I know I can’t be alone when I say that being in the kitchen in the summer is a drag. It’s hot outside, I don’t need it to be hot inside, too. And since it’s Utah, where central air is not especially common inside homes – they favor swamp coolers here – it is frequently already hot inside anyway so the last thing I want to do is make it hotter. I prefer to flavor my food with kosher salt, not beads of sweat.

Gross.

Anyway, like most people we move to a great deal of low-maintenance cooking in this wretched heat, like grilling or things that cook quickly, and especially things that can be served cold, like this fantastic pasta salad from the June/July 2010 issue of Cooking Light. It is everything you could want in a summer dish – bright, sunny notes from the fresh dill, the tang of lemon, the smooth, silky bite of cold orzo and the crunch of crisp red bell pepper and cucumber. And the best part? I listed nearly all of the ingredients right there. The full recipe is, as usual, behind the cut.

I know, too, that it’s been a long time since I’ve updated. I won’t apologize for it, since I was using that time well, or promise that I will update more frequently, because you can see that’s worked out so well in the past, so instead I will encourage you to subscribe to my RSS feed so that you’ll get the updates whenever I do get around to posting them.

And you don’t want to miss the chocolate peanut-butter cookies coming soon!

Lemony Orzo-Veggie Salad
adapted from Cooking Light
(yields four 1 1/4 cup servings)

You will need:

3/4 cup uncooked orzo (get the bronze-die cut, it’s worth it!)
1/4 tsp lemon zest
3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 large clove minced garlic
1/4 tsp honey
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup diced English cucumber (these are frequently marketed as seedless, longer than standard cucumbers, and might be wrapped depending on your store)
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions
1 Tbsp chopped fresh dill (Utahns: Sunflower Market is great for fresh herbs)
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled goat cheese (optional)

Cook your orzo as the package recommends, but don’t salt or oil the water. Drain and rinse with cold water, drain again and place in a large bowl.

While the orzo is cooking, combine lemon zest, juice, olive oil, salt, garlic, honey and black pepper in another bowl, whisking well to get them all together and full of deliciousness.  Pour over your cold orzo, stir well to coat. Add cucumber, bell pepper, onions and dill, and toss gently again to coat veggies. Sprinkle with the goat cheese, if you like that sort of thing. Crumble cheese are not my thing. Stick your head in the bowl and enjoy.

Just kidding. It’s for eating – so eat!

Since I post so many pork recipes I felt perhaps it was time to show what you can do with the leftovers. This may not be tricky for you, but it frequently is for me. No doubt you can do Asian stir-fry, or pot pie, but if your pork has a distinct flavor it can be difficult to find the right dish for it.

This was the situation at our house two days after I made the pork roulade. The day before that I had made a huge pot of chicken and shrimp etouffee, and a soup for lunch, so the fridge was full and I was loathe to throw something else in there. It almost worked, too, except that I had leftovers of this. It is inconvenient to cook for 4 when only two actually eat any reasonable portion.

Anyway, I needed something quick, easy and used pork, and a Google search led me to the always reliable Chowhound, and this post in particular. I grabbed an eggplant from the store and went with it, and now I share it with you.

Mediterranean Stew
adapted from aussiewonder

You will need:
1lb or so of leftover pork, cubed or shredded
1 eggplant, peeled and diced
1 red pepper, sliced into strips
6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
28oz can crushed tomatoes
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1/4 cup red wine
Rice for serving

In a large skillet or Dutch oven, head 3 Tbsp oil over medium heat. Add the eggplant, red pepper and a pinch of kosher salt and cook, stirring frequently, until the eggplant has lightly browned and the red pepper has softened, about 5-10 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the tomato paste and the pork and stir to coat, cooking another minute or two, then add the wine and crushed tomatoes. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat to simmer until the pork is heated through or until you want to eat it. Serve over rice and top with kalamata olives.

I, personally, am not much of an eggplant person, and I don’t eat olives at all, but the eggplant is not a huge flavor component here and so anyone with objections will probably find this tolerable. The flavor is simple and lovely, and perfect for a low-effort meal.

You may say to yourself, wait, hasn’t she made something like this before? And yes, I have – matambre is a roulade as well. Roulade (from the French word “rouler”) just means “to roll” and can apply to anything from a jelly roll to sushi. In this case, it’s a butterflied slab of pork loin slathered in a paste made of Italian parsley, a bulb of roasted garlic and lemon juice, seared and chucked in the oven. Couldn’t be easier. Let me show you.

You will need:

1-2lb pork loin
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 c white wine, chicken broth or water
A bulb of garlic, roasted
A small lemon, cut in half
A bunch of Italian (or flatleaf) parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Kitchen twine

If you’ve never butterflied meat before, I strongly encourage you to look up a Youtube video. I will try to explain it here but I think it’s one of those things best viewed and I should know since my matambre butterflying was just a disaster. It was actually kind of catastrophic, but we all have to learn somewhere, right?

Go ahead and roast up your garlic, if you so desire. I served this with roasted potatoes so I just oiled up the bulb with the potatoes and roasted it for about 40 minutes at 425F. If you don’t want to roasted, I recommend slicing it very thin or mincing well. With either method, once you’ve prepared your garlic the way you choose you’re going to smash it together with a pinch of kosher salt, the juice of half a small lemon, and as much chopped parsley as you would like. I started with a fork but finished with a pestle, and that was with roasted so those of you using unroasted garlic may want to do the same – just add a teaspoon or so of olive oil to help bind it all together.

Grab your hunk of pork loin and lay it on a sturdy cutting surface, long side facing you. You’ll want a very sharp knife for this, so use the best one you’ve got. Make a vertical slice halfway through the thickness of the meat. Lift the edge of one side of the cut up enough to angle your knife and slice through horizontally to make an even plane of the meat, then repeat on the other side. Think of it like opening a cardboard box, first one flap, then the other. You should have a relatively even surface of meat now. If you see any obvious thicker sections, feel free to pound it out with your meat mallet.

Haha, beat your meat. Please excuse me, I’m obviously 10 years old. MOVING ON. Here’s a little photographic help to show you what it should look like:

Make small slits with a sharp paring knife here and there on the surface of the meat, then spread your garlic mixture on top. Try to cover the whole surface as evenly as you can, but don’t sweat it if you’ve got bare spots. Finish with a little black pepper, then turn the meat so that the short side is facing you.

If you can do the fancy butcher knots with a single strand of twine, bully for you. I am very bad at it and so I cut 4 equal lengths of twine and set them aside. You can start at either the top or the bottom, but roll the meat up, gently but firmly. Lift up and place your twine underneath at about 2” intervals, and tie tightly.

I would insert another picture here but – and I know, I KNOW, this is completely and remarkably immature of me but I can’t post it. It would get me censored. It’s so phallic it might as well be pornography. So, if your pork loin tied up looks like it could MAYBE be something else, something attached to the human body, you know you did it right.

I have no dignity. I apologize.  Let’s get back to the food, shall we?

Preheat the oven to 350F. Heat a large skillet or dutch oven over medium-high heat, add the olive oil and allow to get hot enough to shimmer but not smoke. Add the pork loin and sear on all sides, about 3-5 minutes per side or until browned. If your skillet is not oven-safe, put your pork in a roasting pan, add a quarter cup of chicken broth/wine/water, and cover tightly with aluminum foil. If you’re using a dutch oven, add a quarter cup of chicken broth/wine/water, cover the loin itself inside the vessel loosely with aluminum foil, then cover with the lid and into the oven it goes for about 25-30 minutes. Check it after 20 minutes – pork dries out quickly and this cut doesn’t have a lot of fat to keep it moist, so once that center hits about 145F on an instant-read thermometer you’ll want to take it out and let it rest for 10 minutes or so, the temperature will continue to rise and should peak at no more than 155F*.

From here, cut the twine, slice into your desired thickness and serve. If you used wine or broth, you’d have the makings of a nice pan sauce, too!  Roulades are great, there’s no end, really, to what you can add as the filling. Traditional German rouladen has pickles, Italy’s braciole is breaded and has cheese. Set your creativity free!

(* – the USDA says the appropriate internal temperature for well-done pork is 170. Pork frequently disagrees with this by turning into something like a mouthful of pig-flavored sand. You don’t want to eat it raw, but I think – and so does Mark Bittman – that a little pink is OK. 150 is the perfect happy medium for me.)

Wasn’t there a Smurf with a name like garganelli? Anyway. Hello, internet friends! I apologize for the long delay in posting. You’d think with the holidays and all I would have a multitude of food-related posts to make, and I did make a lot of food, but I just couldn’t get the words out. This is why no matter how much I’d like to be a successful author it’s just not meant to be – no discipline. What can you do, you know?

My first two issues of Saveur hit my mailbox this month and I am positively giddy about it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the artistry behind the recipes that come from Gourmet and Bon Appétit, but the authenticity of what Saveur has to offer strikes the deepest chord in me. Fancy food is terrific, and it’s created with the whole palette taste has to offer in mind, but recipes from home kitchens, from outdoor kitchens, from remote locations designed simply to eat well with what your homeland has to offer appeals so much. The culture of food at its most basic, at its most honest, fascinates me. From dusty camps in India to farmhouses in Pennsylvania, whatever you’re having is what I want to have, too.

I started simple this time around, picking a recipe from December 2009’s issue of Saveur, which happens to be loaded chock full of my favorite animal, the pig. Of couse, it’s also the least interesting of the many interesting recipes I could have chosen, with little of that anthropological spirit I mentioned in the paragraph above. However, getting my toddler to eat Terrine de Jambon seemed perhaps a little too ambitious.

Garganelli with Prosciutto and Peas
from Saveur

You will need:
1lb garganelli or penne
2 cups heavy cream (and arteries of steel)
1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
4 oz thinly sliced prosciutto, Serrano or country ham, torn into strips
1 cup fresh mint leaves, torn
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Garganelli is a pasta that’s shaped like a calla lily, and I have to tell you, I am not a huge fan of it. I find where the sides overlap never really gets done enough for my tastes, though it is really pretty. I first tried it in an Amatriciana sauce with the now-infamous guanciale (that, I have to tell you, I am tempted to try again!) and had the same reaction then as I did now. I think if I make it again I’ll go the penne route since penne is delicious and cooks evenly. Mine, by the way, is spinach garganelli because that’s what was available at the time. It has no bearing at all on the taste.

OK, on to the bones of it. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Remember, if it tastes like an ocean you’re on the right track! Unsalted pasta water makes everyone sad. Unless you have arterial issues and then unsalted pasta water makes everyone happy! I believe in fairness, after all.  Add the pasta and cook to your desired level of doneness – if you’re using the garganelli, you’ll want to take a piece out and bite through the center to check the overlap. Drain and reserve 1/4 cup of the pasta water, with all its starchy deliciousness. 

While all that’s happening, bring  the cream to a boil over high heat in a large skillet, 12” is the recommended. Let it reduce by half, which’ll take about 8 minutes or so. Add the pasta and the peas and cook, stirring every now and then, until the cream starts to coat the pasta. Add the parmesan and season to taste. If it looks too thick, add the pasta water in small amounts until you reach your desired consistency. Gently stir in your prosciutto and chopped mint, and enjoy.

Something about that picture puts me in mind of a fish. No idea why. Anyway, so in yet another magazine post (hey, at least it’s a different one), Food Network magazine puts out 6 issues per year, instead of the usual one per month. This recent addition is action-packed with recipes, including one for hot buttered rum. I’ll give you one guess as to who created that one!

Buried amidst the plethora of turkey and stuffing and other traditional Thanksgiving feasts was a section entitled “A Cuban Feast” and it had me at this title: Slow-Roasted Pork with Citrus and Garlic. You might have picked up on it by now, but I love pork. I think I  subconsciously look for the pork recipes before I even consider other meats. This particular recipe calls for a 6-8lb Boston butt, which is a shoulder cut (also used to make the incredibly and surprisingly delicious cabbage soup from Veselka) and not only does the grocery store I use to buy my meats not carry any that size, it’s just too much for my small family. The side dishes listed weren’t great for us, not big squash eaters here and bananas flambé, well, let’s just say I think it’s better if I don’t intentionally light things on fire in my kitchen since I do it so well accidentally already. I served this up with some honey-balsamic glazed carrots and some pan-fried corn with red pepper and parsley.

I can’t lie to you, this was an insane amount of prep for a roast that was not particularly spectacular, which actually did not surprise me too much as Saveur’s Caribbean pork roast was also heavy on prep but disappointing on flavor. I don’t want to discourage you from making it though, because taste is such a subjective thing, but be prepared. I’ve cut the recipe in half here and it should serve 4 comfortably.

Slow-Roasted Pork with Citrus and Garlic
(adapted from Food Network Magazine)

5 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon fresh oregano
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 3-to-4-pound Boston butt pork shoulder
Juice of 3 oranges, peels reserved
Juice of 2 lemons, peels reserved
Juice of 2 limes
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
6 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 white onion, thinly sliced

OK, here’s where the work starts. The magazine said prep would be 40 minutes. My experience was closer to 90 minutes, and it might be because I don’t have a juicer so I squeezed my citrus by hand, and since I had cuts on both hands I opted to leave the peel on and just cut it off after. If this is something you plan on doing as well, I did score four lines down each fruit before cutting in half, to make peeling easier.

In your food processor (or blender, or mortar and pestle) blend the first five ingredients into a paste. It may not look like one, but it should feel like one. Don’t expect the spices to get too finely ground, this is more like a slightly damp rub than anything. Trim any excessive fat from your pork and cut deep slits about every 2 inches all over. I tend to just stab mine with a paring knife, I’m not sure precision is especially important here. Rub your spice mixture all over the pork, into the slits, and set aside for now.

In a large glass or plastic (no metal! acids + metal = reaction!) bowl, whisk together the juice of the oranges, lemons and limes, the Worcestershire sauce and the olive oil. Submerge the pork as best you can in the marinade, then top with the onions and finally, the orange and lemon peels. Cover with plastic wrap (not foil! acid + metal = reaction!)  and marinate in the fridge for at least 8 hours and up to 2 days. (I let mine marinate for 12 hours.)

Preheat the oven to 450F. Remove the peels and chuck ‘em into the fridge for later. Place your pork onto a rack and into a roasting pan and roast, uncovered, for an hour. Keep the marinade and onions, you’ll need them later. After an hour, take your pork out and turn the oven down to 350. Pour the marinade over the roast and top with the onions, cover with foil and roast for another hour. Take the pork out, add the peels on and around the pork,  and roast for another 1-2 hours, basting with the juices occasionally. The recipe says to cook until it reaches 190, but at it’s peak mine only got to about 184. It doesn’t matter, pork is safe at 160 (Mark Bittman says 150) and is lovely, juicy and flavorful at that temperature anyway. Let it rest for 10 minutes, slice and serve.

Can I just tell you, the idea of leftovers, chopped, on toast with gravy? It’s really working for me right now. I’ll have to try it.

Anyway, I’m going to be up front and tell you that the proportions for these side dishes are going to be estimates. I didn’t work from a recipe (!) and it’s so fun to just throw some of this, toss some of that, that I failed to write down what I used. So play with it a little, both recipes here are extremely forgiving.

Honey-and Balsamic-Glazed Carrots

4-6 medium carrots, peeled and julienned
1 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup honey
3 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

To julienne your carrots: slice in half lengthwise, then into thirds across. Take each piece and slice into 3 or 4 pieces lengthwise. If pieces look large, turn them on their sides and slice again lengthwise. Though really, there’s no reason you couldn’t do baby carrots or coins instead of strips, you would just need to adjust the steaming time.

Speaking of steaming time, add the water and the pat of butter to the skillet, give it a few minutes to warm up, then add the carrots. Cover and allow to steam for 10-20 minutes, crisp-tender is the goal but your preference is key. If you like softer carrots, let cook to the long end of the time frame. Once the water is almost evaporated, add the honey, stirring to coat, and then the balsamic, and allow to reduce to a glaze. Towards the end, add your salt and pepper to taste.

Pan-fried Corn with Red Pepper and Parsley

3 ears of corn
1 Tbsp butter/margarine
Pinch of red pepper flakes or cayenne
1/2 tsp dried parsley, or 1 Tbsp fresh Italian parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Really, any kind of corn will do here. You could use drained canned or thawed frozen, but as a former contestant of the Little Miss Sweet Corn pageant of Gibson County, Indiana, I favor fresh yellow sweet corn.

To prepare fresh corn for the pan fry, shuck the ears (if you peel from the bottom, the silk is easier to deal with), trim the bottoms and steam for 10-20 minutes, or until crisp-tender. Corn should not be mushy, it needs a bit of bite to it, imo, but again, it’s all about preference. Once it has reached desired doneness, run under cold water to cool and slice kernels off the cob. Don’t worry if it stays in chunks, it’s nicer that way anyway. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat, add butter and allow to melt.  Add corn, red pepper, dried parsley and your salt and pepper, and cook just until corn starts to brown. If using fresh parsley, chop and add to corn once corn is finished cooking.

I would love to know what you thought of that pork roast, so tell me if you try it out!

In yet another stunning narrative of my life thus far, not a week after I finally got around to getting a subscription to that bastion of American food magazines, Gourmet, did I get an email notifying me of its imminent demise. By demise I mean that they’re no longer printing it, in case you did not know. I cried every day until my two and only issues arrived, and then I went shopping. You might think this would be a segue into a recipe from Gourmet, but as it has substituted the remaining issues in my subscription over to Bon Appétit (which I subscribed to anyway the same time as Gourmet), I felt it was appropriate to start with Bon Appétit as well.

Fish is not a frequent visitor to this household, as I am not a seafood fan. I’m sorry, but I prefer my food to not have an exoskeleton, which removes me from many things I’m told are delicious. My husband loves escargot and no matter how much garlic and butter are involved I just cannot get beyond the fact that it’s a snail. This is why I can never, no matter how much I may want to, be on Survivor.

I do, however, make exceptions to that rule, and salmon is one of them. There may be a world of difference between a gently steamed or seared salmon fillet and salmon patties from the canned article, but they both taste good to me. So as I was flipping through my four new recipe-laden magazines, I spotted this one in October’s issue of Bon Appétit and decided to go for it.

Lime-and Honey-Glazed Salmon with Basmati and Broccolini
from Bon Appétit, October 2009
serves 4, 35 minutes prep, 55 total

You will need:

1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 Tbsp. finely grated lime peel
2 Tbsp. honey
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish
4 tsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. olive oil
3/4 cup sliced shallots (about 3 large)
1 1/2 cups basmati rice*
3 1/4 cups low sodium chicken broth**
4 5 to 6 oz skinless salmon fillets***
1 bunch broccolini****, bottom inch trimmed and stalks separated if necessary

Crank your oven up to 450F, and whisk together your first 5 ingredients in a small bowl. 1/4 cup of lime juice was about two and a half smallish limes, and the zest, conveniently, was 3 limes exactly. For the fine grate, I just used my Microplane and called it good enough. Once you’ve got everything combined, set aside for now.

In a large, oven-safe skillet or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Throw in your shallots and sauté until just beginning to soften and brown. My pan was too hot and it took about 2 minutes for me total, but the recipe says about 5 minutes. Shallots are a bit more delicate than onions so you’ll want to stir frequently to prevent burning. Add the rice and the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Cover skillet tightly with the lid, and into the oven it goes for about 10 minutes. The rice should be done by then, but if it’s not and it’s too dry, add more chicken broth in 1/4 cup increments.

(as a note, I use a Tramontina green behemoth from Wal-mart, and the lid does not fit as tightly as I would like, so I covered the pot with a sheet of aluminum foil before putting the lid on for a tighter seal. )

Remove from the oven and add salt to the rice, to taste. Sprinkle salmon fillets with salt and pepper and arrange on rice, pressing lightly. Add the broccolini, tucking around the fish and anchoring the stems in the rice. Add 1 Tbsp. of glaze to each fillet, cover tightly again and return to oven for another 8-10 minutes, or until the salmon is just opaque in the center and the broccolini is crisp-tender. Drizzle remaining glaze over the fish and rice, top with additional cilantro and serve.

Notes:

As I was expecting something altogether more highfalutin, it came as a surprise to me to learn that this was a one-skillet meal. I love one-skillet meals because I generally destroy my kitchen if I make anything more complicated than spaghetti. Also, this is extremely easy, so don’t be intimidated by the source.  If cost is a concern (and these days, who isn’t concerned?) you could easily go with smaller portions. Since my toddler’s idea of fine dining is Easy Mac, I opted to get 2 6oz fillets instead, and since I had everything but the broccolini and the fish on hand, this recipe cost us about $12 for two people.

* – Tilda produces some really lovely basmati. It is not the cheapest option but it’s not unreasonable. Look for the shiny metallic blue bag.

** – If you have a WinCo grocery store in your area, quarts of Pacific free-range organic chicken broth are a whopping $1.89! That is insanely cheap compared to other stores in the area.

*** – The skinless salmon fillets I purchased were $4.99 each, regardless of weight. If you are more adept than I in the kitchen, I see zero reason why you couldn’t get skin-on and just remove the skin, if that price is less prohibitive.

**** – For SLCers, Harmon’s carries broccolini. If your local stores don’t carry it, the flavors are of a mild, asparagus-broccoli bent, so I am certain that broccoli or asparagus would work just fine here.

(one more brief note, I am providing links with the intent of being helpful, there’s no profit in it for me. but seriously, get a microplane, they’re amazing.)

A good garlicky chicken pizza is a thing of beauty. Something about the marriage of flavors just…works, you know? All that fresh garlic, sautéed in butter and thrown into a béchamel, it’s just lovely. There’s still a novelty to me, too, in using fresh garlic since I never touched one until I moved in with Warren years ago. Why use fresh when there’s garlic salt and garlic powder? That’s the Midwest for you. (not knocking it, I have both in my cupboard)

In spite of all of my good intentions with buying my groceries every two weeks, it has turned out to be only partly practical and I think I’m going to go once a week instead. What happens is that I end up with all this meat in the freezer that I forget to take out the night before, and it doesn’t have the same quality if you defrost it in the microwave as it does if you let it defrost gently in the fridge. Then too, I forget which meals I planned use the most fresh produce and I end up wasting perfectly good Italian parsley and cilantro. Not so practical in this economy! In addition to that, my will to (live) cook is often determined by the moods of my children, so these days if they’ve been beasts we eat spaghetti or Hamburger Helper or Five Guys.

Wednesday was one of those nights, where I had forgotten for about 5 days in a row to take the pork out to marinate for some souvlaki, my ground beef was also in the freezer and we had spaghetti on Monday. And so I figured it was probably a good time to try out a chicken pizza, and I already knew of a good flatbread crust since, if you ask me, white sauced pizza needs thin crust.

Flatbread Crust:

adapted from Mario Batali

3  2.25 tsp packages active dry or instant yeast

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

Though by flour I mean all-purpose unbleached white flour, I see no reason you couldn’t substitute up to 1.5 cups with whole wheat flour. It would make an already chewy bread chewier, but it would certainly be healthier.

In a large bowl, combine yeast, water and sugar, stirring to dissolve.

Add salt and one cup of flour, and stir with a wooden spoon (honestly, plastic will do just fine if that’s what you’ve got, just make sure it’s sturdy) to make a loose batter. Add remaining 2 cups of flour and stir for a few minutes to get as much of the flour incorporated as possible.

Turn out onto a flat, lightly floured surface and knead for 6-8 minutes, or until your dough comes together in a smooth ball.

(^^^what it looks like when you first bring it together, NOT what it looks like after you’ve completed kneading.)

If there are seams, lines, crevasses in your dough, don’t worry – from what I can tell, smooth refers more to the silky texture of the dough than it does having a perfectly uniform surface.

Drop it into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a towel or saran wrap and allow to rise in a warm spot for 45 minutes.

Remove from the bowl and split into 2 even amounts of dough. Flatten lightly into rounds, cover and let rise for 15 minutes.

While the recipe says to press into 10” rounds, I’m here to tell you I am just not that patient and I busted out my rolling pin for 13-14” circles. If you don’t have a rolling pin, consider a wine or other cylindrical bottle.  Now you have pizza dough and you can put whatever you want on it. Easy, right? 

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees, with your pizza stone/terracotta flowerpot base/bottom of a cast iron skillet already in the oven. You want it to be hot and all three of the above are excellent for the purposes. (p.s, pizza stones are $10 at Wal-Mart right now.)

If you’re using chicken, this is a good time to cook it. I diced up two chicken breasts and cooked them in a little oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and oregano. If you had leftover rotisserie, this would be a great application for it.

White Sauce: (aka garlic béchamel!)

3 Tbsp flour

3 Tbsp butter

Seasonings to taste

(* depending on how garlicky you want)

Don’t let the fancy French name fool you – if you’ve ever made sausage gravy for biscuits, you’ve made béchamel. If you’ve made mac n’ cheese from scratch, you’ve probably made béchamel. It’s just a thickened milk sauce and the base of so many delicious things, which is probably why it’s one of the 4 mother sauces.

In a saucepan, melt your butter over medium heat. Add garlic and onions and sauté until soft, 3-5 minutes or so. Add flour and whisk until the flour and butter have melded, and continue to cook for 1 minute.

Slowly whisk in the milk until you get the desired consistency. I let mine thicken substantially, to like a runny gravy, if that makes any sense. While it’s simmering, add your seasonings – for me, I cheated and went with Italian seasoning mix, with some kosher salt and black pepper.

Pizza assemblage:

Pizza dough

Garlic sauce

Freshly ground black pepper

Grab your pizza baking surface from the oven (use mitts, it seems like a no brainer but just..trust me here) and slide your dough onto it. Grab a ladleful of sauce and spread over the surface. Sprinkle on chicken and tomatoes, cover with cheese. Toss some pepper on and throw it into the oven for 12-14 minutes. Enjoy!

I decided to walk on the wild side and reinvent the classic mashed potatoes and gravy side dish as an entree, and surprisingly, it works. Not only that, but I managed to put my newly learned pasta making skills to the test.

This is almost an original recipe, but I jacked the ravioli filling from a Mario Batali tortelli dish. I am, however, still claiming everything else as mine.

Feel free to go ahead and make sure there are no openings along the edges, our goal is for the potatoes to be filling, not sauce. And speaking of sauce, put your water on to boil for the pasta and add a good amount of salt. Fun fact: not only does salting the water flavor it, it raises the boiling point – but not enough to make any difference.

Add stock and spices and bring back up to a simmer. At this point, go ahead and put your ravioli in the water. In a separate pan, melt the 1/4 c butter. Once melted, add your flour to make a roux, whisking to combine and smooth. Cook for another 30 seconds (this removes the flour taste) and remove from heat. Whisk roux into the simmering broth until lumps are gone and sauce is thickened.

We’re aiming for a saucy consistency, so add water as needed. We want it to lightly coat the back of a spoon – it should fall off in a light stream, if it falls off in large drips, it’s too thick.

Check your ravioli – pull a piece out and cut off a corner. If you can see a thin white line, give it another minute. If you can’t, it’s done. Using a slotted spoon, retrieve and plate your ravioli and add sauce. If you’re feeling fancy, chiffonade some fresh basil and sprinkle on top to make it look all pretty or whatever, and if you do make it, tell me what you think.

Also known as lemony fish with greens and taters, which is why I do not work in marketing. The actual recipe calls for escarole, but after going to 5 grocery stores in search of it, I made do with curly endive – escarole is endive though a different and supposedly less bitter variety. I read that radicchio is virtually indistinguishable from escarole in taste but I had this awful fear that the red color of it would bleed onto the fish and that just did not sound appealing to me at all. Anyway.

For those of you who don’t actually like seafood – like me – tilapia is a very, very mild fish. If it’s the fishy flavor you hate, you would be fine eating this. If it’s the texture of fish, you’re hosed, don’t make it. If you can, though, it’s got nice protein content, not to mention low mercury content.

Tilapia with Endive/Escarole and Lemon-Pepper Oil

You will need:

–1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
–12 oz baby fingerling potatoes, halved
–4 cloves of garlic, smashed (I used five because I’m a rebel)
–1 bunch curly endive OR 1 head escarole, torn into pieces
– Kosher salt and ground black pepper
–1 1/4 lb tilapia fillets, patted dry
–2 sprigs fresh oregano, leaves torn, or a couple shakes of dry oregano if you (like me) were unwilling to spend 3 bucks on fresh oregano that will just go bad in your fridge
–Juice of one lemon

Heat up 1/4 c of that oil in a large skillet – and I do mean large. 12" or bigger. (so many things that could be said here….)

When the oil is warmer, put your potatoes in cut side down, to get them all brown and tasty on le bottom. The garlic should go in too. This process should take you roughly 5 minutes. My oil was not optimal temperature when I put my potatoes in so it took longer for them to crisp up a bit. Plus they stuck to my pan. How that happened with a freakin’ lake of oil coating the bottom of the pan, I’ll never know.

They really do look like fingers. I’m going to put a big bowl of them smothered in ketchup outside for Halloween. Looks aside, they are creamy and delicious on the inside and worth getting. Once they’re done, add your endive/escarole.

This may take some work, I had to stuff mine in there pretty good since I only have a 12" skillet. It does however wilt down relatively quick once you add 1/3 cup of water and cover with a lid, which you should do once it’s all in there. Give it another 5 minutes or so to steam and soften up.

While that’s happening, get your fish dried and seasoned with salt and pepper. After the 5 minutes is up, place the tilapia on top of your now-wilted greens, cover and steam for 5 more minutes or until the fish is cooked through. (5 minutes should do it just fine)

While the fish is cooking, whisk together the remaining 1/4 cup of oil, the lemon juice, a bit of salt and a healthy dose of black pepper. If you are feeling adventurous (and aren’t breastfeeding/pregnant) I think a glug or two of a dry white wine would go great in this. I don’t ever feel adventurous with a new recipe – and I’m nursing – so I don’t know if that actually tastes good, I only know that the flavors, especially combined with the bitterness of the greens and the relative sweetness of the fish, should balance nicely with the addition of a little wine.

Getting the now-cooked fish off those greens can be tricky. I tried tongs first and that was really dumb of me, I should have learned that lesson from the Dover sole a few weeks back. Fish and tongs – shredded mess. Make use of your slotted spatula here and lift the fish onto the plates. Serve with the greens, dig some of the potatoes off the bottom of your pan, drizzle with the lemon oil and bon appetit.

It should be noted that while this is a tasty dish, I did not like the endive. In the interest of fairness though, I am not overly fond of wilted greens, particularly dark greens as they tend to be bitter and unpleasantly textured for me. That’s just personal though and Warren, who likes basically any kind of green raw or cooked, thought it was good.