Pizza Rustica

WARNING: COOKING DINNER WITHOUT READING THE RECIPE FIRST MAY DAMAGE YOUR REUPTATION AS AN ACCOMPLISHED CHEF.

4:00 | I head into the kitchen, accompanied by Christine, Mary, and our friend Emily, who happened to be over. It’s time to make pizza dough for Giada’s Pizza Rustica.

4:02 | Christine mentions that this recipe will take a long time. I, in the middle of eyeballing olive oil and “pinching” salt, am not paying too much attention.

4:10 | I take a look at the recipe, myself, and discover that the pizza cooks for 1 hour, and then sits for 2 hours. Did I mention that pizza dough needs another full hour to rise?

4:25 | The dough is rising, nestled in it’s little bowl and covered with a cloth.

5:17 | Christine starts making the ricotta cheese mixture, while I saute the spinach with some salt & pepper.

5:22 | We decide to pull the dough out and start working with it. Christine makes a perfect circle with 2/3 of the dough, and carefully places it in a springform pan. For those of you who have never done such a thing – it takes real talent.

5:27 | Emily grabs the spoon and starts spreading spinach on the bottom. Christine tops it with a handful of mozzarella, and then expertly spreads the ricotta mixture on top. I cover that with a layer of turkey pepperoni. Another handful of mozzarella. More spinach. Another handful of mozzarella. Ricotta mixture. Another handful of mozzarella. Turkey pepperoni. Another handful of mozzarella.

5:34 | Christine spreads out the rest of the dough, with which we top the pizza, now filling the springform pan. We fold the edges over, to create a raised crust on top, and sprinkly (heavily) with parmesan.

5:35 | We pop the pizza into the oven, on the bottom rack, and set the timer. At this point, Emily had to go, but she said she’d like to try the recipe herself at her own home.

5:50 | Our parents leave for their 6:15 reservation at McCormick & Schmick’s.

6:10 | Our sister leaves to meet a couple of friends for dinner.

6:32 | Out comes the Pizza Rustica, in golden glory.

7:54 | We decide we can’t wait any longer. Mangiare!

On a scale from 1 to 10: 10.

There is something alluring about the photograph for Giada’s Pizza Rustica. A “pizza” that stands three inches tall is magnificent. Stupendous! Glorious! TASTY.

Mushroom Wild Rice Frittata

I think I’ve already mentioned that latest EatingWell issue we received, and how there are many great recipes in it to try. One of them was the sweet potato cake, already reviewed here. On Wednesday, January 27, Christine and I decided to try another recipe from the EatingWell – an interesting frittata, made with wild rice and mushrooms.

The recipe starts, of course, with the cooking of the rice. Everyone knows that rice takes a long time to cook. Don’t tell anyone this, but I had actually never cooked wild rice before this. Shhh…

So we started that. Then I began slicing a pound of mushrooms, while Christine…you know, I don’t know what Christine was doing at this point. Possibly mixing up the egg and parsley mixture.

Anyway. It looked, as I finished cutting mushrooms, like the frittata was going to be solid mushroom. Say it with me, now – “GROSS”. We put them in the pan to saute, and the pan was *full*. Ok, I’m trying to like mushrooms. Smothered in cheese, encased in pasta, and dubbed “mushroom ravioli”, they aren’t bad at all. Of course, as a friend of mine once told me, anything covered in cheese will always be at least edible. But too much of anything is not a good thing. And trust me on this one – this was definitely too many mushrooms. I was starting to get worried, but Christine assured me they would shrink. This I knew, but how much would they shrink?

They slid around the in pan for a while, during which time we added salt and pepper and fresh rosemary. Christine and I have this system: she does the pepper, because she loves pepper, and I do the salt, because I love salt. Usually it works out well, but in this case, I think someone was a little heavy-handed on the pepper.

Back to the mushrooms. They were turning gray, that way they do, and starting to smell like…mushrooms, and they really did shrink. I think they lost half their body mass, quite frankly. Imagine what America would be like if all of us did the same…

By the time we were finished cooking the mushrooms, and were ready to add the rice, the rice had not yet made up it’s mind whether or not to be done. There was still quite a bit of water left in the pot, and I, being accustomed to cooking regular brown rice, thought something must be wrong. Rice is supposed to soak up all the water in the pot – like a sponge. Sometimes, you even have to add *more* water, because it’s still crunchy. But apparently, wild rice is not the same. We tested it, and it was still a little hard (although the recipe does say it’s supposed to still have “bite”), so we let it go a little longer. Fortunately for us, our mom was in the kitchen when I tested it again.

Wild rice starts to “butterfly” when it is done, or close to it. “Butterflying” is what they call it when the rice grains start splitting apart and you can see the lighter, more tender, insides.
You learn something new every day.

The wild rice got dumped into the frying pan with the mushrooms, mixed around, and then unceremoniously covered in egg. It looked really interesting, with the gray-brown of the mushrooms, the dark grains of rice, and the bright yellow of the egg mixture, sporadically tinted with green bits of parsley. The recipe says to cook it on the stovetop for a bit, then stick it in the oven and broil it for about 2 minutes. We did so, and the think came out VERY FIRM and brown. Wasn’t expecting the color change. (!)

I really liked it. It *did* feel like it was solid mushroom, with all the nooks and crannies filled with wild rice. Very…interesting!

On a scale from 1 to 10: 7.

Not half bad. This is a good way to use mushrooms, and the texture is mysterious and colorful for the tastebuds. Ours was a little on the spicy side, due, no doubt, to the PEPPER, nutmeg, and rosemary, all of which were not used lightly. The only problem that particular night was that the frittata was pretty much all we served, and the guys in our family needed some more substance. Other than that, this is a definite make-again.

National Pie Day

National Pie Day is January 23rd. The American Pie Council created this day simply to celebrate the pie. It began in 1986 to commemorate Crisco’s 75th anniversary of “serving foods to families everywhere”. Crisco <gag>.

No matter how it started, my grandfather apprised me of this upcoming event earlier in January. I made a note on my calendar and promptly forgot all about it. Being the gem that he is, he sent a reminder email about a week prior to the actual day, asking if I was going to “celebrate” it, or anything. I got together with Christine, and she picked a gluten-free crust recipe, and I picked the Better Homes & Gardens crust recipe, and we decided to make a party out of it.

So that morning, after I finished working at 9:00am, we headed into the kitchen to start making pie crust. It has been a very, very long time since I’ve homemade a pie crust, but I felt the occasion deserved the utmost in effort. Christine and I stood side-by-side at our kitchen counter, me trying to roll out a real pie crust with a rolling pin that’s missing it’s handles, and her trying to roll out a gluten-free pie crust that’s refusing to stretch. But don’t worry – we conquered it.

We peeled and sliced apples to the country-esque rhythm of Eddie Rabbit, stirring in cinnamon to “Hearts on Fire”, and watching the rain as Eddie told us how much he loves rainy nights. By the time he was singing the praises of rocky mountain music, our pies were ensconced in their overstuffed glory in the oven, baking merrily at 375 degrees. We brushed the tops with egg white and sprinkled with turbinado sugar, for an extra-special touch.

Guess what? They were great! Wow, I love apple pie after it’s sat in the refrigerator for a day or so…that juice and sugar thickens up and holds the pie together perfectly. We made the pies Friday, the 22nd, and had a slice that afternoon, since we’d be busy and/or gone all day the 23rd.

But they lasted a long time. In fact, I just finished off another slice.

On a scale from 1 to 10: 10.

I don’t think it gets any better than this.

Roasted Dumpling Squash

We tore into the kitchen, having just returned from a tea party, a trip to Costco, and a run through parking lot puddles. We had planned a super-simple dinner of Giada’s Grilled Steak Sandwiches (I’ve already written them up, but I’m doing it again, because we tweaked things a little) and Tyler’s Roasted Dumpling Squash.

We started with the squash. I don’t really know what dumpling squash are, or what the difference is between them and acorn squash. But our mom had gotten us acorn squash, and they were huge. We knew it would probably take them longer to cook than the dumpling squashes, so we wanted to get them in the oven as soon as we possibly could. Christine “Muscleman” started halving them with a big butcher knife. I mixed up the butter-brown sugar-amaretto mixture. Tyler said to *pour* the butter mixture over the squashes, but he also specifically said to *soften* the butter, not melt it…so…we spread it on. Who cares? Even Tyler the Superhuman Iron Chef can make wording errors.

The squash are topped with two sage leaves each, which is an interesting touch. I’ve never had sage in such a quantity before. The leaves feel like velvet. I didn’t know that feeling was found in nature – I thought it was made up by man. Apparently not.

Anyway, after we got the squash safely tucked away in the oven, we started on the sandwiches. I grabbed the loaf of Anthony’s semolina bread sitting on the counter, and sliced it long-ways, so that we could make one big sandwich – almost like a sub – and cut it into pieces when finished. This time, instead of grilling steaks, we just ordered roast beef from the deli and used that instead. We still made that fantastic sour cream/feta spread and sprinkled on some spinach leaves, plus we added some sliced white cheddar cheese. I put the top on the thing, and it was breathtaking. Then my mom walked in. She poked her head into our workspace and the first thing she said was, “Wait – you didn’t use the Anthony’s bread for the sandwiches, did you!?!?! Sweetie, you didn’t order that!” in tones of complete and utter horror.

I pretty much broke into a cold sweat. Turns out my mom and Christine thought we were making the sandwiches on regular bread – of which we now have plenty - and I had assumed the nice loaf of bread out on the counter was for us. The Anthony’s bread was, in fact, for Friday night’s dinner. Oh well. The nice thing about having a license AND one’s own car is being able to very quickly offer to get another, replacement loaf the following day. <sigh>

And hey – the sandwiches were *fabulous* on that Anthony’s bread!

The squash…well, they certainly took a lot longer than Tyler said, probably because of their size. The pools of butter inside where delightful, and the hint of amaretto throughout was tantalizing. But quite frankly, I think I prefer our normal recipe. Frosted cranberries top amaretto. I’m sorry, but they do.

So on a scale from 1 to 10: 8.

Those sandwiches were perfect. I’d do them on regular bread, too – the spread is what makes them. I also greatly preferred the deli-style roast beef to steak slices, simply because of they’re ease of consumption. And the squash was good, but could have been better. I like a little something in my acorn-squash cavity, you know??!

Sweet Potato Pudding Cake

If  you just got the newest EatingWell magazine, you probably saw that sumptuous-looking sweet potato cake. Christine and I looked at the magazine at different times, but that recipe caught our eyes.

There we were, after a delicious meal of Tyler’s barbecued chicken with that amazing homemade peach barbecue sauce, sitting around in our living room. Christine was flipping through the EatingWell, I was knitting. I leaned over to ask her if she’d seen that sweet potato recipe, just as she looked up to ask me if I had seen this sweet potato recipe. It happens all the time.

Without further ado, we both decided to cast aside the weariness of the day, throw our aprons back on, hop into the kitchen, and make the cake for a special treat. While we did intend it for that night, – Wednesday, January 20 – it turned out that it needed to cool and set completely in the refrigerator before eating. Hence, we brought it with us to a tea party on Thursday afternoon and enjoyed it then.

This recipe was already vegetarian, corn-free, and lactose-free; we made it gluten-free as well by using our special gluten-free flour mix. It’s basically sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed into creamy perfection, a little flour, a whole lot of coconut milk (yum!), and raisins soaked in Jamaican rum. Now, we didn’t actually *have* any rum on hand…not something we keep in the pantry, if you catch my drift. So we soaked the raisins in amaretto instead, and it worked great. I wasn’t sure what the texture would be like, with the interesting selection of ingredients.

We brought this pig-in-a-poke to the tea party, as stated before. It was uncut, untasted, and just looked good. We didn’t know if it was going to be ok, but we figured that if it wasn’t, we could laugh it off. So we cut into it, and pulled out that first piece. It was eggier than I thought it was going to be, but tasted delicious. Christine compared it to gluten-free pound cake. I wasn’t following that analogy…but hey. Whatever she says.

Suffice it to say that by the end of Thursday, the cake was completely polished off. No crumbs remaining (probably because it wasn’t a crumb-y kind of cake, to begin with). I guess that means it was a smashing success.

On a scale from 1 to 10: 9.

I’d like to try the recipe with the rum, just to see what it’s supposed to taste like. I’d also like to see what happens when we use real flour – is it supposed to be kind of fluffy? More like a cake, instead of a quiche? Just for comparison, I think it’d be interesting.

Butternut Squash Risotto

Our family’s presence recently graced Brio Toscana, a ritzy restaurant in the Southpark area. My sister Mary ordered a creamy risotto dish, complete with sweet potato and chicken. She loved it, and it certainly looked delicious. I didn’t get to taste it…

As a result, Christine and I decided to try our hand at recreating it on one of our cooking nights. Thursday, January 14 was give n the honor. We chose the Barefoot Contessa’s risotto recipe, which also uses saffron, butternut squash, and prosciutto. If I’ve educated you at all, you’ll know that we replaced the prosciutto with turkey bacon.

Christine tackled the butternut squash, while I started the risotto. Naturally, it turned out this way because Christine is buff and I am…not. She picked up the huge knife, and started slicing into the squash. Even for someone as <ahem> prepared as she is, the squash looked tough to cut. The risotto, on the other hand, was relatively easy. Although I am deathly afraid of being splattered by grease while cooking things stovetop.

While Christine was exclaiming rapturously about the color of the inside of a butternut squash, I was trying to teach my pieces of turkey bacon how to swim in hot, melted butter. It was interesting. She cubed, I stirred, and everything worked out like it was supposed to.

As I was stirring chicken broth into the risotto, carefully portioning out the liquids so it would cook correctly, I said to Christine, “I certainly hope this rice turns into more than it looks…”, because it really didn’t look like we’d have enough. After all, this risotto was the main dish - people are expecting a MEAL here, not just a spoonful on the side of their plates.

Of course, Christine, moving at her usual lightning place, finished the squash before the risotto was done. She started cutting up pieces of chicken (precooked by our mom) to serve on the side. I kept stirring.

The squash finished baking very shortly before the risotto was all done. We added the squash cubes to the risotto, which had turned yellow from the saffron. Now THAT looked like a dinner fit to serve to the family. I was very happy.

All in all, everything turned out just great. The risotto was creamy, al dente, and perfectly seasoned. I particularly enjoyed having it with the chicken on the side. Fortunately, we already had a salad thrown together, leftover from Morgan’s dinner night on Tuesday.

On a scale from 1 to 10: 7.

I thought it was fantastic. However, Christine and a few of the family members took issue with the incredible, though very slight, hint of smoky flavor the bacon provided. Next time, perhaps we’ll try it without that, just for grins. The butternut squash cubes could have been a bit smaller, but that’s just presentation. The taste was very good. I’d make this again, no questions, hands down.