Veggie Pizza - whatever is in the fridge

Something that I have loved learning from being a freshie in the restaurant industry is learning how to use whatever you have in the store. If one special isn't selling on fish, we'll change the special the next night. Or make salmon cakes. Or if we have extra risotto from the night before, we make fried risotto balls as an appetizer special. The list goes on. It has been a helpful practice to develop at home - I am so finicky some weeks and I don't have an appetite, other weeks I go out with my friends too often and I don't hit the grocery store, or old groceries are sitting there going bad. Today I needed lunch and the smartest lunch is a lunch that you've already paid for, at the grocery store.

I had half of the pizza dough from last week's margherite as well as some cut veggies from a primavera I made for lunch earlier this week. Some marinara I saved from raviolis, a garlic clove, an overripe tomato, and some fresh mozzarella also left from the margherite. A little bit of Parmesan, which exhausts my cheese supply (sad), and some dehydrated mushrooms I bought last week and never used. Mushroom trick: I have always marveled at how quickly mushrooms go bad. I do most of my shopping at Publix, which breaks down their cardboard boxes of mushrooms and packs them into tiny plastic containers, tightly wrapped with plastic. I inquired about why my mushrooms go bad so quickly (slimy fishy) and why our cardboard-stored mushrooms at work last for a long week. The answer? Mushrooms need to breathe, and moisture makes them go bad. If they are stuck in a plastic container tightly wrapped (like we do for everything else to keep O2 out), they will sit in their own moisture and go bad. The solution? Take off the plastic wrap and leave them open air (thus the dehydration of my little guys) or better yet, throw them in a paper sack.

I am definitely taking a risk with the old marinara - highly acidic and highly basic foods are the first to go bad (thus, soft cheese. On the other end of the spectrum, tomatoes). But it smelled fine and let's be honest, it was probably packed with so many preservatives that marinara could live on in my refrigerator for a year and still be fine. So, I'll let you know in about 8 hours when the foodborne illness sets in (or not. hopefully not).

On top of my pizza went marinara, chopped garlic, sliced red onion, sliced green and red peppers, sliced mushrooms, a diced tomato, some fresh mozzarella and some shredded parmesan. Anything like this can be made from your leftovers and dwindling food supply - throw some things together that you enjoy together, add a tomato sauce base or an olive oil/salt and pepper/garlic base, and you can have a tasty little pizza without wasting a thing.

Up next: HOMEMADE PICKLES!

Pizza Margherite with Sangiovese

Just because I love to cook, and cooking is my job, does not mean I am good at keeping groceries in the house, or taking the extra 30 minutes to prepare a good meal at home. In fact, I am terrible at the day-to-day cooking. Thankfully, my job allows me to prepare my own meals at work and that helps, or I have lots of lunch dates with friends. But as I get older, strive to stick harder to my budget, be health conscious, AND try to develop myself in the culinary arts, I find that it is growing increasingly more important to take the time for meals at home.On top of that, I am so lucky to be in a program that offers a Wine & Spirits class on a truly comprehensive level. My professor, Dr. Strick, is an incredible instructor and has spent years traveling, tasting, and getting certified in wine education. So as an incentive for tasting more wines and drinking lots of LDL-lowering red wine, I have decided to budget for a daily glass - or two ;) - of red wine.

My first endeavour in food and wine pairing was two nights ago, with a craving for pizza margherite (olive oil/garlic base, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and tomatoes) and a complementary glass of red wine. I am not a huge red wine fan - the tannins, which are on the skins of every grape variety but only remain in the fermentation process for red wines, really pucker my mouth up ("dry" wine) and leave me feeling puckery, dry, cottonmouth-y. I don't like that feeling at the end of a night regardless of how much oaky nutty smokey goodness might be in that glass. So my choice of wine in varietals that I am familiar with is the Pinot Noir - sort of "in the middle" of the red wines, a little sweeter, not so dry, but full of flavor still. With all of this information, the gracious wine pro at Green's suggested I try an Italian varietal of grape, the Sangiovese. I enjoyed it with my pizza and boy was it yummy. A little dark fruity taste and perfect in between bites. Traditionally in Italy, each bite of a meal is spaced with a sip of wine, which helps you taste and the wine AND the food better in each bite. Mmm. What a way to enjoy good food and good wine.


So - for the pizza: homemade or store-bought dough (I always buy Publix Bakery's dough and I always regret it. It never rolls out like I like, the gluten always breaks and it is just frustrating. Just make your own), tomatoes (sliced, diced, however you prefer. I prefer diced - I also like to squeeze my tomatoes in my hand to let some of that water out so it does not cook out in the pizza and make your pizza watery or soggy), fresh basil and fresh mozzarella (in water, add a touch of salt to bring out the flavors).

Roll out your pizza dough, rub down with minced garlic, olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Par-bake crust (accordingly) and then top with tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, diced or shredded. A trick for fresh mozz is to stick it in the freezer for a short bit, probably just as long as you are getting your crust together and prepping your tomatoes and basil, and it will harden just a bit to make cutting, grating, slicing, etc. easier. Chiffonade some fresh basil but save until the end to retain full fresh flavor. Bake about 25-35 minutes at 375 (400 if thinner crust, but shorter cooking time) and after you pull it out, add the chiffonade basil, let it rest and then cut into it and enjoy with that glass of Sangiovese.

pizza, Guinness & snow!

my joy was returned to me yesterday about 4:30. it started SNOWING! snowing! in Columbia! and then, the unthinkable happened - it KEPT snowing. and then I watched the snow start sticking to trees! and then to cars! and then to city pavement! there is something so sweet about watching snow fall through a window. you can only imagine what it might feel like, taste like, how cold it might be, and you get to be just above the ground and see it in action. it's the perfect bird's eye view. but then you do all of those things you imagined, touch it taste it play in it, and it is everything you wanted it to be and you can't even express it.

so I opted to delay playing or traveling for awhile to huddle up in my cozy little apartment. I flipped through recipe books and landed on homemade pizza to make - Austin and Megan went off to a movie, Andrew was working, Lydia and Carley are gone for the weekend - the perfect occasion for solitude, scavenging for toppings and looking out a snowy window while rolling out dough.

about 8:00 I realized I did not, in fact, have all of the ingredients I needed. I was missing a crucial ingredient for pizza, beer. that's right, I decided to go to the grocery store. about 4 inches of snow had already accumulated on my car - after 10 minutes of improvising I finally got my car cleared off and headed for the grocery (let me just say, I love Stick Shifts), picked up some Guinness, PBR and chocolate (duh), and headed back home to be welcomed by my friends, finish off the pizza process, and settle in to a cozy, warm, cold, playful, wet, exhilarating, rare night in the snow.
and then this morning i (accidentally) rose at 6:45, went outside to take pictures with my Canon (coming soon), and made buttermilk biscuits with maple syrup!

Tonight I am looking forward to a St. Valentines Massacre party with some friends - attire is 1920s/gangster. I am going for a cross between these 1920s beauties:













well that has absolutely nothing to do with food, so adieu.