Food | mulberryshoots

July 25, 2014

summer “lite” . . .

Did you know that today (Friday, July 25, 2014) is supposed to be one of the “top ten most beautiful days of the summer?” When I heard that on the weather report last night before going to bed, I wondered to myself how they knew what other days (and how many?) might be coming along until September 22nd when Fall officially begins? Never mind, I thought, it’ll be nice just to know today is special, weather-wise that is.

So, to take advantage of this sunny, dry, cool but warm day, I thought I’d use up the bag of shelled fresh peas that I’ve been saving in the fridge and make an asparagus-pea soup to have for supper tonight. I’ve also been wanting to make a zucchini bread ever since I stopped at the farmstand yesterday and they were sold out of zucchini bread although loaves of banana-nut and cranberry-nut breads were lined up in neat rows.

The last time I made a zucchini bread was a few years ago when we had a bunch of pianists over to play works in progress for each other. One of them, a twenty-something youth with acne on his face, ignored our protocol not to show off, and then tried to make up for his immodesty by complimenting me on how good the zucchini bread was. I’ve chatted with another pianist recently about the baffling phenomenon that pianists can’t seem to play for each other without becoming competitive. But that’s a post that I will hopefully avoid writing about.

In any case, music and cooking sometimes go well together and today, since it’s such a fine day, I might play some Bach and work on a Beethoven Rondo that Paul Lewis, an English pianist, has recorded. This afternoon, I’ll make the soup and let it chill. And if I have enough zucchini, I’ll bake a couple of loaves of zucchini bread–some to have with the soup for supper and some to give away next door to G.’s family and downstairs for our medical student before he goes away for the weekend. I like to make recipes that are classic, and while I’ve bought a couple of non-gluten flours and xanthum gum, I think I’ll use half regular flour and half blue cornmeal flour for the zucchini bread.

I’ve been thinking about keeping things simple and staying close to home in terms of what I’m thinking about these days. That is, to get the hardware removed from my ankle, a screw that goes through my tibia and fibula next week in outpatient surgery. I hope the bone/ankle will heal enough so that I can bear weight on it before going on a trip to Puget Sound in early September.

So, our summer meals are less fussy these days: last night, we had bean soup and BLT’s on cracked wheat bread that I brought back from a bakery in Concord. There’s nothing better than a ripe tomato, fresh lettuce leaves, bacon and this bread. Tonight, we’ll have cream of asparagus-pea soup and zucchini bread. This weekend, I might make fresh corn crepes to go with something on the grill.

So summer “lite” is here for awhile: less heavy meals, reading for fun and maybe even some serious goofing off (whatever that might happen to be.)

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May 30, 2014

more “new normal” . . .

Hey, guess what? I’m not the only invalid around here anymore!

My husband, G., who moves, tunes and takes care of pianos, is suffering from a pinched nerve/vertebrae in his back and suddenly, the tables have turned and I am now the one going downstairs using only a cane to fetch the morning newspapers off the front stoop. He was lucky to see our chiropractor yesterday and is there for a follow-up adjustment and ultrasound treatment this morning.

What this means for us is that because he has difficulty going up and down stairs, carrying my wheelchair down and up is now out of the question. I’ve put on my thinking cap to figure out how to do grocery shopping without being able to use a wheelchair at the store, never mind trying to figure out how groceries would be carried up to the third floor where we live in our splendid treetop home!

Then, I remembered a suggestion that one of my daughters, C., had made very early on when I was waiting to have surgery on my broken ankle: to use Stop and Shop’s Peapod online ordering and delivery service to buy groceries. For a long time, I resisted the idea, feeling like this is something the “rich and famous” might do or that the helpless infirm/elderly might have to do in New York City (ordering from De Luca’s!) and that there would be a hefty premium to buying food this way. Plus, I like to pick out things myself but the current exigency we’re faced with rapidly blew that prejudice out of the water too.

“This is great,” said the little red hen to myself, as I browsed the online grocery store–so many choices, reasonable quantities and I was able to find just what I wanted. This was at 2 in the morning last night when I couldn’t sleep, feeling depressed about the two of us getting older and not being able to do simple routine things, mentally looking into the abyss of how to manage things “later.”

My mood brightened this morning when I discovered that this kind of process for shopping is actually much more efficient than walking around a store. I can reflect on the meals I want to make and add on ingredients I sometimes forget about (like fresh rosemary for lamb loin chops;) and, after tightening the list of what we’ll eat for lunches, dinners and breakfast for six days until we travel up to Rockport to visit and celebrate our granddaughter’s high school graduation next week, I cut out extras and purchased ONLY what we’ll use for the duration. I’m surprised and pleased to discover that online ordering allows one to more comfortably select what we decide to buy.

With my Stop and Shop card, the program also automatically deducts savings that I would normally get in person. And a rolling shopping cart adjusts on the screen as you remove or add items which helps you to see how much you’re spending as you go along. At the store, you don’t see that final number until it’s been rung up–usually 20% more than you thought you might be spending, right? Being in control of how much you are spending before racking up the total is a way to keep on a budget in real-time. I loved it!

To top it all off, I went online for promo coupons and found a code that took $20 dollars off my first Peapod order! The delivery charge was only $6.95 (for an order >$100) and I selected a delivery window of 12:00 noon to 2:00 pm tomorrow (Saturday.) I’m also allowed to add anything I forgot to the shopping list until 3 p.m. this afternoon. Very convenient. Also avoids buying mistakes that occur every so often when written lists are somehow “lost in translation.” Best of all, the groceries will be delivered to me all the way up here on the 3rd floor when they arrive!

VOILA!! All food-buying logistical challenges seem to be resolved. Now, THAT’s a “new normal” that I could really get used to!

POSTSCRIPT: The proof is in the pudding as they say: so here’s a report on how the Peapod delivery turned out. I received an email alert that the delivery was going to happen soon. I went downstairs with one crutch and saw the big Stop and Shop Peapod truck drive by and then slowly came back, parking along the street. A tall young man walked up the driveway carrying about four full plastic bags of groceries. His name was “Tom” and he wanted to bring the groceries up to the 3rd floor. He made a second trip, carrying up another set of bags up to the kitchen. When we unpacked everything, I was impressed by the size of the vegetables (squash, zucchini, beets) and particularly the freshness of the kosher chicken legs and lamb loin chops whose sell by dates were not until mid-June! I gave Tom my thanks and tipped him for bringing the groceries to our kitchen. So, my review of this first order to Stop and Shop Peapod is FIVE STARS!!

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May 11, 2014

“mother’s day” celebration. . .

a miniature carrot cake . . .

Last Saturday, I picked up in the kitchen, putting pantry foodstuffs together on a large tray for G. to help put away. You know how things pile up during the week on the chairs, magazines, newspapers, books? I emptied out several caches of them stacked around our living space that opens to the kitchen, our great room where we spend most of our waking hours.

I pulled myself onto the old leather couch to take a rest after a couple of hours of light housekeeping, planning to read some magazines before lunch. G. arrived from one of his piano moves and clucked at me to go and take my shower with the bench placed in the tub so that I could sit while washing my hair. But, i protested, wanting to wait awhile until I caught my breath. No luck–as G. nudged me towards the bedroom.

Sighing, I went along, finding myself secure enough to stand partly for the warm water to run down my back and then, sitting on the seat, washed my hair, putting a moisturizing cream rinse at the end. Dripping, I combed out my tangled hair with a wide-toothed wooden comb.

Almost dressed, I heard a light, lilting voice saying, “hello!” I looked up and saw my youngest daughter, C. (who lives an hour away,) walking towards me as though an apparition. She said, “Surprise, Mom! I brought you lunch to celebrate mother’s day today because we’re going to be out of town next weekend at a wedding in Chicago.”

dark purple parrot tulips, orange ranunculus, wonderful ferns . . .

Honestly, I was speechless! It’s hard to surprise me about anything and I realized G. was cued in on the surprise too, hence his shuffling me to take a shower sooner rather than later. With a wide smile on her face, Caitlin brought in bags of food and a gorgeous flower arrangement of dark purple parrot tulips, orange ranunculus and fine-leaved ferns, casually encircling the bouquet. She was an angel who brought this little mother’s day treat, hosted in absentia also by my daughter M. and their partners, plus my granddaughter, J., of course.

Here are photos of this little feast! I am so touched by this thoughtful gesture. It was one of the best mother’s day celebrations ever, especially so beautifully wrought a week early!

And thanks to everyone, especially, C., who was so sweet and thoughtful to enact this mother’s day tribute. The food was fabulous!

shrimp wonton and baby bok choy soup . . .

fresh sushi . . .

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May 6, 2014

spring steps . . .

my granddaughter’s shoes . . .

Sometimes, it feels like time stands still and progress is impeded. Or worse, something happens that stalls or detours what we’d like to see happen. Yesterday or the day before, I was cooking in the kitchen and twice ran the big toe of my injured foot into something–the stove or the fridge as I swiveled around in my wheelchair. So much for my naivete, thinking I could safely get around by myself!

The result was an angry looking, red, swollen joint on my big toe the next day which I gingerly iced for ten minutes at a time. I was also miffed at myself for being careless and not putting on the right side Teva sandal to protect the foot which protrudes beyond the footrest of the wheelchair. Anyhow, it’s better today and so I decided to venture into the pantry adjacent to our kitchen to sort and cull out canned goods for a U.S. Postal food drive scheduled for this Saturday. The only thing is, there’s a step down from our kitchen to get into the pantry.

Normally, we wouldn’t even notice such things that we take for granted. So in order to get in the pantry, the wheelchair footrests had to come off. Then, I pulled the wheelchair gingerly into the pantry, reattached the footrests and sat down in it, pulling things out like lentil soup and chick peas that I didn’t think we’d use. I also put G.’s cans of Coke into the small fridge that we use for drinks so as to free up space in the big fridge we use in the kitchen.

Sounds good, right? Except for the near-fall that I took when I tripped, getting the wheelchair into the pantry, breaking a china cannister that was in the way. I managed to pick up the broken pieces with my handy grabber, proud of myself that I was able to get most of the broken pieces into a double layered plastic grocery bag. I’ll ask G. to sweep up the rest of it up once he’s back home since I don’t want to push my luck any further.

In looking through the foodstuffs, I discovered I had plenty of dried tree ear, shitake mushrooms, dried bean curd skin, tiger lily root and cellophane noodles. When soaked in a bowl of hot water before ready to use, they are then rinsed, and cut up and then cooked with some napa cabbage, resulting in one of my favorite dishes, Buddha’s Delight. I remembered there was a small container of marinated ground pork and shrimp left over from making wontons last week which I’ll defrost and add to our buddha dish, slightly departing from the recipe’s vegetarian origins. No matter, I thought, it will still taste good. So, that’s how tonight’s dinner got decided.

“buddha’s delight” for dinner . . .

Afterwards, I pulled myself onto the couch and looked outside at the beautiful, sunny, early Spring day. Somehow, it reminded me of Beethoven’s “Archduke Trio” which I saved into a playlist from my library on I-Tunes and emailed to my daughters, M. and C. to see if they could download it and enjoy the wonderful piece themselves where they are, working so hard today to study for exams and preparing students for theirs too.

So simple: clean things out; try not to fall (too badly); use what I already have to make supper; look out the window at the beautiful Spring Day, listen to Beethoven; share it with the kids.

That works for me! At least for today.

Postscript: Happy to report the next day, I was shown by a physical therapist how to use crutches to go up and down the steps (bad foot down first; good foot up first.)

We live on the third floor of a large Queen Anne Victorian house so there are lots of steps, and also thankfully, lots of landings on which to rest. Having gotten over my reticence to try it out, I figured I’m going to be on crutches a lot longer while the ankle strengthens and becomes more limber, so going up and down the stairs with crutches (rather than sitting and sliding on my backside) is a logical next step to take.

A supper of mustard/rosemary/garlic marinated lamb loin chops and fresh asparagus made it all worthwhile!

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May 4, 2014

tried and true . . .

One of the tried-and-true favorite dishes i like to make (and we enjoy eating) is teriyaki chicken thighs. I’ve made it using a bottled marinade (Soy Vay.) But it comes out fresher and lighter (less salty) with a marinade I put together about an hour and half before broiling. This goes well for chicken cooked on the first grill of the season too.

In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons Ohsawa soy sauce, 2 tablespoons Billy Bee honey, 2 tablespoons cooking sherry (Holland House); a chopped up fresh green onion and a generous amount of grated fresh ginger root (on a box grater.) It will smell heavenly.

Rinse the chicken thighs under cold water and dry each one thoroughly with paper towels. I always do this and do not take the pieces directly from vacuum packaging to the marinade. No excess water should be left on the pieces because it dilutes the marinade. I cover the marinating chicken with a plate on top of the bowl at room temperature for about an hour or so.

To cook, heat the broiler to high and place the oven rack a third of the way down from the broiler. Line a roasting pan with aluminum foil and spray with Pam. The pan should hold the number of thighs you are cooking so that they are close enough for the juices to run together but not so far apart that the pieces dry out during cooking. If the pan is too close to the heat source, it burns rather than cooking the chicken; if it’s too far away, you’ll be drying out the chicken rather than crisping it up. Take a look part way through and check this proportion of space and the level of heat you’re getting from your broiler.

Broiling chicken takes a little closer watching than baking, but with the soy marinade, baking can sometimes dry out the meat too quickly. I just keep an eye on broiling chicken while I’m cooking the rest of the meal.

With it, I like to serve sauteed zucchini with a half an onion sliced diagonally in slivers. I use olive oil and sprinkle the cooked squash with a little Maldon salt. Tonight I’m also going to cook up a packet of Minnesota wild rice (Carolina brand) with big bits of button mushrooms browned in a little unsalted butter, then added on top of the wild rice once the rice has absorbed all of the liquid. It’s Sunday, after all, right? Now, all I have to do is get to my walker in order to find the rice in the pantry.

Even though it sounds like a straightforward meal to put together, I’m lucky to have G. help me with various steps, washing pots and bowls as they are emptied, taking hot food off the burners and serving it onto our dinner plates. He’s had a number of piano moves and tunings today so it’s been a full day of work for him.

It’s nice to finally sit down to a tried-and-true meal together on a sunny, windy Spring night.

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April 20, 2014

easter . . .

French macarons . . .

G. and I are enjoying a quiet, sunny day today. The kids are visiting in-laws and so we will have a quiet day and a simple supper tonight. Right now, I am listening to Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” and feeling like snapping my fingers to the music–it’s so much fun to listen to it! Earlier, I went to the piano and played the 2nd movement of the C minor Fantasie by Mozart. The makeshift wooden board that G. placed over the pedal worked well with my leg that still has a heavy cast on it.

Last night, with absolutely nothing to watch on TV (unless you wanted to tune into a four-and a half hour view of the “Ten Commandments”,) we decided to watch “Amadeus” the 1984 movie which won 8 Academy Awards. It’s a little grating to me with the Mozart character’s neighing all the time (from Tourette’s Syndrome)? But F. Murray Abraham (who won an Oscar for best actor in this best picture) plays Salieri, a rival court composer whose works are banal compared to Mozart’s and who is obsessed both by God’s gift of talent to Mozart and his equally strong belief that God has shortchanged him of same. This assignation of “blame” to God for Salieri’s shortcomings is one of the amusing conceits of the film. Reading about Salieri online, he is purported to have taught the likes of Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt so he must not have been as lightweight a musician as the movie, “Amadeus,” makes him out to be.

Anyhow, seeing the period instruments (since G. specializes in all things piano) is a treat to watch. I was also reminded again hearing excerpts of Mozart’s great Mass in C minor with its rousing opening “Kyrie” how great a composition it is. So, I listened to it this a.m. before segue-ing to the more upbeat and laid back jazz of Dave Brubeck’s quartet and Paul Desmond playing saxophone. Did you know that it was actually Desmond who composed “Take Five?” I didn’t until recently when I watched Clint Eastwood’s masterful biographical DVD of Dave Brubeck which we saw on PBS a couple of years ago.

For lunch today, I’m going to heat up some frozen Korean dumplings with chives and make a piquant dipping sauce of Chinese black vinegar, Japanese seasoned rice vinegar, Ohsawa soy sauce, sesame oil, chopped scallions and grated fresh ginger root. Afterwards, we’ll try a tiny sliver of the dark chocolate sour cream cake that I made yesterday afternoon. I had to bake it ten more minutes than the recipe called for and even then, the beautifully rounded middle sunk when cooled so it looked like a miniature tube cake!

I also had difficulty broiling a miso eggplant dish for dinner last night–you couldn’t chew it and it felt and tasted like wet cardboard. I even tried frying it afterwards but to no avail. Then, I remembered the pizza stone the other night didn’t seem hot enough even though heated to 500 degrees. And that instead of the pizza taking 3-5 minutes to cook, it still wasn’t done at 15 minutes and I had to turn on the broiler to finish it. So, dear reader, it occurred to me that perhaps my stove/oven isn’t heating up properly. (DUH!) It’s about a dozen years old and I cook a lot, so it wouldn’t be surprising if it’s losing its legs, heat-wise that is.

So, I dug out my oven thermometer and will be double-checking whether it preheats to 425 degrees when I get ready to roast the rack of lamb that we’re going to have for dinner tonight. I use Julia Child’s recipe for a mustard (Grey Poupon Country Dijon), olive oil, soy sauce, fresh rosemary chopped and lots of minced garlic–the marinade coating applied for the room-temperature lamb before going into the oven. The lamb on the rack looks miniscule so I’m hopeful that there will be something tasty there when it comes out of the dubious oven.

Yesterday, I don’t know what came over me–perhaps it was re-reading a cohort of British cookery books in the last few days–I decided to cull out and reorganize my bookshelves, one whole section of which is dedicated to food. One of the shelves now includes a set of Terence Conran, Roald Dahl, Jane Garmey and Time-Life volumes on making galantines, terrines, meat pies, trifles and aspic with eggs. In this group, I rediscovered the absolutely wonderful simple and yet appealing recipes in Nigel Slater’s cookery books. Slater’s recipe for roasting chicken wings suffused with fresh lemons and cracked pepper until the wings are caramelized to the baking sheet is one I’m going to try next week, I think.

Even though they were somewhat pricey, I went through some books yesterday that had recipes I know I would never try (too conventional, complicated or took too much work/ingredients) so they went into the carton that will be donated to our local library. That is the only way I can justify ridding myself of books–which is to recycle them at an institution that will either catalog them or sell them in their bookstore.

Back to the reorganization, the revised bookshelves also hold a section of what I call “Celebrity Chefs”: David Chang’s “Momofuku”, Rene Redzepi’s “Noma”,Thomas Keller’s”French Laundry”, Daniel Boulud, Stanley Tucci, Jane Grigson, Judy Rodgers’ Zuni Cafe Cookbook and the River Cottage series by that guy who has an un-spellable name.

On the top shelf (for most usage) are short stacks of cookbooks featuring Asian noodles, tofu, dim sum, Chinese snacks, Bento box and Japanese Zen/Temple cookery. There’s also a smaller section down below on macrobiotic and raw vegetable ideas. Right now, I think I’ll be cooking more recipes out of the Nigel Slater books than anything else. Not only are the books now better organized, there’s now room for more!

The photos above and below are of an order of French macarons that I made and had sent to C. and her husband for Easter. She teaches high-school French so these little treats seemed like the perfect thing for Easter. She’s going to share them with her in-laws after their luncheon today. The funny thing about them is that I ordered them from a baker on Etsy (one of my favorite places to find homemade things,) and in finalizing the purchase, I noticed a Chinese name in their email address. Sure enough, she was trained in France to bake these macaron specialties but like me, she’s Chinese. I meet many artists who are Asian on this site. And in the oddest of places too–like with these macarons. They’re made of egg whites and an almond paste filling–somewhat like marzipan, I think. They arrived in time and C. said they shared one macaron before bringing them to the Easter luncheon and it was delicious!

rack of lamb with mustard, rosemary, garlic glaze . . .

In addition to the mustard/rosemary rack of lamb medium rare (hopefully,) we’re having artichokes with a curry mayonnaise as a starter, the lamb, small yukon potatoes crisped in butter and garlic salt, and parsnips (G.’s favorite vegetable.) And for dessert, the dark chocolate sour cream cake with chocolate frosting.

So, here’s hoping you have also had an enjoyable day filled with reading the paper, Easter egg hunts and some nice wine and tasty food!

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April 17, 2014

shepherd’s pie . . .

Instead of making hamburgers tonight, I decided to make a shepherd’s pie. There are some shortcuts along the way and I thought maybe I’d write them down in this post. First of all, I’ve been learning from watching a lot of cooking shows to keep flavors separate until you want to blend them. So, instead of frying the ground beef with onions, I cut up a whole onion and browned it in some oil and butter after two garlic cloves had been toasted and removed. Then, I cut up three huge button mushrooms into chunks and added them to the browning onions. I scooped them into a separate bowl while I browned the beef in the skillet, breaking it up so that it browned evenly. (Dropped the spatula on the floor, flinging onions around twice!) Then, added the chunky onions and mushrooms, gently folding them into the beef. Sprinkled with Maldon salt and cracked pepper. Finally, I made some mashed potatoes, enriched with milk and butter, smoothed over the top of the meat, onion and mushroom mixture, dotted with butter and sprinkled lightly with parmesan cheese.

Washed and dried my favorite fluted baking dish that I bought years ago in Gloucester. It’s just the right size to hold a casserole dish for two. Plus, it’s so elegant on the serving board when we have dinner. There’s a huge bag of fresh spinach that C. brought from the organic farm last weekend that I’ve been meaning to cook before this. I thought I’d heat up a few garlic cloves and cook a mound of it in the skillet, letting it disappear to almost nothing as fresh spinach is wont to do. Then, drain the liquid out of it, cut it up in the skillet with a sharp knife and add some light cream, a little salt and pepper and freshly grated nutmeg to dress it up a little.

I’ve noticed lately that I’ve been dropping things and finding the logistics of cooking from a wheelchair more challenging these days. Maybe it’s because it is getting near the tail end of the dozen weeks that I’ve had my cast on and I’m impatient to have it off next week. My short fuse might also be due to the many dishes that I’ve been cooking of late–a cumulative culinary journey that has occupied me during these long days sitting on the couch for most days since February when I broke my ankle.

The weather is turning warmer, the light so much brighter and it will be nice to be able to navigate the stairs so that I can go outside more often. G. has been doing heavy lifting for grocery shopping, getting things out of the pantry, raising and lowering the shades, doing the laundry and helping me all day long, with good humor and so much patience. We will enjoy our supper tonight together and, as usual, give thanks for the simple things in life.

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April 16, 2014

homemade pizza . . .

homemade mushroom pizza . . .

For the past few years, I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making home-made pizzas. When we had a winter rental more than two years ago in Rockport, MA., I ordered Jim Lahey’s book on making pizzas along with a pizza stone but never got around to following up. We are still looking for that pizza stone downstairs somewhere, but I ordered a second one which arrived last night. (If the first one turns up, I’ll give it to C.) My interest to make homemade pizza was piqued once again last week when a full page article by Sam Sifton appeared in the NYTimes food section. In the online article, there was a video that showed a Brooklyn pizza maker handling the dough (gently,) putting on tomato sauce (sparingly) that was made just from canned tomatoes, not a prepared salty-full-of-additives-and-preservatives-jarred-pizza sauce; and thin slabs of fresh mozzarella cheese. Fresh basil leaves were placed on top of the baked pizza after it came out of the oven.

an online margherita pizza photo

Simple tomato/cheese pizzas (Margherita) are my favorite kind of pizza, I think–just very simple and clean, chewy but not heavy. So this morning, I followed the NYTimes recipe for pizza dough that combines Italian pizza flour (00) and regular flour with yeast, water, salt and olive oil. Jim Lahey just uses all-purpose flour.

The key to making tender pizza dough is the same instruction for making tender scones, rolls or bread: handle gently and as little as possible. When you push out the dough, or let it stretch to make the pizza later on, you’re supposed to handle it “like a baby.” Gently does it. A very little bit of tomato sauce is added, then fresh cheese. Flour the surface that you make the pizza on so you can transfer it easily onto a wooden or bamboo peel (a flat surface with a long handle.)

fresh basil and pizza dough

In the meantime, a pizza stone is gradually heating up in an oven turned up from an initial heat of 350 degrees to 400 and then finally to 500 degrees. Open the oven, stand back and slide the pizza from the peel to the heated stone. Some recipes say to turn off the oven and turn on the broiler on high to “broil” the pizza (Lahey) if you have an electric stove. Sam Sifton in the NYTimes article says to just let it bake at 500 degrees for five to eight minutes, watching it carefully. When the pizza is baked, use the peel to remove it from the stone and onto a board where you can add fresh basil leaves and cut it into serving pieces.

I guess it seemed daunting to make pizzas from scratch because of the equipment required: having to bake it on a pizza stone so that the crust would be light and crispy; transferring it with the use of a large peel, etc. etc. In fact, dear reader, the stone was about $15 and the bamboo peel cost about $12 on amazon.com with free shipping (I have Amazon Prime.) Oh, and I ordered the special Italian pizza flour (00) last week online too. These three ingredients/tools are what I have been waiting for to make pizzas that will hopefully taste like those $18-$22 babies in specialty pizza restaurants (of which there are NONE in the working-class town that I live in–but I have been treated to them in Minneapolis when I visit family there.)

When it came time to assemble the pizzas, I was surprised (chagrined) to find the plastic wrap sticking to the dough. I had to peel it off and knead the dough a little with some extra flour. Then, the hardest part was getting the “baby” yeast dough to thin out and stay stretched out rather than shrinking back again as soon as you let go of it. So, I ended up with a pizza about ten inches in diameter, not twelve. I added a little tomato sauce made from pureeing San Marzano tomatoes with a little olive oil and salt in the Vitamix. There’s plenty of this tomato “sauce” to use later in the week on cappellini pasta with shrimp or to decorate another round of eggplant parmigiana.

The pizza on the stone in a 500 degree oven didn’t bake as fast as the experts said it would. After fifteen minutes, I turned off the oven and turned on the broiler to finish cooking the mushrooms and cheese on top of the pizza. Meanwhile, there were crumbs, flour and basil leaves decorating the front of my clothes and all over the kitchen floor. By the time G. returned home, I was more than a little cranky, mollified later only by the clean taste of the pizza once we got it off the stone and onto a board. Half a glass of ice-cold Miller Lite beer helped a little too. Was it worth it?

Sort of, I would respond, knowing that there’s another pizza dough resting in the fridge for a second trial run at this sometime later this week!

a slice of mushroom pizza . . .

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April 14, 2014

variations. . .

raw sweet potatoes with peeler . . .

One of the things we most enjoy eating is Japanese sweet potatoes. Have you ever tried them? They have a thick red outer peel and a white/yellow very sweet interior. Once you taste them, it’s really hard to go back to the more commonly found yams, sweet potatoes or even garnet yams. Sometimes these Japanese sweet potatoes are found in smaller sizes, just right for a single serving at dinner. Other times, these tubers come in large sizes and seem too large to bake. All of these comments are by way of introducing the idea that tonight, I’m going to try making Japanese sweet potato FRIES!! Peel the red outer skin off; use the large Samurai carving knife to cut the peeled potatoes into slivers, dress in vegetable oil and sprinkle with Maldon salt. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and bake until crispy, golden brown.

fresh out of the oven!

My daughter, C., also bought some boneless, skinless chicken thighs this weekend which I will dredge in flour, dip in beaten egg and enriched panko crumbs to fry gently in a combination of vegetable oil and unsalted butter.

pan fried chicken . . .

A quick swizzle of fresh cut asparagus in some butter with cracked pepper and fresh lemon juice will complete our supper for tonight. Later, we’ll finish off the key lime pie that we still have two servings of in the fridge.

It’s been a breezy Spring day today. Last night, I tried the occipital bone massage on myself (and G. did too) before I went to bed. I didn’t take ANY sleep tablets of any kind and woke up close to the time we usually do. I must be letting go of some subliminal anxiety about how my foot is doing inside the heavy cast that has been on my leg for almost three months. In anticipation of two feet being available, I ordered a pair of graceful taupe, nubuck Birkenstock sandals that have closed fronts and easy to slip on backs.

I’ve also been toying with what to do about the length of my hair; whether to trim it tight and shorter in the back, tapering longer on the sides to the front. I’ve been tempted to try cutting it myself but caught myself in time from what is clearly foolish thinking! Anyhow, there’s still plenty of opportunity to vacillate back and forth before I can get outdoors to a hair salon next week. In the meantime, my injured foot feels better inside the cast: fewer painful episodes, more freedom of movement when wiggling my toes and moving them back and forth with the cast on.

With the Boston marathon heading our way next week, all the stories on TV about the wounded who lost limbs has reminded me of how marginally injured I have been by comparison and how fortunate I am that it wasn’t much worse. Lots of perspective gained by lessons learned all around. It’s been a quiet transition from Winter to Spring, the white snowdrops in the yard and flowering tulips in the markets a harbinger of more colorful times which are soon upon us.

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April 11, 2014

silver linings . . .

Being laid up (translate immobilized) in order to allow my injured ankle to heal, the pace of our days in the past weeks has been transformed. Our priorities shifted in favor of settling into a new routine. Appreciation for each other and our lives has emerged in ways we might not have experienced so poignantly without the injury. We are thankful.

In the mornings, there are brief stints of activity that I carry out each day: cleaning off the kitchen counter of yesterday’s cooking ingredients and used dishes; wiping off the stove top and cleaning off detritus unseen before but now so newly visible at eye level from a wheelchair; straightening off the large curly maple table we use for our meals, emptying crumbs and spills from the braided hemp placemats; watering the plants, replacing spent flowers with a just-in-bloom orchid plant from those flowering in the other room.

There are moments of quiet joy, watching the morning sun move across the large kitchen/great room from the skylights illuminating the wide board pine floors. Today, I noticed those moments that probably would not have come to the fore of my consciousness without the imposed quiet of staying still:

1. Listening to Peter Serkin’s recording of Bach Inventions Part I & II, the simplicity of these compositions more fitting (than the preludes/fuges, partitas, suites) to the reduced tempo of the day.

2. After two fruitless tries (each day taking apart the day’s knitting) to make something that finally pleases me from leavings of Noro “Mossa” yarn, casting aside (80%) of the yarn’s over-fluffy white and purple bits, finally knitting a scarf of the most beautiful lichen, moss, gentian and twig brown colors. A glorious little (emphasize small) piece that justifies having spent the money to buy the yarn in the first place that didn’t quite measure up but has at last yielded some beautiful textures (like nuggets of gold after sieving lots of washed dirt.)

3. Learning that my granddaughter has been accepted to, visited and is overjoyed with her college of choice, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. where she may pursue her interests in applied math, biology and all sorts of arenas such as international affairs.

4. Looking forward to my daughter, C.’s visit tomorrow. She teaches high school French and tells me she’s at the end of the quarter with grades due but will have some time to spend with us this weekend.

She’ll be doing some shopping at an organic farmstand on the way between her house and mine and arrive in time for a late lunch. I’ve been waiting for a pizza stone to arrive and if it does, I’ll make up some homemade pizza dough and we’ll try our hand at making a Margherita pizza tomorrow with San Marzano tomato sauce, cheeses and fresh basil leaves on top after it comes out of the oven.

We have also saved up so that we can watch “Frozen,” the Walt Disney animated movie together. My granddaughter, Josie, (who is four) has taken to swaying and singing “Let It Go” on Skype this past week. I sent the Disney Golden Book versions of “Frozen” to her and I’m told she sings along while being read to and looking at the many illustrations from the movie.

5. Catching up with my daughter M. on Skype along with Josie (above) I heard about an effort to communicate becoming a positive catalyst for change and improvement all-around in her nursing school classes. A busy Mom and student, M. somehow manages to be centered while making healthy juices from organic vegetables and fruits to take care of her own needs.

Tomorrow night, I’m planning to roast a small (under 3 lbs.) organic chicken with fresh rosemary and thyme for our dinner tomorrow night along with carrots, onion and yukon potatoes to cook alongside the bird. For dessert, we’ll have some chocolate cream pie that we devoured the last time she came out to visit G. and me.

This is a long list of things that gladden my heart. Plus, during my idle time last week, I won an eBay auction for a song and a wonderful loon decoy arrived yesterday. Then, G. came home last night with a single yellow rose at suppertime along with the fresh cilantro and lime I asked him to pick up to go with the Pad Thai I was making.

There are so many blessings for which I am thankful. It has been raining good fortune ever since I took that fateful fall and broke my ankle. Who would have known?

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Category: Food