Rock retaining wall filling in with Wooly Thyme and reddish Chicks & Hens (Hens & Chicks?), wild yellow Columbine and Sedum.
Brachyglottis greyi, also called Senecio greyi, with the common name daisy bush.
Snap peas reaching towards the sky - bounded by an awesome willow teepee and green garden tape. There's a few that are almost ready to eat!
Today I got started on a big batch of dough -- here's the full recipe for the dough and pizza.
Yeast, water, sugar, salt and olive oil.
White flour, cornmeal and some whole wheat pastry flour - mix mix mix.
Dry into the wet. Very carefully mix to blend, but not knead.
Blended!
Back to the Big Container to rise.
And a few hours later!
To be continued ... in the form of a completed pizza.
Googling around, I found this recipe for a cold salad made with buckwheat soba noodles.
Alas, all the ingredients were on-hand- though I substituted the green beans for the fava type and omitted asaragus, which we had the two nights before.
Dressing on the left - cooked noodle and raw carrots on right.
Steamed Greens - drained to cool then chopped.
Garden Elf on a colorful slope.
Wind catching whirly fisherman.
Happy Hostas.
Tall Foxgloves.
Poppies Peeking.
Nice soft dough after 2 hours of rise. Extra flour prevents sticking, I swept away most- extra is better sometimes.
This batch rolled out so well, I added an extention board.
Browned onion, mock sausage and my own spice blend pressed into the dough.
Waiting for the rise under plastic wrap. Puffy is good, pressing down to reform round shape is helpful.
Par baked buns, lightly brown on the bottom, set on top. Ready for a tablespoon of sauce and 1/4 cup of cheese. Pressing into the tough again, is part of the technique.
Ready to eat! The new pizza wheel made easy work of cutting each into neat quarters.
Official recipe: King Arthur Flour Pizza Buns.
See my other posts in this "Pizza Bun" category for more information.
Thank you Martha Stewart for this recipe, I had everything on-hand and dinner was great.
Thank you "Gimee Lean Sausage" for making a palatable vegetarian substitute. This product does not already have "taste" so it's a perfect companion to home-made sauce. The bad news, it looks beyond horrible out of the package - I mean gross. But once added and broken up into browning onions it is fine.
Photos added May 22 from original and second night serving:
A celebration dinner in Pittsburgh, PA at The Elbow Room with lump crab cakes, thin asparagus and sweet potato. Not far from my reach was the bottle of bubbly shared by the table to celebrate M's college graduation.
Other great, super fresh dishes on their menu were chicken on a bed of fresh greens with cranberries, apples, feta and a lemony dressing. Hubs had crab atop greens with avocado. Everyone liked this place and some were able to return for lunch a few days later :-D
What is that noise??
The mid-April thunder and hail storm arrived right before dinner.
Boy, am I glad that I resisted setting out (buying) more tender plants, they would have suffered dearly today.
The ever-adorable primrose were moved from their exposed placement on the porch railings to the floor.
I pulled a cornmeal pizza crust from the freezer. After serving dinner we decided that in terms of enhancing dry ingredients, cornmeal is much better than whole wheat.
Cornmeal adds text texture and flavor, but not that, well wheat-ness. Look for the best organic variety you can find, preferably in a bulk bin section where you can buy the small amount you need.
...so here's the line up, top to bottom of defrosted home made sauce, thin sliced red onion, pre-heated oven with rack in low position, the handy rolling pin (handles removed) rolled out dough and 14" pan waiting to have the EVOO spread around. Like a stir fry, having everything prepped in place is best.
Bottom layer: my home made sauce, sliced red pepper tossed in oregeno, garlic powder, salt with sliced red onions.
Just one cheese: grated Mozzarella.
Doneness! We both have leftovers for lunch too! Not shown: green salad with slivered almonds.
Find the crust / pizza dough recipe in the bible for easy peasy pizza dough: Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day.
Primula. So darling, cute and durable for the front porch:
I had to get two more of these gems to put at ground level.
Time to make lasagne with my own sauce:
Tip:
Pound of TJ Part Skim Mozzerlla shredded in no time flat!
Ricotta mixed with nutmeg/salt & pepper with 2 beaten eggs added before assembly. On the right, my preferred topping of sliced romas in olive oil and Parmesan.
Getting ready for assembly. Cooled sauce, grated mozzerella, 2" deep pan that I wish was 3" deep. Hub's Sour Dough Corn Bread Muffins cooling on the rack.
When I got to the part in the instructions to add beef, the dish look bare - so I pulled out some mushrooms, a shallot and some clean Rainbow Chard that was on hand and sauteed for a bit to add in place of the meat:
Ready for foil cover and baking time. It started to bubble over so I put the stoneware dish on a rimmed tray. This adds to the cooking time but our dinner guests patiently waited while it browned and bubbled to completeness.
This was the first time I tried no-bake lasagne noodles - and these worked great!
Martha Stewart recipe. There's a link to the Marinara Sauce if you are ambitious. Otherwise 2 jars will do it. I used the Noodle assembly technique for the shallower pan and had a few leftover for a mini lasagne.
The Jane Brody Classic from her classic Good Food Book.
Top - Cornbread Layer:
Ready for baking in a lightly greased dish for about 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven.
"Smoked Salmon Flatbread"
cape cleare wild smoked salmon, crème fraîche, fine herbs, shaved red onions
"Louie Louie”
butter lettuce, romaine & arugula, louis dressing, avocado, oregon pink shrimp, deviled egg
After this we viewed the new exhibit.
Bottom to top: Pizza dough from The Dough Gurus; not too much pizza sauce, thinly sliced red onion, a spinkle of mozzerella, chopped red and green peppers & the supreme part: fresh mushrooms tossed in thyme, extra virgin olive oil, salt & pepper and a light topping of grated fontina.
Oh yeah!
In the kitchen we are starting 2013 off right with a batch of Gwyneth Paltrow's Mac and Cheese:
Before adding the marscapone, I put a little butter in the pan,...
Then mixed to a nice low simmer berfore adding a cup of parmesan. I
remembered to keep the heat low so the sauce does not become lumpy.
Because I was 1/2 cup short of Parmesan, I used this Wisconsin Fonina to mix with breadcrumbs for the topping. I also added some extra to the simmering sauce with salt, pepper, thyme and a bay leaf. The last two seasonings are my modifications. Note grapefruit knife to cut off red rind.
Right to left: Panko breadcrumbs mixed with the fontina for topping; sauce to put on bottom of pan instead of butter. Great Italian Pasta scored on sale for .99 cents...some pats of butter.
Ready for baking! Thank you Ms. Gwyneth Paltrow for this splendid version of this classic dish.
Last night I pulled together the Olive Oil Pizza Dough from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day folks - here it is after 2 hours of rise.
Keeping guard is Ginger Boy, the newest addition to the Holiday Plush. It's hard to tell from this photo, but the dough is @ the 2 qt. line after the intial mix.
About 24 hours later, after stowing the dough in the container, with its handy lid on top, but not air tight as prescribed in the book - it's a marvel! Full of air holes, not sticky and easy to manage as its weighed into ~1 lb. balls, which is about the size of a grapefruit.
There should be four blobs, but the last one was light, and I will use it first, stashing what is left. Come baking time, it's better to have too much dough than not enough. My scale is inexpensive an analog and my pan is bigger than what they make in the book. It all works out in the end. How awesome to have all this dough after so little work.
Pies to be posted @ or after half time. Go Seahawks!
Our co-op has been stocking hard to find domestic, Wild, peeled and de-veined shrimp in their freezer case. I heart shrimp but have a hard time preparing it from its raw form
With the holiday weekend ahead, I went searching for a receipe to us them; in pasta and stir fry they don't taste "quite" right, or get overcooked.
Alas! A reprint from the venerable Gourmet magazine shows up in my web search, and here's the first attempt:
The cooked shrimp after a 2 minute boil in salted water and cold water wash. Of course I had to sample a few. This was just over 3/4 lb. the receipe calls for 2 lbs.
A blender would probably work for mixing the ingredients. I added the oil last, slowly pouring it in a stream through the top. Raw onion seemed odd, so I opted for a small shallot. Safflower oil? I used canola/olive oil.
We had the celery seeds, but not celery - you have to adapt sometimes. I also had some nice dill. (All are dried, organic from the bulk section. Super fresh and fragrant, unlike those overpriced jars!).
Soon as I took this photo, a rubber scrapper was used to scrape down the yummy bits, before adding the shrimp and giving a about 6 "pulses" to chop them up.
Here's the dip, poured into a glass container with a nice tight lid. Rememeber, this is going to chill for a bit and this does not have to be actual serving dish. Leave room for stirring. A few hours later I tried some on toast with green leaf lettuce. I quickly restowed the contained before eating the rest! G, tell me how yours comes out!
Here's the post from Epicurious - see wine suggestion tab next to receipe and reader comments on additional variations.
A few years ago I found this fantastic Pizza Bun recipe with detailed instructions. Last year I got off to a false start, trying to substitute the dough and ended up making regular pies. But this year I tried again, persevered and I am proud to blog the results.
The KAF dough is great, but uses "instant" yeast, a stand mixer and a few other "special" ingredient or expensive tools which are completely unecessary.
But if you have them, by all means go ahead!
My goal was to use the easy peasy technique from the Artisan Dough in Five Minutes fame. You mix to blend, but skip the labor intensive kneading. tt works, that's all I know, but you still need about 2 hours to rise.
I modified the order of ingredients. They understate how the use of "instant yeast" is different from active yeast, so be careful.There's no need for the $90 thermometer they hawk (please!) - I have a 20 year old version (like this) that is just fine.
Care to measure is important. I use a stainless bowl, that's been sitting on top of the 200 degree over.
Dry ingredients:
Much to my delight and surprise, the dough rolled out beautifully. Time for more modifications:
Be sure to follow the instruction on pressing down into the dough- or you will have a hard time rolling. I put waxed paper over top and rolled over the whole surface with the rolling pin.
This rolled up beautifully!
Sliced and standing by to rise. This step takes time and it's good not to have anyone hovering in the kitchen because the smell is amazing once they start baking! Yet you are still about 30 minutes from eating, so hang on....I had two trays which I baked separately. In the KAF post he has them in @ the same time - so use your judgement based on your oven. The key here is NOT to let the bottoms get too brown, this step is to par-bake.
The first tray is in the final baking stage as these are standing by to be prepped with a tablespoon of pizza sauce (I used Muir Glen, omitting the recipe's $5 for 2 ounces of salt, garlic and onion powder "Pizza Seasoning.")
Finally! One to eat, a batch to cool (and get seconds from) and a "naked" batch that are not sauced and chesesed up to stash in the freezer for Xmas!
Questions, comments? Yo Eddy Dan-O! And a shout out to Concord. Tell me how yours come out!
Continuing in my mission to rotate ingredients from the freezer: my pizza dough and store bought vegan pesto (no cheese).
White pizzas have never been my thing, so I alternate blobs of pesto and red sauce, then add thinly sliced mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. Grated mozzerella cheese and a sprinkle of Kosher salt and dinner was on the way!
Rolling the dough out thin is important. This pie was a little smaller than most and I baked it on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Nothing special or fancy. 425 degree oven, 20 minutes to yum!
Another Thanksgiving treat! Manicotti stuffed with: red chard, tofu, ricotta and parmesean.
I had a hard time neatly filling them, and just read this tip to try next time: use a sealable storage bag to stuff them by trimming about 3/4" to 1" off of one corner and gently squeezing the filling into the manicotti shell.
Served with steamed local green beans and Merlot! The receipe is on the side of the "Garden Time Organic" pasta box- they seem to be one of those web-free companies so sorry, no link.
Nandina, or "Heavenly Bamboo" ablaze on the upper north slope. I just added a small one nearby since the colors work so well with the surrounding plants and ground covers.
At the top of the slope is a slightly out of control Rosemary shrub.
Just added the adjacent steps to the top, are a few Wooly Thyme to replace the (problematic) green sedums.
Wet ingredients on the left. Mashed over-ripe banana with egg, water and canola. Dry ingredients of whole and white flours, baking soda, raisins, whole grain nugget cereal (I used Kashi Nuggets) salt and dry milk.
Source: Jane Brody's "Good Food Book" or da bible.
Finished Product!
Around the time Hubs was boarding his delayed for 4 days flight out of Logan last night, I got home from doing some errands. Dinner? Hmmm...how about a mini-pizza with the remains of the home made dough? There was just enough sauce, cheese and red pepper to make a plate size pie. The dough rolled out really thin and the crust was perfectly crisp on a quarter sheet pan lined with parchment.
The mini pie was good...but I was still hungry and made this plate of rice-peanut sauce-green beans. The sauce I made earlier in the week with a can of coconut milk, unadulterated Valencia peanut butter and some seasoning. The beans were super fresh, as I finally made the trip to our splendid co-op for provisions. I gently heated the sauce, then added chopped green beans before adding the cooked brown rice and heating gently until bubbly.
Last night I stepped in out of the rain into a recently opened seafood restaurant. "Tanglewood Supreme" is in the midst of their soft opening and I am ready to tell the world!
Here's a very simple (small bowl) of shell fish stew which Guest Chef made for me (and anyone else) right order. Mussels, clams, flavorful broth. On the side is a triangle of toasted Forcaccia bread. Not bad for $7! This could be a good habit.
The full bowl includes salmon and prawns and I can't wait to go back with Hubs to check it out. Hopefully their website will be completed soon. Tanglewood Supreme, 3216 W Wheeler St. (the alley behind the garden center) in Magnolia Village.
Coursely grated Nash's Best! carrots...
Celery (to dice)...
Long grain rice and red lentils, draining after 3 good rinses.
A large can of Italian plum tomatoes, pulsed in the food processor. This is a great tip, the texture is unifed and makes for a better soup. In the tall pot are the diced onions, which I get going first, while prepping everything else.
Don't rush the onions.
The left-overs, after dinner and 3 hearty portions. A great soup based on a combination of The Joy of Cooking and Jane Brody versions. Give it a try!
Overhead view of recently planted"Superbells "Lemon Slice" Calibrachoa hybrid. The one the right has settled in nicely, almost doubling in size. I've pampered the one on the left and hopefully they will even out. They are surrounding by decaying sunflower and lily stalks, so excuse the mess as it's still too soon to clear them out.
Here's the rest of the setting. Mounding and trailing Lemon Slice is on the right. Keep in mind this is an area in progress, and trust me; it looks much better now than it used to.
These container based "Voodoo" Fuschias are just jamming!
These emerged from the containers in the early summer, surviving record brutal winter. For next season, a move to a larger container is in order.
Garden whimsey in the box is "Speedboat" (a retired wind up toy) and in the wheel barrow a concerte turtle.
Slow growing shrub finally taking form! Lovely color and height contrast.
Low growing Heuchera add a nice contrast with their broad leaves and tall "stalks."
Theres' some needed weeding and mulch spreading, but these survived the dry summer and around bound for glory next year.
This was a delightful apple dessert, drizzled with caramel and sided with a dollop of cream. The waiter and I swooned and he stood by with a proud smile as I took pictures of this, and Hub's choice:
A soufle, topped with dollops of something, the waiter kept coming back asking if he wanted more.
Our sit down, on board luncheon dessert was served with tea and coffee, following a salmon dish served with a mix of perfectly done vegetables. For a starter, I had a nice chickpea soup- Hubs had the bay shrimp with avocado and a fruity dressing.
We each had a glass of the nice house wine. All of this was served on board the Princess "Star" while it was in town. We met Cousin D. for the "Bon Voyage Experience" package, which was easier than meeting her @ at restaurant beforehand. Good times being served, now back to the cooking.
Sorry, I have been on blogging haitus this summer. But now it is September and time get get back to it.
I've just returned from San Francisco and here are two fantastic meals served up by Elisa's Eye Guest Chefs.
Across from Washington Park we discovered Piazza Pellegrini and ordered the Caprese and Vegeteriano panini to share. As you can see the food is fresh and served in good portions. They were not grilled as we are used to but it hit the spot after walking up to Coit Tower. The weather as you can see was perfect for early September and the street scene view from our cozy table was fantastic.
I just looked on Yelp and was saddened to see negative reviews. They had the friendliest staff ever and there are heat lamps on the patio for chilly evenings. Give them a try if you are in the Telegraph Hill / North Beach area.
The inside tables are inviting and here's a group of women in authentic kimonos having a meal :-D
Here's a plate of tasty fried rice with tofu and veggies at Ar Roi Thai near Union Square.
A cozy, very clean and classy spot! We had been eating much of the day and we packed up the leftovers to stow in our mini fridge back @ the hotel. As Hubs pointed out, it's the kind of dish that tastes okay cold.
These come back every year, but only bloosom for a day or so. Despite all the construction activity in the surrounding area these guys are back "Hola!"
Note found objects / garden whimsy to the right.
More of the summer annuals which emerged from the packet of British Columbian seeds.
I don't like pink but these are cool with the yello centers and rounded petals.
Sunflower Power!
Promising bunch of "Sungold" cherry tomatoes.
This is the first season for these very special Allium Drumsticks, surrounded by ground covers and sunflowers.
A special seed mix from Victoria, British Columbia was scattered around this bright sunny area in the spring. Now, a vibrant mix decorates the area surrounding sunflowers so tall they did not fit in the picture. Thanks to A., L. and E. for the seed packet!
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