The best cooking class ever

Last night was the pizza class at Enrico Biscotti company in the Strip. We started with introductions, house-made red wine, appetizers, salads, and pasta with meatballs around a big table.

Then Larry took us through his entertaining version of the chemistry (millions of yeast cells eating sugar and having sex) and history of bread-making (starting with the Egyptians, then hot Greek girls making big beautiful loaves resembling Demeter's breasts, followed by hot southern Italian girls picking weeds (herbs) to make the mouldy wheat taste better, and finally Regina Margharita is presented with the first pica margarita at the port of Naples).

Then we proceeded to the kitchen where we watched a pizza dough-making demo complete with tips on the best ingredients and techniques for getting an even thin crust with no holes. We then worked our own dough balls into beautiful thin crusts, topped them, and baked them in the blazing hot wood-fired stone oven. In the meantime lots of sweets came out of the bakery for sampling. You don't go home hungry!

Are Pumpkins Weeds?

The pumpkin vines have gradually taken over the southwest corner of the yard, completely overrunning the ornamental garden and covering the fence. I can see three fruits taking shape.

AC Entertainment

This little feller came home with me after this weekend's visit to the Carnegie museum complex.

Jen came over from Columbus for the weekend, and it was another hot sticky one! So we did our best to entertain her in air-conditioned environs. This included:

- seeing movies Hurt Locker (gripping!) and 500 Days Of Summer (again)

- eating at restaurants (Saturday: Square Cafe lunch, Thai dinner with local friend Sylvia; Sunday: Coca Cafe lunch, Aladdin's dinner)

- going to the Carnegie museums to see art and dinosaur fossils

Does "hurt locker" mean anything?

Fortune Cookie

Curried Zucchini and Tomato Soup

Are you sensing a trend? Well I had some veggies left from the last CSA box and I got a new one yesterday so I had to deal with the veggie overflow. This turned out pretty good.

1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon curry powder (Madras blend)
1 lb zucchini, chopped
1 lb tomatoes, peeled and chopped*
3-4 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Saute the onion and garlic in the oil until softened.

2. Add the curry powder and toss to blend. Saute it for a bit to marry it into the onion.

3. Toss in the zucchini and coat it with the curried onions. Saute for a few minutes.

4. Add the tomatoes, broth, and salt.

5. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

6. Puree the soup, and enjoy it topped with some chevre or yogurt.

* Peeling tomatoes is not too cumbersome. Just make some small cuts into the skin at the bottom, and cut all the way around the stem end. Toss them into boiling water for a minute until you see the skin begin to pull away. Take them out and let them cool a bit before slipping the skins off.

Curried Carrot and Fennel Soup

I hate licorice, and fennel has a mild flavor like that so I'm not a fan. However I hate to let food from the CSA box go to waste, so I came up with something palatable after a Google search for recipes.

1 onion, chopped
2 fennel bulbs, chopped
6 carrots, chopped
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 tsp curry powder (garam masala)
1 tsp ground coriander
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup milk or cream
salt and pepper

1. In a large pot saute the onion, fennel, and carrots in the olive oil

2. Add the spices and saute a little bit to marry the flavors.

3. Add the chicken broth, bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

4. Puree the soup, and add salt and pepper as needed.

5. Just before serving whisk in the milk/cream.

Pickles

I've been getting a bunch of cucumbers lately from the CSA box, and I'm not a big fan of cucs, but I love dill pickles (and they're so easy to make):

First, slice the cucumbers lengthwise into spears (I like mine pretty narrow so I make 8 spears out of each cuc).

Then stuff as many as you can into a glass jar. If you're using a jar about the size of a pasta sauce jar (about 20 ounces), add the following ingredients to the jar in these amounts:

Salt: 1 tablespoon
Garlic: 2 chopped cloves
Dill: a whole bunch chopped up (about 2 teaspoons of dried dill)
Vinegar: 1/4 cup

(make adjustments if your jar is a different size)

Last, fill up the remaining room in the jar with boiling water. Let it cool down before putting on the lid and marinating in the fridge for at least 2 days.

Busy, Busy

It's been a busy busy couple of weeks. I'm not sure where the time went but there was a lot of working and cooking going on. I'll post some recipes in follow-up posts.

Dave's Aunt Jeannie and Cousin Lynn came by from NJ for a visit Sunday afternoon. We tried to ignore the heat on Monday, and took them to see the view from Mt Washington, gave them a CMU campus tour, and then a very humid walk through Phipps Conservatory before saying Uncle and having a lovely air-conditioned dinner at Bravo followed by a screening of Julie & Julia.

I am a big fan of Julia Child. My mom and I watched her show when I was young (I think it came on after Lilias Yoga and You on PBS). Mom gave me her Mastering the Art of French Cooking when I started to appreciate finer foods (she wouldn't part with her copy). And now this movie was brilliant!

Unlike many of the reviewers I enjoyed the character of Julie, perhaps because I strongly identified with her. So many times in my life I've been uninspired by everything happening in my life, but cooking something yummy with the best, freshest ingredients I could find/afford brought me joy.

Even the shopping for the ingredients was part of the fun. I loved the scenes in the movie of Julia shopping in the Parisian outdoor markets gasping and cooing with delight at the wondrous array of produce on offer. I was so inspired by the movie I made Julia's Chicken Fricassee recipe on Tuesday night along with some fresh corn on the cob.

SPOILER ALERT

The thing about the movie that I didn't like much was the part where Eric walks out on Julie...I mean this guy was so supportive and patient all along it just seemed totally out of character for him to not come back after a couple of hours, and not even call to let her know where he was.