All you need is pre-made cornmeal crusts:

some sort of pizza sauce, or marinara sauce (your choice, I like garlic and basil marinara)

finely shaved parmesan cheese

and asparagus tips

arrange sauce, then cheese, then asparagus tips on the pizza while the oven heats to 425 degrees.
I like to make a pretty slice-friendly pattern with the asparagus tips, so they will be perfectly arranged on each slice. This helps, too, because even with a pizza slicer, the asparagus doesn’t like to cut as effortlessly as one would hope.

Pop that sucker directly on the rack for fifteen minutes and YES! Snacks of goodness for everyone.

—

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So I’m really curious about making some fruit preserves and some home-bottled flavored oils.
Right now I’m hunting for glass bottles and jars that I can use. Pretty vintage glass ones would be nice (provided they still have seals). You can boil the glass to sterilize and then you’re good to go.

I’ve found two methods for creating flavored oils:
cooking the oil and bottling or
cold pressing the oil

The heating method involves sauteeing the oil and herbs/juice/spices before straining it into a jar and sealing. This oil will keep for up to two months in the fridge.

The second method simply involves bruising the herbs/squeezing the juice/chopping the spices and putting them into the bottle with the oil, allowing it to sit for two weeks. The second method takes longer to make, but doesn’t run the risk of burning the oil.

Here’s my plan for the holiday:
Hazelnut infused oil
Meyer Lemon olive oil
Rosemary and thyme oil

Also, preserved meyer lemons
and jars of lemon curd.

Guess what you’re all getting for a holiday gift?

Since we’re smack in the middle of fall I decided to kick off my pumpkin fix with cupcakes (of course).

Pumpkin is so great because you can put it in dessert or dinner. Pumpkin risotto is just as fantastic as pumpkin pie.
Or you can, you know, just leave it on your porch with candles burning in it… I love that smell.

Pumpkin cupcakes:
Mix
1 cup pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
3 large eggs
1 stick of butter (unsalted)
1/4 cup chopped candied ginger

and 1 cup sugar together with an electric mixer until blended.

In a separate bowl mix 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, 3/4 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon ground ginger. Add this mix into the previous pumpkin mixer using an electric mixer.

Bake the cupcakes at 325 degrees for just about 22 minutes.

And some cream cheese frosting for good measure.
I buy a light cream cheese… something with less fat and whipped, to give the frosting a fluffier texture.
Mix 1 8 oz. tub of cream cheese with one stick of butter and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Use an electric mixer to slowly mix in 3 cups of powdered sugar (a little bit at a time) until you have fluffy frosting.
For this batch I also added 1 tablespoon of whole milk and two dashes of cinnamon for fun.

(recipe from Cupcakes)

Slather the frosting on the cupcakes after the cool and eat with apple cider. Saving pumpkins from becoming jack-o-lanterns one batch at a time.

Best eaten while wearing a warm fuzzy sweater.

…but I do wonder what they’re talking about over there. Spooky.

(full story on these beauties in a couple)

I am the main cook in the family, but there is one area that is his domain and it is known as THE GRILL.

Lately he has delved into the world of rubs and the art of mixing just the right spices to massage into your meat to bring out the flavor. We’ve stopped drowning chicken in marinades, and have moved on to a subtler seasoning.

On this particular camping trip he was introduced to the purest of all rubs: the dry brine.

Regular brining involves lots of liquid and can be messy. Dry brining involves only one ingredient and is fairly easy. All you need is salt. That’s right. The purest of seasonings, the most basic crystalline savory molecule. It is so simple, so versatile and so tasty.
We sampled a few pieces of chicken over this open fire (I was now in a red and white polka dot dress with white sandals and white sunglasses) that had been dry brined. DIVINE! Who knew the least amount of seasoning could bring out the most amount of flavor?

We headed home, determined to give this dry brining a whirl.

Now, while super simple to prepare, a dry brine takes a lengthy time to go to work so be prepared. All-in-all you need to let it sit for two days in the fridge after the initial rub so plan accordingly.
For our first run, we didn’t want to master the dry brine on it’s own. Oh, no… we wanted to experiment! I rushed to Whole Foods, where their selection of salt once sent me into a dizzy confusion over the sheer amount of choices. This time, though, I knew exactly what we needed: smoked salt.

What better salt to use in a dry brine on the barbeque then a smoky one?
The exact ratio we were instructed in was 3/4 tablespoon of salt for each pound of meat.
We selected a free-range, hormone free chicken from the market. The juicy sucker was medium sized… maybe four or five pounds.

Get your bird and clean out the organs. If you have a dog, feed this offal to them (no need to waste… and dogs love raw meat occasionally, whether or not you feed them a fully raw diet. Just make sure to give them enough time to digest before you try to feed them kibble so they don’t get sick).

The actual rubbing part was tricky. You have to get it into the meat, under the skin, without removing the skin. Some of it tore in places, but on the whole it worked fairly well. We covered it and stashed it in the fridge to marinate in its own juices.

The salt passes through osmosis into the juice of the bird, and that is the beauty of the dry brine. When it was completed, we chose to barbeque it beer can chicken style and oooooohhhhh.

Slippery moist morsels of chicken. The two of us ate the whole bird ourselves because we are occasionally ridiculously gluttonous.

I think the ratio of salt we were given was a little too high, but it could just be that the smoky flavor was more intense.
I may experiment with other salts to see how they come out.

For dessert… throw a couple of peaches on the grill and bake an oatmeal/brown sugar crumble in the oven to sprinkle on top with soy ice cream.

George approves of the peaches.

Imagine, you wake up in your tent, perhaps curled up next to somebody cute. You rub your bleary eyes, red and itchy from last night’s indiscretions. “Coffee… Coffee! COFFEE! NOW!” you think. The tent flap zips open. Nature in all her glory fills your nostrils. You take a moment to spread your arms and emit a contented yawn before quickly assembling your drug paraphernalia. Stove, moka pot, cup, grinder.

Wait, grinder? In the woods?

You fill the hopper, turn the handle for a while, and brew up a few spectacular cups as your campmates thank their lucky stars. Ahhhh, life is sweet, isn’t it?

Still in production today but little-used outside of coffee geek circles, quality hand-cranked coffee grinders often have grinding mechanisms to rival the most rarefied big-dollar electric grinders. A not-so-obvious plus is that, due to the sweat of your brow powering the grinder instead of a motor, the RPMs at which the burr spins are far lower. This means the beans will be heated less by friction, which means better coffee. The only downside is, you’ll get a little exercise and wait a little longer. So be it. Coffee is a ritual. Why shouldn’t grinding it be a little ritualistic?

I picked up the above, a vintage 50s model from German maker Zassenhaus, on Ebay just now, for a pittance. Not only will it probably outperform my current home grinder (a Nemox Lux, no slouch), it’ll come in handy for the oceanside coffee roasting party I’m currently drawing up. Please, lord, let UPS be gentle this time.

*UPDATE!*

The grinder arrived in great shape, with some construction surprises- the red domed top is actually beautifully milled out of wood, and swings out in two hinged halves. The whole mechanism’s definitely in need of a little lubing and a good clean, but it happily ground a shot so fine it choked my Aeropress, and the next just fine enough to create a wonderfully fragrant cup. I’m in love.

Listen and grab it here.

OK, so I’ll add a LITTLE food related content. I went to 99 Ranch market in Daly City last night for some weekend shopping, and really scoured the place for crazy new stuff. I saw two things I’ve never seen before:

Vegetarian Intestines:

…no comment.

Caltrops:

Apparently Caltrops are an evil-looking perversion of the humble, innocent chestnut. Raw, they often contain a very harmful parasite (and are you surprised? LOOK AT THEM!), so they must be boiled into submission, and then opened with an icepick, bowie knife, or the jaws of life. The flesh is described as “creamy”. Mmm hmm.

I bought a bunch of food, including a nice little slab of “sashimi grade” tuna. When I got it home, most of the veggies were far sadder than they looked in their (styrofoam and shrink wrap) packages, and the tuna was several shades past fresh enough to pop in one’s gob uncooked. Miffed but undeterred, I still got a decent meal out of the haul. I even cubed up the tuna, rolled it in sesame seeds and panko, and fried it ’til crispy. Served with a japanese mayo, lime and mustard sauce, it was pleasant, but not quite pleasant enough to keep my mind off the fact that I wasn’t eating it raw.

Such is life. I guess this is why I try to buy stuff at places where the scale of the store allows for better quality control. I don’t shop at Safeway for a myriad of reasons, but that’s one of them.