The Pizza Stone

My husband has been suggesting to me that we get a pizza stone for the past several years.  Ms. T has one and he likes her caking so he has been bugging me about it. I'm not usually the kind of person to want to buy odd-ish kitchen accessories, so I never bothered to get one. We were having pizza tonight, so since I had to work, Zach was supposed to get the supplies.  Well, when I came home we had a brand new pizza stone.

As usual, the right tools make all the difference.  Our pizza tonight was fantastic!  It really tasted like a restaurant's pizza or even delivery.  The bottom was crispy and the crust was perfect. Delicious.

I recommend this crust.  I replaced about 1/4 of the flour with whole-wheat bread flour and let it rise in the fridge for about 6 hours.  Baked at 450 F for 25 minutes on the stone.  We topped ours with onion mushroom, red pepper, mozzarella and myzithra cheeses and garlic.

No-Knead bread

I've never had very good luck with loaves of bread.  While tasty, they always come out a little bit heavy, not moist enough, or both.  Bread also requires a lot of work which, as a modern person used to modern conveniences, I am not really willing to do.

So what I need is to not knead.  Enter the no-knead bread method brought to the table by author and bread-baker Jim Lahey, who revolutionized bread by creating a method so easy, and foolproof that you could literally have fresh home-baked bread in your house every single day.  Without a bread machine or doing more than 5 minutes of actual labor.

The secret is time.  The bread dough is mixed and then left overnight to basically "knead" itself.  Then the dough is baked in a dutch oven to control the moisture and create a moist bread that still has a crispy crust.  Why not try it yourself?  Here is the original 2006 New York Times Article with the basic recipe:  No-Knead Bread.

The recipe is really easy to tweak yourself, or grab a copy of Jim Lahey's book with more no-knead and some sweet bread and other interesting recipes:  My Bread.  There are also many recipes available on the internet, and many other books, too.  While a little primitive and simplistic, I think this method of bread-making will satisfy most people who are tired of flavorless and expensive store-bought bread but who also have no time or patience for cooking.  I'm not a bread-baker, but I do love this recipe.  It's great and leaves you enough time to find your next great cooking adventure.

So how does the bread turn out?  I'll let the pictures tell you themselves:

My first loaf, still in the pot.  I replaced some of the bread flour with 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour to make it a bit healthier.

As the bread cools and the crust shrinks, it makes a fun crackling noise that the book calls "singing".

Amazingly lofty, not heavy at all for home-baked bread!  We've already made sandwiches with handmade charcuterie purchased  from Elephant's delicatessen here in Portland. 

Loaf #2, baked with 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour plus amaranth, sesame seeds, oatmeal and other grains for bite and flavor.

Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie. I'm not out of season, YOU'RE out of season.

Usually, strawberry-rhubarb pie would be something to eat early in the summer.  If you grow rhubarb, you know it's best to pick it before the end of July.  However, I inherited a MASSIVE rhubarb plant from the last inhabitant of this place and it needed trimmed back.  Badly.  So while we were pulling the large green stalks off of the plant, I saved a few of the smaller, pinker ones in the center to make a pie with.

Now, I think rhubarb pie is gross.  And I think strawberry pie is gross.  Somehow, when you mix the two together, they become some sort of delicious magical treat.  The tartness of the rhubarb mixes with the sweetness of the strawberries and they balance one another out.  Next time I will probably go ahead and add the tapioca like most recipes suggest.  Corn starch and flour don't work like they do for apple pie, because the berries and rhubarb become extremely liquid.  Fortunately for me, most of the liquid spilled out into the pie pan where slices had been removed and left the actual pie, keeping it from turning into a soggy mess.

Pies- now with better lighting!

I used all the rhubarb and strawberries I had (a whole pound of strawberries!) and I think it still could have used more filling, but it was pretty tasty.

 *****

In other news our move to Sellwood has gone mostly very well.  A friend helped us with big furniture, but we have done most of it ourselves without any help.  Both of us have lost enough weight carrying things up the steps here to afford eating pie for breakfast.  We are not quite done yet but we will be probably by the end of the week.

A strange phenomenon has occurred, though.  Balloon and Furball no longer fight.  They are more like partners in crime, now.  They are both allowed to go outside (collars on, during daylight) and they seem a thousand times happier for it, though they act like snotty teenagers and pretend not to know us when they are outside.  All calls and temptations with food or treats fall on deaf ears until they are good and ready.

There are lots of other neighborhood cats, too.  Word traveled fast in the cat community, and once I gave treats to one, more came to say hi!  The neighbors have a tiny grey cat named Priscilla.  She might weigh 5 pounds and I think she's an adult.  Another cat without a name tag (Just a Multco registration tag) came to say hi.  I couldn't believe it; he was a beautiful cross-eyed Balinese!  Furball doesn't like the Balinese...colorpoint envy?  Zach said other cats had come during the day while I was at work, so I think there will be more.

For now here's a picture of our dining room, still not totally unpacked.  (Enlarge the picture, we totally have a framed photo of Ms T and her husband from our wedding.)

baking blitz: the best-and maybe healthiest-banana bread recipe.

I love to try new variations on recipes I've made dozens of times.  This time I tried Oatmeal Banana Nut Bread, a standard recipe with the addition of quick oats.  

Right out of the oven!

 For mine I used butter for the shortening.  They came out quite delicious.  You can't really taste the oats after baking, so its easy to add more whole grain without really changing the flavor too much. It might be worth trying this trick with zucchini bread, too. In the end I really liked how these turned out!  To turn the bread into muffins I reduced the bake time to around 35 minutes, but my oven runs cool so keep checking them after 25 minutes or so.

Want them even healthier?  A review suggests using fat-free yogurt to replace half the butter/shortening.  I didn't have yogurt this time, but I'm going to have to try that next time!

Fall Favorites...

Whoever told me fall isn't as nice in the Pacific Northwest as back east must have been confused...It's just as nice and much, much longer.  Up until yesterday it has been in the 60's and partly cloudy.  Its grey now but the leaves have been colorful on the trees for weeks now,and it doesn't look like they're going anywhere anytime soon.

So of course, its time for a great sweater and some fall favorite recipes.  Disclaimer:  Cooking with fresh pumpkin is not for the faint of heart.  It takes all day and gets pretty messy, even if you cheat and roast it in the microwave instead of the oven.  That being said, I definitely recommend getting the small, flavorful pie-type pumpkins rather than cooking with a large jack-o-lantern type pumpkin.  I always like to cook with my jack-o-lantern, but cooking with smaller ones bred for pies makes an incredible difference.

Last week I made one of my favorite soups:  Creamy Thai Pumpkin Soup.

This soup is great, especially if you're a fan of tom kha gai or other thai food.  Some advice, however:  If you put all the ingredients in at the beginning as the recipe suggests, it ends up rather bland.  What I will do next time is actually cook the pumpkin in the broth, then later add some crushed garlic, lemongrass, coconut milk and other ingredients (its really good if you add fresh ginger, too) right before its done cooking.  While it cools, the ingredients will flavor the soup, and you won't lose any of the boldness. Also, please try to avoid the problem I always have:  missing some of the lemongrass before I puree it, which leaves it really stringy (a note about lemongrass:  even though the recipe doesn't really mention this, you do have to remove it. It won't puree smoothly no matter how long you try).

My second favorite pumpkin recipe is the best one to share.  These Easy Pumpkin Muffins are great to take to fall potlucks, family Thanksgiving dinners, classes, meetings, or work.  People will love you, just don't tell them they take almost no effort to make.

I love the orange color that it turns when you add the pumpkin!

Follow the recipe exactly.  The batter will be thick, but don't add eggs or oil.  They don't actually need it, and if you do your muffins will end up too wet.  I've tried this with Trader Joe's baking mix as well with limited results.  I know its bad for you and blah blah blah but it is just best with a Duncan Hines mix.  Add walnuts and top them with brown sugar for a crunch.

I also made mine mini, they're better for sharing.

I've been busy! (cookie preview)...

I've been so busy!  Right now I'm in Pittsburgh getting ready for the biggest day of my life.  I haven't had time to take pictures or post anything, but Ms. T has.  Here's her blog post, I hope you find it interesting!

The Silver Linings Saga

Sweet Potato Pie

I'm really against wasting food, and now that I can afford to just buy more food, I'm trying extra hard to not be wasteful.  So, what to do with 2 extra sweet potatoes in your fridge?  Well you could bake them, or you could bake them into a PIE. This was my first attempt at sweet potato pie, and my first pie for at least six months.  The crust is an all-butter recipe.  Its crispy and I like it, but it might be worth it to try one with shortening in the future.  The recipe is much like pumpkin pie, but working with fresh sweet potatoes is much more managable than either a pumpkin or a butternut squash.  Easy to make in an evening with ingredients you probably have already, great for the holiday weekend.  Happy 4th of July!

 

Pretzels: Another Alton Brown Success

You did it again, Alton!  I don't think I've seen his show more than once or twice, and I don't find Iron Chef America all that entertaining, however I keep finding myself loving Alton Brown's recipes from the Food Network website.  Today's awesome success was no exception, Ms. T and I made Pretzels(with a few creative changes to the recipe)! What a great way to spend one of my last weekends in Pittsburgh!  Head on over to Silver Linings Saga for the whole story.  Me?  I'm just posting pictures!

Many of the Pretzels ended up going to Zach's parents.  Here a Pretzel is turned into a bun for a chicken patty.  They are quite versatile!

Here's a wonderful photo of how they looked fresh out of the oven in Ms. T's kitchen.

A few of them we made into cinnamon pretzels by brushing them with butter and sprinkling them with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar!

Side note:  Ms. T you may have just converted me to Picasa.