Salsa Quitza

Oh, sometimes things do not turn out they way I expect they will.

So excited about this one.  It sounded so promising.  I even watched the video.

Easy pizza with a twist.  Great for Super Bowl Sunday.

But then came the translation from bread machine to normal bread making.  My translation was incorrect.  My read was wrong.

(Kind of like throwing an interception on the goal line.)

Oh well.  And there are no pictures to confirm this confusion.  You'll just have to take my word for it.


Some questions I have lingering for my fellow bloggers (in case I ever attempt it again):  Should we let this one rise twice like normal bread or just once like the recipe states?  Is it supposed to be quite doughy/ bread-y rather than chewy/ crusty?

And Rhiannon...

Eastern Mediterranean Pizza

It is summer.  That means vacation.  That means traveling.  

I missed the last blog posting and recipe, Eastern Mediterranean Pizzas, due to the hardships of summer.  

But now we are back and I wanted to catch up with the Tuesdays with Dorie baking crew.   This recipe takes basic pita bread dough and instead of baking and filling them as tradition, a tomato and lamb topping is placed on top and little "pizzas" are made.  The recipe states, if one wants to omit the lamb, it is possible to just cook up more tomatoes.  Since I am a vegetarian, this is what I did.  

The topping comes out delightful with touches of cinnamon and allspice, but it isn't enough to make the pizzas satisfying; it really does need the lamb or something else.   As my husband stated, it comes off more as a snack than a meal.  And it really took too much effort for a "snack".  But the pita dough is tasty, and I have half a recipe worth in the fridge awaiting this Wednesday's dinner.   Let's hope round two is an actual dinner.

Here's Rhiannon:

Summer Vegetable Tart

Summer, summer, summer.  Dinner on the porch.  Cool rose' on ice. This summer vegetable tart fits in beautifully to this scene.  Light but substantial.

The crust is made with phyllo dough, piled on in layers with butter and cracker pepper.  This is then pre-baked while the vegetables are lightly sautéed.   Once the vegetables are done they are lightly tossed with (a lot) of goat cheese and then dumped into the phyllo shell.  The original recipe as written in the Baking with Julia book instructs us to use peppers and mushrooms, which is what I did,  but I can imagine this could be filled with many combinations of summer (and winter) vegetables.

I have a bumper crop of green beans and patty pan squash arriving in my garden right now, and I am imagining another rendition of this tart, but I must say I think I may go back to the galette dough for the base.  The phyllo was fun to try this time, but it is a bit more time consuming, and I enjoy its texture less than the galette dough.

This blog is part of the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group.

Here is Rhiannon enjoying some summer fun.

Tomato Cheese Galette

I must confess, I made this last summer when we did the berry galette for Tuesdays with Dorie.  I made both as a dinner-dessert combo; what a fabulously summer meal that was.  I plan to recreate it multiple times this summer as soon as my tomatoes ripen.

Until then, I plan on playing with different fillings as this dough/ recipe begs to.  This is my go-to galette dough recipe.  I find it simple and easy to work with, and I love the addition of the cornmeal.   And galettes are so much easier, so much more forgiving to work with than pies.  They are the lazy person's pie. And they are still show-stoppers; perfect to bring over to a BBQ or a small dinner outing.

CFR

This recipe is part of the Tuesday with Dorie baking group, baking our way through Baking with Julia, by Dorie Greenspan.

Rhiannon eating an ice cream cone as big as her head.  (At least it had real, fresh strawberries in it.)

Savory Brioche Pockets

I should not have done this recipe...  not at this moment... not this past weekend.

With a sick husband.
With my parents out of town.
With a house full of 5 guests.

But it is done.

And it doubled as dinner (even if my kiddos didn't eat it).
And it utilized sage and chives from my garden.
And it reminded how much I love working with and eating brioche dough.

This post is a part of Tuesdays with Dorie/ Baking with Julia cooking group.  See our host, Carrie at Loaves and Stitches, for the full recipe.

And here is Rhiannon!

Pizza with Onion Confit

I do love a good, homemade pizza.  But let's be honest, I haven't made one in awhile.  Maybe it was the advent of two kids into my life or maybe it is the abundance of excellent pizzerias in Portland (that do take-out), but whatever the reason it's been missing in my dinner repertoire.  After completing this recipe I might be convinced that it is time to bring it back, because it really takes little effort.  Some planning and forethought, sure, but not even too much of that.  Plus it was an easy dinner for Quinn (Rhiannon's big brother) to help out on; he really got into making his own little pizza crammed with pepperoni and cheese.  

This recipe does call for 2 rises: one with the sponge and one with the dough.  For pizza dough, I typically have skipped the sponge rise without significant consequence.  If I have time, I will let the sponge rise but if not, I won't let it stop me.  

the sponge

the risen sponge

the dough

the risen dough

(As you can tell from my pictures, the day progressed from morning, natural light to artificial light.  Not as pretty but no choice in the matter.)
Now, I must say I was skeptical about the onion confit.  I am not a big onion person, much less so when it comes to pizza.  But I was pleasantly surprised here.  The butter and wine and vinegar and sugar nicely mellowed the onions into slightly tender, sweet, sour onions with little of their typical character.  These took over an hour to cook, and I did cook these up these a few days ahead of time and stored them in the fridge.  I am not sure I would go to the trouble of cooking these again, but they were an excellent addition this time.  And I only used them on one of the pizzas and have frozen the rest for use as a base in savory galettes (yea!).

Pizza with onion confit, olives, & goat cheese- ready to bake

Complete!

So the other pizza crust was covered with red sauce, mozzarella and pepperoni.

And Quinn made his own pizza.

Find this recipe on Paul's page, this week's host of Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia.

Finally, Rhiannon was introduced to snow recently; she was perplexed.