Archives for October 2006
Cookies and Cake
Yesterday I didn’t actually cook a meal. I made toasted cheese sandwiches for lunch, and three dozen Chocolate Chip Cookies that were promptly eaten by Dexter and his friends. Then I made a Texas Sheet Cake for the family. Dave did Habitat for Humanity all day with his team from work and he ate a big lunch so he didn’t want dinner, neither did the boys (cake and cookies…oh boy!) so I had some Trader Joe’s Cotswald cheese, a Honeycrisp Apple, and some nuts with my glass of wine. Honeycrisp apples are a cross between a Macoun and a Honeygold apple. They were developed by the University of Minnesota and they are crisp, juicy, sweet, yet tart…the perfect apple.
This morning I made a bagel run to Bagels Forever and we had bagels and cream cheese. Dave and I added some lox and capers that I picked up at Trader Joe’s. Then Lovejoy and I headed out for our walk. It is a crystal clear, bright blue day with a brisk wind out of the north and the temperature is about 45. I haven’t used my iPod when I go hiking because in the summer I like to hear the birds and the insects humming along. But now the only sound is the wind so I wore my iPod and listen to Cat Power and Death Cab For Cutie. We walked to the Pheasant Branch Conservancy and headed up the hill. I saw two Redtail Hawks riding the updrafts. They would soar toward each other and then grab at each other and tumble down until right before they hit the ground and then they would straighten out and soar off. I saw them do this two times and I wonder if they were playing?
This is a picture of me and my dog, Lovejoy. He looks crazy in this photo because he was all excited and wouldn’t hold still for a photo, so I promised him a Greenie biscuit which I’m holding in my right hand…the one he is eerily staring at. He’s a mix of Cardigan Corgi and Canaan Dog, we think. Lovejoy is the illegitimate love child from a dog show romance. He is the smartest dog I’ve ever had, he can take commands as we walk, he is always trying to herd people, children, and other animals. He is incredibly protective and loyal. He barks a lot and is very protective but that quality also makes him a good guard dog. He’s a big dog in a small package.
This afternoon I’m going to continue reading Edward Rutherford’s Sarum. This book tells 10,000 years of history of the Salisbury plain in England through the stories of five families. I’m up to 2000 BC. It is a interesting book and I’m enjoying it. We’ll be traveling in that area next summer and I can’t wait to see Stonehenge.
Dinner tonight will be simple: grilled pork chops, artichokes, and roasted potatoes.
Melissa’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe came from my neighbor Anne. I think it came from her sister in law, Melissa. I’ve made some changes:
2 sticks unsalted, cultured butter, room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat white flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
Put the butter in the mixer bowl and mix on medium with the paddle beater until creamy and smooth. Add the sugars and mix again until fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips and mix until combined. Using a 1 tablespoon ice cream scoop arrange sixteen scoops on your parchment paper covered cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 8 -10 minutes or until golden brown. Makes about 4 dozen cookies if you don’t eat the dough first.
System note: We’ll be bringing down the server tonight and parking the blog. You’ll be be able to view but not comment after 10 pm and then Dave will bring it all back up tomorrow.
Apple muffins and Trader Joe’s
We have a lot of apples in the house right now and have had a lot of apples for the past month. Since I’m home with the boys enjoying a long weekend I took the opportunity to drink 3 double-shot lattes and then I made some apple muffins. Once we were fueled with caffeine and carbs we headed out to run errands and go shopping.
The new Trader Joe’s is on Monroe Street in Madison. There is plenty of on-street parking and even though construction is still on-going it wasn’t too bad. The store is spacious and well laid out. I bought some artichokes and raspberries from the produce section, organic orange juice, milk, and 1/2 n 1/2 from the dairy aisle which is also where I found the European-style butter Plugra. The cheese area was too packed but I did manage to pick up a Cotswald from Glouchester and a lovely little cheese from Ireland that was wrapped in a pretty green wax. The nut and snack area was not so crowded and I chose some Tamari almonds and Wasabi almonds. I use to buy nuts at Willy but the prices were really high and the freshness in question so I turned to NutsOnline which is great. I’ll have to take more time to compare prices the next time I go to TJ’s.
The juice aisle had my all-time favorite, Gravenstein Apple Juice from Sebastopol, California. The Gravenstein Apple is included in the Slow Food ark. It is an irregular shaped apple with a short stem and the trees produce ripe apples at different times during the harvest period. It is also a delicate and highly perishable apple. In California it was available maybe once a year at the farmer’s market. I think much of them are pressed for juice and it is delicious.
Then came the condiment, sauce aisle. I was really hoping to find the Trader Joe’s Muffaletta spread. We use to buy it in SF and toss it on linguine for a cheap, fast dinner. They didn’t have it but there was olive brushetta, and sun dried brushetta, and tapenade, and pitted Kalamata olives, and unfiltered extra virgin olive oil, and sweet red peppers, and pesto. It was a very successful trip and the boys loved it. It is great to have a Trader Joe’s back in our life. We also bought some prepared and packaged sushi that was in one of the cold cases on the left as you enter, just past the flowers. It was horrible and yes, we should have known better, but it looked pretty. But it was bad, bad, bad.
Next stop was Capital City Comics at 1910 Monroe. Alex hit it off with the gentleman in charge and by the time I caught up he was set up with a copies of The Walking Dead and Civil War.
I was waylaid by a store I passed, A Stone’s Throw, because of the hoodies I saw in the window. It is a great store with lots of good microfiber clothes.
That’s it. Don’t forget, on Saturday night we’ll shut out servers down at 10:00 p.m. The blog will be parked at my ISP so you can view it, but you won’t be able to post comments. We do this to avoid any Linux or BSD headaches with the time change. Enjoy the muffins.
1 and 3/4 cup of unbleached flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup 1/2 n 1/2
1 egg
zest of half a large lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 400. Combine the first 5 ingredients. Combine the remaining ingredients. Combine the wet and the dry, spoon into lined muffin tins, and bake for about 15 minutes.
Calzones
Dave and Dexter were gone last night on an overnight 6th grade field trip to Upham Woods. I knew they would get awful food while they were there so I thought I would surprise them with Calzone. The calzone recipe in Homebaking by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid uses salami and cheese for the filling but I’ve gone more Chicago-style with Italian sausage, peppers, mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes.
1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon honey
1 cup whole wheat white flour
3 cups unbleached white flour, more or less
2 medium to large Italian frying peppers
1 medium Onion
3 o4 handfuls of little mushrooms
2 or 3 Roma tomatoes, diced into 1/8″ cubes, no juice or seeds
3 cloves Garlic, chopped fine
8 oz. Mozzarella cheese, grated
12 ounces Italian sausage, hot or sweet, browned and cooled
Put the water, yeast, salt, olive oil, and honey in the mixer bowl. Add the cup of whole wheat white flour. Mix well for 30 seconds. With the mixer running gradually add the remaining flour, pausing after every cup to allow the mixer to work it in. Once all the flour is added check the dough’s consistency. If it is too wet add some four to the bottom of the bowl, if its too dry add some water (not much). Scrape the dough off the mixer paddle and switch to the dough hook. Let the mixer work the dough on medium high for about 5 minutes or until it is smooth. Oil a bowl with olive oil and turn the dough out into it. Cover with saran wrap and let it rise for 1 -2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 375. Chop the veggies into 1 inch chunks. Toss with olive oil and garlic and turn out onto a foil covered baking sheet. Add salt and pepper and bake until they look roasted. This process will get rid of excess water and make for better calzones. The photo above shows the veggies before they’re roasted.
Combine the veggies in a bowl with the sausage and Romas. Toss to combine and cool. The photo above is of the calzone stuffing.
Turn the dough out onto the counter. Work it down with your hands for a minute and then divide it into 6 pieces. Work each piece into circles. When the dough becomes too elastic to work set it aside and start another circle and work through them that way until they are about 8 inches across. The photo above shows the dough as it is being worked through to 8″ circles.
Preheat the oven to 425.
Place a pile of filling in the middle of one half of each round, making sure there is a 1/2 rim of dough clear (very important). Fold the dough over the filling, pinch the edges together and fold over, pinch again.
Let them rise for 30 minutes. Right before putting them in the oven poke a few little holes in the top of each calzone, brush with olive oil, sprinkle lightly with kosher salt. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes.
This is Dave and his calzone.
I’ve never made calzones before and I’m not sure I’ve ever ate one either. They were great. They are a lot of work but they are so good. Dave and Dexter each ate two but one was more than enough for me. There is one leftover for Dave’s lunch tomorrow. Have you ever made calzones?
Tomorrow I’m shopping at Madison’s new Trader Joe’s so I’ll post on that. On Saturday night we’ll shut out servers down at 10:00 p.m. The blog will be parked at my ISP so you can view it but you won’t be able to post comments. We do this to avoid any Linux or BSD headaches with the time change. Adios for today.
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