Spring Pie

Pizza. Lately I have been resorting to pizza on work nights. No not delivery and not even frozen pizza, not even your traditional tomato sauce pizza. Rather I have been resorting to pizza in the general sense. I take a cheap bag of pre-made pizza dough from trader Joes and add different veggies that I have sitting around in my fridge waiting to be eaten. In the words of an Ex the pizza is just a vehicle for the good stuff.

Pizza starts with a good bed. I have found a good cheap bed that is perfect to lay all my veggies on: trader joes pre-made pizza dough. First, the price is right: $0.99 a bag and this is enough to make two pizzas (each pizza is enough for either one with left overs or plenty for two). Second, Trader Joes has three different varieties: plain, herb garlic, and whole wheat.

After a good bed you need some good sheets and a nice comforter to make your bed yummy and pretty. Lately I've been topping my pizza with fresh spring time vegetables. After several trial and errors I have found that the best pizzas are those with simple toppings and not overdone. I had several where I kept putting on topping after topping and then adding cheese. While these were delicious i have grown to like the simpler pie with a few simple toppings and lately have been going cheesless. Following are a few of my recent creations:

Leek Garlic and Mushroom

This is a very simple pizza but the flavors are perfect together. On top of plain pizza dough I brush Olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then I add finely chopped leeks, thinly sliced garlic clove and top with thinly sliced crimini mushrooms. Then cook in oven untill the crust is crispy and the mushrooms perfectly cooked.


Green Onion, garlic, Potato, Mushroom and Asparagus

This is my latest creationg and I think my favorite so far. I used the herb and garlic dough brushed on olive oil sprinkled salt and pepper and a few red pepper flakes. Then added finely chopped green onion and thinly sliced garlic. Next, I added very thinly sliced yellow potatoes and thinly sliced crimini mushrooms. Finally I topped it off with halved asparagus that had been tossed in olive oil and salt and pepper. YUM. and it is pretty too.


Sweet potato Pizza

I made this pizza when I realized that I had a surplus of sweet potatoes that needed to be eaten ASAP. Started with a plain pizza dough base, brushed the dough with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper and red pepper flakes. Then added very thinly sliced sweet potatoes. Next I added caremalized onions. Topped with tiny mushrooms tossed with olive oil salt and pepper and rosemary (can't remember their name; the mushroom lady gave them to me in exchange for watching her stand at the farmer's market) and finally topped with a few shavings of romano cheese.

Mushrooms!

I have always had an affinity for the delicious taste of various fungi known as mushrooms! But lately I find myself gravitating to the mushroom in every meal I cook. At both the Dupont and Penn Quarter farmers markets there is a mushroom producer that always has a great selection. When I am feeling indulgent and the season is right (basically the month of may) I can score my favorite wild fungi- the Morel. Though my go-to mushroom is a crimini (a baby portobella).

My favorite way to prepare the crimini is by quartering it, tossing with olive oil, salt pepper, rosemary, and red pepper flakes. Then I saute on a medium heat and eventually add butter and cream for a mushroom cream sauce. Good by itself with quartered mushrooms or equally good pureed and added with your favorite fresh pasta.

Alternatively, I take the mushrooms tossed with olive oil et al. and put in a roasting dish (tonight with asparagus) and roast it until the asparagus and mushrooms are soft yet still have a bite to them.

These mushrooms are so versatile that I eat them along side roasted asparagus, on top of a fresh salad with a light dressing, with egs prepared in any which way, or as its own main course.

Who needs boys when you have fungi in your life?

Dang, I LOVE mushrooms!

When the Urge Hits: The Tang of Spring

Lately I have been enjoying simple foods. I like something that taste great yet takes minimal effort to prepare. I want something that I can just have waiting in the fridge and eat when the urge arises: instant gratification- taking food porn to a new level!

Rather than keeping little-debbi nutty bars (from my youth) or other snack food, my go to instant gratification snack food has been a tangy sweet treat! At the farmer's market Kuhn's orchard has been bringing beautiful stalks of rhubarb. I take these green and red stalks cut them up and toss in melted raw butter from Painted Hand Farm and add 1/2 cup of sugar, a dusting of cayenne pepper and a tad of cinnamon. (fresh ginger and lemon juice are also good additions.)

I cook it over a medium flame until the rhubarb breaks down and makes a mushy jam. Then I put in a seal tight container and keep in the fridge.

Then when the urge hits me I pull out my rhubarb compote and a helping of Keswick Creamery yogurt and have a great indulgent snack!!

Smelly Feet

My favorite neighborhood pizza place recently changed their menu to my distain! Radius pizza in Mt. Pleasant, Washington DC is a great neighborhood restaurant that is well known for its free bottle of wine Wednesday special and for me their gorgonzola gnocchi. Since Radius is literally two blocks away from my apartment it has become a staple in my weekly diet. Their gorgonzola gnocchi is e at the center of my love of Radius. Unfortunately, Radius recently changed their menu and took the gnocchi off so now I am left to my own devices.

My love of gorgonzola gnocchi started about a year ago when I went to my best friend, Malea’s house. (Actually my love of gnocchi is a sordid affair: I have one bad memory of ordering it, under peer pressure, at my birthday dinner at Pasta Mia in Adams Morgan, it was served with a tomato sauce and I hated it. Like most loves I gave it another try and now have a lasting relationship with it.)

After work Malea and I stopped by Calvert Woodly to get some wine and cheese. As we were waiting in line I smelled the foulest smell emanating from under Malea’s arm. It literally smelled like rotting flesh and stinky feet all bound up in one. I was reluctant to say anything to Malea because I was starving and looking forward to her home cooked meal. Plus, I pretty much trust her cooking instincts.

A stinky cheese purchase and half mile walk to her apartment later we were in the kitchen boiling potatoes to make our own homemade gnocchi. My responsibility was to roll the gnocchi against the fork and let to drop (according to the directions from Marcella Hazan). Soon, I realized the under the heat of a flame and sliced with heavy cream, the pungent odor of gorgonzola gives way to a rich creamy sweetness that pairs wonderful with homemade gnocchi.

Last night I decided to recreate my favorite gnocchi meal. This time I didn’t make my own Gnocchi. Instead, I purchased it from the farmers market that I work at. The gnocchi was a perfect little pillow of potatoes. For the sauce I first caramelized onions in olive oil and then added the gorgonzola to melt and then added cream. Finally, I dropped the slightly boiled gnocchi in and served it. Next time I think I might add some mushrooms to the sauce. I also roasted fresh asparagus from the farmers market. YUM! Mold that smells like funky feet never tasted so good!

Seduced By an Avocado

Last night on my way home from work I stopped by the supermarket to find something to cook up.  The past few days I had used up all my farmers market finds and was in need of some new inspiration.  After meandering around the produce section at Whole Foods I was less than inspired.  While I am craving asparagus, I did not want to purchase any, knowing that soon enough I would have local asparagus from local farmers on my table.  

But soon enough the ripe avocados seduced me with their bumpy dark peel.  After picking up a few I knew that they were perfectly ripe.  Now my challenge was to plan my dinner around the avocado.  I slowly started picking up various things.  A lemon, a bunch of beets,  a small bag of walnuts, and baby-boc-choi.  I knew I had some leftover blue cheese at home and some delicious green onions from the market.

Once I got home I started my avocado centered dinner by halving the beet and roasting it in a 400 degree oven tossed with some olive oil and salt and pepper.  Next, I halved my baby-boc-choi and sprinkled olive oil and salt and pepper on it. The beets were fork tender after about 45 minutes, at which point I toasted the walnuts and put the baby-bo-choi on the grill pan. Finally, right before the baby-boc-choi was finished grilling (just long enough to wilt it and bring out the crunchy crispness) I added the green onions to the grill pan.

Meanwhile, I prepared a simple lemon olive oil vinaigrette, with lemon juice, tad of mustard, tad of honey and salt and pepper and olive oil.

Now for the seduction of the avocado:  I cut up the avocado in cubes, tossed with cubed beets and diced tomato and tossed in the toasted walnuts and vinaigrette. Next add crumbled blue cheese (left over from a cheese plate several nights ago) topped with baby-boc-choi and grilled green onions.

YUM!

Avocado,  you can seduce me anytime you want.  I don't care if you are not local!

Homemade Pizza

Trader Joes always has exactly what I am looking for. This time it was pre-made pizza dough: Joe's price is right $.99. Plus they have a great variety: regular, herb, and whole wheat. Sometimes I like to get all three and have a pizza party.

After a trip to the farmers market I had local portobello mushrooms, homemade pesto, local mozzarella cheese, and green onions. I knew the best way to use all of this was on top of a fresh pizza.

After rolling out my dough (in a shape roughly representing the West Bank)I brushed the dough with Olive oil and spread my homemade pesto on the pizza. Next I added portobello mushrooms, which had been tossed with olive oil, rosemary and red-pepper flakes. Next layer, fresh tomatoes and top with fresh green onions. Put in oven, until the mushrooms and tomatoes are nicely cooked. Finally add mozzarella and let melt. Top with fresh cut green onions.

Morels

It is April and the once a year crop of morels has made its rounds. So tonight I shared my morals with some of my closest friends. We had deliciously plump (happy pigs) Pork chops- marinated in lemon juice, rosemary and thyme grilled, and sauteed morels with shallots, butter and cream. YUM! I love the earthy taste of morels shared with friends. For desert we had delicious dark chocolate with red hot pepper and ginger snaps.

Wet and Cold Spring Evening

The past week has been damp and cold. An unwelcome part of spring. But I guess summer will be here soon enough. Tonight. after putting some recently sprouted seeds in little better soil and setting up a grow light for those recently germinated seeds, I decided to cook up some potatoes and mustard greens that I have.

I'm making a simple potato soup: Saute 2 onions in olive oil with a bay leaf and chopped rosemary, peel, quarter and thinly slice potatoes. Add the potatoes to the onions until they are coated and sauteed. Next add a cup of water a 1.5 teaspoon of salt. Then add 1 quart water. Bring to boil and let simmer for 30 minutes. Finally I'll put a cup or two of the potatoes through a food mill then mix in with some butter. and quickly boiled mustard greens, red pepper flakes and lamb sausage balls.

Top it off with shaved Parmesan Cheese

Potato soup on a cold damp spring evening is perfect!

Thrown together dinner

Tonight I literally took a few things and threw them together hoping it would be edible.

Dice and sauté one onion, garlic clove, and jalapeno.
Add summer squash coins
Add halved cherry tomatoes
Add corn

Salt and pepper and at the end add two spoonfuls of fresh yogurt.

I was a little bit leery but in the end it was great.

Desert: more yogurt with nectarine and my friend john’s cherry jam that he made from cherries in his garden.

Stratagraphy

I am formerly an anthropologist. Maybe formerly isn’t the best description: I still and will forever identify as an anthropologist. In college as I was studying anthropology I had to take intro to archaeology. You see, archaeology was what got me excited in anthropology in the first place. After spending a summer restoring a 200 year old cemetery in my hometown I was obsessed with archaeology - my friend and I spent every day the summer between Jr. and Sr. year in high school in the grove of trees, cutting down 200 year old weeds, and uncovering different strata, where the tombstones had fallen over and were now buried under dirt. It all started with a summer of what some might call digging up graves.

Though, when I got to college I instantly found that rather than the dead I was more interested in the living: cultural anthropology. Nonetheless, I still had the anthro requirement to take archaeology. The one thing I remember about that class is we had to draw our own stratagraphy. I think I chose a landfill, maybe not I can’t remember.

Well today, I was mulling over what to do with my beautiful eggplant and loads of tomatoes. So I am creating a summer stratagraphy. Each layer is a different fruit and i have used different cooking techniques for each, mixing cooked and fresh elements to this dish

Layer one: A thin soup of roasted tomato sauce: roast tomatoes, puree, sautee onion and garlic, add tomatoes and fresh oregano and a spoonful of pesto
Layer two: A slice of Cherokee purple tomato, lightly roasted in the oven
Layer three: Sliced eggplant, first roasted in oven then grilled on grill pan
Layer four: Goat cheese
Layer five: Fresh green zebra tomato
Layer six: Fresh basil pesto

All skewered with a sprig of rosemary.

No Cook Summer

Nothing says summer like a kitchen full of tomatoes of multiple varieties. Today at the market I picked up my favorite cherry tomato- sunburst. They are smaller than other cherry tomatoes and are bright orange – an explosion of flavor in your mouth. I eat them raw all the time. I also picked up a couple of my favorite green zebras. Then after going to my friend’s community garden plot I picked up some more red cherry tomatoes and regular tomatoes.

One problem: casualties. Riding a bike has its inconvienience, namely sometimes all my tomatoes get squashed a little in my messenger bag. First thing when I get home I have to do triage, separate the squashed maters from those that were saved. Then I have to think up quick ideas to use the squashed ones before they go bad.

I decided to take today’s casualties and make a chilled Gazpacho and a salad with cherry tomatoes, avocado, and corn. Both were perfect!!!

Chilled tomato Gazpacho

Cut four small tomatoes
Peeled and seed two small cucumbers
Dice a 4th of a red onion

Puree tomatoes and half of cucumbers in food processor, chill in fridge
Add onions and left over cucumber to separate bowl and let sit in white wine vinegar

Add cucumber and onion and vinegar to soup


CHerry Tomato, Avocado, & Corn Salad

This was my favorite and is perfect for a late August summer day:

cherry tomatoes- cut the larger ones in half
1 ripe avocado, cut in cubes
corn on the cob- boiled for a minute then de-cobbed
jalapeno, finely diced
1/4th red onion diced
small bunch of basil chopped

mix all together, sprinkle lime juice and oil on top, season with salt and pepper.

My Version of Succotash

The fridge is pretty bare, but I have corn on the cob – if you ignore the catepillar that ate part of the cob, fresh lima beans (babies) and fresh tomatoes from my friend’s community garden. Perfect for a succotash!!

Saute three cloves of garlic in olive oil. Add Red chili pepper flakes. Add lima beans, cover with water, bring to boil. Keep at boil for 10-20 minutes, routinely refreshing with more water. You want to boil until the lima beans are soft. I added chicken broth at some point to add a little extra flavor. Add Italian seasoning and salt to taste. Close to right before the lima beans are perfectly soft, add corn that has been cut off the cob. Finally, immediately before eating add chopped tomatoes. Also t the very end I added a large spoonful of basil pesto.

I accomponied this summer dish with homemade french fingerling potato chips

A perfect succotash for late a August summer evening!

Simple Summer Pasta

I got home from work late today and needed to make something quick.After putting on Iron and Wine on the turntable, I started assembling one of my favorite summer melodies.

Cut a handful of cherry tomatoes in half
boil pasta

Mix pasta with tomatoes, pesto, goat cheese and top with fresh cut basil

Eat with a cob of corn

YUM!!!!

Perfect Sunday

Sunday’s are best spent with friends. Yesterday was no exception. I started off by going to Malea’s house for waffles. They were delicious! Fluffy from the buttermilk, yet crisp from warming in the over. Topped with peaches equals YUM!

Then after post breakfast stupor we trekked over to my friend Lisa’s community garden plot. She is out of town for three weeks and invited me to water the garden and take some of her veggies. This was perfect! 1) I love community gardens and hope that one day I can find a coveted plot in my neighborhood. 2) all the gardens were overflowing in ripe tomatoes of all varieties – heirloom, roma, and early girls, Basil, peppers and squash. I was in my own little paradise.

So we went home with a load of basil, several tomatoes and some flowers. Several minutes later we transformed the Basil into two large batches of pesto

After doing some much needed cleaning in my kitchen I then invited another friend over for dinner. I needed to use the seconds tomatoes I got from the market on Saturday. So I made a simple tomato sauce with sliced squash from Lisa’s garden


Simple Tomato Sauce:

Sauté one small onion and three cloves of garlic
Add pinch of red pepper flakes and Italian herb seasoning.
Add chopped up tomatoes.

Simmer until the liquid reduces, Add more herbs and salt as necessary.

Puree Tomato sauce

Add thinly sliced squash

Serve over boiled spaghetti

Basic Pesto

Mix fresh Basil, garlic and toasted nuts in food processor. Drizzle in Olive Oil. Add salt pepper and parmesan cheese.

Feast'o'Beets

So often in the kitchen I find myself wasting so much food. Whether it is from ambitious market shopping with eyes bigger than my tummy, or if I only use one part of a veggie, one way or another I know I am contributing to the waste of a lot of useful nutrients.

Today was different. I went to the market, inspired by the bounty and look of large bunches of beets I bought bright red beets with greens attached: just the way they were pulled out of the ground! I've made beet dishes before and I have also actually bought beet greens as a solo produce item before, but today I decided to integrate the whole vegetable into a feast'o'beats-- eating the beet from head to toe:root to tip top leaf.

For this feast'o'beats I invited my friends Dave and Rick over. Menu included butter sauted beets with orange juice, Beet greens sauted with olive oil, onions, rosemary, red pepper flakes, cannallini beans, and sprinkled with bacon and parmesan cheese.

OJ Beets

- Wash and peel a big bunch of big beets, then shred - real easy if you have a cuisine art

- Melt butter in pan, add beets, saute until beets are soft- but still have a little bite.

- add orange juice.

- you can also add a dollop of creme fresh at the end for an extra treat

Beet Greens'n'Beans

- Saute Diced onion in olive oil until translucent, add rosemary, red pepper flakes and white wine, reduce down until jammy

- add chopped up beet greans, Cover with lid until greens are wilted

- add can of cannalini beans untill heated

- top with crumbled bacon and parmesan cheese.

Mushroom Madness

It is spring and the Fungi keep popping up in the yard and in the farmer's markets around town. I am a lover of all things fungus related: morels, portobella mushrooms, and truffles. Last night my friend Malea and I took a trip to the farmer's market by my office, picked up two crops that are in their prime right now: portobella mushrooms and asparagus. I am also super excited, I bought a cherokee purple tomato plant - my favorite heirloom ever!!!

Portobella Mushroom Cream Sauce

- Saute Garlic in olive oil, add pinch of red pepper flakes, and pinch of fresh rosemary

- chop up to portobella caps and add to saute pan, add chopped sun-dried tomatoes

- simmer until portobella reduces in size and become s super moist, add a splash of water or white wine

- take about 3/4s of this mixture pure with a bit of cream

- add pureed portion back to pan and add frozen baby peas

- Add slabs of butter and wisk in cream

- add chopped up spinach and simmer until wilted.

Serve over homemade pasta and top with grated parmesean cheese

YUM!!



-

Feeling More(a)l

It always happens this time of year. The air warms up, the water falls out of the sky, and sprouts start poking their eyes through the dirt. In addition to the spring green that shows its face, I find myself getting all moral. Morel more like it. This is the small window of time in late April mid May when the delicacy wild morels start showing up in the market. Despite their outrageous price tag, I cannot resist at least one moral meal a week. I mean, with all the immoral meals that I indulge in i think the least I could do would be to have one moral meal a year- If I'm lucky maybe two.

This is a two Morel meal year. Last week my friend came over for dinner. I stopped by the farmer's market by my office and picked up a basket of tasty Morel morsels. My friend had not ever had Morels . Don't blame those without morels, they just haven't been brought up right. Thankfully my parents saw the importance of morels and early in life my dad took me morel hunting out in the woods. We gathered up a whopping three morels and took them home to be deep fried.

Those morels have followed me through college and adult life. As my mom always reminded me: don't forget where you came from. I sure haven't forgotten and am thankful for her introduction to morels!

Here is my standby morel meal I like to eat it as an appetizer or put on a piece of toasted baugette:

-Soak morels in room temp water then drain( to clean and get all the grit out of them)
- Quarter or half each mushroom depending on size
- heat olive oil in pan, add chopped shallots, then add morels
- De-glaze with white wine
- saute until mushrooms are soft, add butter to taste, also can add thyme, rosemary etc for additional flavor, Salt and pepper, a splash of lemon juice also adds a nice touch.
- time is of the essence. Last time i was tlaking to my friend and kind of forgot about the morels ( thats what happens with morels when you are fast and loose with them). They turned out great. Secret- plenty of butter

Variating from my morels:

Today I decided to deviate from my years of morel living and add a twist. Instead of just eating them by themselves, I added them to fresh made pasta.

-Make fresh pasta
- Prepare Morels as described above, add peas and add cream to create a cream sauce.

Yum! morel pasta primavera.

Cheers to another morel year!

Inspiration from a comet

One of my favorite things to do is to go to really good restaurants enjoy their food and then go home and learn how to make what I just ate. Recently, i have been enjoying a little pizza joint in upper northwest dc - comet pizza in Van Ness right next to Politics and prose. Aside from this location being a bit in the middle of no where, it has a special place in my heart- I used to live in a basement right behind Comet ( which previously was a nondescript thai restaurant) and outside my basement door was a colony of 50 turtles that my landlady collected. Additionally, the sign for comet is from another old neighborhood of mine- the comet wine shop in adams morgan. With a combination of turtles and a really cool sign, before i even stepped foot into comet I knew that I would love it. Then I walked in and noticed that the whole place is decorated with a ping pong motif. Ping pong tables, lights that look like ping pong balls, and the best part- the bathrooms, where aliens play ping pong in an idilic english country setting.

That is not to mention the good pizza. So on new years day a friend and I ventured to Van Ness and shared two personal sized pizzas. A whole carafe of wine and a broken wine glass later comet inspired us to make our very own green bean pizza.

So last night we whipped up our own comet inspired green bean pizza:

1.) Prepare a white sauce (butter, garlic cream, flour thyme and salt and pepper)

2) spread on pizza dough

3) Blanch green beans

4) Toast hazlenuts

5) carmelize onions

6) add all on top of pizza

7) finish off with mozerrella cheese and feta

YUM!We also made a second pizza:

1) red sauce, Tomatoes, garlic, onion and italian herbs (put through the food mill)

2) slices of fresh tomatoes

3) Mozerrella

4) mounds of bacon

A pizza extravoganza inspired by comet!

Teabagging!

Thanks to a thoughtful friend I now have the proper tools for teabagging - a Squeasy from oposum design. I love it. It is perfectly designed to allow one to coax the tea bag into the crevice and has a special slit for the string. Then you slightly squeasy with ever such ease the squeasy and it pumps the remaining flavors of the tea into your cup. Now my Good earth original blend, and Celestial seasoning Bengal spice will be so Yum. Yay for teabagging accessories!

New Apartment New Kitchen

I recently moved into a new apartment. As soon as all the boxes got to the apartment (even as my friends were still there eating pizza and drinking beer) I couldn't wait to unpack my kitchen stuff. It has been in storage for 4 months and was gasping for air! I felt like little kid on christmas day opening each box and getting excited about the contents. Moving into a new kitchen is also exciting because I got to figure out where i want everything to go and how to decorate.

Now I face a small dilemma: How do I stock my cabinets? I have very limited cabinet space. Plus in the process of moving everything i realized that i store a lot of food that i end up never eating. But now the real dilemma: I am having my best friend and her husband over for dinner ( my first meal i have cooked in a while) and I don't have any staples. Now olive oil, no salt no pepper, no herbs, no spices!!

It is either going to be a bland dinner or I am going to have to take out a small loan to stock the kitchen. Needless to say, the fact that I now have my kitchen back I am looking forward to more cooking, having friends over and sharing here.