One of the managers at work won a contest and used some of the money she won to order pizza from Larry's Pizza. It was the most wonderful pizza I have ever had.

When my husband and I were trying to figure out where to eat out the other afternoon for a treat, I suddenly remembered Larry's Pizza. Richard loved it as much as I did.

I did my best this afternoon to replicate my favorite, the baked potato pizza, and came up with something pretty good, but not as good as Larry's. I've made a vow to stick to my grocery budget--no extra trips to the grocery store between paydays, so there was no bacon, chives, or sour cream. But it was pretty tasty all the same, and next payday bacon, chives, and sour cream will be on the grocery list along with potatoes!

I also made a pizza with salami, oven dried tomatoes from the garden, basil from the garden, and provolone cheese. Both pizzas had a béchamel rather than tomato sauce.

 

Pizza Crust

This recipe uses a bread machine -- a tool I heartily believe in! It's no substitute for the therapy of kneading dough when you're frustrated, but when I've got a lot going on in the kitchen it's nice to know the bread's making it okay without me.


Ingredients to make two 12 inch pizzas

• 1 1/4 Cup Water
• 2 TB Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 Cups White Flour
• 2 Cups Wheat Flour
• 1 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 1/2 Tsp Granulated Sugar
• 1 Tsp Rapid-Rise Active Dry Yeast

In the Bread Machine

1. Pour water into bread pan.
2. Add oil.
3. Sprinkle the flour over the wet ingrdients.
4. Put salt and granulated sugar into separate corners.
5. Make an indention in the middle of the flour and add the yeast.
6. Set bread machine to basic dough setting.
7. Observe dough for first 5-10 minutes of kneading to make sure that a firm ball is forming. If it is too dry, add water a TB at a time. If it is too wet, add flour a TB at a time.
8. When dough is done, roll into two pizza crusts, spread a small amount of tomato sauce or tomato paste on top, and add toppings of your choice.

In the Oven: Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

 

Bechamel Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 TB Unsalted Butter
• 2 TB Flour
• 1/2 TSP Salt
• 1 Cup Milk

On the Stove

1. Heat milk to nearly boiling on low heat.
2. In another sauce pan melt the butter on low heat and stir in the flour until smooth.
3. Slowly add the milk to the flour, a couple of tablespoons at a time, constantly stirring.
4. Still on low to medium low heat, continue stirring the mixtures until it thickens to the desired consistency.

Baked Potato Pizza

Ingredients

• Pizza crust 
• About a cup of béchamel sauce
• About 6 new potatoes, but next time I'll probably double it, baked and sliced into rounds
• About a cup and a half of grated cheddar cheese.
• And I would recommend about 4 or 5 slices of bacon cooked and chopped up and several tablespoons of chopped chives and sour cream drizzled over the top!  

Directions

• Make the pizza crusts and bake the potatoes.
• Prepare béchamel sauce.
• Cover the pizza with a layer of potatoes. 
• Then the bacon and chives.
• Then the cheese.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 425 degrees. 

 Salami Pizza

 
Salami Pizza Ingredients:

• Pizza crust
• About 6 to 8 rounds of salami
• A couple handfuls oven-dried tomatoes
• A handful of shredded basil
• About 6 rounds of provolone cheese, torn in big pieces to cover the pizza.

Directions:

• Make the pizza crusts 
• Spread on the béchamel sauce.
• Cover the crust with a layer of salami.
• Sprinkle over oven-dried tomatoes.
• Sprinkle over basil.
• Cover with provolone cheese.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 425 degrees.

The Garden--August 25

I was very lazy and shot these through the office window this morning!



The tallest okra plant is now a good foot taller than my 5 feet 8 inches. I have to stretch to pick the pods. I've started freezing okra now, because it's still producing. The tomato plants are looking scraggly and slowing down, but I still get 4 or 5 tomatoes every couple of days.



The purple hull peas are getting bigger by the day. I put out wire for them to climb, but they show no indication of being climbers, at this point anyway. This is a mad experiment so I have no idea. That's been half of the fun of jumping into this uneducated--everything has been a surprise.

Tomato and Basil Fritatta

This has been one of my favorite easy dinners this summer. Just run out to the garden and grab a few small plum tomatoes and a handful of basil, run back in and break a few eggs . . . you get the idea.

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• 5 or 6 eggs, whisked with a little milk
• 3 or 4 small plum tomatoes
• Basil to taste
• 2 slices of provolone cheese
• salt and pepper

Directions:

• Heat the oil on medium high.
• Pour in the egg mixture and toss on the vegetables and herbs.
• Heat the broiler.
• Run a spatula along the side and lift up the set eggs to allow the unset to run under.
• When the eggs are set tear the cheese slices to cover and put under the broiler until golden.

Popovers

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 cup of all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

• Heat oven to 450 degrees
• Grease 3 medium muffin cups.
• Whisk eggs slightly; add milk, flour and salt and whisk until just smooth. Do not over whisk.
• Fill muffin cups 3/4 of the way full.
• Bake 25 minutes.
• Lower oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake 15 to 20 minutes longer or until a deep golden brown.
• Immediately remove from pan; serve hot.

These reminded us of hollow mini-pfannkuchens. Serve with honey.

Eureka!

My husband came looking for me while we thrift store shopping with an excited look on his face. When he took me to the books, I understood why. Someone had unloaded what looked like an almost complete Time Life set of The Good Cook/Techniques and Recipes, an out of print collection of cook books that teaches how to cook and provides recipes. My holy grail, which I have been trying to complete for probably a decade now. I didn't have my list with me of what titles I already had, so I had to go through them from memory. I ended doubling up only one title, Shellfish, which I'll probably use for another give away sometime down the road. With the addition of the six books we found at Goodwill, I now have 26 of the 27 titles, missing only Wine.

Kofte with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup cubed stale, firm white bread, crustless
• 1 1/4 pounds lean ground lamb or beef
• 1 small onion grated
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 egg, well beaten
• 2 tsp olive oil.

For the sauce:

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
• 1 tsp chopped mediume hot green chili
• pinches of salt
• and sugar
• 1/4 tsp crushed garlic
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar

Directions:

Kofte:

• In a bowl, pour warm water over the bread cubes and le them stand for a few iutes.
• Press out and discard the liquid, leaving the bread in the bowl.
• Add the meat, onion, cumin, salt, and black pepper and knead until well blended.
• Add egg to the mixture and knead with a fork until light and well combined.
• Shape into four patties and fry on both sides to desired doneness.

Tomato sauce:

• In a second skillet, warm the olive oil.
• Add the tomatoes and chili and cook over high heat, stirring until thick.
• Add the salt, sugar, garlic, and vinegar and bring to a boil, stirring,.
• Set aside makes about 1 cup.

We served ours with couscous, the meat patties on top and then the tomato sauce over that.

Okra--Eastern Mediterranean Style

So much okra from the garden, I've been having to try all sorts of recipes. This one was very good, from The Cooking of the Easter Mediterranean by Paula Wolfert..

Ingredients:

• 1 Lb. firm crisp okra, each vegetable about 3 inches long
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1 TB coarse salt
• 5 1/3 Tb olive oil
• 2 medium onions, halved and thinly sliced.
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced.
• 2 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• Juice of 1/2 lemon.

Directions:

• Rinse the okra and carefully pare the tops, taking care not to cut into the pod. Toss with the vinegar and coarse salt and let stand one hour. Rinse again and dry on kitchen toweling.
• In a non stick skillet, heat 2 TB of the oil, add half the okra, and quickly brown on all sides. Tilt the skillet to keep the oil while removing the okra to a side dish. Repeat with the remaining okra.
• Add another tablespoon of the oil to the skillet, add the onions and sliced garlic, cover and cook over medium heat until the onions are wilted and golden, about 2 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes, sugar, water, and salt and pepper, and simmer, covered 10 minutes.
• Add the lemon juice.
• Arrange the okra tightly in a spoke patter with the tips pointing toward the center. Spoon the tomato and onion mixture over the okra.

The Garden--August 11

Crazy okra!



The tallest one is taller than I am now.



It looks so bare with the cucumbers and the pole beans and cucumbers pulled up.



The tomatoes are almost done. They are looking very scraggly.



But, I just put in my first fall crop, so things are still popping up.



Sprouting purple hull peas.



The mysterious periwinkle (as in I did not plant it and don't know where it came from) is still getting blooms.

Bold, Yet Simple

Pasta served with challah and simple refrigerator pickles.


Oven-dried tomatoes, freshly ground black pepper, spaghetti, basil, crushed garlic, Parmigiano-Reggiano.

I think the captions speak for themselves. Do I really need to put a recipe?

Experimenting with Pizza

One of the managers at work won a contest and used some of the money she won to order pizza from Larry's Pizza. It was the most wonderful pizza I have ever had.

When my husband and I were trying to figure out where to eat out the other afternoon for a treat, I suddenly remembered Larry's Pizza. Richard loved it as much as I did.

I did my best this afternoon to replicate my favorite, the baked potato pizza, and came up with something pretty good, but not as good as Larry's. I've made a vow to stick to my grocery budget--no extra trips to the grocery store between paydays, so there was no bacon, chives, or sour cream. But it was pretty tasty all the same, and next payday bacon, chives, and sour cream will be on the grocery list along with potatoes!

I also made a pizza with salami, oven dried tomatoes from the garden, basil from the garden, and provolone cheese. Both pizzas had a béchamel rather than tomato sauce.

Baked Potato Pizza Ingredients:

• Pizza crust (I took the short cut today and did the bread machine pizza crust)
• About a cup of béchamel sauce
• About 6 new potatoes, but next time I'll probably double it, baked and sliced into rounds
• About a cup and a half of grated cheddar cheese.

• And I would recommend about 4 or 5 slices of bacon cooked and chopped up and several tablespoons of chopped chives and sour cream drizzled over the top!

Directions:

• Make the pizza crusts and bake the potatoes.
• Prepare béchamel sauce.

• Spread on the béchamel sauce.

• Cover the pizza with a layer of potatoes.

• Then the bacon and chives.
• Then the cheese.

• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 425 degrees.

Salami Pizza Ingredients:

• Pizza crust
• About 6 to 8 rounds of salami
• A couple handfuls oven-dried tomatoes
• A handful of shredded basil
• About 6 rounds of provolone cheese, torn in big pieces to cover the pizza.

Directions:

• Make the pizza crusts and bake the potatoes.
• Spread on the béchamel sauce.
• Cover the crust with a layer of salami.
• Sprinkle over oven-dried tomatoes.
• Sprinkle over basil.
• Cover with provolone cheese.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 425 degrees.

Pizza Crust

This recipe uses a bread machine -- a tool I heartily believe in! It's no substitute for the therapy of kneading dough when you're frustrated, but when I've got a lot going on in the kitchen it's nice to know the bread's making it okay without me.


Ingredients to make two 12 inch pizzas:

• 1 1/4 Cup Water
• 2 TB Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 Cups White Flour
• 2 Cups Wheat Flour
• 1 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 1/2 Tsp Granulated Sugar
• 1 Tsp Rapid-Rise Active Dry Yeast

In the Bread Machine:

• Pour water into bread pan.
• Add oil.
• Sprinkle the flour over the wet ingrdients.
• Put salt and granulated sugar into separate corners.
• Make an indention in the middle of the flour and add the yeast.
• Set bread machine to basic dough setting.
• Observe dough for first 5-10 minutes of kneading to make sure that a firm ball is forming. If it is too dry, add water a TB at a time. If it is too wet, add flour a TB at a time.
• When dough is done, roll into two pizza crusts, spread a small amount of tomato sauce or tomato paste on top, and add toppings of your choice.

In the Oven: Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

My Favorite Toppings Include:
Herbs (rosemary, oregano, sage, parsley, etc.)
Prosciutto or Pancetta
Mushrooms
Black Olives
Onions
Mozarella Cheese
Ricotta Cheese from scratch





Ideas:

Use your pizza dough to make an Italian flatbread--Focaccia.

• After rolling out the bread, cover for 15 minutes and allow to rise.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Dimple the bread with your fingers, cover again and allow it to rise for 20 more minutes.
• Spritz with olive oil, sprinkle on salt and herbs (I like rosemary).
• Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and hollow sounding when tapped.

The Garden--August 4th

Well, I pulled up the cucumbers today. They weren't producing much anymore. I have way too many cucumbers, though, from last week that I need to hurry up and decide what to do with. I'm soaking some purple hull peas right now to plant later this evening or in the morning to start my fall garden. The pole beans are finally starting to produce enough that we had some for supper the other night.