TWENTY-FIVE : EGG, SPINACH AND PECORINO PIZZA

PLENTY

NOVEMBER 14 2012

TWENTY-FIVE : EGG, SPINACH AND PECORINO PIZZA

PIZZA PARTY! One of my favorite things is pizza and I love inviting friends over and trying fun, new topping combinations. The hardest part has always been the crust, though. Over the years, I've tried a bunch of recipes but had yet to find one that makes really airy, bubbly, "artisan" crust. I had one that made pretty darn good crust but it took kneading and multiple rises and two or three days in the fridge to make it work. Based on these past experiences with pizza crust recipes, I had a feeling that Mr. O's pizza dough would be fine, but not epic. And I want EPIC! So I chose to follow a "no knead" recipe instead... and man am I glad I did!

This crust is amazing... and so easy! I used "Jim Lahey's No Knead Pizza Dough" recipe from Serious Eats for fantastic results. I would say it's a bit of a stretch (pun intended) to make 4 pizzas from this recipe. They end up rather small. So, I would amend this recipe to say it makes 4 small or 3 medium pizzas.

"no-knead" dough. amazing!

TWENTY-THREE & TWENTY-FOUR : HAM PARTY!

PLENTY

NOVEMBER 02 2012

TWENTY-THREE : EGGPLANT CROQUETTES
TWENTY-FOUR : QUINOA & GRILLED SOURDOUGH SALAD

It's Friday night and I'm cooking up a ham the size of my head! The big boy, slathered in a mix of jalapeno jelly and whole-grain mustard, has been slowly baking for the last couple of hours and requires little attention. So I can focus on the other dishes while keeping an eye on the Blazer game. I'm planning to greet my dinner guests with hot, crispy eggplant croquettes then serve the ham with mashed potatoes, sauteed kale, Mr. O's Quinoa & Grilled Sourdough Salad and lots o' wine.

The croquettes worry me because I never deep-fry at home. Don't get me wrong, I really, really love fried foods, but I just know I'll run into trouble... grease splatters, left-over oil to deal with, realizing how easy it is and eating everything breaded and fried from now on. But tonight, it's on! First I need to blacken the eggplant but the broiler isn't really getting the job done so I transfer them out to the grill. The recipe calls for "4 medium eggplant"; I had two small ones from the garden and bulked them up with another three from the store.

garden eggplants in the front

TWENTY-TWO : CHICKPEA SAUTÉ WITH GREEK YOGURT

PLENTY

NOVEMBER 01 2012

TWENTY-TWO : CHICKPEA SAUTÉ WITH GREEK YOGURT

Here is a really simple and quite tasty recipe that works great as a side dish, as I did today, or could be a main meal over rice. I used it to complement some green chicken marsala with garden-fresh potato. In fact, along with the potato in the marsala, the carrot and chard from the sauté were also from the garden (yay!).

Luckily I had some cooked chickpeas stashed in the freezer so I didn't have to a: deal with that step or b: used canned chickpeas. Plus, I've been trying to make myself use stuff from the freezer because I have trouble throwing anything away and so the freezer is nearly overflowing.

beautiful rainbow chard

TWENTY-ONE : SURPRISE TATIN

PLENTY

OCTOBER 27 2012

TWENTY-ONE : SURPRISE TATIN

I had to look this up, but a tatin is "a caramelized tart that is baked with pastry on top and then inverted for serving". Sounds complicated! And it kind of is although turned out to be way, way easier to deal with than I expected.

First important thing to point out is that some of the potato in this tatin came from our garden! Sometime this spring, I pushed a couple sprouting red potatoes into the ground and they magically transformed into seven potatoes, some of them huge!

garden potatoes!

TWENTY : HERB-STUFFED TOMATOES

PLENTY

OCTOBER 21 2012

TWENTY : HERB-STUFFED TOMATOES

TOMATOES! I have so many tomatoes! What to do with them? There's no possible way to eat them all before they go bad. Especially since I don't really like fresh tomatoes. I know most people think raw tomatoes are sweet and luscious, but I find them rather bitter and most of the big, beefy ones have an off-putting ammonia aroma. I do enjoy the occasional BLT and, admittedly, did enthusiastically devour Mr. O's Marinated Mozzarella & Tomato salad last month. But mostly I prefer my tomatoes cooked and could slurp down tomato soups or pasta sauce all day long. I mean I seriously still dream about Frankie's slow-simmered Sunday Sauce and will undoubtedly be making another big batch sometime this winter.

tomato overload! still figuring out what to do with the green ones. pickles, perhaps?