March 16, 2009
CRAFT-Along: Pretty good, but not the best pizza ever
5 Minute Pizza Dough. (except this 2-3 hours of your life doesn't count.)*
5 minute dough rising
Originally uploaded by kerner
(Actually that was probably my main problem with this recipe, since my kitchen scale quit working several months ago and I never replaced the battery.)
I cooked the pizzas on my pizza stone in the oven, like I normally do. Crank the oven up to 500, take out all the racks except the bottom one (with the stone on it), and cook for about 6 minutes. All the toppings have to be pre-cooked, which is a little bit of a hassle, but it makes a super crispy and yummy pizza.
5 min dough - on the pizza stone
Originally uploaded by kerner
I found the dough a little tougher and more difficult to roll out than my normal dough recipe, but that might be my own fault for estimating the quantities instead of weighing them out as the recipe calls for.
Still, you can't go wrong with homemade pizza. I made sausage and canadian bacon versions for my dad and husband, and my mom and I got red & green bell pepper, olive, and spinach versions.
5 minute dough - cooked
Originally uploaded by kerner
I liked the pizza - but can I just say that the name of this project is very disappointing? I guess it's because I already make pizza dough a lot, but this version is really no faster than any other kind of pizza dough I've made. I expected 5-minute pizza dough to be ready to top with toppings and stick in the oven in 5 minutes.
* in retrospect, I guess that sounds a little mean. I am all about making bread, pizza dough, even YOGURT for heaven's sake, from scratch, just for the sake of doing it. But I think it's important to be honest that these things do take a little more time and planning than swinging through the drive-thru on the way home from work. It's worth it, though.
Posted by zarah at 5:32 PM | Comments (2)
February 18, 2009
Yes way, Jose!
IMG_3554
Originally uploaded by kerner
During my junior year in college, I studied abroad in Pamplona, Spain. I didn't have any particular love for Pamplona, Hemingway, bullrunning, or even Spain in particular, I just wanted to go somewhere to practice my Spanish. After going over all the options with my parents, they ruled out Mexico and Central America as too dangerous and the beach towns of Spain as too fun, so north-central Spain in where I ended up. If I were to do it over again, I would go to either Barcelona or Valencia, but Pamplona was probably a pretty good place for me to go, since it was a relatively small city for me to learn to navigate, as compared to Madrid or Barcelona.
I don't have any particular desire to go visit Pamplona again (although I did see the running of the bulls while I was there - and NO I DID NOT RUN, ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!) but I really want to go back to Spain. The last time I was there was on my honeymoon several years ago, but I have plans to hopefully go back in 2010.
In the meantime I have to get my Spain fix through cooking, travel books, Almodovar movies, anything with Penelope Cruz, and even that horrible travel series on TV with Mario Batali and Gwenyth Paltrow. Thank goodness my husband discovered Made in Spain, a cooking show on PBS that is hosted by Jose Andres, a Spanish chef who is famous for his crazy chemistry experiments with food (like, he will turn liquids into gels with weird chemicals and serve a bowl of chicken soup blobs instead of regular soup.) Luckily, on the show he mostly just visits different regions in Spain and shows their regional delicacies and tourist attractions. My favorite is when he recreates traditional Spanish dishes (and provides recipes).
The last episode I saw featured the region of Aragon and had a recipe for a traditional chicken dish called Pollo al Chilindron (chicken with lots of peppers) (bell peppers and smoked paprika, that is - Spanish food is not spicy at all!) I made it last night and it was really yummy - the only bad thing was that it took almost 2 hours!! I went for a jog around the neighborhood while it simmered for the last hour.
Here's the recipe - cross-posted from Jose's website.
Pollo al chilindrón
Chicken with peppers, tomatoes, onions and Spanish ham
Chilindron is a wonderful vegetable stew that comes from Aragon, where they grow astonishing vegetables in the fertile land near the Ebro River.
Serves 4
¼ cup Spanish extra-virgin olive oil, plus 3 tablespoons
4 chicken legs, thighs and drumsticks separated
Salt to taste
4 cups diced Spanish onions
1 cup diced green bell peppers
1 cup diced red bell peppers
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup thinly sliced and diced jamón Serrano (Spanish cured ham)
½ teaspoon sweet pimentón (Spanish smoked paprika)
2 cups plain canned tomato sauce
1 fresh rosemary sprig
1 bay leaf
2 cups flat mineral or filtered water
Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a 12-quart pot over medium-high heat. Season the chicken pieces with salt then, working in batches, brown them on all sides. Transfer the chicken to a platter and set aside.
Add the ¼ cup of olive oil to the same pot, and when the oil is hot, add the onions and peppers. Reduce the heat to low and cook slowly until the vegetables are dark golden brown, about 30 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of water if the onions start to burn. Add the garlic and cook for 5 more minutes. Then add the white wine and cook until it evaporates, 4 to 5 minutes.
Add the jamón and browned chicken pieces, as well as any juices that have collected, and cook for 5 more minutes. Stir in the pimentón, tomato sauce, rosemary, bay leaf and the water and simmer over low heat for 1 hour or until the meat starts to fall off the bone. Season to taste with salt before serving.
Posted by zarah at 6:36 PM | Comments (2)
November 21, 2006
I survived the Route 66 Half-Marathon
I'll have a full race report for you as soon as I can get some more pictures. It was my sixth half-marathon, and I really enjoyed the whole weekend, even though my time was not so speedy (2:27). I had some knee trouble about halfway through the race, so I'm not sure I could have gone much faster, anyway.
With the race out of the way, I've got Thanksgiving to think about! I'm hosting my husband's family for Thanksgiving this year. They're all coming to my house Wednesday evening and heading back to Kansas City on Saturday. I've got a lot of cooking and cleaning to do between do and then. Matt is smoking the turkey so I only have to worry about side dishes. Here's my menu so far:
* Turkey & gravy (yay for the smoker!)
* Mashed potatoes
* Zucchini casserole (stuffing)
* Aunt Edith's sweet potatoes (heavy on the brown sugar, butter, and pecans)
* Homemade cranberry sauce
* Glazed carrots
* Yeast rolls (Sister Schubert makes WAY better rolls than I ever could - check your freezer section)
* Pumpkin & pecan pies (Matt's grandma is bringing these - thank goodness)
* Some sort of green vegetable (because that will make the whole meal healthier, right?)
If I can run a half-marathon, then cooking Thanksgiving dinner should be no problem, right?
Posted by zarah at 6:09 PM | Comments (5)
March 13, 2006
Orange Creamsicle Cookies
Hey hey! I bet you didn't know Zarah could cook, did ya? Well, I was feeling the multitasking vibe last night, so I whipped up some cookies while I dyed some sock yarn with Kool-Aid. (You'll have to wait til tomorrow to get the full report on that! The yarn is still drying in my back yard. But you can get a sneak peek here.)
I very rarely have sweets around the house, but when I do, I really like to have homemade cookies, brownies, etc. This is an adaptation of a favorite cookie of mine (Gooey Butter Cookies from the Keeping Good Company cookbook) that is unique and very tasty.
Zarah's Orange Creamsicle Cookies
Beat the following ingredients until smooth: 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), 1 egg, 1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, and 1/4 t. vanilla.
Mix in one box orange cake mix and 1 t. grated orange zest.
Chill batter for 30 min. Preheat over to 350 degrees.
Drop teaspoonfuls of chilled batter into powdered sugar, roll to coat (and remove excess sugar). Please cookies on a cookie sheet lightly greased with cooking spray.
Bake for 10-12 minutes. They will not get very brown, except around the edges. Makes approx. 3 dozen cookies.
Zarah will return to her regularly scheduled knitblogging tomorrow.
Posted by zarah at 7:00 AM | Comments (3)