Thursday, May 27, 2010

Square Pizza



Supplies are limited, as we'll only be in Troy for a few days, so we're having the same dinner tonight as we did last. Carefully, the pizza was portioned like so; the blobs, of course, being mushrooms.

But! This time, the crust dared to unfold whilst protected from our watchful eye by the cover of the oven, leaving a barren ring of no-sauce-no-cheese around the thing.

Beat that mushroom pizza below by miles, though...

Monday, May 24, 2010

Sister Graduation




Meedle graduates, and I get blueberry pancakes in a diner.

Meeds!

And directly after I spent a few days in New Bedford with the gurl. We bummed about the apartment, sitting outside and tending the garden; taking naps and rough-housing with roommates and chatting and you know. This pizza, though, was somehow disappointing, though mushroom is my absolute favorite kind...




Saturday, May 22, 2010

Home for Dinner

I am not sure when I started loving to cook for the family, but it has happened. I prepared this meal for Brie, Moth, Fath and I. It was individual pizzas! Apparently everyone's on diets, so I had to keep that in mind. For Brie and Moth and I, I made a simple spinach + mushroom pizza, but for Father...

His had smoked kippers and jalapeno peppers. He said it was one of the best pizzas he's ever tasted, and he said it thoughtfully, which means it's a real compliment.

Now to New Bedford with dearest Meel!


Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Cookies en Masse

Moth asked me to make several batches of cookies for her meeting tomorrow night. Busy busy busy; strangely enjoyable.

1. chocolate chip
2. snickerdoodles
3. sugar cookies rolled in green

PB Granola Bars

Moth used to make a granola bar that for us as kids, that we'd take hiking and on trips and to school and out to play and anywhere. They required no baking and lots of peanut butter and dried fruit. I couldn't find her recipe anywhere....

Here's one I found online.

Stir together:

1 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. corn syrup
1/3 c. butter
2 tsp vanilla

Add [really anything]:

3 1/3 c. oats
1 c. of dried fruit (we had pineapple, papaya, kiwi, canteloupe, strawberries, craisins and raisins)
1/2 c. chopped almonds
1/2 c. chocolate chips

This was freaking sticky and hard to deal with. Bake for 20ish minutes in a greased 13 x 9 inch pan, at 350 degrees. When they were done (and Bee and I were done snacking) I cut them up and wrapped them individually in seran wrap for easy packing...all I could think about was motorhome trips out West; Bratty Becky and the giggling and running about and coke-bottle rockets, group poem-writing and contests to see who could be quietest, and tests-of-true-sistership.




HIKING

Finally a beautiful day; finally nothing to do. I mapped out a route through the Catskills, and here is what I found:

10 miles of hiking

5 1/2 hours

1 protein bar consumed

3 water bottles quaffed

1 tin salmon + 1 Reeses cup given to somewhat starving bearded man with large pack and very slow shuffle

1 old couple met

(25*9) - 3 = 222 pictures taken

1 diner visited

1 feta burger, 1 million fries, and 1 diet coke digested

$10.64 spent

11 truck-driving songs heard

1 stomach a'rumbling at the end

2 calves very tight

1 forearm bruised (how?)

1 shin scraped

2 socks filled with mud

1 head of hair irreversibly mussed

It was the perfect day...




Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Ice Cream Cups?

Hannah forced me to make these with her. She had a pie craving, but we had nothing to fill it with, so we attempted to make cookie dough cups in a muffin tin to fill with ice cream.

The recipe was the generic cookie dough recipe from below (using Ghirardelli chips) but with these additions by Hannah:

few teaspoons cinnamon
maybe 1/2 c. Nesquik powder
~ 1 tbsp honey
some milk to moisten

and we had to add one more egg to make up for the added solids. They didn't bake so well, but they came out tasting like chocolatey chip cookies. The muffin cups, though, stuck perilously to the dough, and only the most patient of people could remove one; so the rest of the dough was made into normal cookies. No one has eaten them yet, though -- they look slightly terrifying and blobular.


Saturday, May 8, 2010

Egg Salad!

With the leftover garlic-stir-fried spinach from PF Changs, I made this egg salad pita.

1 egg
spinach / garlic
lemon juice
greek feta dressing


Friday, May 7, 2010

Huge Cookies

Having the urge to use up the Ghirardelli chocolate chips from Nana's truffles, I made these cookies, and in doing so finally veered away from my tendency to make tiny blobular shaped morsels. For these, I took about golf-ball sized lumps and flattened them out before baking, and they came out like any you'd see in a delicious bakery.

Slight variation in the ingredients, too. Cream:

1/2 c. softened butter
1 1/2 c. white sugar
1 tsp vanilla

and beat in

2 eggs

and mix in, all at once:

2 1/4 c. flour
1 package vanilla instant breakfast mix (a stray)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
sprinkle salt

and then

1 milk chocolate bar from Bean; chopped
~3/4 c. Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips

They were very popular, because big cookies look far more appealing than tids. I sent three home to Moth; she should be receiving them shortly. For Mother's Day, perhaps? :D

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Potato Chips

I wanted to make Moth something, since May 9th is Mother's Day -- so I attempted these potato chips, since that's all she seems to ever eat. They came out good but I decided against sending them because seriously, who in their right mind mails potatoes?

They were simply:

potato, sliced
soaked in olive oil
sprinkled with oregano + salt + pepper

and baked for about 10 minutes on each side, at 400 degrees. They were soft when they came out, but crisped up nicely in due time...


Potato Bake & Cider

Baked one potato, and then attempted to mash it up with some milk and oregano and salt and pep; sliced some cherry tomatoes, diced some radicchio, and shredded some Gouda (good-a) cheese. Piled it all into a ramekin and baked it. It was good; it was okay.














The best part of this dinner was this delicious hard cider I got at Oliver's Beverage Center in Albany, that time they had the beer-tasting a few weeks ago.

Back-to-School Burgers

tiring joyous weekend
love everywhere
but still
happy back.

This was a burger made from Greenland Farm's ground beef; Moth was reluctant about giving me a package but!

Mixed into the burger were:

soy sauce
oregano
salt / pepper

and adorning it:

Simon's homemade bread
Gouda cheese
spinach

Quite nice.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Green Eggs! (No Ham)

Sometimes our chickens do this. Green vs. pink, but they both taste good.

Nana's Birthday

Dearest Nana gets so touched every year when we all gather with our foods and our cards and our gifts and hugs to celebrate her birthday. We lug everything up the huge hill, light a fire, grill grill grill and play ball games until Nana feels the touch of the first bug. Then it's time to go home for presents and dessert; all eyes on Nana until she's done or else. But it's always a time that I love so...


This is the typical fare (home-grown burgers and store bought cheesecake):


May Day



May Day was full of beautiful music and glorious people and laughter and Brie cheese and sun and contradancing and laying on the grass.

And wild asparagus!