Our Best Pizza Yet

Saturday night, J and I decided to whip up some cocktails with the leftover grapefruit from my Easter tart. We also decided that since we couldn't go to the Timbers game against Real Salt Lake, we would make a fun dinner and watch it at home. We hadn't made pizza in a while, mostly because we've never gotten the crust quite right and while tasty, is always disappointing in some way. I'm pretty sure we prepared ourselves for this time not being any different, because pizza is a lot of fun to make -- and eat. While I prepped the toppings, J juiced the grapefruit and concocted our version of a traditional Greyhound (recipe below) and we brought the laptop into the kitchen to stream the soccer game. 

I must admit, we did not make our own dough this time. It's a day-long (or with some recipes, two-day-long) process and we have an Italian market up the street that sells frozen dough for less than $3 and it is quite tasty. We let the dough thaw and rise for about 4 hours and I flattened it out on the counter. We let it rest for about 10 minutes and transferred it to the pan. J made up a sauce of tomato paste, fresh garlic, some dried basil, and a little water. I thinly sliced mushrooms, bell pepper, and onion in addition to the paper thin slices of pepperoni J had cut at the deli. We brushed the dough with olive oil, spread the sauce, topped it with mozzarella and a bit of Parmesan, layered the mushrooms, pepper, onions, and then pepperoni. We sprinkled just a bit more of the two cheeses and salted the outer crust, and threw it in the oven for 10 minutes. As we peered in the oven window I was shocked at the beauty that we created. Seriously, look at that pizza!

Now, two things that made this pizza outstanding: heat and thinly sliced toppings. While we prepped everything for the pizza, we cranked the oven up to 550º (highest temp) and let it heat up for at least 30 minutes. As I mentioned, J had the pepperoni sliced paper thin and I did the same with the mushrooms, bell pepper, and onions. This ensures that the toppings don't get soggy, and even crisp a little with the high heat. And look! We got bubbles. That never happens at home. I was so excited about how this pizza turned out that we're going to try it all over again sometime this week. 

The cocktails were not exactly a perfectly paired beverage for pepperoni pizza, but they were delicious and tasted like summer. They were also necessary for the numerous toasts we made on our perfect Saturday night. The baby is in bed! Cheers! The Timbers beat Salt Lake! Cheers! We rock at making pizza! Cheers! And Cheers!


Awmercy's Greyhound Recipe

2oz. Gin (not your best gin here -- we like Seagram's)
4oz. Fresh squeezed grapefruit juice (with pulp)
~1 tsp. Honey

Pour room temperature ingredients into a cocktail shaker, stir to dissolve honey, throw in a few ice cubes and shake to chill. This drink is very simple, so needless to say, it's the ingredients that make it spectacular. Our grapefruits were particularly tasty and the honey was fresh from Salt Spring island in Canada.

Easter Tart

We went over to our friends' house on Saturday for an Easter party, which included a Peeps art contest and an egg hunt around the house for the kiddos. Little was a little to young to get the egg hunt part, but did a top-notch job of playing his part in our living art piece -- Peepzilla. He first picked off the Peeps lounging around on the landscape and moved on to banging on the buildings and swaying them around. It was a lot of fun. My contribution to the party (aside from the afternoon entertainment) was something that I've been aching to try -- a grapefruit tart. We have two bakeries in town that make their own versions of this seasonal treat, so after sampling both I decided to give it a try. 

I couldn't really find an exact recipe, so I decided to go to my favorite cookbook, The New Best Recipes by Cooks Illustrated, for inspiration. I settled on their recipe for pastry cream and sweet pastry dough for the shell and filling and surfed the internet a bit for instructions and photos on slicing and arranging grapefruit. The tart has several steps, but they were surprisingly easy and can be done ahead of time, so you don't have to spend all day in the kitchen. My food processor made the dough a breeze, and I found out (thanks to Cooks Illustrated) that the secret to a silky custard is straining it while hot through a fine-mesh sieve. Brilliant!

For this tart, I used four grapefruit: three ruby red and one pink for color variation. The pink grapefruit was definitely more tart, so it was a nice flavor contrast too. In order to get the fleshy slices, you have to peel and segment the fruit. Basically, you cut off either end down to the flesh and run a very sharp paring knife down the sides in curved slices to remove the skin and all of the pith (preserving as much flesh as possible). Once you remove all of the skin, you then segment the grapefruit according to the natural divisions. Run the knife along side one of the paper thin membranes to almost the core and then use the knife to sort of pop it out of the skin. Then, you move on to the next segment until the entire grapefruit is sliced. Oh, and don't forget to gently press the slices between two paper towels before placing on the tart -- you don't want vanilla custard soup from all of the extra juice. I practiced arranging the slices on a plate before actually topping the tart, which really helped the presentation. The only detail I left out was sprinkling coarsely chopped pistachios on top (a garnish used at St. Honore's bakery) because I ran out of time. I will opt for this next round though, because the bright green flesh of the pistachio nuts looks so pretty with the red grapefruit.

This particular recipe for the tart shell and cream called for a 9 1/2" tart pan with removable bottom. While the sweet pastry dough was sufficient for for the tart size, there was a lot more cream than I needed. I think next time, if I'm bringing this to a party, I'll make 1 1/2 times the amount of tart dough and use an 11" pan. The tart is ideally eaten within a few hours of preparation, so don't fill the shell until you're ready to serve (or leave the house). Due to time constraints, I filled the tart and topped with the grapefruit about an hour before we ended up leaving and stuck it in the refrigerator. It held up well, but started to get a little loose after sitting at room temperature for a few hours. Although Little was a little skeptical, the tart was delicious. I think I'll have to make another while the grapefruit are still juicy and sweet.


Tart Recap:
9 1/2" tart pan with removable bottom
1 recipe of Cooks Illustrated Sweet Pastry Dough
1 recipe of Cooks Illustrated Pastry Cream
4 grapefruit, peeled, segmented, and blotted dry
coarsely chopped pistachios for garnish (optional)

Eggs 'n Beans

For anyone who reads my blog with some regularity, you know that I am no stranger to beans. Love them. All kinds. I am somewhat of a bean snob, texture, taste, and look are very important. No mushy beans, thank you. Until Little came along, I'd swear by the dutch oven as the only way to cook beans. You can see why Little is confused to find my trusty Le Cruset on the shelf for the latest round of red beans and rice. However, I've found that the slow cooker makes a mean red bean. I've tested it twice now, just to be certain, that it produces the creamiest, most delicious beans ever -- maybe even better than my trusty red friend (gasp). Also, it takes about 10 minutes of prep time and I can forget about them for 4-5 hours without the worry of stirring to ensure that they don't scorch on the bottom. In a rush to get the beans going the first time, I left out the sausage for added convenience and found that the vegetarian version is pretty excellent. I've tried to restart my weekly regimen of making a large batch of beans of any variety so we can have delicious, healthy leftovers for various dishes. 

Our most recent creation with leftover beans, was an attempt to replicate the egg dish that I enjoyed so much at Hi-Life in Seattle. We made a couple of changes: replaced the flour tortilla with corn, added more scallions, and subbed my red beans for the spicy black beans. Without the added spice to the beans, I was able to liberally apply my favorite condiment, Cholula. The result was delicious and maybe even a touch better than the original. It was a perfect weekend dish, but I've actually made it part of my hearty second breakfast routine this week. Finding quick, yet gourmet-tasting, meals has been key to us actually eating regularly at home. 

It also means that I have time to devote to making food for Little. I realized the importance of this when I went to the grocery store last week to pick up a few jars of reserve food. I found that the prepared stuff is insanely expensive, full of preservatives, and well, kind of looks gross. As I held a jar of sweet potatoes that had a weird salmon pink color, and a jar of green beans that were sort of brown, I realized that I hadn't gotten so busy that I couldn't put a damn potato in the oven every once in a while. This week the little Sir is enjoying pureed chicken soup and rice, steamed broccoli, roasted red bell pepper sauce, and yogurt. He tolerates the broccoli, but gobbles it up when paired with the peppers. He's even had a taste of the pureed red beans and rice, which he initially downed, but now makes him gag. Not sure what's going on there, but no son of mine would ever reject red beans and rice.

Brasilliant's Slow Cooker Red Beans

1lb small red beans, picked through and rinsed

1 onion finely diced

1 bell pepper (red or green) finely diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 carrots, peeled and finely diced

3 celery ribs, finely diced

6c vegetable (or chicken) stock

6 oz. andouille sausage, diced (optional)

(here's where the recipe is a pretty inexact science)

1 T Penzey's Cajun spice

2 tsp thyme

3 healthy pinches of kosher salt (or more to taste)

Few shakes of onion powder

Few shakes of hot sauce (Cholula)

Add all of the ingredients into the slow cooker, set to high, put on the lid and forget about it for about 4 hours. You can stir occasionally if you want, but I usually leave the cooking part to J, which means that our beans are never stirred. After 4 hours, check for doneness. The beans should still be whole with skins in tact, but creamy and delicious inside. I usually find that this method cooks the perfect bean, but leaves the sauce a little soupy. I just uncover the beans, turn it to low and let it cook for another hour or so to let some of the liquid evaporate. 

If you were so inclined, adding some andouille sausage around the 3 hour mark would probably be pretty delicious. I think I'll try that next time around.

Three Day Soup

Way back in October, I had it all figured out. Miles napped like a champ -- three hefty stretches a day -- and even though I was sleep deprived from getting up at night, the free time during the day made life feel just fine. I caught up on work, blogged, and even started cooking again. I was quite pleased with the fact that I might actually be able to put delicious hot meals on the table at night. I had this brilliant idea to highlight all that free time by starting a series of posts on my blog called Naptime Gourmet. Like I said, I had it all figured out. 

Then Miles turned three months old, went on a sleeping strike during the day, and demanded constant attention during his waking hours. Not only was there no time for prepping dinner, but I was lucky to sneak in lunch some days. Dinnertime in our household was pretty turbulent and haphazard. At Miles' four month checkup, I shuffled into the pediatrician's office looking like a zombie and begged her to tell me that things would get better. She very nicely told me that I looked like death and that four months wasn't too early to start sleep training. I cringed at the thought, but Jesse and I were frazzled and desperate. It took three nights of hell to get him in a routine. He now sleeps, well as they say, like a baby.

Miles will be five months old next week, takes three decent naps a day, and will go six to eight hours at night uninterrupted. What does that have to do with food you ask? Well, I am no longer sleep deprived (most days) and have it all figured out again (ha). Naptime Gourmet is officially resurrected. It won't be easy. In fact, I'm pretty sure I will have to seriously challenge myself to prepare something new each week.** However, I'm going to give it my best try because cooking is one of my simple pleasures; it makes me happier and us healthier.

For the debut Naptime Gourmet (resurrected) entry, I have chosen a simple, healthy, delicious three day bean soup. Why three days? For starters, it took me that long to finally get the energy to cobble together the ingredients. My lack of ambition was stupid, since it took about fifteen minutes to prepare. Then, after cooking all day with what seemed like no progress, I thought I might have to hover over the slow cooker for that long for the beans to finally cook. And finally, this morning I realized that there's so much of it we'll be eating on it for a while. I really don't mind though, because it is insanely tasty.

Brasilliant's Three Day Soup

2 c. black eyed peas (insert lame Fergie joke here)
1 c. red lentils (or any other bean really)
4-5 c. vegetable stock (I use Better than Bouillon)
1 14oz can diced tomatoes (or 2 fresh, peeled and diced)
1-2 shallots, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 ribs celery, diced
3 carrots, diced
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. Penzey's Cajun Spice (I bet thyme would work well instead)


Place beans in slow cooker and cover with 2 inches of water. Cook on high for 2 hours, or until beans begin to soften. Add remaining ingredients, turn slow cooker on low and forget about it for 8-10 hours (or until beans are cooked through).The lentils don't really hold up to cooking for that long and serve more as a delicious thickener. Sprinkle with a bit of grated Parmesan and voila! Simple. Healthy. Tasty.

Side note: I wanted to render a little bacon for the recipe, but was feeling lazy and didn't want to go to the grocery store. I'm glad I didn't. I find that black eyed peas have a wonderfully smoky, almost meaty flavor on their own, so bacon or ham would have just been overkill. The point of this recipe is to let the beans speak for themselves. And because the soup cooks for such a long time, all of the flavors really meld together. One option to kick up the spice would be to mince a little jalapeno or throw in a touch of cayenne. But I think I'll just let Jesse liberally apply Tabasco at the table!


** Be warned, I am not above subbing in the occasional baby food recipe from time to time when Miles starts sampling more complex concoctions. I do, however, promise not to bore you with such delicacies as whipped sweet potatoes and breast milk.  

Throw a (Pickled) Egg on It!

Our friends Larson & Serena gave us this great book, Jam it, Pickle it, Cure it, a while ago. While I've poured over the pages from time to time and made plans to have a big pickling/jamming/curing day, it just never happened. 

When my mom was in town a couple of weeks ago, Jesse and I took advantage of her stay to go out for happy hour at Clyde Common for our anniversary. In addition to some of the most delicious mixed drinks I've had in a while (that'll have to wait for another post down the road) we shared small plates including an assortment of house pickled vegetables. On the pickle plate was a wedged pickled egg. I've always been kind of grossed out by pickled eggs, particularly the ones that are colored with purple beets, so I almost wanted to hold my nose when sampling. However, their eggs had a slight yellow tinge, which was not nearly as gross as purple, so I ate one. And I was hooked. It was mind blowing. We decided it was about time to give pickling a try. 

The only thing missing in our kitchen were all the ingredients for pickling spices. So, on Tuesday afternoon I decided to pick up the CSA solo (instead of our usual family trip that can become a somewhat harrowing experience with a screaming infant near the end). I left a few minutes early and stopped by Penzey's in the Pearl and purchased a jar of their pre-mixed pickling spices. This afternoon we decided to hard boil six eggs for a trial batch. They need to sit for seven days to attain maximum pickleness, so we won't have a verdict until then. I think they're pretty spectacular looking though.  


Here's the recipe for our first try at pickling eggs:
(I'll update later if we tweak it a bit)


6 hard-boiled eggs
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
1/4 c. water
1 T. Penzey's pickling spices
1.5 tsp. kosher salt**
3 cloves garlic, sliced 


Place eggs and garlic in a 1 pint mason jar. Bring vinegar, water, salt & spices to a boil. Pour over eggs and garlic. Let cool on counter and place in refrigerator for 1 week. Enjoy!

**The first batch turned out to be way too salty, so I halved the salt to 1.5 tsp.

Bachelorette Food

When Jesse is away, I always have a hard time motivating myself to cook a good meal. Usually, that's not a huge problem since his trips generally last for only a couple of days. However, he's on a 5-day site visit and it's hard to justify take out or grazing on hummus and pita for an entire week. Tonight I was really craving mac & cheese, but also wanted to try and get some vegetables in my diet. So, I turned to an adaptation of my favorite stove top recipe by Alton Brown.

His version is plain mac & cheese that calls for evaporated milk, but I never have that on hand and honestly, don't think it's necessary. I use a mixture of half & half and 2% milk and that works just fine. I also subbed Dijon mustard for dried, since I never have that in the spice cabinet either. I like the tang of the Dijon better anyway. The recipe is so easy that you can make it in the time you boil pasta and tastes way better than the boxed stuff. For this batch I added peas and spinach, but I've been known to incorporate grated carrots, sauteed mushrooms, sauteed garlic, onions, and even tomatoes. It's a perfect base recipe that I've adapted multiple times depending on my mood. Paired with a salad (eaten after this photo) and a refreshing grapefruit Juice Squeeze, I was a happy woman.

Brasilliant's Stove Top Mac & Cheese

3/4 - 1 lb. elbow pasta (I used fusilli)
2 Tbl butter
2 eggs
3oz half & half
3oz milk
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp. hot sauce (I like Sriracha) or more to taste
10 oz sharp cheddar (I used a mixture of cheddar and Gouda this time)
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Boil the pasta according to box directions, drain and return to pot. Toss noodles with butter. Turn heat to low. Whisk together the rest of the ingredient except for the cheese and add to noodles. Stir in cheese and continue to mix until creamy and thickened, about 4-5 minutes. Make sure that you keep the mixture moving so that you don't scramble the eggs at the bottom. Mix in any additional vegetables and enjoy!

Optional Additions

• Sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes, and minced garlic
• 1/2 bag frozen peas (I throw them in the pasta water for the last 5 minutes)
• 1 bag baby spinach (sauteed and squeezed of water) -- Frozen would work well too
• 1 cup shredded carrots (toss them in the pasta water for the last 1-2 minutes to soften)
• Sauteed broccoli and minced garlic

My rule of thumb is to make sure that any veggies added aren't too watery. For the spinach, mushrooms, and tomatoes I always saute for a few minutes before mixing with the pasta. You don't want runny mac & cheese! If you think the garlic will be a little too powerful raw, stab it on the end of a fork and blanch it for about 30 seconds in the boiling pasta water, or just saute it with the rest of the veggies.

Voila! Delicious bachelorette dinner.

Monday Outing

Yesterday, I spent a good part of the early afternoon indoors doing laundry (I was running severely low on underwear supply), but the payoff was a walk down to the waterfront to see the cherry trees in bloom. The weather was perfect; 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. J called me on his way out of the office and met me near the Steel Bridge, where we parked his bike and took a nice walk in the sun. When I pulled out my camera to capture him riding in his work outfit, he said, "oh god, are you going to blog about this?" I promptly told him "yes" and that he better look cute. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Portland. Jesse is just one of hundreds who ride to and from the office in their work outfits.

For a minute, it was hard to tell whether I was walking along the Willamette River, or along the Tidal Basin in D.C. Of course, the show is not nearly as spectacular as the Jefferson Memorial framed by pink puffs, but it was pretty great. After our stroll along the rows of cherry trees, we had to haul home to make the tip off of the final NCAA basketball game -- UNC vs. Michigan State. I really didn't want to fill out a bracket this year, but J (and his brother, E) goaded me into submission.

I spent a few hours one night reading about the teams and made a couple of risky selections that eventually paid off -- Villanova beating Pittsburgh in a nail-biter of a game and Michigan State edging out Louisville. I am happy to report that I won this year's bracket and E's girlfriend, Lea came in second place. The ladies dominated. Sweet.

Anyway, we closely watched the game clutching bowls of homemade salmon and leek chowder that I whipped up. The inspiration for chowder on such a warm day? Well, I had a few leeks leftover from our trip to the farmers market and have had salmon on the brain ever since we went out to breakfast with J's parents at Kenny and Zukes. Besides, it was published in the April edition of Bon Appetit (1995), so I knew it couldn't be too heavy. And it wasn't. It's made with milk and only a touch of cream, so it's more silky than creamy. Definitely worth four forks! I made a few changes here and there, like adding corn, reducing the cream, adding a bit of Parmesan, and subbing equal parts wine, chicken stock and clam juice. I also think I might add a clove or two of garlic next time. However, other than that, the recipe was spot on.

Oh, also, I finally captured the elusive "La Pussy Wagon" on camera. We enjoyed a good chuckle with J's parents over breakfast one morning when we spotted it for the first time on Irving Street. Yesterday, it was parked under our window and the sun was just right! Ahh. It's watching you!

Looks like Summer

After writing about planting herbs in the apartment yesterday, I looked in the fridge and realized that I had a whole bunch of basil leftover from this past weekend. The sun was shining and as I was walking around the apartment in a tank top and flip flops, I felt like a picnic. Voila! Inspiration for dinner.

Since Jesse was at work all day yesterday, I thought it would be nice to surprise him by (doing dishes) and cooking a delicious Friday celebration meal. We both made it through the week feeling relatively upbeat, which these days, is quite the feat. Given the abundance of basil, pesto pasta was definitely on the menu. Paired with oven fried chicken and (clean out the fridge) roasted vegetables, you have the perfect summer meal. I realize that we just entered Spring, but I was feeling optimistic. Jesse pulled out a bottle of Belgian beer for the occasion; a Lunatique Triple. It was the perfect end to a pretty great day.

Today, we're hopping on our bikes and finally going out to the farmers market in SW Portland. I have every intention of getting some delicious veggies for the week, maybe a specialty cheese, and definitely a pastry or two to carry me through the ride home. In case you want to make your own batch of oven fried chicken here's the recipe that I used:

Spicy Oven Fried Chicken
**don't be scared, the chicken isn't really spicy at all, go ahead and use all of the hot sauce and cayenne***

1 1/4 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. olive oil
3T. hot sauce (I used a combo of Sriracha and Tabasco Chipotle)
2T Dijon mustard
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. salt
ground black pepper
1 lg. onion, sliced
12 chicken pieces with skin and bones (I used drum sticks)

1c. unseasoned bread crumbs
1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 c. flour
2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. cayenne
3T. melted butter

Whisk buttermilk, oil, hot pepper sauce, mustard, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon
pepper in large bowl to blend well. Add onion, then chicken and turn to coat. Cover; chill at
least 3 hours or up to 1 day, turning chicken occasionally.

Place cooling racks on 2 large rimmed baking sheets (otherwise the chicken will be soggy on the bottom). Whisk breadcrumbs, cheese, flour, thyme, paprika, cayenne and 1 teaspoon salt in large baking dish to blend. Remove chicken from marinade, allowing excess to drip off. Add chicken to breadcrumb mixture and turn to coat completely. Arrange chicken, skin side up, on racks on baking sheets. Let stand 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425°F. Drizzle butter over chicken. Bake until crisp, golden and cooked through, about 50-55 minutes. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.