downtown Denver. With a bona fide French man (and one of my favorite lady friends and a charming Canadian).

Of course, taking a French man to an Americanized French restaurant is a rather humorous experience. First, he started greeting people as they walked in and out the door behind us–in French. A rather charming thing to do…but one that caught the Americans quite a bit off guard. They looked nervous.

We made our way to our table and ordered some wine (and there’s not much to say about the wine, as it was authentically French) and began to peruse the menu–a menu which turns on a variety of types of steamed mussels with French fries, which is, according to our French friend, a Belgian dish. And then there was the beef bourguignon, which should never be served with pasta (sacre bleu!). And the very confusing dessert menu, full of American wolves in French sheep’s clothing.

It reminded me of my visit to Vienna many years back, where I learned from a very passionate group of Austrian college students that the movie Sound of Music is an absolute travesty. No one ever eats schnitzel with noodles!

“It’s interesting to experience what Americans think is French food,” He said.

And we laughed and apologized for subjecting him to it. Of course, he was delightfully good natured and the whole evening was dripping with humor–not actual dislike or exasperation as you might expect.

I suppose it would be akin to traveling through Italy and having your new Italian friends take you to an American restaurant where they served the hamburgers with peas mixed in or the hot dogs with a dollop of marinara sauce.