Just another manic Monday

At work, everyone's projects are due this week, so the mood around the office is stressful. As is often the case when you throw Graphic Designers into the same studio, dealing with the same or similar projects, under the same or similar deadlines, a feeling of camaraderie develops. It's cool to be a part of; shame it's brought about by mild freak-outs.

I really don't see my affections towards that guy beside me growing any time soon, 'though.

It rained some more today. A lot. Since the skies were bluffing rain all yesterday, I refused to bring my umbrella to work today, only to find by the time I got to the subway station (5 minutes before the 10-minute walk ahead of me) that it was pouring out. I ended up having to duck into the local handbag store to buy a brand new umbrella. This brings the total number of umbrellas Matt and I have between us to 6. If anyone needs a free umbrella, let me know. I'm willing to part with at least one of them.

The dairy-free pizza casserole from yesterday was a resounding success, and I used up most of the remainder making pizza bread today. Yum!

Pizza casserole ingredients:
Classico Bruschetta topping
crumbled bacon
diced chicken
roasted garlic (a whole head!)
sauteed, diced yellow onion
wilted spinach
cooked zucchini
sliced mushrooms, lightly fried in olive oil
Sardo pitted black olives, rinsed and drained
"pickled" roasted red peppers (in wine vinegar), rinsed and drained
marinated artichoke hearts, rinsed and drained

Pizza bread was first invented by Matt, and features pizza toppings on a bread crust (I use an Italian loaf), given the garlic-bread treatment, and doused with his patented, tell-no-strangers ingredient. It makes all the difference in the world.

Homemade pizza!



Today I decided to undertake what I believe to be my first-ever pizza dough recipe. Yes, really. I usually use pre-made crusts or interesting breads as the base for my pizza toppings, only once making a focaccia from scratch and being displeased with the final result (too tough). This time, I adapted the recipe from Wolfgang Puck which Chef John posted on his website. Instead of using a full 3 cups of all-purpose flour, I substituted in 1/2 cup of organic whole wheat bread flour, then made up the remaining 2-1/2 cups of flour in organic, unbleached all-purpose flour. I also used sea salt, not kosher salt.

Once the dough was ready (with 3 portions left in the fridge for future pizza-making endeavours!), I followed with my standard pizza bread toppings: fresh mushrooms, tomatoes and crumbled bacon.

For the record, Chef John's assessment of the dough is correct. It's got a nice chewy tenderness. I'm definitely looking forward to using up the rest of it!

Another homemade pizza success!



Given the highly satisfying results of my last attempt at making pizza, I decided to make a double batch of pizza dough today, this time going with a one-to-one ratio of unbleached white bread flour and whole wheat bread flour. My first pizza with this dough was topped with: organic, sautéed mushroom; organic, sliced grape tomatoes; nitrate- and nitrite-free bacon; pre-made bruschetta topping; truffle salt, fresh cracked pepper and kewpie (Q.P.) mayonnaise.

I've set aside the extra portions of crust in the fridge for their second proof, to be used over the course of the next day or two. I think I might just have to make a grocery run to find some more inspirational toppings.

Last night's dinner



Using a round manouche as the base and adapting Matt's pizza bread recipe, I made a slightly off-the-beaten-path pizza with bacon, fresh mushrooms, and homemade sheeps' milk cheese.

The sheeps' cheese was made using Chef John's recipe for fromage blanc, minus the buttermilk. I found the sheeps' milk at Ambrosia.

Dinner-time staple: pizza bread



This iteration used a folded manouche (split open), black olive tapenade, bruschetta topping, sliced mushrooms and goat's cheese.

OMG! It's a food-related post!



Since Kara's been born, I'm afraid I haven't had much time to devote to being in the kitchen.

My culinary excursions have been limited to a single batch of these cookies, a few iterations of pizza bread (usually featuring President's Choice pre-packaged, pre-sliced chorizo, rather than bacon), and a few portions of fish, including the cornmeal-crusted, pan-seared halibut featured above. Fish has been kind of ideal as a food while I'm breastfeeding: it cooks quickly, is high in protein, usually low in fat, and the fat it does contain is correlated to improved brain function — something I'm hoping to pass on to Kara.

In related news, Matt's been doing a great job of doing the cooking while I've been taking care of our daughter during the days. He's learned how to roast chicken (quite successfully), roast pork tenderloin (also excellent), make a meatloaf (which was tasty), make a shepherd's pie (which was fantastic) and is going to be roasting beef tenderloin tonight. Unfortunately, he has no interest in starting up a food blog, so those of you who are actually keen to find out what's cooking in our kitchen will probably have to wait another handful of months, until Kara's old enough to allow me to be in the kitchen while she amuses herself.