Friday, January 7, 2011

7:30 AM – Awake, shower, dress, eat breakfast and put up a blog post for the day.

9:40 AM – Open email and find this gem:

Happy New Year Linda!
Been following your blog and your bumper crop of citrus. I bought an ACME years ago when our landscape included many prolific citrus trees. It juices at lightning speed! Would you like to borrow mine? Let me know and I’ll drop it by ; )
Jeanie

9:43 AM – Immediately Reply:

Oh, Jeanie, you are a lifesaver! YES, a thousand times, YES! Thank you so much, I was actually thinking of putting out a neighborhood search for a juicer I could borrow. I’ll have to show you the one I have, you will die laughing when you see it! Thank you! xoxo
Linda

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Today and tomorrow feature more recipes from the weekend with Marissa’s friends visiting from Tucson. When they arrived late on Friday afternoon, they promptly hit the pool to cool off and play volleyball and basketball.  There were also some wicked ping pong matches happening under the patio. I took a dozen pictures of the guys doing the “jump shots” at one end of the pool… showing off for the ladies and for each other. In every single photo, you can see the guys (John, Will, and Chris above – not pictured: Albert, Kevin, and Shoaib) totally enthralled with their moves – while the girls, (Paige, Astrid, and Marissa) at the other end of the pool, are completely oblivious of them… cracks me up!

There are two ingredients here that you may or may not be familiar with. If you’re not sure what either Nduja or piquillo peppers are, just click on their name and a link will take you to a previous post all about them. With all the young men to feed, I, of course, doubled the recipe.

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After yesterday’s post about “reading the recipe”, I thought I would show a couple (of the many) students who really do understand the importance of that very thing. We all know that “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” For four full days, these two cuties never needed a thing from me and sometimes you feel as if you’re ignoring such independent kids.  I just hope they know, that I know, how very competent and capable they are and that my goal is to make all my students be just like them! Great job, girls!

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Right # 1 – Pizza! It is one of the most popular foods for a huge majority of Americans. Why? Because it is packed with flavor; you’ve got the great bread, with melted gooey goodness, and tasty toppings. It can be eaten in hand and is the perfect food to share. It is fabulous eaten hot or cold.

Right #2 – Chocolate! Another all-time favorite of people worldwide. Why? For starters, chocolate melts at about 98 degrees, and not so coincidentally, our body temperature is about 98 degrees. The soothing quality achieved by merely placing a piece of chocolate in your mouth and just having it melt away is simply luxurious and luscious. Plus chocolate is known to be a mild mood elevator, stimulating brainwaves and pushing your stress levels down. When your stress levels lower, you become more relaxed which in turn is beneficial to your health. Chocolate also raises antioxidant levels in the blood, which in turn help fight any foreign bodies that can cause illnesses. And of course, there is the benefit your taste buds feel when consuming chocolate-which keeps you in touch with that happy little child within.

Excellent overall – combining Pizza and Chocolate! Sounds like the perfect food to me! You’ve got the great bread, and the gooey melted chocolate, which not so coincidentally are also the tasty toppings.  You eat it out of hand either hot or cold, and you’ll want to share so your friends can ooh and aah along with you!

But…. before we get to the recipe of the day, I have to once again share a post from one of my favorite bloggers (heck one of my favorite writers) out there. Cheryl Sternman Rule of “5 Second Rule” has such talent, humor, humanity, and style that I just can’t help but share.  Sure, she’s on my Blogroll (in fact, right near the top) but you really must read her post from yesterday, please click this LINK, and thank me later.

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If you’ve been looking at restaurant menus for the past year or so, you’ve noticed that chefs are putting eggs on top of just about everything. Poached or fried eggs on top of pasta, salads, and pizzas. The egg is the world’s most perfect food, it is economical and a great way to add protein and richness to just about anything. So take a crack at this current trend at the most natural time of day, for breakfast or brunch, but with an unconventional twist, breakfast pizza!

Small eggs work best if you’re making large pizzas to slice into wedges. The challenge – small eggs can be difficult to find. Try your local Asian market because most mainstream grocery stores only carry extra-large, large, and if you’re lucky, medium eggs. If you go with the medium eggs, remove about half of the whites before placing them on the pizza, or the eggs will overflow and make a mess of the oven.  Or, divide the dough into 8 portions and make individual pizzas, then you can use the entire medium egg. You won’t get the same bang for your buck though, since you’ll get two large pizzas, or 16 servings if you follow the recipe as written. And the look of the large pizza is much more impressive than the individual, as you can see for yourself in these photos.

Side note: Almost forgot to mention – watch me at 4:30 PM on Channel 12 (NBC) Valley Dish tomorrow with Tram Mai.

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One week from today is St. Patrick’s Day!  Here are a few fun St. Patrick and St. Patrick’s Day facts from Wikipedia:

• Blue was the original color associated with St. Patrick, not green.
• St Patrick used the three-leaf shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) to the Irish people.
• St. Patrick died on March 17th 461 AD.
• The Irish Society of Boston organized what was not only the first Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in the colonies but the first recorded Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in the world on 17 March 1737.
• The first parade in Ireland was not until the 1931 parade in Dublin.
• Chicago dyes its river green and has done so since 1962 when sewer workers used green dye to check for sewer discharges and had the idea to turn the river green for St. Patrick’s Day.
• St. Patrick’s Day is a one-day reprieve from the forty days of fasting during the season of Lent. For many Christians, this includes indulging in ale.
• Saint Patrick’s Day is widely celebrated in America by Irish and non-Irish alike. Many people, regardless of ethnic background, wear green-colored clothing and items. Traditionally, those who are caught not wearing green are pinched, usually affectionately.
• And of course, corned beef and cabbage is the food most associated with St. Patrick’s Day in the United States.

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For whatever reason, it seems that most kids really like pineapple on their pizza, so let’s give them what they want! An easy thin-crust pizza with fresh pineapple, barbeque sauce, mozzarella, and bits of bacon.

If you make pizza (or bake frozen pizza) often at home, it would be wise to invest in a pizza stone.  The stones are available at all kitchen stores and produce the best “restaurant quality” crisp, thin or thick crust pizza. Without a stone, just bake on a pizza pan or cookie sheet, sprinkled with a little cornmeal to prevent the pizza from sticking.

When using a stone be sure to preheat your oven, with the stone inside, at the highest temperature your oven can be set at for at 30 minutes. I made one with and another without the bacon, delicious both ways, so go vegetarian, if you choose. Buon appetito or (E ‘ai ka-kou, in Hawaiian)!

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Today is my gorgeous girlfriend, Jen’s, birthday. I cannot begin to express how much I love this amazing woman; she is my rock, my soul-mate sister, my “on-demand” comedian, and my friend.  She can make me laugh like nobody’s business! She is there through thick and thin and is a loving friend, mother, wife, sister, aunt, and daughter. Whenever I have something to share, complain about, need help, advice, or just want to chat, Jen is the first person I call.

The one really awful thing about Jennifer? She lives 1,400 miles from me (as the crow flies). Happy birthday, Jenny Jen, I forgive you for that one awful thing and love you unconditionally!

For the rest of the week, I will highlight and share recipes from Jen, who is coincidentally, a great cook, or recipes of mine that are favorites of hers. Today’s recipe is a fun and quite a rich appetizer pizza that is perfect for upcoming holiday parties.

My girl, Jen

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Dinner has been decided upon for this lovely Sunday evening. It’s only supposed to get up to 99 degrees today! It was not decided by me, but instead by my garden. I went out this morning, while it was only 84 degrees, and noticed that if I didn’t do something about the luscious basil going wild and the very tall bay laurel tree in my garden that they would take it over.

I’m thinking about an appetizer of flatbread with basil in the dough, basil oil, and roasted tomatoes with – wait for it… basil pesto! And maybe salmon grilled on top of the bay leaves and lemon slices and also some Yukon gold potatoes braised in stock and more bay leaves.

I’ve had crème brûlée scented with fresh bay leaves, fresh from a bay tree, before, and although it was delicious, I really don’t want to stand over the hot stove in the summer “stirring constantly” (two of my least favorite words!) a steaming custard. After painting that little picture for myself, the crème brûlée is definitely OUT! So something else may be with the bay leaves for dessert – any thoughts out there? I am off to the movies…

……I am thankful no one came up with any dessert ideas because I was actually too busy to even think about dessert today! Dave and I saw Inglorious Basterds early this afternoon and LOVED it! This is from a girl who has to put her hands over her eyes during the icky parts! And there were plenty of icky parts, but I still want to go back and see it again! I’m not a huge Quentin Tarantino fan, I liked Kill Bill(s) and Pulp Fiction but this movie was just so cool, and Brad Pitt… love him even more than before, if that is possible. What about Christoph Waltz? If he isn’t nominated for an Oscar, there is something wrong in the movie biz! Enough about that, this is a “cooking/food blog” so on to the rest of that part of the day…

After the movie and a Costco run, I arrived home at about 3:00 and began making the Grand Basil-Bay Dinner. Good friends, Chris and Kathy Froggatt were to arrive at 6:00, with nice wines in hand! It was a great evening with good friends. They recounted their wonderful vacation cruise to Monaco, Italy, and Greece (ready to go tomorrow after hearing about it all!)

Amidst all the catching up and garden touring, I totally burned (we’ll call it charred!) the flatbread while grilling it. But we enjoyed it anyway because the Bay Leaf Roasted Tomatoes that topped it was still tasty and the Baileyana Chardonnay that Chris brought somehow washed away all thoughts of those nasty carcinogens we were ingesting.

Dinner itself went off much better. We had a fabulous Chasseur Pinot Noir from Sonoma and the bay laurel flavors present in the fish and potatoes were truly sublime. Kathy is not a salmon fan, so I did a “personal-size” piece of halibut for her. I think the individual size is a really nice presentation for a more formal dinner. A bit more work to individually wrap each piece of fish, but it’ll cook faster and it does look fancy!

One last note about the salmon. It is drizzled with olive oil, and any fruity olive oil will do, but I adore our own local Queen Creek Olive Mill Meyer Lemon Olive Oil. It is available locally at A.J.’s or can be ordered online HERE.

And if you are a neighbor or live close enough to drop by, just give me a call if you want to make any of the dishes with the fresh bay leaves. You can have all you’ll need, free for the taking. The salmon recipe uses way too many leaves to purchase at the store in those tiny herb packages when you can actually find it. So don’t be shy, the bay tree grows better when it is pruned, so you’ll be doing me a favor… really!

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Connor is safe and sound and cool in beautiful Flagstaff and I am trying to settle back into my new routine of blogging. As promised here are the pizza recipes from Connor’s “Last Supper” (I know, how dramatic can a mom be?!?) You’ll notice that the dough/crust recipe is the same for all pizzas… that is because this is my favorite and most reliable crust recipe. There are different techniques for each baking, but any and all can be done whichever way you prefer. On Monday night, I baked all pizzas on a stone in a 500-degree oven. When I feel like going outside (I did not on Monday, since it was sweltering outside!) then I prefer to use the grill, directions for grilling pizza can be found in the Barbecue Chicken Pizza recipe below. But until the evenings cool off, you won’t find me out there unless the pool is also involved!

Connor’s California Club Pizza

Dough
1 tablespoon or 1 package dry yeast
2 cups flour, divided
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups sliced rotisserie chicken breast
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup cooked thick bacon, crumbled-about 8 slices
3 cups chopped iceberg lettuce
1 cup chopped romaine lettuce
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
4 large tomatoes, two diced, the other two each sliced into 8 slices
1 avocado, sliced into 16 slices

Dough: In the large bowl of a standing mixer, combine 1/4 cup of lukewarm water, the yeast, and 1/4 cup of flour. Let stand for 20 minutes, this is called the sponge.

Add the remaining 1 3/4 cups flour, 1/2 cup lukewarm water, olive oil, milk, and salt, and mix thoroughly. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, elastic, and a little bit tacky to the touch, about 8 minutes.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl and turn the dough over to cover with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap…

and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Place a pizza stone in your oven and preheat to 500 degrees.

Divide the dough in half. Form each half into a 10-inch circle on a lightly floured surface.
Place one round of dough onto a pizza pan or a pizza peel that will be used to slide the dough onto the hot pizza stone. Be sure to dust the pizza peel liberally with flour or cornmeal so that the assembled pizza will slide off easily. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes or until crust just begins to brown. Repeat with the remaining half of the dough.

Brush the pizza crust with olive oil. Sprinkle 1 cup of shredded mozzarella on the crust, followed by 1/2 of the crumbled bacon and 1/2 of the chicken. Return to oven until cheese is melted, about 3 minutes. Repeat with remaining crust.

Assemble: Combine the iceberg lettuce with romaine lettuce in a large bowl. Stir in mayonnaise and mix until lettuce is well coated, then gently stir in the diced tomatoes.

Cut each pizza into 8 slices. Top each slice of pizza with a slice of tomato and 1 slice of avocado. Top each with lettuce mixture and serve immediately.

Makes 2 pizzas, 8 slices each

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