Pizza Dough

Tonight's post is going to be short and savory, but it's well worth the time and energy if you decide to bake your own pizza this summer, and who doesn't love garden-fresh tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and center-slab bacon on a beautiful slice of homemade pizza? There is so much fresh produce that a garden veggie pizza is not only easy to make, but delicious, cheap and healthy (minus that bacon, of course!).

For the record, I know lots and lots of people swear by Trader Joe's pizza dough, but I'd like to challenge them to try this quick and easy recipe from "The Minimalist," Mark Bittman, cookbook author extraordinaire of How to Cook Everything.

Basic Pizza Dough
Makes 1 large or 2 small pizza(s)

Ingredients
1 tsp. instant or rapid-rise yeast
3 cups bread flour, plus more as needed
2 tsps. coarse sea salt, plus extra for sprinkling
about 1 cup water (perhaps 1/4 cup more if need be)
2 tbsps. plus 1 tsp. olive oil

1. Combine the yeast, flour, and 2 tsps. salt in the container of a food processor. Turn the machine on and add 1 cup water and 2 tbsps. of oil through the feed tube (Believe it or not, I did all of my pizza dough by hand... It wasn't that hard, but Mark's way will definitely save you precious time.)
2. Process mixture for about 30 seconds, adding more water, a little bit at a time, until the mixture forms a ball and is slightly sticky to the touch. If it is dry, add a tbsp. or two of water and process for another 10 seconds. (Mark's caveat is if the dough is sticky, add flour, one tbsp. at a time.)
3. Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and knead by hand for a few seconds to form a smooth, round dough ball. For great kneading tips, check here.
4. Grease a bowl with remaining olive oil, and place dough in it. Cover bowl with a damp towel/cloth and let it rise in a warm, draft-free area (I used my front porch... It worked perfectly!)
5. The dough will double in size in about 1-2 hours. You can also let the dough rise more slowly, in the refrigerator, for up to 6-8 hours.
6. Proceed by rolling out dough and shaping into a circle (or square, if that's your preference). I'm still not an expert at tossing pizza dough, so count me out on that front, but I've found with a rolling pin (or makeshift bottle of unopened wine) and patience, you can shape a nice looking pizza.
7. Preheat oven to 500 degrees--the hotter the better, so do this on a cool evening, if possible. Bake pizza with all of your preferred toppings for about 20 minutes. The crust will be a golden bubbly loveliness. I think that's the technical term...

For the pizza above, I created a tomato sauce using diced and stewed tomatoes, shredded mozzarella, crispy center-cut bacon and Missouri-grown yellow tomatoes. The result, I think, was delicious!

Well, I'll be back next week with more tales of blackberry jam, pico de gallo (viva el tomato!), and cherry pie. I've been meaning to get to these three recipes all summer long, and now I finally have the time.

Hugs and high fives,
Kella

A Girl and Her Stove: Cooking with Granddad (Fried Zucchini)

I've been a very bad blogger lately. Blame it on the post-Europe sinus infection, the spreading of news to family and friends that the girl is getting hitched to Dave in the fall of 2010, or the fact that I've enlisted a personal trainer on July 27 to whip the post-injury girl into bride-fighting shape. I'm still gonna bake, but I'm not going to put as many of my tasty creations into my mouth. The girl has some sit-ups to do while the oven timer is running.

This week's installment, however, does not count calories but rather childhood memories of swimming with my granddad and kid sister Jenna in the Pomme de Terre Lake (which literally translates to Potato Lake; you've got to love Midwesterners and their earnest sense of French flair), eating homemade vanilla ice cream that my granddad spent a whole day making, and sipping sassafras tea by the wood-burning stove of my grandparents' country home in Weaubleau, Missouri, Pop. 518 (9 years ago that is... I think it may be less now).

My grandfather, who I always call Granddad, now lives in Clinton, Mo., former Baby Chick, as in fowl, Capital of the World. I went to visit him July 10-12, and we participated in our regular routine of reminiscing, watching the Gameshow Network, and eating at the Golden Corral on Sunday.

Saturday, well before the insipid buffet that is Golden Corral, was magical. We drove to the Clinton town square and purchased peaches, tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers from a little produce stand that procured its wares from an Amish greenhouse in Windsor, Missouri. My granddad John Dee haggled with the other elder statesman behind the wall of zucchinis about the quality of his tomatoes. True to my granddad's hard-scrabble, skeptical "show me" nature, my granddad threatened that he would be back if the tomatoes weren't good; and while I would never have the chutzpah to say something like that to a roadside vendor, my granddad comes from a time period (b. August 25, 1925) where what you sell should be quality, or else.



Thankfully, Granddad had nothing to worry about. The tomatoes were juicy and steak-like in their thickness. The cucumbers were "dressed" quite nicely, as Granddad would say, with white vinegar, sugar, a little water, and salt and pepper. The peaches were the best I've ever had, and that's saying something for a girl who doesn't really like the fuzzy texture of a peach. Forgive me, readers. Based off of the peaches I ate in Clinton, I've seen the error of my ways. Peaches can be delectable if ripe, juicy and cut with a serrated knife so the sweet fruit can be bitten into first. But the highlight of our Saturday afternoon adventures was my granddad's fried zucchini.

Fried Zucchini
Recipe by John Dee Hammond (aka, Granddad)

Ingredients

3 healthy sized zucchinis, sliced into coin-size pieces
A skillet full of bacon render (this ain't low-fat cooking)

Batter:
1 large egg
1 cup of flour
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 to 3/4 cup whole milk

1. Prepare the batter by whisking the egg into the cup of flour. Add milk to this mixture until the batter is the consistency of a medium-thick liquid. Note: the batter should be able to coat the slices of zucchini easily without falling off the zucchini before it enters the frying pan.


2. Heat up the skillet full of bacon render at medium heat until it's a lake of glistening fat. You'll know it's ready when you drop a dash of batter into the pan. The batter will fry into a tiny, crispy golden-brown dot. You're ready!


3. Fry the zucchini for 2-3 minutes on eat side until golden brown. Turn once and repeat. Then place the fried zucchini (which looks and tastes like a croquette) on paper towels or newspaper to soak up the excess grease.
4. Serve hot with other summertime produce. Enjoy!

All I Want in Madrid and Normandie

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