fire.....

Bricks and flames, flour, water, salt, sugar and yeast, sausage, garlic, cheese, basil and tomatoes -- what more can I say?

latest from the kitchen(s).....

Last Saturday my sisters joined me for pizza baked in the new oven, and sis # 1 hung around Sunday to make handmade ravioli. 

Cooking the fileto di pomodoro for the Margherita pizza.

Pear, walnuts and gorgonzola cheese.

Hot, hot, hot! I mean the oven.

Sis #2, Gail Curtis. 

Brenda making ravioli.

Gotta love that stand mixer! Mixes it up and rolls it out! It's a tad more complicated than that though.

Fresh basil atop shredded pecorino-romano, atop homemade meat sauce, atop handmade ravioli made with Lindly Mills flour.

slaw recipe.....

Hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill, fried, grilled or broiled fish, you name it, if it's summertime, slaw will probably go with it. I discovered the simplest slaw recipe in the world (online), and added one thing. We ate it with grilled fish and roasted potatoes, and it was the perfect accompaniment to round out our supper.

1/2 cabbage (roughly 4-5 cups)

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of white vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

a few squirts of ketchup, just enough to change the color a tad

That's it! With no mayo it will last a little longer for picnics and stuff. Next time I'll try it with apple cider vinegar and see if it makes any difference. Try it and let me klnow what you think!

another saturday night, but with a twist.....

First firing off of some pizzas in the wood burning brick oven, 6-25-11, and it was waaaay too much fun. Slate and I lit the kindling around 4:30 and by 6:00 or so we were prepping the pizzas. We used a little jarred marinara, herbed goat cheese, Italian sausage (cooked in the oven), pecorino-romano, mozz, basil pesto, roasted tomatoes, sliced onion and fresh basil, but as I was shaping dough and tending the oven while Anne topped the pies, I couldn't tell you what went on what. I can say this though -- they were as good as any pizza I've ever had, anywhere. The crust was what I was hoping for --thin and crispy with a chewiness that is hard to get at low temperatures. We baked these at around 700 degrees. After baking 3 pies, Anne shaped up some stuffed breads and we tossed them in, and after the oven dropped to around 500 we started baking loaves of breads. Anne made 2 loaves of Estonian black bread, and I made my old standby we call "our daily bread." Needless to say, a good time was had by all. More later.

pho.....

My first pho experience -- Basil and Lime, Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC.

crazy cool knife.....

Over the last 6-7 years I've bought my share of kitchen knives, quite a few of which I've given away to family and friends. A customer started me on this journey about 8 years ago with a gift of a handmade chef's knife, and my appreciation for kitchen knives, and their care, has only grown since then. I keep them pretty doggone sharp with Japanese waterstones, a piece of sandstone I found out in the yard, and by stropping on chrome oxide. After watching Martin Yan, and hearing about these way cool Chan Chi Kee vegetable cleavers, I sunk $38.00 into one of my own; probably the cheapest knife I've ever purchased! With all the stir-fry we do around here, and with fresh vegetables coming in season, I'm sure it will get lots of use over the next few months, if not years. It's so cool, I'm even thinking about a custom rehandle :-)

strawberries.....

Fresh, NC strawberries can be found in roadside stands and stores these days, so I picked some up to use in a cake. Using the tried-and-true pineapple upside down cake recipe, replacing the pineapple with strawberries, we had it for dessert after George's subs. It was pretty disgusting really, about as bad as the one MH made last week for a potter's pot luck, only with blueberries. Seriously, don't try it. I really doubt you'd like it............

P.I.Z.Z.A

We're still at it, pizza pretty much once a week.

BTW, the post title is a tribute to the kindergarten classes at Seagrove Elementary. Pizza was the first word they learned to spell, and as Wednesday was pizza day, the kindergarten hallway on Wednesday mornings resonated with kids spelling P.I.Z.Z.A!

knife sharpening.....

I'm sure you've heard it said that a sharp knife in the kitchen is less dangerous than a dull one. It's true, and the best way to keep good knives sharp is with water stones. That in mind, I found a nice, relatively flat rock in a pile of compost I had delivered a month or so ago, took a handheld belt sander to it, and lo and behold, it appears to be a great stone for sharpening. It's not aggressive enough to sharpen drastically abused stainless knives, but great for keeping a hair-popping edge on anything else. I follow the sharpening with stropping on chrome oxide, and cutting is almost effortless.

baby bok choy with shiitakes.....

One of the few cookbooks I own is Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. It's an ambitious title, yet I'm always amazed at what I find in there. His latest show on the cooking channel exhibits how he lives up to his moniker, the minimalist. I hope to try this recipe later this week, having just picked up two pounds of shiitakes from a near neighbor.

Also, the folks who grew the shiitakes will be here May 28-29 selling their mushrooms during our Osmosis show.