Pizza Party: Homemade Dough

On Sunday, I made pizza dough from scratch for the first time. It was E-Z. I used Jamie Oliver's recipe from Jamie at Home (which I halved), and though the texture was more airy and crisp than chewy perfection, both the pizzas I've made so far were downright delicious.

I've always liked making pizza at home—you can trace my culinary trajectory from Boboli to pre-made commercial doughs to nabbing some on the cheap from local pizzarias—because you can pile on favorite ingredients, use up fridge detritus and keep the whole affair pretty healthy.

Things I had lying around: soppresata, blue cheese, beautiful heirloom tomatoes, onions, pinolis and corn. The blue cheese really is a lovely alternative to milder cheeses—you can use less and still get a full brunt of flavor. I baked them with the help of my trusty pizza stone, and both took less than ten minutes to get perfectly crisp.

Here is Sunday's version: tomato, pinolis, onions and sliced soppresata with blue cheese. The soppresata was MVP—adding the perfect chewy crackle and salty tang. And, I only used two small deli slices for the whole darn pie.


And here is today's lunch: a personal sized pie with corn (most underrated pizza topping EVER), onions, the most exquisite red and yellow-flecked tomato, sliced soppresata, blue cheese and a sprinkling of fresh grated parmesean.
Once you start doing these things—making dough, baking bread, throwing things together—it becomes clear how simple they are. No wonder people have been at it for centuries.

Friday Lunch in Philly: Putting Some Local Figs to Good Use

At the Wednesday afternoon Farmers' Market near Schuylkill Banks, I couldn't resist the small containers of fresh figs for only $2. My favorite all-time fig flavor pairing—it's a classic—is with blue cheese. So, I picked up a small hunk, a fresh multi-grain roll from DiBruno Brothers and mixed up some honey with some balsamic vinegar to make a simple, sweet and acidic sauce.
As a side dish, I tossed some beautiful, local heirloom tomatoes (mostly yellow, with streaks of red that reminded me of the broken tulips from Botany of Desire) with some nice California olive oil, salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon. It was a nice time.

Spring Mix: Today's Grab-Bag Salad Impresses

Due to a spontaneous trip to Washington D.C. on Sunday (to see the always-excellent Hold Steady), I didn't have a lot of time to follow through on my more ambitious plans for my farmer's market haul. Fortunately, this resulted in a full fridge of ingredients to play with when I had a hankering for a light lunch today.

I tossed that amazing arugula with some pea shoots, threw in some toasted pine nuts and some leftover peas (blanched and then tossed with lemon, mint and olive oil last night) and topped the whole thing with local feta and some cubes of grilled pumpkin seed-sourdough bread from Le Bus. A homemade lemon-dijon vinagrette brought this beautifully verdant collage together in harmony.

A lunch like that really makes you feel like you've done something good for yourself (except for when that pea shoot went up my nose)—it was the culinary antithesis to the two hours I spent watching The Bachelorette last night.

Fitler Square Farmer's Market: Today's Haul

I just got back from the Saturday morning market at Fitler Square (23rd & Pine). It's a small collection of stalls, but the produce is local and beautiful. Today I grabbed some strawberries, some arugula that smells like pure, peppery heaven, some fresh peas and a small stash of pea shoots (ironically, the peas and shoots came from separate stalls). With those last two gems I plan on finally trying out a Jamie Oliver recipe I have been lusting after in Jamie at Home—"smashed peas" with mint on toast. Sounds like summer on a stick (well, on a slice of garlic-rubbed grilled bread).

Motown Philly, Back Again

I'm moving back to Philly in about 10 days where I hope to resume my bloggy ways. Get excited for a 1000 word treatise on those WaWa hoagie order touch machines (preview: Genius!).

Check Me Out on Bites

I know, I know—I've been slacking. But I have been blogging everyday over at Bites, the Nashville Scene's lively food blog. Check me out over there for your fix.

These Eyes Were Not Tearless...

Printed today in the New York Times:

Requiem

It came to me the other day:
Were I to die, no one would say,
“Oh, what a shame! So young, so full
Of promise — depths unplumbable!”

Instead, a shrug and tearless eyes
Will greet my overdue demise;
The wide response will be, I know,
“I thought he died a while ago.”

For life’s a shabby subterfuge,
And death is real, and dark, and huge.
The shock of it will register
Nowhere but where it will occur.

— JOHN UPDIKE

LOST: Will Someone Please Get That Man a Shirt!?

But wait, there are more important things about last night's episode of LOST than Sawyer's glistening chest! After the premiere's time traveling madness, it seems like this video (released at 2008 ComicCon) includes some serious clues:



First off, that is definitely Faraday working the camcorder—and now we know he was most definitely in the Dharma-era past at some point. Secondly, could all the problems Chang seems to have with his hand/arm be connected to the hand-chopping-happy crew Sawyer and Juliet encountered in the jungle in the premier?! (TFJ io9 for that connection.)

Grrrr....Arghh

All this inauguration stuff is making me nostalgic for the campaign. Remember this indelible pic?

The best part is that I found it by searching "McCain Obama Debate Monster."

(Nothing better for my blogging productivity than having an interview to transcribe.)

OMFG: LOST Tonight!

It's been a big couple days on the television set.

Quote of the week about LOST:

Brian: "Remember when this was a show about polar bears."

Embrace change young man.

The group I might be most excited to learn more about are our three young freighties—all still on the island or in its vicinity. Remember this exchange:



(Forgive the subtitles.)

Miles is sassy.

Though Fairuza Balk Does Make Me Think of This...

Which makes me happy. Return to Oz is the raddest. Or, most rad.

Why...

...am I watching The Craft right now? I gotta get a job.

It's A New Day

I've been pretty truant with this blog because I've been so under the weather. But today I got to watch Barack Obama be sworn in as President. It was pretty special.

Top Ten Things I Ate In Asia

In no particular order:

- Barbecue squid with crazy, tangy, awesome orange sauce on Langkawi: I don't know what was in this sauce, perhaps the tears of angels.
- Samosa in Georgetown, Penang's Little India: This samosa was unlike any I've ever had—an intensely thick shell stuffed with shockingly verdant whole peas and strings of fresh herbs. That samosa to your average samosa was like brick oven pizza from a place with a line out the door to Pizza Hut.
- Pad Thai from the hole-in-the-wall on Sulli's block: I ate a fair amount of Pad Thai in Thailand, but this version was the paragon—high ratio of bean sprouts to noodles, plenty of peanuts, big strands of green onion and plump, perfectly cooked shrimp. The $1 price tag didn't hurt.
- Stir-fried red curry with mixed seafood at our bungalow on Koh Lanta: Our home on Koh Lanta had excellent food. Once, we tried to expand our horizons and ate in town—big mistake. We ordered this dish at least three times. The curry was hot, the squid was tender and the balance of flavors was perfection.
- Shrimp with marinated cabbage in Krabi Town: This dish was kind of unexpected. I ordered it on a whim and was blow away. The cabbage was thick and tangy, with a pleasant crunch. It didn't hurt that our dinner also featured the best green curry I had in Thailand.
- Fried chicken on the waterfront in Krabi Town: Crunchy, slightly spicy, and freshly fried—it was the best fried chicken I've ever had.
- Som Tom, everywhere: There is nothing I will miss more than the searing pain of freshly made som tom. Women on the street make it with a mortal and pestle, stuff it into plastic bags and pass you the tangy, crunchy, spicy magic. Oh, and it comes with sticky rice.
- Satay in Georgetown, Penang: I thought I knew satay, but I knew nothing of the tender little chunks of marinated meat served with a peanut sauce that put anything made stateside to shame.
- Barbecue eel in Narita, Japan: This meal was vastly improved by the experience of eating in a bustling little restaurant as men cleaned eel in the window and waitresses squeezed between tables toting pots of hot green tea.
- Fruit shakes, everywhere: Most fruit shakes in Thailand are done simply with fruit, a dash of sugar water and ice—pure heaven.

Crappy with a Capital CRAP

Yesterday I felt so crappy that I was forced to look up "jet lag" on Wikipedia to make sure that was all that was going on. Not only was I up one full night, I was up two straight nights thanks to my ten hour layover in Narita and my complete inability to sleep on planes. And I am trying to adjust to a 12 hour difference, which must be the worst possible shift. Anyway, after a 3-hour afternoon nap, a 2-hour nighttime nap and 9 hours of sleep, I'm hope I'm seeing the light at the end of this crappy jet lag tunnel.