Happy Halloween!

One last update and Halloween will be history. I just think this is funny. You would think that if you were so inclined to actually make cookie dough, roll it out (even though it turned out to be one sticky freaking dough), use cookie cutters, bake - turning every 4 minutes and then hand-dip each one into the homemade frosting (dyed to a perfect orange), you might want to take the time to pipe out the black frosting to make nice faces. But no, this is me we are talking about and so here are the sorriest pumpkin cookies ever. Decorated with chopsticks. Seriously. (You can see the chopsticks in the picture!). Talk about losing steam!

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Update with the cauldron (hot water & dry ice):

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Thought I'd show you what the tricks-or-treaters will see tonite (haha, tricks or treaters - we watched "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and the peanuts gang says "tricks" not "trick)
. . .we may have a cauldron with water & dry ice in it, not sure yet (we'll see if the cauldrons are on 75% clearance!). Oh and I plan to wear my skeleton gloves when I hand out candy (and scare some kiddies!)

Have fun tonite!

Giant Cupcake Pan

A few months back - in August I think - I ended up working on this heinous project for work. It wasn't particularly difficult, just a time-suck, overly complicated, goverened by the Comp Committe (a committe within the board of directors) and a general overall pain in the ass. So it was Nancy (my VP, not my Disney boss) and me, both on EST, working past 10pm for a few weeks. When we finally finished, I was completely over the whole thing. Then one day in the mail, I got a package from Sur La Table and was surprised and amused to have been sent a giant cupcake pan from Nancy (who was - total digression - in LA for the Avon Breast Cancer walk) who is also a baker and a frequent recipe swapper. The note said something like "Thanks for your help on the project from Hell!". So of course I had to make the cake. . . double chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles . ..and then of course, had to show you guys. 3/4 of the cake is in the freezer and the pan is in the basement, but it's super cool and would be great for a party! So again, if anyone ever visits. . . .

Bread Attempt #5 Neopolitan Style Pizza Crust

The pictures look like it's my first bread failure but I still consider this recipe a keeper. It's our technique that is in need of improvement. I made the dough the nite before (per the instructions) and right before dinner, set up our pizza tossing stations (really, just cutting boards, extra flour and toppings). We tried to copy the pictures in the book of people tossing the dough in the air and achieving pretty much round pizzas but with little success. Dave's turned out looking like Italy and mine was just a mess. In trying to re-create 850 degree oven heat (yes, we are dorks and think we can make pizza like they do in Naples), we threw them on the grill which had been heating for a while on high. After a quick stint on the hot grill, we threw them in the broiler for some heat from the top. So with all the moving around, they got kind of twisted up and messy. Trust me, they tasted way better than they looked but still could use some improvement. With the leftover crust, I frozen single crust portions (olive oil, ziploc bag) and about a month later, we tried again. This time though, no tossing - just flour & a rolling pin - and then baked in the regular oven using cornmeal as a anti-sticking agent. No pictures, but it turned out great. Delicious crust with fresh from the farmer's market toppings. So the recipe is simple, but requires planning ahead. It's from the "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" and I think as long as I credit the original author, it's ok to reprint recipes.

Pizza Napoletana

4 1/2 cups flour (all purpose is fine, flour should be chilled)
1 3/4 tsps. salt
1 tsp. instant yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
1 3/4 cups water, ice cold
cornmeal

Stir together the flour, salt and instant yeast into the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the oil and cold water until the flour is absorbed (on low with paddle attachment). Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium for 5-7 mins. The dough will be smooth and clear the sides of the bowl. Turn dough out onto flour-covered counter and split the dough into 6 portions. Form each into a ball (using flour to cut stickiness) and place on oiled sheetpan. Spray or brush on oil to cover each one. Cover (or place in a plastic bag) and put in the fridge overnite. 2 hours before you want pizza, remove from the fridge, put the dough balls on top of a floured surface, sprinkle with flour and press into flat disks about 5" in diameter. Sprinkle with flour, mist with oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let rest for 2 hours.

Turn the oven to the highest setting. Dust your baking sheet with cornmeal and after getting in to the shape you want it (via tossing or using a rolling pin - which is in the book as a your 2nd option), put it on the baking sheet and add your toppings. Place in the hot oven for 5-8 minutes - checking during baking to see if you need to rotate. When the pizza is done, remove from oven to a cutting board, let cool for a few minutes and then slice and enjoy.

Good luck! Let me know how it goes. . .

Autumn Means Apples!

Michigan is the nation's 3nd apple producing state, behind Washington and New York. Apples are the state's largest fruit crop and annual harvests are around 780 million pounds. So it's no wonder that come autumn, you hear a lot about apple cider, cider doughnuts and the farmers at the market have bushels full of all kinds of varieties. I favor the Honeycrisp but I've come to also really like the Northern Spy (great for baking) and the Macintosh (even has a computer named after it!). A few weeks back we went to a nearby U-Pick Apple farm in Charlotte (about a 20 minute drive northeast). I had visions of getting some apron-type thing so I could climb ladders and put the apples in the pockets . . .but yeah, not quite. We stayed grounded and they gave us an apple picker (long stick with a basket on the end, with prongs to grab the apple and nothing else) and a plastic bag! Available that weekend were Northern Spy, Macoun (one parent of a Honeycrisp!), Empire and Ida Reds. We picked them all and ended up with full bag (maybe a "peck"? definitely not a bushel, which is 48 lbs.) and have since had apple torte, apple cake, applesauce, baked apples. . . and I have recipes for apple pancakes and some savory entree that includes sausage and potatoes. And maybe apple butter. . .for Christmas gifts!

Oh and apologies, pizza crust post coming soon (thanks for the reminder, ernest). It's been sitting in draft for a bit and you'll soon see why.

When Life Gives You Tomatoes. . . .

One of the Farmer's Market vendors had a few bushels of San Marzano tomatoes for $10 last week. I couldn't resist. Not quite grown in Italy, so no "EU DOP", but grown locally somewhere in mid-Michigan is good enough for me. The best use for a San Marzano is as a sauce tomato and especially as a sauce for pizza. So I got out the canning equipment and got to work. 4 hours of washing, chopping, milling (food mill, I highly recommend!) and cooking later, I had 12 pints of canned tomatoes (6 of sauce, 6 of diced tomatoes for winter soup). The sauce is just tomatoes, salt and a little lemon juice (for safety in canning) cooked down about an hour to just the right thickness. We tasted and pretty much wanted to eat it right then & there. Delicious! Our basement is filling up with canned/jarred food - it's actually kind of funny. My next project might be pickles - either that or apple butter.

BTW, it's October 6th and about 88 degrees here . . .but the trees are starting to change color and we are seeing gourds, pumpkins and apples everywhere at the market so I think it's safe to say that fall has arrived!

Weekend in TO (Toronto, Ontario)

We did a long weekend in Toronto last weekend. It was about a 5 hour drive - although we made it longer by missing a highway junction and taking the streets from outer Toronto into downtown. Our introduction to the city was via Yonge Street, which turned out to be the longest street in the world (per the guidebook) - definitely felt like it - stores and restaurants and people for miles. After settling in to the hotel, it was pretty much a whirlwind of activity. We walked over to the historic St. Lawrence market (top 25 food halls in the world, per food & wine) to check out the wares/food and then took a self-guided (Dave guides, I follow) walking tour of the historic downtown area. Thai food (delicious) for dinner. Saturday we headed out via subway & bus to the Ontario Science Center and spent the morning there. It's kind of like a big exploratorium - but a little less fun. I made a shoe out of cardboard, glue & fabric (not sure how science-y that was, but I had a good time!) while Dave made stop-motion videos. From there, we subway'd back to the main part of town and walked around Korea-town, Little Italy and Chinatown. We found the hodo-kwaja (Korean walnut cake store) and bought a bunch of those to munch on (pretty much tai-yaki for the uninitiated) and had a nice lunch al fresco at bar italia in Little Italy. After a short rest back at the hotel, we headed out to see the CN Tower (tallest tower in the world) and took the glass elevator ride up. It was a clear day turning into dusk, so really pretty views of the city & the lake (Lake Ontario, my 3rd great lake). There was a freaky glass floor and so we could see the Argonauts (Toronto's CFL team) waaaay below. From there, we went to the Chinese Lantern Festival on the waterfront. It's hard to explain, but it's an exhibit of these huge lit lanterns depicting Chinese history. (Picture of Sean from Xi'an for Ernest). Sunday morning, we had a leisurely breakfast, did some shopping on outer Queen street (gentrifying neighborhood with some hipster stores like this and this and then headed home. We stopped on the way back in Stratford (yes, on the river Avon) and checked out the town that is host to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival every summer. It's a tiny little town with nothing much going on except the festival - but since it was a nice day, we walked along the river for a bit, checked out the historical architecture and had a nice lunch.

All in all, a thumbs up for Toronto - and if anyone visits, we'll meet you there! Maybe Montreal next year. . .more photos of the Chinese lanterns here.