Pizzas!

Confession: I spent approximately the first 23 years of my life avoiding and pretty intensely disliking pizza. Now that I've realized how much I've missed, one of my go-to meals is homemade pizza. It also combines two of my favorite things: bread making and cooking.

Last night my friend and I had dinner to "celebrate" the end of her employment at her current job (hurray economy!) and I made two kinds of pizza: Spicy Spinach and Herbed Goat Cheese on flatbread, and White Pizza with Broccoli.

For the spinach pizza, I wilted the spinach for a couple minutes in a pan with olive oil at medium heat. As the spinach began to wilt, I added about a teaspoon and a half of fresh rosemary and some red pepper flakes (#1 spice of the New City Murrays). After a couple minutes I added this to the top of the flatbread, and added about 4 oz of garlic and herb goat cheese.

For the white pizza, I used regular pizza dough, picked up at my local bakery. I rolled this out and put it on a pan that had been sprinkled with cornmeal. I chopped some garlic and added it to about a cup of fat free ricotta. I also added some basil, onion powder, salt, pepper and (here it is again) red pepper flakes, and then spread the ricotta mixture on the dough. I sauteed some broccoli with garlic salt, put that on top, and then added some part-skim mozzarella and a little parmesan.

I put both of these pizzas in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes, until the cheese had slightly browned. Serve with Bud Light, or free Miller Draft from your landlords (true story)!

Peanut/Cashew Soup

Liisa was looking through my Bittman vegetarian cookbook last night and suggested I make peanut soup.  So, today, I figured I would.  But I'm a high roller, so I used cashews instead.

Not sure if I've figured out the portions just right, but it involves cashews, tomatoes, yams, a red onion, garlic, ginger, cayenne, salt, pepper, vegetable stock, coconut milk, and peanut butter (I would use cashew butter, but I'm only hood rich, not the real kind).  Cook the onion, garlic, and ginger, then throw in the cashews, add some salt, pepper, and a bit of cayenne, and throw in the stock and yams.  Cook it for ten minutes, add the coconut milk, tomatoes, and peanut butter. Cook for like five more minutes, and then add some more cashews for garnish, and you're set.

Turned out pretty awesome, though, like I said, I need to adjust the amount of which ingredients I use... Bittman is crazy about how much stock to use, so it felt light on certain items.  But it turned out awesome.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bran Muffins

I like muffins, but plain old white flour? Not so good for me. So I try to make something tasty but good for you, too. Who says you can't have it all?

Ingredients:

1.25 cup whole wheat flour
1.25 cup steel cut oats
0.5 cup bran
0.5 cup Splenda sweetener (the yellow stuff)
3t baking powder
1 rounded t cinnamon
3 eggs
0.5 cup canola oil
1.5 cup skim milk

Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.

These were wonderful with butter plain fresh out of the oven. And they were good later plain ( I was on the bus and had no butter--would have been too messy.)

Next time I may cut the sweetener a bit and add raisins. With whole wheat and bran, you need more oil and liquids than with white or corn flour, and those amounts could be experimented with.

"Spicy" Turkey Burgers

I am not normally a large meat eater, but recently I've been all about the protein.  Chicken, beef, and, more and more frequently, turkey burgers.  I came home last night with a hankering for turkey burgers, and an urge to use the chipotles in adobo that have been sitting in my cupboard for a while, so - Chipotle Turkey Burgers!

I was not impressed with the spiciness of these turkey burgers, but that may have been from my laziness in actually cutting the chipotles into little tiny pieces, and instead choosing "chunky-style" turkey burgers.  That, or the fact that my favorite condiment is jalapenos.  Just sayin'.

"Spicy" Chipotle Turkey Burgers

Combine in a bowl:

1 pound ground turkey

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 tablespoons cilantro

1 chipotle en adobo, finely chopped (optional if your name contains double vowels)

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon seasoned salt (I used regular, and it was still delightful)

1/4 teaspoon black pepper 

Smoosh it together into patties.

There are those big chunks I was talking about.

Then, put them in a pan over medium-high heat and cook them until theres no pink in the middle, and its dark on the outside.  Or at least, that's how I enjoy them.

Eat in a bun, on some lettuce, in between bread or just by itself like its a squished meatball!  

And then you end up with this -

And hopefully also a full belly, which would be more difficult to photograph.

spectacular salad by sasha hill

I love the spectacular salad! I really really really really really really really really want to make that spectacular salad again. Here's how we did it:

We smashed garlic and chopped it. We put red wine vinegar, olive oil, and mustard in a bowl. And we added salt and pepper and a pinch of sugar and mixed it. Then we put the bacon in the microwave. Then we melted the butter and put in the little pieces of bread. Then we cooked the bread in the butter until it was crunchy croutons.

We poached the egg in the hot vegetable oil. We put lettuce and red cabbage in the bowl of salad dressing and mixed it in the bowl. Then we put some salad on a plate. We put the egg in the salad. We put the croutons and the bacon in the salad. The end!

Arepas

Every Wednesday morning I check out Dining & Wine in the Times online for Mark Bittman's latest video. If you can get past his current goofy opening footage he usually demonstrates something you'll want to try. Today it was something I had never made (or eaten) before: Arepas!

They're little corn pancakes & when they're cooled you can cut them in half & make a sandwich with them. The problem is they're too good hot out of the pan. Who wants to wait until they're cool?

Here's the recipe:

1 cup fine corn meal (I used masa.)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup grated cheddar or monterey jack cheese

1 cup milk

2 T. butter

1/2 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen

1/4 cup chopped scallions

1/4 cup chopped cilantro (or parsley)

1 small jalapeno or serrano chile, seeded & minced (I had leftover roasted poblano so I used it)

3 T. neutral oil for frying (I used canola oil)

1. Put cornmeal in a large bowl with salt and cheese. Put milk in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until steam rises, then add butter and stir until melted. Remove from heat and stir into cornmeal mixture until a thick batter is formed. Fold in the corn kernels, scallion, cilantro and chili if using. (Maybe it was the masa but my batter was very thick. I added some water to get the right consistency.)

2. Let batter rest until it thickens into a soft dough, about 15 minutes. Gently form 3- to 4-inch balls from mixture and flatten with palm of your hand to a 1/2-inch-thick disk. You can cover and refrigerate disks for a few hours if you like.

3. Heat oil in a large skillet and cook arepas, working in batches, until golden brown, about 5 minutes, then flip and cook for another 3 minutes on other side. When all arepas are cooked and cool enough to handle, carefully slice them through the middle. If desired, serve with butter or stuff with beans, vegetables or sour cream.

( My first batch was too dark when I cooked them 5 minutes on the first side. I would suggest 3 minutes on the first side & 2 on the second. But it depends on your stove. )

Yield: 8 to 12 arepas.

Happy Birthday, Liisa!

September 1st is Liisa's birthday but we celebrated last Saturday night. For my fabulous daughter only a homemade cake will do. So, even though I'd rather cook than bake, I spent the afternoon making a chocolate cake recipe from Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/beattys-chocolate-cake-recipe/index.html

I have favorite recipes that I know by heart and practically cook with my eyes closed, but as a baker I'm still a beginner. By the time I was done there was flour everywhere, butter on my shirt, butter on the coffeemaker and even cocoa on my face. Maybe it was because I only have a hand mixer & I used a light metal bowl. I said I was a beginner. But hey, the cake was delicious! Happy Birthday, Liisa!