FALL IS HERE

The day dawned bright and clear, and autumn was in the air. Bean and I abandoned our mall-shopping plans when we were halfway there, and drove straight home to hop on the moped. Layered up and grinning from ear to ear, we pootled around and after a while arrived at Hayward's, my beautiful ice cream stand. They have pumpkin ice cream now. Pumpkin ice cream, waffle cone, and chocolate jimmies; good company and high spirits and smiling people all around? One could scarcely ask for a better day.

And to boot, there was a farm stand in the parking lot! We bought tomatoes, cucumber, and some tiny pumpkins. They are barely more than fist-sized, but I am determined to carve one anyway.

The remainder of the evening was spent, radio and lumpy sweater on, in the kitchen, singing and dancing and pumpkin-preparing. I cut out the bottom, put the seeds (oiled and salted) in the oven; forgot about them well past burning, and threw them out. The flesh that was scraped out in the process, I put in a blender with:

cinnamon

nutmeg

almond extract

to produce a very glorious-smelling paste. This I made into pumpkin wontons, using some wrappers that finally had a purpose. I have not tried them yet; hopefully tomorrow's lunch finds them willing to please:

(that blob on top is a mushroom.)

Tomato Pie

So!

Nick fixed Simon's car just as we were mixing up some pizza dough, and decided that a share of the yeasty bounty would be a fitting enough payment for his service. Since Bean and I usually make a whole pizza for ourselves, I embarked on a separate project: same ingredients in a different shape.

I took a quarter of our thick-crust pizza dough and let it to rest, stripped of the companionship of its flour-and-oil brethren.

Then I rolled it out and flopped it into a ramekin with some:

chopped tomatoes (from lovely Dani)

spinach

grated mozzarella and Parmesan

and brushed the top with olive oil and sprinkled on some more cheese for a delightfully delicious looking pizza kin. I left it in the oven for as long as the brothers' pizza did...probably ten minutes.

And even better was the fact that I was whisked away to fill up the moped's gas tank, and came back years later to find I had forgotten half of it, just as I was feeling as if I were missing something. My body (frighteningly often) neglects to tell me how it is feeling, and I was glad that tonight was a time when hunger would not go unnoticed by this stupidly stubborn brain o' mine.

New Hampshire Cake

Bean told me he'd make me a cake the day I became an official New Hampshire resident.

It was flourless chocolate, and I added some baked pears that we harvested from a beautiful old house in Nashua. Damn, that's good.

Red White Yellow

I was going to post pictures of all of my lunches from the past week, but was forced to conclude that they would likely look unappealing to the masses.

For some reason I was struck by the beauty of the colors and shapes in this one.

tomato

hardboiled egg

garlic-stuffed olives

spinach

rosemary sourdough

blue cheese!

Mushroom & Tomato Calzone

We make pizza so much. Too much? Perhaps. But this night we decided on a slight variation; the same ingredients with varying preparation.

That is, a calzone.

We made the crust as we would for a regular sized pizza; I rolled out one quarter of it and added

one tomato, chopped

one mushroom, chopped

some mozzarella cheese

some olive oil

basil pesto

minus, of course, the bits that were nibbled upon during preparation. Bean's had spinach and goat cheese, and was much larger.

They looked delicious in the oven, but were quickly determined to be too messy. Pizza won out. Helloooooooo next few days! :D

SURPRISE MORE PIZZA!

Artichoke Focaccia?

I guess that's what you'd call it...

Bean wanted a frozen pizza tonight, but I felt like trying something new, so while he popped his in the toaster and was done, I hopped about the kitchen in a state of strangely high spirits. I wanted pizza, but I also wanted to find a use for an opened can of artichoke hearts. Then, an idea! This dough was made of:

1/4 c. water

1/2 packet yeast

Proof.

And then add approximately 1 cup of flour, some dried basil, and two chopped artichoke hearts. I let that sit while Bean and I watched exactly one 20-minute episode of Futurama. Why is it a funny show? Unknown.

The dough rose so much that I split it in half, making one part into a miniature spinach and mozzarella calzone for a work-lunch. The other half I rolled out and topped with olive oil and mozzarella cheese, and some gloriously fresh basil leaves from the lovely potted garden. Then I let it cook while I ran about like a flailing idiot (probably ten minutes? Shorter than a pizza, in any case).

You can see artichoke pieces in the dough. I would like to know what to attribute the simple deliciousness of it to, but I am going to have to chalk it up to luck and hunger for now.

Octopus in the Lunch

As I was pondering sleep, Simon got the urge for late-night crackers and cheese, and whisked me off to the supermarket to achieve this goal. Passing by the sushi display, we say these tiny little octopus; they were willingly purchased at the sound of my too-loud squeal of disbelief and delight.

Returning home, I realized they were intended to be eaten on the day they were bought, so I had to make a new lunch to incorporate them for tomorrow. This involved a base of seaweed ramen and spinach, which Simon garnished with carrots because he required more color:

Then the rest of the lil' guys were added. They're slimy, and will presumably taste of soy sauce and sesame seeds, which is what they were cooked in.

Here lies the lunch that has been laid to rest until the day after tomorrow: leftover homemade mushroom pizza, cukes, and a greek salad of tomato, spinach, feta cheese and kalamata olives. Got two different themes going on here...

Cucumber & Gin

There was a name for this drink, but I forget it. We blended:

whole Belgian cucumber (small and sweet)

shot of lime juice

Leaving the skins on the cuke resulted in a beautiful dark-green speckling in the pale mixture. We added this to a cup of ice and two shots of white rum. It was a wonderfully delicious thang.

And now lunch is fun...

Actually, I've always loved packing my lunches. This box, though, makes me feel at once creative but constrained, and therefore much joy has been had making lunch for the past three days.

Tomorrow's has:

A wrap made of:

- Lavash bread

- mozzarella cheese

- mortadella deli meat

- spinach

- spicy brown mustard

A stirfry made of:

- sliced tomato

- sliced mushroom

- spinach

- soy sauce

- wasabi

- lil' bit of teriyaki sauce

With cucumbers and strawberry thrown in to fill in the spaces. It's like real-life tetris, packing this thing. :D