Kale Ricotta Pizza

Last night’s dinner was an idea I got from Amy at Eggs on Sunday. Pizza sounded like a delightful way to use up some of the kale we got from our CSA, and white pizza would be great because I had ricotta leftover from our sandwiches.

I sauteed the kale in olive oil along with some garlic scapes, thyme, parsley and chives, then layered that over some ricotta on the Artisan Bread dough. To finish it off, I sprinkled a bit of shredded Parm and Gruyere and baked for about 8 minutes. It came out as wonderfully as I had hoped. The crisp kale was a perfect contrast to the creamy mild ricotta. I love easy, delicious dinners on Sunday nights.

We’ve had so many great pizzas lately! I don’t think I could pick a favorite. What’s your favorite pizza combination?

The View From The Roof

I hope you all had a fun Fourth of July! Brent and I had a good time just hanging out at home. We made a delicious dinner on the grill. I had wild Sockeye salmon (Brent had a NY Strip steak), grilled herbed corn on the cob and a salad with a delicious Feta dressing.

The dressing was tasty on the salad but even better as a sauce for the salmon! I loved every bite of it and I want to eat it again very soon.  For the corn on the cob I mixed together some Earth Balance, chives, parsley and thyme and then peeled back the husks to apply the butter. I pulled the husks back up and they were grilled for about 15 minutes. The fresh corn is definitely not at it’s peak yet, but the herb butter is a treatment we’ll be repeating.

After dinner and some XBoxing, we got ready for some fireworks. I climbed out of our bedroom window onto the roof of our house and settled in with blanket while Brent set off some bottle rockets and fountains below on the driveway.

From my tree top view I was able to see a lot of different shows going on, most of which I think were put on by some of our more enthusiastic neighbors. I couldn’t believe how huge some of these were, coming from someone’s backyard!

When the shows really got going, the dogs ran upstairs because they’re terrified of the fireworks. Lucy seemed ready to come onto the roof with me, but luckily Brent was able to calm her down.

Being on the roof did have its perils though. While Brent was out there with me, he forgot where he was for a moment and put his chips and dip down on the angled roof! I watched in horror as my cute bowl from Anthropologie slid down the shingles and shattered on the driveway.

It was a wonderful long weekend, but it’s back to reality tomorrow morning so I’m going to read a bit more of my book and then head to bed.

Stewed Apricots and Fennel with Ricotta, Pistachios, and Black Pepper

Long title, huh? We chose this sandwich as our final installment for Sandwich Week. This sweet and fruity sandwich was listed in the breakfast sandwich section, but Colicchio thinks it would be “great for breakfast, brunch, a light lunch, and afternoon snack, even a dessert.” Of all those meals, I think the sandwich in its original form would be best as a dessert. This is a really sweet sandwich.

The sweetness comes from the apricots and fennel, which are simmered in a simple syrup with equal parts water and sugar along with a sprinkling of spices. The sweetness did not prevent from enjoying every bite though. I love this sandwich, and it was probably the easiest one we made this week. Stewing the apricots and fennel only took about 10 minutes and sandwich assembly took another 2.  The flavors all worked really well together, and I’d definitely like to try this again.

For next time, Brent suggested making this sandwich more “dinner appropriate” by halving the sugar in the stewing liquid and using goat cheese rather than ricotta. Sounds good to me!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

Brent won a raffle for a gift certificate to a fireworks store, so he and I will be doing a lot of this tonight:

Tuna and Roasted Tomato Melt

Part 4 in the Sandwich Week series was the Tuna and Roasted Tomato Melt. English muffins, some oven roasted tomatoes, tuna salad and a slice of Gruyere cheese. Sounded like it could be good, so I was willing to give it a shot.

Did anyone else make those little English muffin pizzas when they were younger? I used to make them all the time, so I found tonight’s sandwich choice really comforting and delicious. This was my second pick out of the book and I would recommend it. Roasting the tomatoes is time-consuming, but not active work. I did that yesterday, so tonight’s sandwich assembly and melting took a total of 12 minutes. Oh, I made English muffins this morning too, but you could probably buy them.

First up, let’s talk about the English muffins. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll let you know that these are not real English muffins. Most recipes require enriched dough, but I took the lazy way out and used Artisan dough. (As a side note, Brent came up with the name The Idle Loaf because “It implies that baking is your hobby, but also that you’re kind of lazy.” Guilty on both accounts.) I found the English muffin idea on the ABin5 website which I love as much as the book. I chose to make mine on the griddle, which was fairly easy, but these definitely ended up tasting like bread shaped like an English muffin.

A few nooks and crannies, but I think I want to try a “real” English muffin recipe sometime soon. I had a phase last year where I had one every morning with PB and J. I should bring them back into my life.

Onto the sandwich, the roasted tomatoes were simple to make. Douse some tomatoes with oil, garlic, salt, pepper and thyme and then roast them for like 3 hours. I liked these tomatoes. I’ve made similar recipes before. I think they would make an excellent pasta sauce. I toasted the muffins, added some tomatoes, some tuna with mayo, lemon juice and oregano and a slice of Gruyere and baked until melty.

These were warm, toasty and yummy. I really enjoyed them. Some comments for the next time I make them: I would not use the super fancy tuna in olive oil. I don’t think it’s necessary when you’re mixing it with mayonnaise anyway, and Brent thought the roasted tomatoes need more salt (he thinks everything needs more salt). Overall, I would definitely make these again. It was like a tuna melt pizza, which sounds odd, but was worked out really well.

Brent just bought an XBox 360, so I think our weekend plans just got a little more video game intensive. Have a great holiday, and enjoy the 3 day weekend!

CSA Week 5 and a Sandwich

Our CSA is really starting to beef up! We might even get eggplants and peppers next week! Here’s this week’s haul:

• Lots of Lettuce
• Kale
• Chives
• Parsley
• Apple Mint
• Peas
• Garlic Scapes
• Turnips
• Jalapenos

We picked up our share an hour and half ago, and we’ve already made use of the turnips, some chives, and some of the garlic scapes. Our dinner tonight was another sandwich, the BLT. We did not follow Colicchio’s recipe exactly because I thought a quarter pound of bacon per sandwich was crazy. We used these delicious local, organic tomatoes from our local co-op. I also added some avocado to mine because I love it dearly. On the side I made some mashed potatoes and turnips with some sauteed scapes and chives thrown in. Overall, pretty delicious.

Tomorrow is our Friday! I love a three day weekend. I think we’re just going to hang out at home, and maybe grill out for the Fourth. Do you have any fun plans?

It’s All About the Marmalade

Time for the second installment of Sandwich Week! Tonight’s selection was Roasted Turkey with Avocado, Bacon, Balsamic Onion Marmalade and Mayonnaise. This pick was Brent’s, and definitely proved that Colicchio does not take sandwich-making lightly. Though not one of the more super complicated recipes in the book, this one still required multiple time-consuming steps. We rounded out the meal with some sauteed squash.

The sandwich was very tasty, but I attribute 90% of that to the balsamic onion marmalade. In the description, Colicchio claims, “This sandwich is an ensemble piece, with no clear headliner.” No offense to Mr. Colicchio, but that is completely incorrect. The marmalade was a clear (and delicious) standout in this meal. It took a bit of time to make, about an hour, but the ingredients are onions, salt, pepper, a bit of sugar and balsamic vinegar and it was super easy to make. Now I need to find other uses for it!

For the bread, I made some ciabatta rolls out of the master recipe from Artisan Bread, subbing 2 cups whole wheat flour. I’m enjoying baking extra breads for this week! I have English muffins coming up for one sandwich, and I’ve never made those. Should be interesting.

Sandwich Week

Last week while we were at the library, Brent picked up ‘Wichcraft by Tom Colicchio. I’m in love with this book. Tom must have gotten a huge budget for publishing his book because every recipe has an accompanying full color drool-worthy photograph. Feeling so inspired, I decided this week would be “Sandwich Week” in our house and Brent and I poured through to find sandwiches that looked delicious, and that we could actually make on a week night.

Last night’s pick (which I meant to post about last night, but I fell asleep at 7:30!) was a grilled cheese. This was my pick, because I’ve loved grilled cheese for a long time and way back in the day, before I even knew how to “cook,” I always claimed to make the world’s best grilled cheese. Brent always rolled his eyes at this claim, but I have quite a few people who would agree with me on this.

Anyway, this was a grilled Gruyere with roasted onions on homemade rye bread. A bit fancier than my usual, but extremely delicious.

The onions were so sweet, and the cheese was so nutty and gooey and delicious. I thoroughly enjoyed every bite. The sandwich tasted even better when dipped into the Creamy Tomato Soup from Veganomicon.

The grilled cheese, in any version, still remains my most nostalgic food. It was the first meal I ever made, it was the one cooking skill I brought with me to college, and I’ll always love it.

What’s your favorite sandwich?

Family Day at the Fort Wayne Zoo

Today was “Family Day” for Brent’s work, and so we got free admission and lunch at the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo. We have no children obviously, but I love a good zoo.

It was (again) so hot and humid out. I got overheated and sweaty (a bit cranky), but overall it was a really good time. I’ve been asking Brent to go to the zoo for like two years! Hope you’re all enjoying your weekend!

Thickburger

I was craving a burger for the past few days. I was originally just going to buy some veggie burgers, because I like them, but I can’t justify pending $1 per burger! So I turned to something I make a lot: black bean burgers! I make each of them with a full serving of black beans, so they big and hearty, but each one only has ~170 calories.

This was the first time I used a food processor for the burgers, which made them a bit more homogenized, but I didn’t pulverize them because I wanted to see some whole beans still. I’ve realized that the burgers stick together best when I refrigerate them for 20-30 before cooking.

These were pretty simple, and I didn’t have much to adorn them with, just a bit of CSA lettuce and some mayonnaise, all on a half whole wheat bun. On the side we had a simple slaw of cabbage, carrots and green bell pepper. I made a dressing from equal parts honey and lime juice, with some scallions thrown in. Super quick.

I forgot to do a CSA post this week, but most of it is repeats: lettuce, pea shoots, turnips!, pineapple mint, and basil. Lettuce is gone. The pineapple mint found it’s way into a few mojitos because Brent is off tomorrow, and the rest is still up for grabs.

How My Garden Grows

Still scorching over here in Indiana, but the humidity appears to have reached an all-time high! Brent and I went for our run this morning, and I felt soaked with sweat the minute I walked out the door!

During this heat wave, I’ve been especially concerned about my poor little garden. I don’t really have a green thumb as it is and with 90 degree weather, I wasn’t sure my plants would make it. The good news is that pepper plants love the warm weather, and none of the others appear to be suffering too much.

Asiatic Lilies:

Cherry Tomatoes:

(Soon to be) Yellow Pear Tomatoes: I love how they look like rain drops.

(Soon to be) Red Bell Peppers:

Blueberry Bush:

I can’t wait to enjoy some of the fruits of my labor! I’m especially excited about the red bell peppers, because those are so expensive! Did you plant anything this year? How’s your garden doing?