1000 pizza doughs

1950s Potato Chowder

As the nights begin to get cooler, I start craving soup.  Have a lot of CSA potatoes, so I decided to make this recipe I modified from a 1957 House & Garden recipe I found online several years ago. This is also about the time of year I start craving things with lots of cream, cheese and/or butter, so this is not the healthiest of my CSA recipes.  But it's darn tasty. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups boiling chicken stock (may need another 1/2 cup to make sure potatoes are covered)
• 2 strips bacon
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 cups raw potatoes, peeled and diced (Yukon golds work well)
• 1/2 cup carrots, diced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon white pepper, ground
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
• 2 to 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
• 1/2 bunch fresh dill, chopped (optional - do NOT use dried dill, unless you are pregnant and craving pickle soup)
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole or 2% milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 to 3 whole garlic cloves, smashed
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary (optional)

Directions
Heat chicken stock to boiling in a small pot.  Fry bacon in a large soup pot over medium heat until crisp.  Remove and set aside.  Add onion to bacon grease and saute over medium heat until translucent, about 8 minutes.  Add potatoes, carrots, chicken stock, bay leaf and salt.  Cover and cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes (longer if you have large potato cubes).

Meanwhile, in a separate smaller pot, mix milk and cream together, and add the garlic cloves and whole rosemary sprig, if using.  Heat through over low heat, taking care not to boil the milk.  Strain out the garlic and rosemary, and blend flour with 1/4 cup of the milk mixture, stirring vigorously to avoid lumps.

Add the 1/4 cup milk/flour mixture to soup pot, stirring constantly for about 1 minute to keep lumps from forming.  Add the remaining milk, and stir thoroughly until well-combined. (This step is when you will see the magic. "Oh, it is chowder!")  Add white pepper, paprika, cayenne, parsley, fresh dill and parsley (or other fresh herbs) to soup pot.  Reduce heat to low, and heat until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes, stirring every couple minutes to prevent scorching.  If the soup starts to develop a skin on top, just stir and it will go away.  Remove bay leaf, and serve soup immediately, topped with crumbled bacon.

Serves 4 in generous portions.

This would be great with whole wheat French country bread. Tonight, I served it alongside a salad with local red onions (from Whitmore Farm), cucumber and CSA tomatoes.  It might also be a good vegetarian chowder without the bacon, but I haven't tried this.  I think the bacon adds the true chowder flavor, so I've never made it without.  (I'd love to hear how it turns out if you try a veggie version.)

As a side note, I have to share... went to Hedgeapple Farm today to celebrate the arrival of my new freezer (nine cubic feet!).  Saw on Twitter that they were having a steak sale for Labor Day (thanks for the alert Beth).  I keep trying to convince my husband Twitter is not pointless... maybe steak will do it?  Ended up with nine pounds of local grass-fed Angus in various cuts.  Can't wait to try it. 

Slowly filling my freezer with local food!  It also currently holds an ice cream cake from Maggie Moos... since they make their own ice cream, does that count as local food?

Church Ladies: The Original Fusion Cooks?

As I type this, I have a “Quick – Easy – Delicious Cobbler” in the oven.  This recipe is by O’Dene Suggs (the punctuation is hers too).  I’ve never met Ms. Suggs, but she is part of my heritage. 

While cleaning out the garage, I found what at first glance appears to be an unremarkable cookbook: “Our Cherished Recipes” published in 1993 by the Union Grove United Church of Christ.  It has bunnies on the section dividers (but, alas, no hasenpfeffer recipes).

This cookbook was a high school graduation gift from an aunt.  (I want to say Aunt Carolyn, but as my mother has eight sisters, one cannot be entirely sure.)  Flipping through the pages immediately transported me to 1983.  I was running around the church yard with my sisters at a pig pickin’—a whole hog smoking on the enormous grill.  We would grab a bottle of grape soda from the big metal bathtub, and ask a grown-up to open the cap.  We’d eat a token amount of deviled eggs and pulled pork (with Carolina-style sauce, of course), and then get a second, larger plate and fill it sky high with desserts.  In the pages of this cookbook, I can see that laden table:

Annie Ruth’s Chocolate Pies

Chocolate Chess Pies (three separate varieties)

Coconut – Pineapple Pie

Fried Pies

Pecan Pie

And it goes on.

But before the pie section comes “Main Dishes.”  It is obvious that the women who contributed to this section know how to cook.  One of the most common ingredients is “a whole chicken, cooked and deboned” with no further explanation.  (There are at least 13 variations on chicken pie.)  But, strangely, most recipes also call for at least one can of something; cream of mushroom is a clear favorite.  Casseroles are in great abundance.  “Cabbage Casserole” anyone?  Um, anyone?  There are also a suspiciously large number of “salads” containing Jello and/or marshmallows.  And fancy chefs… not the first to coat chicken with breakfast cereal: “Rice Krispie Chicken,” page 35.

I just noticed another recipe from Ms. Suggs, who I am betting had a garden. Fried Squash Patties.  But that’s for another day.  If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to enjoy some Quick – Easy – Delicious Cobbler.

(Addendum: It’s not fancy and won’t win any beauty contests, but Ms. Suggs, marketing genius and church lady extraordinaire, your cobbler was indeed as advertised.)

"The Wall" Brownies

The wall, indeed.  About 20 miles into a nice bike ride this morning, I was climbing a rather steep, lengthy hill.  I was almost to the top when a guy lying in a hammock on his porch drinking a beer at 10:00 a.m. said, "Yep, them bicycle fellas, they call that the wall."  (Mind you, I am not judging, because a beer sounded really good about then.) 

All I could manage was an unintelligible grunt in response, so as not to completely embarrass myself by having to walk my bike up the hill. I think the fact that there was a witness helped.  I don't usually see many female cyclists out, so I felt like I had to conquer that hill in a dignified, if loud, manner.  I made it over the wall by singing Kasey Chambers' "Freight Train" in my head, and thinking about rewarding myself with these brownies when I made it home.  (Have to "refuel" of course!)

One reason I love to ride is this peaceful view near Sugarloaf Mountain in Maryland (well before "the wall"):

This recipe is modified from a recipe called Edge Lover's Chewy Edge Brownies that came with my Baker's Edge pan, a gift from my husband. (Did I mention that he really likes brownies?) The recipe is in a section called "Chef Emily's Recipes." No idea who you are, but I love you Chef Emily. 

I  also love this pan -- it's cast iron coated in a non-stick surface.  But you can't put just any brownie recipe or box mix in there, unless you want really flat brownies.  As best I can tell, the optimal recipe for this pan, based on its size, is about 1 1/2 times a "normal" recipe.  I've tried various recipes in this pan, and this is by far my favorite.

"The Wall" Brownies recipe:

• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks) - Never said these were healthy.
• 5 oz. unsweetened chocolate (I like the discs from King Arthur for easy melting)
• 2 1/4 cup sugar (I used half brown and half regular sugar today, which works fine)
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 heaping teaspoon espresso powder, optional (again, I like King Arthur's)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (try Ghirardelli 60% cacao)
• 1/2 cup butterscocth chips (also available from King Arthur - no they do not pay me, they just make really good stuff)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray pan with cooking spray.

Place the unsweetened chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pot of lightly simmering water (or use a double boiler).  The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl. Stir frequently until chocolate and butter are completely melted and remove bowl from the pot.

Stir in the sugar. Then add the eggs, one at a time, stirring after each addition. Add vanilla extract and stir.

Follow with the flour, salt and espresso powder, mixing just until combined with the chocolate.

Stir in the chocolate and butterscotch chips, and spread the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the brownie comes out with moist crumbs. (If you do not have a Baker's Edge pan, you will probably have to cook this for at least 10 extra minutes to ensure that it gets done in the center. Just test using the toothpick method every 5 minutes or so after the first 35 minutes.)

Enjoy!

 

Really Good Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I modified this recipe from the “Classic Oatmeal Cookies” recipe from the Joy of Cooking (my well-used 1997 edition, page 822).  The Joy recipe calls for 1 cup of raisins, but, since I prefer chocolate in just about anything, I substitute dark chocolate chips.  The original recipe also calls for all-purpose flour rather than a mix of all-purpose and white whole-wheat; either way is fine, it just makes me feel better to put more whole grains into my food… although considering that it also has two sticks of butter, well, it’s not exactly health food.

The recipe:

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease cookie sheets, or line with Silpat.

Whisk together dry ingredients in a big bowl:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup white whole-wheat flour (try King Arthur)
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg (fresh ground, if possible)

Beat wet ingredients on medium speed until blended:

• ½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 ½ cups light brown sugar, packed
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Once the wet ingredients are smooth, gradually add the flour mixture until well-blended.  Then stir in:

• 3 ½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup chocolate chips (try Ghirardelli 60% cacao chocolate chips)

Drop the dough in heaping measuring tablespoonfuls onto the cookie sheets, about 3 inches apart (dough will be a bit sticky).  Bake one sheet at a time until the cookies are lightly browned all over.  (The original recipe says 6 to 9 minutes, but I have found that my oven requires 11 to 13 minutes to reach this stage.  Keep a close eye on the first couple batches, since all ovens are different.)

Remove the sheet to a rack (or the stovetop, if you’re not using it) and let stand for about 2 minutes until the cookies firm slightly.  Then transfer the cookies to a rack to cool.  Very important: be sure to eat any that fall apart… they are delicious and gooey hot from the oven.

Blackberries and red-eye gravy

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about grandparents.  I’ve seen both financial and food advice that says, basically, just act more like your grandparents and you’ll be OK.  The Cheapskate Blog advises people to save up for big-ticket items.  In the food realm, I believe it was Michael Pollan who advises eating more like one’s grandparents (though it’s been a while since I read it… it might have been Mark Bittman).  In some cases, he notes, even our grandparents have forgotten how to eat, thanks to such “innovations” as Wonder Bread.

Some of my earliest memories are foraging with my grandmother in rural North Carolina.  We would collect persimmons from her prized tree, and turnips, radishes, beets and cabbages from the garden.  My favorite time of year was the hottest days of summer, when we would walk about a half mile down our dirt road (nope, not a street) to pick the biggest, juiciest blackberries on Earth.  Or maybe they just taste that way when eaten straight from the briar patch.  We would head home with purple fingers and teeth and a multitude of scratches and welts thanks to the thorns and chiggers.  And then my grandma would bake pies.  The best blackberry pies ever made (and nothing will ever change my mind about that).

My grandmother also made real Southern food.  She percolated coffee every morning for the boys, and for the red-eye gravy with country ham (sheer artery-clogging bliss).  And she made biscuits every single day.  I don’t know how many times I watched her make them.  No measuring or tools.  Just a big bowl, flour, buttermilk and lard (although I believe she did eventually switch to Crisco, perhaps for no other reason than the canisters, once emptied, made convenient spittoons).  She mixed the biscuits with her hands while talking to anyone who would listen about whatever the neighbors "down yonder" were up to, or, if the neighbors had been too upstanding recently, she would tell dirty jokes in a stage whisper.

Now I live in Maryland, in suburbia.  I have a blackberry bush in my back yard, just planted this May.  So far it has one single berry.  I suppose it will never live up to my childhood memories—does anything, ever?—but I did see some promising wild blackberries on my running trail the other day.  Here’s to hoping the neighbors don’t mistake them for raspberries and pick them red (yep, that happened last time we had what looked like a promising crop).  Maybe I’ll actually beat the Japanese beetles to some wild blackberries this year.  I’ll eat some straight from the bush and think of my grandmother.  They don’t make ‘em like her any more.

Chocolate chip scones

This recipe is modified from the Joy of Cooking recipe for Classic Currant Scones.  I've made them so often the pages in my Joy book kind of stick together there.  Honestly, I'm not even sure what a currant is or where I would find one, but in nearly all cases I prefer chocolate anyway, so I tried chocolate chips.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 6 tbsp. cold unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips)
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• cinnamon (for sprinkling)

Preheat oven to 425.  Whisk together in large bowl: flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut butter into small chunks and cut into flour with a pastry blender (or two butter knives) until the largest chunks are pea-sized. Sitr in chocolate chips. 

Whisk together in another bowl egg, cream and vanilla.  Add wet ingredients to flour mixture and mix just until combined.  Gather the dough into a ball and knead until most of the dry pieces are incorporated (you may need to add a touch more cream at this point if the mix is too dry). 

Put the dough on a lightly floured surface and press into an 8-inch (or so) round.  Cut into 12 triangles, and place each on an ungreased cookie sheet 1/2 inch apart.  Brush the tops with remnants of the cream mixture and sprinkle with a little sugar and cinnamon.  Bake until tops are golden brown, about 14 minutes.

These poof up and are great served right out of the oven with coffee or milk.

$20 macaroni and cheese

When I was a kid, my mom would make one box of generic macaroni and cheese for my two sisters and me (and we’d usually have leftovers!).  We all laugh about that now.  Last time we were all together, I had to go out and buy a bigger pot just so we could all eat.  The macaroni I made yesterday… definitely not my mom’s mac and cheese!

It starts with exotic-sounding cheeses like fontina and gruyere… cheeses that cost in the neighborhood of $12.99 a pound.  I was inspired to try my very own grown-up mac and cheese (and so many other things…) by watching the Food Network while running on the treadmill this weekend.  I hate the treadmill and would much rather run outside, but there is something to be said for the model with the little TV built in.

The problem: I usually watch cooking shows while running, which causes me to cook (and eat… and eat…) when I am done running.  I watched Giada De Laurentiis and Ina Garten both make mac and cheese, so when I went to the store I bought some fancy cheeses.  Of course, I forgot to write down the exact ones, so I bought a few from memory.  Then I looked up the recipes for both of those, and they required different cheeses.  Normally, I wouldn’t let this slow me down.  However, this being the first time in my life I have made not-from-a-box macaroni and cheese, I was leery of substitutions.

Luckily good old Emeril had a recipe for which I had all of the ingredients, except half and half.  I used 1 cup of heavy cream and 2 cups of whole milk instead, and it turned out fine.  Actually, it was more like “I’d-run-a-marathon-just-for-a-bite-of-this” good.  Words nor pictures can do it justice.  (I also didn't have pancetta, which this recipe calls for, but we took a ~3-mile family walk to the grocery store to buy some (which might have burned off a fraction of the calories).

 

While I can’t afford to cook $20 macaroni regularly, it feels more like a special occasion dish anyway, although it was just the two of us on a Sunday night (the baby was already asleep).  Never mind that I should have skipped that second helping… I had my best run in weeks this morning (perhaps there is something to the whole carb-loading thing…) and spring is in the air.  Life is good.

French toast

My brother-in-law is visiting, so this morning I made French toast with applewood smoked bacon on the side. 

French toast recipe

• Good crusty bread, 6 thick slices (about an inch each - honey wheat is good)
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 eggs
• ~1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• Pinch of nutmeg

Whisk together all ingredients except bread.  Melt butter in a large skillet.  Coat bread slices with egg mixture, and saute on med- to med-high until golden brown (3-4 minutes on each side).  Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with real maple syrup.

Thank you Paula Deen

The queen of southern cooking never fails to cheer me up.  The first thing I made with the ill-fated Kitchen Aid was Paula's pumpkin cheesecake.  This was the first cheesecake I ever tried to make (with the exception of Jello no-bake), and it came out delicious and just like the picture (which is not usual for my forays into baking, due to my aversion to measurement).  It was a little cracked on top after cooling for about 4 hours, but a little whipped cream will hide that.

Thanks to Bed, Bath & Beyond's helpful customer service, I now have my second new Kitchen Aid Professional 600 series mixer in as many days.  This one is Pearl Metallic -- it's beautiful, but I haven't used it yet.