I love this site....

 

When Henry was a baby I discovered this site. The first time I was on it, I entered a contest--and won! The prize: a set of sticky name labels (from Mabel's Labels) that lasted me through the first two years of pre-school. I just ordered a new set for Henry and Luke, our new little guy. Posting this button serves two functions--It enters me in a new contest, and spreads the word about a site I really like. Enjoy!

Colorful Soap

Apologies for the slightly fuzzy picture--I took it with my Blackberry

Henry, our four-year-old, is a recent convert to the potty set. One persisting struggle, however, is getting him to wash his hands. He informed me the other day that it would be more appealing if we had "colorful" soap. Colorful has long been one of his favorite words. We had just purchased to jumbo sized (80 ounces each) bottles of clear liquid anti-bacterial soap from Costco, which were thrillingly cheap--something like $6 for both--so I wasn't too thrilled about the idea of going out and buying a little bottle of something colorful, much less paying what seams like an unreasonably jacked up price at one of NYC's over-priced drugstores. (I know I sound cheap. I'm actually not. I just don't like feeling had.)

So we came up with a solution. Paul had bought a clear glass soap dispenser for the kitchen, which we had already filled with the clear soap. Then we added four or five drops of blue food coloring--Henry's choice of color. I shook it to try to get the soap dispersed throughout. At first it looked like a cat's eye marble. But by the next morning, the color had penetrated the entire bottle. I tried washing my hands with it and though it did come out blue, it didn't stain my hands blue. So now we have colorful soap, and we can make a new color anytime, when we get bored with blue. Next time, I'll add just a couple drops. Our blue is on the navy/purple side--a little darker than I'd like.

Blueberry Season!

A week ago, we went blueberry picking at Bishop's Orchards in Guilford, Connecticut. (The locale was determined by the fact that we happened to be visiting my parents at the time...Bishop's is convenient when we're up there, but I'd like to try a pick-your-own place closer to New York, in New Jersey, if anyone has suggestions for good spots.)

I enjoy picking strawberries and apples. But I find blueberry picking oddly addictive. Maybe because it's so easy. You don't have to crouch down, you don't have to strain to reach, or scratch yourself silly reaching inside a tree for the perfect Empire. You just stand there, direct your hand to a bush that's at just the right height, and coax a handful of beautiful berries off the bush with less effort than it takes to brush a fly off your hand.

I had a hard time stopping. But it was hot and we had two little guys with us. The elder, Henry, our nearly four-year-old, has decided he "hates" blueberries, which didn't help. (This makes me so sad, not only because they were one of his favorite things when he was a little guy, but because I still have the whole Blueberries for Sal fantasy in my head. I always loved that book.)

At any rate, I think we came away with fewer berries than last year, because, though I bought some pectin to try canning, we actually managed to eat these berries without much alteration. I did, however, make a batch of blueberry muffins before they were gone. (Recipe coming soon.)

Meanwhile, if there's a pick-your-own spot in your area, I highly recommend heading out for some berries. It's an immensely pleasing and peaceful way to pass the morning.

Trader Joe's Pizza Dough

The new Trader Joe's just opened up on 21st and 6th and we are soooo happy. I loathe Gristedes, or Greedies, as we like to refer to it. The new TJ is conveniently located en route to Henry's school, too, so it's convenient when we need things. Yesterday, in my first foray, I picked up some pizza dough--99 cents a batch! Normally I'm happy to make my own but this was so cheap and easy I figured it would be a good stop-gap on days when I'm just too busy to do it.

I got one whole wheat and one regular. Henry and I made the whole wheat one last night. I have to say, I didn't like working with it, and I didn't love the final result. I'm not totally giving up on it. The results might, for instance, have had something to do with the fact that Henry beat it half to death before it ever saw a topping. So we'll see. But at this point, I am still having better luck with the dough I make myself.

More thoughts on why I like to do it myself...and a popsicle recipe

I've been thinking more lately about why I have this near pathological urge to make things myself....I notice, for example, that it irritates me to buy things I can make (like cookies), especially when they're loaded with things like high fructose corn syrup. (Okay, the jury is still out on HFCS, but it's just one of a long list of chemicals, versus recognizable ingredients, in packaged foods.) But it's more than that--I feel like there's something about our culture of convenience/marketing/big business that's convinced us that we have to buy a lot of things, or rather that it's beyond us to do some of these things at home. The truth is, it's actually EASIER to make many things at home.

Example number one: Baby food. This one befuddles me. Why buy a jar of baby food bananas when you can mash one up with a fork...for a fraction of the price? Why buy baby food versions of sweet potatoes, or carrots (or any vegetable) when you can steam them in the microwave for five to ten minutes and then throw them in a mini cuisinart?. It's not that baby food is expensive, mind you. It's just that we think we have no choice but to buy it. When did baby food become something you almost exclusively buy?

Ditto for cookies (they don't take that long), or pizza dough (it's easier to make, as chef Mark Bittman points out, than to go out for it). Soup....the easiest thing in the world to make, for a few bucks, as opposed to the sodium-rich, one serving versions (for more) at the grocery store.

Virtually every time I start thinking about something I HAVE to buy, because you can't make it...I realize you can make it.

A couple weeks ago, for instance, after mentally lamenting the crappy icees Henry likes to eat (high fructose corn syrup and dye), I found myself thinking I WISH you could make popsicles. And then I thought, why the hell not? A day later I stumbled across a set of popsicle molds at Bed, Bath and Beyond for about $3.99.

Henry and I made a batch and we tasted them this morning. They were surprisingly good. In fact, really good.

Popsicles

3/4 cup milk
6 oz frozen juice concentrate
1 cup plain yogurt

-Mix it up in a blender and pour it into popsicle molds.

Note: As usual, I fiddled with the recipe. I didn't have any frozen juice, so I used apple juice and chopped up some fresh apple to add into it. The popsicles turned out white--which I didn't love--but they tasted wonderful. Next time I think I'll try some frozen pomegranate or cherry juice. Henry's a cherry fan.

Pickles

Awhile back--two years ago? three?--I got a hankering to make my own pickles, but the idea of canning (and botulism) has always intimidated me. So I looked for a few recipes for quick pickles, i.e. the kind you make, keep in the refrigerator, and eat within two weeks. I've been toying with various vegetables--carrots, radishes, cucumbers, asparagus, etc etc. ever since. My husband, Paul, is particularly fond of the radishes (see below). But then he's obsessed with summer radishes.

Anyway...here's my basic recipe. I fiddle with it a lot--sometimes I add curry powder and ginger, for example. I've also added garam masala. It's all good. Sugar alert: The brine IS high in sugar. Whenever I've reduced it a bit, it's been too vinegary. I like vinegar, and it's too vinegary for me. So far, only the one to one ratio has yielded that delicious sweet/tangy taste for me.

Vegetable: 
This works with basically any vegetable I've decided to pickle so far. I like to use about four cups of chopped vegetables. And I usually add very thinly sliced vidalia onion, as well.

Basic pickle brine:

-one cup cider vinegar
-one cup sugar
-few pinches of sea salt
-couple cloves of smashed garlic
-pinch or two of crushed red pepper (or chopped fresh jalapeno)
-handful of chopped dill
-handful of chopped cilantro
-a tablespoon or two of pickling spice (available at grocery stores and, in large quantities, at street fairs...I wrap it in cheesecloth or put it in a tea ball in the pickling container.)

Mix everything except the pickling spice up and pour it over the chopped/sliced vegetables of your choice in a container. Add the pickling spice and stick it in the refrigerator. By the next morning, you'll be in business.

Oh, Martha

Picture this carton of Dogfish Head asa holder for condiments, napkins, salt and pepper shakers, etc.  The idea is from Real Simple (check out the link, it's cute). They're billing it as a great take-along for a picnic, but I'm always wondering how to neatly contain this table stuff so that it's available for meals but not scattered all over the table. Our dinner table doubles as a desk and lego station, so it's very hard to keep it neat looking and segue from one use to another easily. (On the flip side, I've discovered that it's kind of cool to have a lego structure in the middle of the table as an incentive for Henry to hang out with us there.) We've been buying beer in bulk at Costco, but it might be worth paying the NYC price tag for a six of Dogfish Head, or something, for a cute holder.

Tossing pizza

I've been trying to figure out the best, and easiest way to stretch pizza dough evenly. Mine usually end up okay, with some thin spots and a few patch jobs. Henry, oddly, has become the patching expert. Based on watching the guys at Ray's, and a few on the food channel, I've been putting some flour on the counter, rubbing the pizza around on it a little until it forms a pizza the size of a salad plate, then picking it up and "driving the bus" (a la the guy from Diners, Drive Ins and Dives), which involves gripping the top edge and rotating the pizza around, always with your hands on that top edge. Then I put it down on the parchment and stretch it a little more.

Based on all I've seen and read, I've been thinking all that pizza tossing is just show offy. I mean, no one I watch, on t.v. or in person, does it. But Henry wanted to do it, so we started goofing around with tossing it the other day--a process that involved me lunging around the kitchen to catch Henry's throws before the pizza ended up draping over the coffee grinder, or worse on the floor. But lo and behold, it stretched the dough. Even Henry's off kilter tosses stretched the dough. So, now I have a new thing to learn.

I was YouTubing the other night and found this video, of eight time world champion pizza tosser Tony Gemignani, demonstrating his tossing style. I'm going to give it a try.....

Pizza

I live a stone's throw from three different pizza places, all with free delivery, and all of which have received enough phone calls from our domicile to have our address computerized. Mostly I was fine with this, except for the fact that occasionally the pizza would arrive with the cheese pooled in a corner of the box, or undercooked, leading to disappointment all around. And the money issue kind of bothered me. Though there's one cheapish option--Ray's Original, about $16 for a plain large--it's not our favorite. I should clarify--it IS the favorite of our three-year-old, Henry, but Paul and I prefer something with a tad more of the brick-oven about it. Ordering in a pretty basic pizza from Pizza 33, a nice little pizzeria nearby, costs us about $25--without the tip. At my parent's place, in Connecticut, you can order an outrageous large pizza from a place down the block for something like half the price.

At some point, I thought, hell, I oughta try this at home. After one demo from Paul's father (a great cook) that involved storebought dough, a cookie sheet, and merely some shredded mozzerella and a can of crushed tomatoes I thought YEAH, I AM going to try this. If this makes me sound like a culinary nerd, you've pretty much got me pegged.

 I started with store bought dough, because, frankly, the idea of working with yeast scared me. I've played around with baking bread before, but it was eons ago, and one episode with a loaf of whole wheat bread that refused to rise particularly put me off. I tried some frozen packaged stuff from the grocery store--about $5 for two mounds of dough. And I tried Whole Foods, which has regular dough and whole wheat dough, frozen or refrigerated, for less than $2 a mound. I also tried ordering some frozen dough from Fresh Direct, a grocery delivery outfit that operates in NYC.

The frozen grocery stuff and the frozen Whole Foods variety were fine, though it took a lot of experimenting to get the timing right--was it better to defrost it in the fridge, and how long would that take? Or on the counter? (Ditto the questions.). Could you go ahead and stretch dough that had been refrigerated, or was that a mistake? The Fresh Direct stuff was a disaster--tiny (it must have been meant for one serving pizza) and sticky. Horrid. Ick. Never again. And I had enough misses, or near misses, with the other stuff that I just got irritated. I'd try and stretch it when it was too cold, and it would resist, get overworked, and end up flat and hard.

A few things I learned from this early experimentation:

-If you're going to use a cookie sheet, oil it first with a little olive oil, and sprinkle some corn meal on after that. It'll help prevent sticking.

-You might do a little better with sauce flavor than good quality crushed tomatoes out of a can (I like Muir Glen), but not much. I just spread some sauce--not too much or the dough gets soggy--sprinkle on some oregano, and add the cheese. The pure tomato flavor reminds me of the pizza we got in Milan.

-If you're making this for a picky child (hello, Henry!) it's best to grate the cheese, rather than slice it. This will lend the ultimate product more of the visual effect of the pizza from the pizzeria down the street.

Eventually I started reading about pizza dough, to try and figure out what the deal was with the refrigeration/cold dough issue. I didn't learn a whole lot about that from reading (though I think, ultimately, room temperature dough is easiest to work with), I did run across enough recipes for pizza dough to make me think, I oughta try this.....I was particularly inspired by a recipe by Mark Bittman, who flat out said it was easier to make the dough than go out and buy it. I adore Bittman, so I decided to take his word for it. There are tons of recipes around, but I've been using his (for now). Here it is:


3 cups flour (all purpose or bread flour...I'm having more success with bread flour)
one packet yeast
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 tablespoons oil
one cup cold water, with the option to add up to a quarter cup more if the dough is too dry

Throw it all in and mix it into a ball--takes less than a minute. Bittman advises using a food processor. I use my KitchenAid with the dough hook. Works fine. Then you knead it into a ball, cover it, and let it rise for one to two hours. He says you can let it rise more slowly for up to 8 hours in the refrigerator, but I prefer to avoid the cold dough issue.

This, spread out in a pizza pan, was working decently for me. But all that reading around kept mentioning pizza stones, i.e. you really can't make a decent pizza at home without a pizza stone (basically a tile that absorbs heat, makes the oven hot as hell, and gives you a real pizza crust). I tried one suggestions--putting my pizza, in its pan, on top of another cookie sheet I'd left in the oven as it pre-heated (temperature 500, or as hot as your oven will go). But the results weren't impressive.

So eventually I ordered one. And a peel. Now I leave the stone in the oven all the time, preheat the oven to 500. I put cornmeal on the peel, put a piece of parchment paper on top, spread my pizza dough and add the toppings, drizzle a little olive oil over the entire affair, and slide it, on it's paper, onto the stone. Within ten minutes, I'm getting a pizza that is darn near as good as the ones we used to order--far cheaper. And yes, I am embarrassingly proud of myself. The picture above incidentally, is not one of mine, but it's about what mine look like. I have to take a picture next round.