Grape Leaf & Anchovy Pizza

Although most will not be pleased by such a combination, my ever-searching tastebuds were overjoyed!

Grilled pizza has become our default sunny-day recipe.

Grilled Pizza - Sardines & Broccoli

Prosciutto Pizza

Just a little late, ever-so-salty, ever-so-delicious dinner.

prosciutto

sliced onion

vodka sauce

mozzarella cheese

Played my first tennis of the season tonight!

Finally, an Oven!

In a fluke April storm, our oven stopped working. It has now been numerous weeks.

Whereas before, we made pizza-stone pizzas at least two times a week, we had to do without...

And today, we realized we could use the darned thing! And so here it is:

mushroom

spinach

onion

Feta cheese

mozzarella

chopped cherry tomatoes

And, of course, deliciousness!

Lunch for Dinner

It's dinner time. What to do?

Sandwiches are a food that it never occurs to me to make, but when I do, I remember how interesting and delicious they can be!

oatmeal bread

spicy capicola meat

grated mozzarella

kimchi

spicy brown mustard

spinach

oyster mushrooms

sliced cucumber

Mushroom Crostini (?)

Here's just a couple o' lil' crostinis --

1. Freshly baked sourdough bread, thanks to Beansie...

2. Mushrooms simmered in red wine & parsley & olive oil

3. Tomato

4. Mozzarella cheese

Bread came out; workers assembled, re-toasted, and eaten.

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.

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

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.

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

Mini Pizza(s)

More pizza; this time just for me. Mixed:

> 1/2 c. flour

1/2 pkg yeast

1/4 c. water

some olive oil

dash salt

dash sugar

and let rise, o' course (o' course). Split into three tiny balls and spread out, and baked with spinach, tomato and mozzarella on top. Each was about 3-4 inches across!

Same as our often-made pizzas, but so neat to eat.

Provincetown!

On my first visit, Provincetown offered an unmatchable combination of perfect weather, art studios as far as the eye could see, shops to satisfy any soul, and quiet company. Hours of driving led us to ice cream for breakfast, and we spent the day wandering up and down the streets after finding an unexpectedly convenient spot to park.

We began our meal with drinks: a mojito for me, and Chimay for Bean. Whilst sipping, we decided we hoped they'd take their good time preparing the meal. There was something inexplicably relaxing about sitting here overlooking the ocean, resting the worn-out soles of our feet, tired by so many hours of walking and being buffeted by the wind; eyes taking in more than the normal day allows.

The Caprese salad I ordered was beauteous; it is hard to go wrong with mozzarella and basil and tomato. Paired with their just-warmed bread, it was a meal tasty enough to cherish the day, but light enough to require dessert.

And a beautiful ending; our waitress seemed oh-so-pleased that we ordered dessert. A flourless chocolate torte with vanilla bean ice cream, and some mint on top. Warm cake, cold ice cream, and a beautiful day -- I really do not think it gets any better...

MORE PIZZA

Hungry, hungry, hungry.

These days, filled with a new job and a mind that doesn't know where it wants to be in the realm of up or down (and often chooses one right after another) require a full plate of home-cooked pizza. Even though I spent the preparation hours squealing in helpless pitifulness, unable to determine what was running through my mind, Bean stuck with me and we saw it through to the end. I whined much more than usual (mm?) and similarly consumed.

This is the best pizza crust we've made to date, and it was the same recipe as the other yeast-based ones. What was different? Hunger is the best sauce, they say; mine just had fresh tomatoes (a lil' farmstand on my homeward commute), mozzarella (retrieved on the moped at the last minute), spinach, and mushroom mushroom mushroom.

Why does no one like mushroom on pizza? It is always what I would choose...

Pasty Pasty Pasty

Dinner at home was slightly depressing -- only Mother Dearest and Fath and I around the shortened table. I attempted a strange spinach-salmon-cheese pie, which didn't turn out very good, and I didn't take any pictures of it. With the extra crust, I made two miniature pasty thangs. The entire crust was:

1 c. white flour

1 c. wheat flour

1 tsp salt

2/3 c. shortening

~8 tbsp water

parsley

onion powder

black pepper

And was prepared like a pie crust. For the filling I just stuffed in:

Prepared chicken salad (deli)

shredded mozzarella cheese

diced tomatoes

Then brushed some olive oil around the edges, folded over and closed with a fork. I don't remember how long they baked for! But they were scrumptious, especially re-toasted for leftovers after a day of burning brush with Fath.