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Pizza Dough
2007-09-14 17:15:00
I’ve tried tons of pizza dough recipes and this one works the best – it’s simple and produces a perfectly crisp crust. You can use all purpose flour, but bread flour is best. Pizza Dough (makes enough for two 8-9” pizzas) 3/4 cup warm tap water1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast2 cups bread flour1 teaspoon salt *************** In a small bowl, stir together the water and yeast. Let it stand for a few minutes so that the yeast dissolves. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix together the salt and flour. Add the yeast and water and mix on medium speed for 12-15 minutes, until the dough is soft and elastic. (You can also do this by hand – mix the water and yeast into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon and stir until the dough forms, then knead on a lightly floured surface for about 10 minutes.) Lightly coat a large bowl with extra virgin olive oil and place the dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave...

Pizza Dough
2007-09-14 17:15:00
I’ve tried tons of pizza dough recipes and this one works the best – it’s simple and produces a perfectly crisp crust. You can use all purpose flour, but bread flour is best. Pizza Dough (makes enough for two 8-9” pizzas) 3/4 cup warm tap water1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast2 cups bread flour1 teaspoon salt In a small bowl, stir together the water and yeast. Let it stand for a few minutes so that the yeast dissolves. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix together the salt and flour. Add the yeast and water and mix on medium speed for 12-15 minutes, until the dough is soft and elastic. (You can also do this by hand – mix the water and yeast into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon and stir until the dough forms, then knead on a lightly floured surface for about 10 minutes.) Lightly coat a large bowl with extra virgin olive oil and place the dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave in a warm plac...

Classic Brownies
2007-09-12 20:47:00
I have a confession to make: up until last week, I haven’t been able to make a proper brownie. Sad, considering I can make some pretty fancy desserts. I think this is due to the fact that I don’t really care for chocolate baked goods – I don’t ever eat chocolate cake and I very rarely eat brownies – and therefore I am not so familiar with their taste and texture. Every attempt of mine to make brownies over the last few years has turned out too dry, too gooey, too something. In the event that I was asked to make brownies, I’d use a box mix (I highly recommend the Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate Brownie Mix – it’s seriously the best box mix in existence). In fact, I probably will continue to use this mix if I’m making brownies for some sort of event (shhhh, don’t tell). However, sometimes a girl gets a craving for a brownie at 10 pm and what is she to do if the nearby supermarket is closed and she doesn’t have any brownie mix in the pantry? The ans...
More About: Classic , Brownies

Classic Brownies
2007-09-12 20:47:00
I have a confession to make: up until last week, I haven’t been able to make a proper brownie. Sad, considering I can make some pretty fancy desserts. I think this is due to the fact that I don’t really care for chocolate baked goods – I don’t ever eat chocolate cake and I very rarely eat brownies – and therefore I am not so familiar with their taste and texture. Every attempt of mine to make brownies over the last few years has turned out too dry, too gooey, too something. In the event that I was asked to make brownies, I’d use a box mix (I highly recommend the Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate Brownie Mix – it’s seriously the best box mix in existence). In fact, I probably will continue to use this mix if I’m making brownies for some sort of event (shhhh, don’t tell). However, sometimes a girl gets a craving for a brownie at 10 pm and what is she to do if the nearby supermarket is closed and she doesn’t have any brownie mix in the pantry? The ans...
More About: Classic , Brownies

Roasted Eggplant and Tomatoes with Penne
2007-09-11 16:59:00
I don’t think I need to reiterate that eggplant is my favorite vegetable. As I previously mentioned, there are so many lovely ones available at the market this time of year, and I always buy lots of them. Of course, there’s also a plethora of tomatoes at the market; I end up buying a few pints of different cherry tomatoes in addition to heirlooms and romas. Of course, at this point, I find myself with too many tomatoes and eggplants (amongst other vegetables) on my hands. Although I love being in the kitchen, trying to use up all this produce sometimes tires me out, which is why roasting has become my preferred method of dealing with much of my summer produce. Not only is it incredibly easy, but I find that it really brings out the flavor of the vegetables.Eggplant tends to soak up a lot of oil, but roasting cubes of it in the oven allows them to cook to a nice texture without the use of a lot of oil. I also like to oven-roast cherry tomatoes, as doing so amplifies their s...
More About: Tomatoes , Penne

Roasted Eggplant and Tomatoes with Penne
2007-09-11 16:59:00
I don’t think I need to reiterate that eggplant is my favorite vegetable. As I previously mentioned, there are so many lovely ones available at the market this time of year, and I always buy lots of them. Of course, there’s also a plethora of tomatoes at the market; I end up buying a few pints of different cherry tomatoes in addition to heirlooms and romas. Of course, at this point, I find myself with too many tomatoes and eggplants (amongst other vegetables) on my hands. Although I love being in the kitchen, trying to use up all this produce sometimes tires me out, which is why roasting has become my preferred method of dealing with much of my summer produce. Not only is it incredibly easy, but I find that it really brings out the flavor of the vegetables.Eggplant tends to soak up a lot of oil, but roasting cubes of it in the oven allows them to cook to a nice texture without the use of a lot of oil. I also like to oven-roast cherry tomatoes, as doing so amplifies their s...
More About: Tomatoes , Penne

Peach Melba Pie
2007-09-09 21:15:00
Earlier in the week, my friend Meg and I made plans for Saturday: watching a few episodes of “The Wire” so that I can get caught up before season 5 stars up in January, and baking. I had completely forgotten about the latter half of the plan until she reminded me on Saturday morning while we were running errands. She suggested an apple pie, which I couldn’t bring myself to bake given that it was sunny and 95 degrees outside – definitely not autumn weather. Apple pie turned into peach pie at my suggestion, but Meg wanted Peach Melba, and so the Peach Melba Pie was born. Peach Melba Pie(makes one 9-inch pie) For the crust:½ cup almond flour or finely-ground blanched almonds** (see note in recipe)2 cups all purpose flour½ teaspoon salt4 teaspoons light brown sugar2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter 4-6 tablespoons ice water For the filling: 3 pounds ripe peaches2 cups raspberries (fresh or frozen)½ cup light brown sugar3 tablespoons corn...

Peach Melba Pie
2007-09-09 21:15:00
Earlier in the week, my friend Meg and I made plans for Saturday: watching a few episodes of “The Wire” so that I can get caught up before season 5 stars up in January, and baking. I had completely forgotten about the latter half of the plan until she reminded me on Saturday morning while we were running errands. She suggested an apple pie, which I couldn’t bring myself to bake given that it was sunny and 95 degrees outside – definitely not autumn weather. Apple pie turned into peach pie at my suggestion, but Meg wanted Peach Melba, and so the Peach Melba Pie was born. Peach Melba Pie (makes one 9-inch pie) For the crust:½ cup almond flour or finely-ground blanched almonds** (see note in recipe)2 cups all purpose flour½ teaspoon salt4 teaspoons light brown sugar2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter 4-6 tablespoons ice water For the filling: 3 pounds ripe peaches2 cups raspberries (fresh or frozen)½ cup light brown sugar3 tablespoons corn...

Stuffed Poblanos
2007-09-07 17:55:00
Simply put, I adore Mexican food. Sadly, though, there are few good Mexican joints in Baltimore. In fact, I’ve only had Mexican once in the 15 months I've lived in this city. Sad, indeed. Back in NYC, there are tons of great Mexican places, and a few that my mom – a fellow Mexican food aficionado – and I particularly loved: · Mexicana Mama in the West Village, which my mom and I simultaneously loved and hated: loved for the awesome food (particularly the chiles rellenos and guacamole) and our favorite bored waiter, hated for the fact that it was incredibly tiny so all the tables touched one another and therefore your neighbors were privy to your conversations. · El Maguey y La Tuna in the LES – I used to live a few blocks away from it and used to frequent it with my friends John and Kristen, who also lived in the neighborhood. The vibe is great – it feels like you’re in someone’s house – and their chiles rellenos, along with everything...

Stuffed Poblanos
2007-09-07 17:55:00
Simply put, I adore Mexican food. Sadly, though, there are few good Mexican joints in Baltimore. In fact, I’ve never had Mexican in this city. Sad, indeed. Back in NYC, there are tons of great Mexican places, and a few that my mom – a fellow Mexican food aficionado – and I particularly loved: · Mexicana Mama in the West Village, which my mom and I simultaneously loved and hated: loved for the awesome food (particularly the chiles rellenos and guacamole) and our favorite bored waiter, hated for the fact that it was incredibly tiny so all the tables touched one another and therefore your neighbors were privy to your conversations. · El Maguey y La Tuna in the LES – I used to live a few blocks away from it and used to frequent it with my friends John and Kristen, who also lived in the neighborhood. The vibe is great – it feels like you’re in someone’s house – and their chiles rellenos, along with everything else on the menu, are insanely g...

Pluot Galette with Vanilla “Crème Fraiche”
2007-09-06 17:35:00
A galette is a simple, rustic, single-crust fruit pie. Because it is so simple, its success lies entirely in the details, namely, the freshness of the fruit and the quality of the crust. Homemade pie crust is not only deliciously tender and flaky, but it’s quite easy to make – it requires minimal skill and takes about 15 minutes at most. Sure, your first few attempts might not come out great, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll never go back to store-bought. I bought a bunch of sweet pluots at the store the other day because they were staring me in the face and I couldn’t say no to them, what with their plump flesh, translucent speckled golden yellow skin, and cute little dinosaur stickers. These pluots aren’t the common dinosaur egg varieties, which taste more like plums, but rather a sweeter, more apricot-y variety. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them (aside from eat them whole), but a vision came to me last night: a pluot galette. I’ve mad...
More About: Vanilla

Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms
2007-09-03 23:38:00
Almost two months ago, I bought quite a few (read: 12) vegetable plants at the farmer’s market on a complete whim. They were really cheap and I had to have them because I decided that I needed a summer project. I know, I’m kind of impulsive. They were supposed to be planted in the ground like a proper garden, but, for a variety of reasons, they ended up in pots on my balcony. Surprisingly, they are thriving – probably because it has been so incredibly hot in Baltimore this summer. Amongst them is one zucchini plant. No one ever informed me that I needed more than one plant in order have a mix of males and females and therefore ensure pollination of the females. It turns out that I have a male. Since he won’t be giving me any zucchini, I have to put him to good use by using the flowers in the kitchen. Zucchini blossoms have a delicate flavor that I would call something like mild young zucchini crossed with saffron (not surprising), and they go great with mild, s...

The Foodie Blogroll
2007-09-03 21:12:00
If you scroll down, you will find a new link on the right side - it's for The Foodie Blogroll , a great resource for recipes and all things related to food. It's definitely worth a visit, as are the many sites that belong to the blogroll - this one here is one of the newest members.

Classic Pesto
2007-08-31 23:18:00
Pesto is one of my favorite condiments. It makes everything taste better and can be used a thousand different ways – tossed with pasta, as a sandwich spread, as sauce on a pizza, mixed into mayo (great with frites!), and the list goes on and on. Because you need lots of basil to make a small amount of pesto, summer is the time for making lots of it. Huge bunches of basil are incredibly cheap at the farmers market right now, so I buy lots of basil and make pesto, which I then freeze so that I can unearth it in the dead of winter when basil is expensive. (Tip: freeze it in an ice cube tray, then put all the cubes in a Ziploc bag so you can take out just a little bit at a time without having to defrost the whole container.) Pesto is also really flexible – I’ve made it with spinach and arugula instead of basil, and I’ve used a variety of nuts – hazelnuts, pistachios, walnuts – instead of the traditional pine nuts (usually because I discover that I don’t have any pi...
More About: Classic , Pesto

Marinated Zucchini with Basil
2007-08-30 21:42:00
This past Sunday at the market, I noticed that the stand next to my tomato purveyor of choice had tons of zucchini and squash on the cheap: they were selling baskets of 4-6 of them at 3 for $5, so I got one basket each of green zucchini, yellow zucchini, and summer squash. I had a lot of zucchini on my hands; actually, they were technically on my boyfriend’s hands because he was kindly serving as my shopping cart. (Side note: do not expect your boyfriend to be amused when you hand him a 3-ish-pound bag of zucchini when he’s already carrying well over 10 pounds of produce and it’s 90 degrees outside and you’re at the insanely crowded Baltimore Farmer’s market.) Back to my point: I had lots of zucchini and needed to do something with it…fast. I had previously tried out a recipe for marinated zucchini from an Italian/pizza restaurant in Brooklyn (the one in NYC, not the neighborhood in Baltimore) at which I used to have after-work dinner with my dad every now and the...
More About: Basil , Mari , Nate , Zucchini , Marina

Baked Corn Fritters with Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce
2007-08-29 08:47:00
I've been buying lots of corn at the market lately – it’s so sweet and tender this time of year but I’ve grown tired of grilling it and slathering it with butter, cilantro, lime juice, and cayenne pepper. Don’t get me wrong, it’s delicious that way, but it gets tiresome after a while. This summer, I’ve run across a few recipes for corn fritters, but they all involve frying, which 1) I really do not enjoy doing (because hot oil + corn = spatters that cause burns, and also because it fills my tiny apartment with the not-so-nice smell of hot oil), and 2) is not particularly healthy. I actually did make a batch of pan-fried fritters a few days ago, and, while they were ridiculously good, I felt very guilty eating them. I decided that there had to be a healthier (and less unpleasant) way to get my fill of corn fritters, and so I came up with these. They're just as good as the pan-fried ones, and way better for you, too. Because I love the combination of corn, cilantr...
More About: Baked , Corn , Sweet , Chili , Sauce

Eggplant and Lentil Stew
2007-08-28 05:46:00
Of course my first recipe on here has to feature eggplants! Eggplant s have always been one of my favorite vegetables, and I've been buying lots of lovely heirlooms at the market this summer. I have found them to be more tender and less bitter than the traditional purple-skinned variety.I was recently told by a friend that pomegranate molasses and eggplant are a traditional Middle Eastern combination, so I decided to top off this stew with a generous drizzle of the ruby goodness. Because this dish takes so long to cook, it's ideal for preparing the night before and then reheating to serve the next day. In fact, it really does taste better the next day, as the flavors have had time to blend together. It also makes for an incredibly quick dinner; I serve it over couscous with fresh parsley, which literally takes 10 minutes to prepare. Eggplant and Lent il Stew(serves 4-6) 1 medium sized eggplant, preferably heirloom2/3 cup green lentils1 medium onion, fin...
More About: Plant