Stromboli!

The STROMBOLI will get you!

People, I like simple foods.  Easy, simple, hearty, real food.  Complicated French recipes and processes never fail to frustrate me. I lack anywhere near the amount of patience and attention to detail to master--or even attempt--to make things like, say, puff pastry, pate, delicate sauces like hollandaise, and many other "fussy" foods that, I tell myself, just obscure what it is you're eating.  Instead of puff pastry, I do make a mean biscuit and pie dough.  Pate I'll never make, but the meat grinder I just acquired means I might attempt homemade sausage this year.   Delicate sauces elude me, but I can whip up a super-duper pan sauce, gravy, salsa, browned butter, vinaigrette, and most anything else that doesn't require 10 egg yolks and 3 sticks of butter.

The way I look at it is simple:  I'll never be a chef--I'm a cook.  My occasional dreams of a Cheeky restaurant aren't a high concept dinner place, but rather a casual breakfast/lunch diner spot where anyone feels comfortable and welcome.  Or maybe a specialty food shop that's 1/2 packaged gourmet goodies and 1/2 soups, sandwiches, salads, and small apps/entrees that you can buy and eat there or carry out to enjoy elsewhere. But really, my aspiration at this point is just to cook good food, eat good food, and write about good food. In Reggie's immortal words, "F. O. O. D., food food. / G. O. O. D., good good."

The point is...I know my skills, I know my limits, and I know what I like.  My food ethos is that it should make you feel sated, comfortable, and at home.  Other people can be innovative, border-pushing, and complex.  I'm approachable, simple, and (hopefully) good.

The downside to simplicity is creativity.  Sometimes I'm not the most creative cook.  I make my favorite recipes and dishes over and over again.  I don't always rush to try new techniques and ideas.  So when faced with a pound of pizza dough the other night, I sought to think in a dimension other than a circle.  Apparently, my science-y Discover magazine influenced my brain that day, because I took a circle literally to the next dimension--a cylinder.  Yes, people, I rolled up a pizza into...well, what is it?  A pizza log?  A calzone?  How about...a stromboli!

I could also have called it a pizza volcano. 

I'm calling it a stromboli because that word is just so darn funny.  It reminds me of an evil, portly Italian villain in a 1970s cartoon or something equally bizarre, not a giant hot-pocket (A's word for last night's dinner, which just reminds me of the Jim Gaffigan bit).  But weirdness aside, it was a nice variation on an overused pizza theme.  While we both agreed that, in a title bout, pizza would come out as the undisputed champion, this is a nice alternative, and much more convenient that starting a pizza from the kneading dough stage (where, my friends, I pretty much invariably start it). And giving another name to a similar dish means I'm not eating pizza as much...right?  Right...?

All sliced up, before belly time. 

When I made it, I stretched the dough as if for a regular thin crust pizza, just in a squarish shape.  I spread with sauce, leaving a good border all around, then topped with a slightly different strategy than with regular pizza.  I went heavy on the sauce and veggies, perhaps a bit more pepperoni than normal, but less cheese than I otherwise would have used.  The stromboli wasn't as puffy as I would have liked it, a fact perhaps due to my rolling it too thin.  I'll keep it thicker next time, and let it have a longer rise before freezing.

It won't replace pizza, friends, but it's an interesting variation.  What I liked most about it was that it survived my freezing experiment, and went straight from the freezer to oven to belly with great success!  Click to see a basic, variable recipe.  Oh, and an awesome recipe for Grilled Vegetable Salad with Creamy Feta Vinaigrette, glimpsed in the photo above, is also coming soon.

Return of the camera phone

Last night's dinner was...uninspired.  To show you my level of blah, I took all dinner pictures with a camera phone.

Yup.

No, that's not the reason.  I sometimes like to write my posts at my office (during my lunch hour!...usually...) because, it helps me work better.  Yes, I can hear you laughing--but I'm serious!  I would say that at least 90% of my daily work tasks are writing or writing-related (editing, researching, correspondence), and much of that is pretty dry stuff--reports, letters, more reports.  Having a creative outlet, another type of writing to open up the more creative side of my brain while I'm at work, really does help me bridge the gap and bring that creative spark to my professional writing.  And, really, doesn't the act of writing help you to become a better writer?  Plus, on this ol' thing I don't really have to edit myself much--I can rant, rave, experiment, stream and ramble on, and publish without worrying about fact-checking or grammar or anything.  It's freeing, and as a writing exercise it helps.

Or so I tell myself.

Anyway, i left my camera on my desk last night, so the craptastic camera phone was all I had last night.  But, it's ok, because the level of effort it puts out about equals the level of effort I put out last night, also known as not much.  See, last night was my first "boot-camp" style workout in over a week, and really, I've been slacking for a few weeks at the gym, so I knew I wasn't going to be much in the mood (or have the time, patience, energy, etc) to cook a huge-ass feast when I got home.  Last week, I sliced up a couple of Ribeye steaks and froze them in a Korean BBQ marinade I tore out of Bon Appetit a while back. Or I think it was Bon Appetit, but I can't find the recipe on Epicurious.com, so who knows.

Meat. 

Basically, it was a simple marinade--in a blender, combine a few oz of water, 6 Tbsp soy sauce (I subbed in some fish sauce too), ginger, garlic, sesame oil, sugar (I think) and a bunch of sesame seeds. Marinate the steak, then grill and serve.  Since I needed to either use or freeze the steaks last week, I made the game-time decision to freeze them in the marinade, then cook them up when ready.

It really worked like a charm.  The marinade went deeeeeeeep into the meat--so be sure before you try this method that you really want to taste marinade in front. I took out the bag mid-afternoon, and it was mostly thawed and ready when I got home.

Yeah, camera phone.  Way to focus on the shadow!  

To go alongside, I made a quick brown rice pilaf--sauteed some garlic and onion in a pan, toasted the rice and some sesame seeds, then added the water and about 1/4 cup of the marinade and cooked as usual.  (Side note--I'm really getting into using rice more. I never used to cook with it, because I had the constant problem of white rice turning out all gummy and sticky, and I couldn't figure out how to change it.  But brown rice has changed my life--it cooks up nice and nutty with distinct grains, and i think it's much more forgiving--no need to rinse first or delicately handle--I don't do delicate.  It's my style of rice.)  I'm liking this easy pilaf method of sauteing some flavorfuls or veggies, toasting the rice and any spices, and using something saucy in addition to water/stock.  Easy, healthy, good.  Some steamed (read: microwaved) green beans finished 'er up.  I know, I know, you can do so much more with green beans--and they practically beg for sesames--but I just didn't.

So, not the most inspired of my cooking days...but this was actually really, really good.  I'm going to have to freeze in marinades more often....like....FAJITAS.

And fall comes back in a day

What is with the weather? An 85-and-cloudless sunny day one special weekend (we did!) and 60 and breezy the next.  Then 80 again, then 60 again.  And the nights?  The nights are COLD...at 55 degrees (ask me in January what my perception of cold is, OK?)

I love it.  I know, the above seemed "complainy." But the fall is the best of all seasons.  Who doesn't love pulling on a sweater for the first time, getting a blanket back on the bed, hearing the leaves crunching underfoot, watching football, eating chili, starting bonfires, and any other iconic fall image?  Don't even get me started on how much I love midwesterny thrills like pumpkin carving (PUMPKIN SEEDS!  YOU ARE ALMOST HERE!) and apple orchards (apple cider, cider donuts).  See, fall brings in a whole new wave of foods...not to mention halloween candy and THANKSGIVING.

But I'm already digressing.  The fall weather we're getting our first taste of has me thinking about fall flavors--squashes, baked casseroles, braised meats, earthy root veggies, and the like.  I've had this recipe torn out for the better part of a year--it comes from Bon Appetit's Thanksgiving issue as a suggestion for a meat-free dish to put on a vegetarian holiday table (specifically, from the column by Molly Wizenberg of Orangette).  It just looked goooooood--butternut squash, kale, and a mustard-wine custard mixture all baked into a savory bread pudding.  Or stuffing, or dressing, as it's called in these here parts.  All those fall flavors in a hearty, one-dish meal.  I had to have it.

But then I read a few things that freaked me out.  Two-and-a-half cups of cream?  Good lord.  How many extra steps before baking?  10 cups of bread?  Seven eggs?  Suddenly I realized why it was in the Thanksgiving issue, when indulgences are basically mandatory, and not an everyday, easy vegetarian section.  Because, seriously.  Three cups of cream in 6 servings?  I can't even pretend that I'm going to make it.  Order it in a restaurant, maybe, where I can be willfully ignorant of how much fat I'm eating, but in my own kitchen?  No.  My fat ethics won't let me.

So I adapted the recipe.  It's basically similar, but different enough that I'm going to post it as sorta my own.  But Molly, darling, all the credit goes to you.  I just don't want all the credit to go to my paunch.  Here's the original recipe in all its glory on Epicurious.com (and you can read a bunch of comments there, although I've always found the advice on them rather hit-or-miss).

In addition to lowering the fat content significantly, I changed up some ingredients.  I didn't have kale, only chard, and it was very, very wilted.  I had 1/2 lb of creminis to use up, and thought their earthiness would play right into the flavors going on in here.  And the amount of bread just seemed too hefty.  I really, really liked the result, and honestly can't imagine how indulgent the full version would taste (although maybe on Thanksgiving I'll find out...)  It's hearty and satisfying, but with the squash and chard it has enough veg going on that it doesn't feel too heavy.  My adapted version after the jump.

Tuscan Tomato Panzanella

Leftovers for lunch today, of course, seeing my royal status with respect to old food.  This example in fact combines another aspect I'm famous for trying--freezing! I will freeze--or at least try to freeze--almost anything.  I figure if it's going to go to waste by not being eaten right now, I may as well freeze it and eat it later.  If it gets ruined or gross in el deepo freezeo, well, it's no big loss since I was going to throw it out anyway.

Take for example this Tomato Panzanella.  Unlike the more traditional salad version, this is baked like a casserole or Thanksgiving dressing, making it somehow more satisfying and hearty than the cold version.  It combines day-old stale bread cubes with white beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers and onions, with a little basil and balsamic vinegar thrown in for flavor and topped off with mozzarella cheese. And it makes a TON--at least 6-8 servings.  It's really easy and really good (though not really photogenic, at least not in its defrosted and rewarmed form).  Try the recipe after the jump.

And in the background of that lovely camera phone image is the registration form for one of my MANY new kitchen toys and gadgets bestowed upon me my my kind, generous, and thoroughly awesome friends and family at my bridal shower this past weekend.  Lucky, I am.