Bed # 1, that poor bed that was seeded and reseeded in the fall, has matured some. Those two unidentified brassicas were a purple cauliflower and a broccoli, both of which we harvested in February, but anyway... There's a row of cilantro, a couple parsley plants, a celery that's not doing much, and a few rows of poppies. The poppies look like weeds right now (or overgrown lettuces), but in a month or so they'll shoot up with short-lived pretty painted poppies. My lone dill plant sits there faithfully waiting for me to get some culinary inspiration for it. And there are some root vegetables that, by the looks of their tops, haven't done much underground yet: carrots, beets and parsnips. As if that wasn't enough, there are onions in that bed too.
In Bed #2, which we planted with two varieties of onion in the fall, we've been able to clip off a seemingly endless supply of green onions. Soon it will end though; as the bulbs form and tops with get too tough to enjoy. My row of chives and garlic chives is faithful waits for the next time we make baked potatoes. Volunteer mustard greens have sprouted up all over this bed, and I feel like I am in a race to use them before they mature to the point when their flavor gets too strong. I throw big handfuls into stir-fries and soups and yet the leaves which sprout up keep getting bigger and bigger (and more strongly-flavored). I'm sure my family would prefer that I tore them out and gave the onions more room to grow, but I can't bear seeing "good" fresh vegetables go to waste.
In Bed #3 the garlic is busy growing underground and the thyme is there waiting for the next time I roast a chicken or make chicken soup.
Most of our potted herbs are just pots of dirt or weeds this time of year, but there's still a little bit of green on the spearmint and the lemon balm.
oOo
Our 50-year-old grapefruit trees are scheduled to be removed next week. They are messy and the fruit is not as sweet as people like it to be nowadays. I'm a bit sad to see them go, but I am hoping their removal will make room for more sun and space to grow new things: Berries? A couple more vegetable beds? A miniature lime tree?
March 1, 2012
February 27, 2012
Homemade Pizza II
Grace and I made pizza this weekend and it reminded me that since I last posted about pizza, we've found a new favorite pizza crust recipe. I still like the old one too, but we eat pizza enough to have two favorites. I found this new recipe on Annie's Eats. It originally comes from Baking Illustrated. Quite frankly my attention span is so short that I don't think I ever read through Annie's entire recipe procedure, a mere three steps; I can't imagine what the original recipe entails. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly reading through Cooks Illustrated's lengthy recipes, just not while I'm trying to actually make dinner. But maybe if I did read it, I'd understand why the dough is so easy to work with or why I always seem to have to add at least a cup more flour than it calls for. Or why Annie's version says it makes enough dough for 2 pizzas, and my batch always ends up being plenty of dough for four (relatively thin-crust) pizzas. I assume the actual procedure might be a little more involved than just combining the ingredients in my KitchenAid mixer and letting the thing knead it for a few minutes, adding flour or semolina until it looks like pizza dough, but hey, whatever. This is how I make it and it works for me. If you're new to pizza-making, be sure to read Annie's post about this crust (linked below). She has some worthwhile tips and illustrative photos.
This dough has a clean flavor, is freezable and very easy to shape if you coat your hands with olive oil before touching it. Because it's so simple to roll out, I am in the habit of rolling it out wider than I normal would. Then after topping with sauce and cheese, I fold the crust over an inch or so creating something like a stuffed crust, or, if I remember correctly, the crust on Woodstock's pizzas. This way my kids, who won't eat the hard, naked crusts of other pizzas, will eat their whole slice, not just the topped portion. Less waste.
Pizza Crust
Adapted from Baking Illustarted via Annie's Eats
Makes enough dough for four 12" thin crust pizzas.
1/2 cup warm water
2 teaspoons active dry or instant yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
5-6 cups bread flour, or a mixture of all-purpose flour and semolina flour
1 1/4 cups room-temperature water
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus a little extra for handling
semolina flour and parchment paper
In the bowl of an electric mixer, dissolve yeast in warm water. Then add salt, 4 cups flour, water and olive oil. Stir with dough hook or paddle attachment. Once the mixture is fully incorporated, more flour. I generally use a total of 3 1/2 cups flour and 2 cups semolina. Knead with dough hook for about four minutes. Dough should be too moist to form a ball. Rub a medium mixing bowl with olive oil and coat your hand with oil. Transfer dough to mixing bowl. Cover with a cloth or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, approximately 2 hours.
With oiled hands divide dough into two pieces. At this point I wrap one piece in plastic wrap and store it in the freezer in a ziplock bag for later use. (Just defrost in the fridge overnight before rolling it out and making pizza.)
Preheat oven and pizza stone* to 500 degrees F. Divide the remaining dough ball in half and roll each half out into a 14" circle on parchment paper that has been dusted with semolina. If dough is difficult to work with, let it rest for 10 minutes. Once dough is rolled out, let it rest while you prepare the toppings. Top as desired and bake 8-10 minutes until crust is golden, cheese is bubbly all over and burnished in places. Bake one pizza at a time. Let pizza rest at least 3 minutes before slicing with a pizza cutter.
*If you don't have a pizza stone, use a large uninsulated baking sheet and check the bottom of the crust halfway through baking time. If it is not crisping up, carefully pull out the baking sheet and parchment , so that the pizza sits directly on the oven rack for the remaining cooking time.
For more notes on topping a pizza, check out this post from the Upstate Cali Kitchen Adventure archives.
This dough has a clean flavor, is freezable and very easy to shape if you coat your hands with olive oil before touching it. Because it's so simple to roll out, I am in the habit of rolling it out wider than I normal would. Then after topping with sauce and cheese, I fold the crust over an inch or so creating something like a stuffed crust, or, if I remember correctly, the crust on Woodstock's pizzas. This way my kids, who won't eat the hard, naked crusts of other pizzas, will eat their whole slice, not just the topped portion. Less waste.
Pizza Crust
Adapted from Baking Illustarted via Annie's Eats
Makes enough dough for four 12" thin crust pizzas.
1/2 cup warm water
2 teaspoons active dry or instant yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
5-6 cups bread flour, or a mixture of all-purpose flour and semolina flour
1 1/4 cups room-temperature water
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus a little extra for handling
semolina flour and parchment paper
In the bowl of an electric mixer, dissolve yeast in warm water. Then add salt, 4 cups flour, water and olive oil. Stir with dough hook or paddle attachment. Once the mixture is fully incorporated, more flour. I generally use a total of 3 1/2 cups flour and 2 cups semolina. Knead with dough hook for about four minutes. Dough should be too moist to form a ball. Rub a medium mixing bowl with olive oil and coat your hand with oil. Transfer dough to mixing bowl. Cover with a cloth or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, approximately 2 hours.
With oiled hands divide dough into two pieces. At this point I wrap one piece in plastic wrap and store it in the freezer in a ziplock bag for later use. (Just defrost in the fridge overnight before rolling it out and making pizza.)
Preheat oven and pizza stone* to 500 degrees F. Divide the remaining dough ball in half and roll each half out into a 14" circle on parchment paper that has been dusted with semolina. If dough is difficult to work with, let it rest for 10 minutes. Once dough is rolled out, let it rest while you prepare the toppings. Top as desired and bake 8-10 minutes until crust is golden, cheese is bubbly all over and burnished in places. Bake one pizza at a time. Let pizza rest at least 3 minutes before slicing with a pizza cutter.
*If you don't have a pizza stone, use a large uninsulated baking sheet and check the bottom of the crust halfway through baking time. If it is not crisping up, carefully pull out the baking sheet and parchment , so that the pizza sits directly on the oven rack for the remaining cooking time.
For more notes on topping a pizza, check out this post from the Upstate Cali Kitchen Adventure archives.
February 17, 2012
What to do with Spinach
In the last week I've had a mean peanut butter-banana smoothie craving. Readers of this blog know that we make it a practice to buy all of our produce from the farmers market (or grow it in our garden), which certainly means no bananas. This craving was so strong though, I went to Trader Joe's and bought a bunch of bananas.
Actually, back up.
First I made myself a smoothie. Just the standard: some juice, yogurt and fruit, plus a shot of hemp oil for an Omega-3 boost. It was alright. Gracie didn't like it, probably due to the flavor of the hemp oil, but I liked it. A few hours later at lunchtime, that craving was still hanging on, so I went to Jamba Juice and got a Peanut Butter Moo'ed. It was pretty good, but it gave me that "rot gut" feeling that milkshakes always do (except, interestingly, milk shakes made with raw milk). I assumed that the the 24 ounces of deliciousness--and if not that, the accompanying tummy ache--would quell the peanut butter-banana smoothie craving, but the next day the craving was at least as strong as before, so then I bought the bananas.
It was Saturday, and I also bought a bag of spinach at the farmers market. I haven't purchased spinach for while, primarily because I'm the only one in my family who likes it, and a whole bag is quite a lot of spinach to go use up before it gets slimy.
Historically, my favorite way to eat spinach is with bow tie pasta or spaghetti, garlicky chickpeas, plenty of black pepper and freshly grated Parmesan cheese, but I haven't found pasta very appealing lately. And whenever I served that dish the rest of the family expressed frustration that spaghetti was being served with anything other than marinara sauce and meatballs.
So, Sunday, inspired by my dear friend Jenny who hosts the most entertaining blog in my feed reader and openly despises green vegetables, but enjoys green smoothies, I concocted a chocolate-peanut butter-banana smoothie with yogurt, raw milk and a big handful of spinach. Tuesday I made another one subbing small spoonfuls of honey and coconut oil for the chocolate syrup and adding half of a Pink Lady apple. Wednesday and Thursday I did similar things. Today I did not make a smoothie. I'm saving my frozen bananas for next week and the last two handfuls of spinach for tonight's dinner, Homemade Mongolian BBQ.
The Saturday Chico Farmers Market is tomorrow. Among other things, I'll be buying spinach, almond butter and honey for next week's smoothies.
Peanut Butter-Banana Green Smoothie
Makes approximately 16 fluid ounces. Serves 1.
Whole foods, "good" fats, sweet fruit and a shot of greens. Sounds like a great breakfast to me.
1/2 cup whole raw milk
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 of a Pink Lady apple, sliced
1 teaspoon each honey and unrefined organic coconut oil
1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
1 banana, sliced and frozen
2 handfuls spinach, large stems removed
Add ingredients to blender in order listed. If, like me, you have a regular ol' blender, you may find her more cooperative if you blend the smoothie before adding the banana and again before adding the spinach.
Need more smoothie inspiration? Check out this fun Smoothie Flowchart from Eating Rules.
Actually, back up.
First I made myself a smoothie. Just the standard: some juice, yogurt and fruit, plus a shot of hemp oil for an Omega-3 boost. It was alright. Gracie didn't like it, probably due to the flavor of the hemp oil, but I liked it. A few hours later at lunchtime, that craving was still hanging on, so I went to Jamba Juice and got a Peanut Butter Moo'ed. It was pretty good, but it gave me that "rot gut" feeling that milkshakes always do (except, interestingly, milk shakes made with raw milk). I assumed that the the 24 ounces of deliciousness--and if not that, the accompanying tummy ache--would quell the peanut butter-banana smoothie craving, but the next day the craving was at least as strong as before, so then I bought the bananas.
It was Saturday, and I also bought a bag of spinach at the farmers market. I haven't purchased spinach for while, primarily because I'm the only one in my family who likes it, and a whole bag is quite a lot of spinach to go use up before it gets slimy.
Historically, my favorite way to eat spinach is with bow tie pasta or spaghetti, garlicky chickpeas, plenty of black pepper and freshly grated Parmesan cheese, but I haven't found pasta very appealing lately. And whenever I served that dish the rest of the family expressed frustration that spaghetti was being served with anything other than marinara sauce and meatballs.
So, Sunday, inspired by my dear friend Jenny who hosts the most entertaining blog in my feed reader and openly despises green vegetables, but enjoys green smoothies, I concocted a chocolate-peanut butter-banana smoothie with yogurt, raw milk and a big handful of spinach. Tuesday I made another one subbing small spoonfuls of honey and coconut oil for the chocolate syrup and adding half of a Pink Lady apple. Wednesday and Thursday I did similar things. Today I did not make a smoothie. I'm saving my frozen bananas for next week and the last two handfuls of spinach for tonight's dinner, Homemade Mongolian BBQ.
The Saturday Chico Farmers Market is tomorrow. Among other things, I'll be buying spinach, almond butter and honey for next week's smoothies.
Peanut Butter-Banana Green Smoothie
Makes approximately 16 fluid ounces. Serves 1.
Whole foods, "good" fats, sweet fruit and a shot of greens. Sounds like a great breakfast to me.
1/2 cup whole raw milk
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 of a Pink Lady apple, sliced
1 teaspoon each honey and unrefined organic coconut oil
1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
1 banana, sliced and frozen
2 handfuls spinach, large stems removed
Add ingredients to blender in order listed. If, like me, you have a regular ol' blender, you may find her more cooperative if you blend the smoothie before adding the banana and again before adding the spinach.
Need more smoothie inspiration? Check out this fun Smoothie Flowchart from Eating Rules.
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