Breakfast of Geeks
- Willow Creek Farm bacon
- New Century eggs scrambled
- Hashbrowns
- Waffles with maple syrup
- Strawberries, raspberries, and bananas
- LW Dairy orange juice
I bet you had a breakfast just like this, right? Doesn’t everybody? I’ve been promising the boys a big breakfast on Saturday and I delivered. It must be noted that this would not have been possible without the expert help of my sous chef, Dexter. Unfortunately GH is on-call this weekend so I’ll have to pull cleanup duty…I hate doing dishes!
What did you have for breakfast dear readers? If it isn’t worth writing about then tell me what your favorite breakfast of all time is…I always need inspiration.
I’ll leave you with this lovely photo of Lovejoy on our deck…spring is lush.
Rhubarb Jumble
Not a pie, not a cobbler, not a grunt, not a crisp…it’s a Jumble!
I love this dessert. I created it on the fly yesterday and it turned out perfect. The crust is sweet 
and crunchy on the outside…almost like a sugar cookie, and sturdy and resistant to sogginess on the bottom. It was quick, easy, and full of great fruit. I used the rhubarb from my CSA box, some frozen blueberries that I had put aside last summer, and 3 little pink lady apples because I buy those for Dexter’s lunches. I think any pie-type of fruit would work well with this crust….mmmm cherries!
Vanessa’s Rhubarb Jumble
wildly adapted from Jeffrey Alford and Nami Duguid’s book Homebaking
Crust
3 cups unbleached flour
1/2 cup sugar
6 ounces cold butter, diced
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoon cold water
Put the flour and sugar in your mixer bowl. Add the diced butter and mix until coarsely combined. Stir the vanilla, yogurt, and egg yolks together and add to the flour mixture. Mix until combined and then flick in cold water as needed to make a soft but manageable dough (not sticky)…it should easily clear the sides of the mixer bowl. Turn it out onto a piece of saran wrap, flatten it into a 6 inch disc and wrap it up. Put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes minimum.
Preheat the oven to 350.
Fruit
8 trimmed stalks of rhubarb, sliced into 1/2″ pieces
2 cups blueberries
1-3 apples, depending on size, peeled and diced 1/2″
1/2 cup sugar
Combine the fruit and sugar until mixed well. Butter a large baking dish. Cut the chilled dough in half and evenly press one halve of it into the baking dish. Add the fruit. Take the remaining dough and tear it into little bits and spread it evenly across the surface of the fruit.
Bake for 60 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
Green pizza: weekend herb blogging
In my last post I promised a green pizza, the inspiration for which came from the contents of my CSA box. It also seems like a natural post for Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Up A Creek Without A PatL.
For this pizza I used my standard pizza crust, covered with basil pesto, then a layer of finely grated parmesan, some sauted escarole, asparagus, and pistachios, then a small amount of mozzarella and scallions. The escarole became almost sweet when briefly tossed about with some olive oil in a hot pan. The asparagus was slice thin and basically thrown in and out of the hot pan, and the green onions, which were the thinest, tiniest I had, were split and laid to rest in the hot pan with the burner off. The pistachios added a perfect crunch and the scallions melded into the cheese with a smoky, oniony flavor.
Each component of this pizza easily stands alone with flavor and nutrition, but combining them compelled them to meld together to form a chewy, sweet, smoky, crunchy, herby extravaganza! This pizza is a definite keeper. Quick, easy, nutritious, mostly local, and delicious…cooking nirvana.
The secrets to good home pizza are parchment paper, an incredibly hot and really well preheated oven (425f minimum), placing the oven rack in the top third of the oven, and creating a pizza dough that is really soft and almost (but not really) wet…it should stick to your fingers some. It’s also useful to know that you don’t need to let the dough rise that long. I’ve gone with anything from 30 minutes to 2 hours…but over two hours it starts to get flabby when you bake it…too bready.
GH has been in San Francisco all week for the JavaOne Conference. I sent him off with my good camera and I’ve been making do with the poor, pitiful, old camera all week…so excuse the blur. I can’t wait to have GH and my camera back.
