3-28-08 Friday means pizza!

I am so excited about dinner tonight that I am beginning the blog entry before it comes out of the oven. Friday is traditionally a lax day for dining; it's the end of the week, work was long and stressful, why not simply go out for happy hour and get cheap eats? Or, like many others across the country, one could order in a pizza. Mmmmmm, pizza.

Unfortunately, about six months ago I discovered that my painfully upset stomach was the fault of several food allergies. I have intolerances or allergies to dairy, eggs, soy and garlic. This means casually ordering in a pizza is right out. Fortunately, I can eat goat, sheep and buffalo milk products without having huge gastric distress.

Our pizza tonight starts with a scratch dough from my favorite standby, The Joy Of Cooking. I combined flour, salt, yeast, water and olive oil in the KitchenAid, then let the dough rise for about an hour and a half while we ran our errands. Next, I threw about 2 cups of grape tomatoes and 4 small sliced bell peppers in a metal pie tin and put them under the broiler for about 15 minutes. After coming out of the oven, I put the veggies in the blender and poured the remarkably sweet sauce on the rolled-out dough. Next, Grilling Husband grilled up several chicken breasts that had been marinating in a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice and herbs. I sliced more peppers, he pulled the chicken off the fire and shredded the chunks and we spread both on the sauce-covered dough. I dropped chunks of buffalo mozzarella on top of the pie, and it is now baking cheerfully in the oven. The smell is heaven. I am excited because this is my first time making sauce from scratch, and my first pizza with buffalo mozz. I have used goat mozzarella and classic greek goat cheese, but the creamy buffalo mozzarella should be a nice contrast to the grilled chicken, crispy peppers and sweet sauce.

3-27-08 Red Curry with rice

This curry dish is hands-down my favorite thing that Sports-fan Husband whipped up one time a while ago, and now makes visits to our table at least every other week. The base of the curry is Mae Ploy's red curry paste with coconut milk. The first version was made with ground pork, snow peas and red bell peppers. Sports-fan Husband, under some kind of divine inspiration, blended the coconut milk with tropical frozen fruit the second time he made the curry. This was a huge win with the taste buds. Pineapple and mango do fantastic things in curry. We have made this curry probably ten times since its inaugural run. It has a bit of heat to it, but the sweetness of the fruit and the mellowness of the coconut milk really even it out. I would probably bathe in this curry if we could make enough to fill the bathtub.

Tonight's version had mixed peppers, snow peas, mango chunks and ground turkey. It is sweet, savory and filling. This has become my favorite comfort food, taking the place of cream-based soups after my allergy discovery last year. Instead of mac and cheese, or creamy tomato soup, I find myself immersing all those rich creamy food fantasies in curry. Tonight's dinner was well earned after T'ai Chi and a long walk with the pup. Even better than dinner tonight will be tomorrow's leftover curry lunch.

Dinner, 03-26-08 - Olive Beef with Oat Wheat toast

This one isn't quite as lovely on the plate, but was quite tasty.

Recipe for the olive beef

The toast is homemade bread as well. I love making bread and was gifted with a bread machine for christmas. The purist in me weeps a little inside, but the practical and busy side of me dances with glee every time I pour things in the excellent machine, walk away and three hours later have bread. This recipe I first tried back in October sans-machine, and made a few alterations.

Here's the recipe with my amendments:

• 1 1/4 cups water
• 2 tablespoons margarine
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour - 1 c whole wheat, 2 c unbleached white
  
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup corn meal
  
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tbsp honey
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Add into bread machine, bake on 1.5 lb setting (I like the light crust) and wait for the beeps to tell you your bread is finished. As a side note, this makes an excellent toast to go with chili or stew, and rocks for sandwich bread.

Cheers!

Dinner, 03-25-08

Dinner for Tuesday night - an evening of delightful leftover usage.

Cold peanut noodle salad - from Knife Skills Husband's fantastic asian restaurant cookbook.
Asparagus in peanut and sesame oil, with some other goodness which I will post as soon as I get it (if you truly want to know).

The last of the easter beef, warmed up in the skillet.

I am a huge fan of the salad, almost distractingly so. I had it planned (with cucumbers!) for thursday's dinner, but now I feel like having it twice in one week would almost be too decadent.

We shall see.