Ooh

I’m gonna have to try this. Maybe tonight.

Update:

I couldn’t pass on trying something that sounded so easy.  Unlike my usual experience, this actually was that easy.  I had the popovers in the oven as soon as it had pre-heated.  One other tip - don’t open the oven door to peek at them until they are really done (30 minutes).  I’d like to pretend that I didn’t eat all three of them last night, but that would be a lie.  They were perfect and delicious.  Talk about an optimal ratio of deliciousness to effort/time.

 

Cleaning the cupboard

Since the movers are coming in less than two weeks, I’m trying to minimize any grocery shopping and use up what I’ve got. Yesterday, I scavenged through the fridge and decided to make the best of what I had: a container of tomato sauce with meat in it, some portabella mushrooms, and scraps of mozzarella, parmesan and asiago cheese. Obviously, my pantry was telling me to make pizza.

This is not a great recipe for making a quick dinner, but on a day when I’m working at home, it’s pretty convenient to put the dough together in the early afternoon and go back to work while it rises. I’ve also made dough in advance and frozen portions. Then, I can put the frozen dough in the fridge to thaw the night before, and make the pizza the next night after work.

I use Bittman’s basic pizza dough recipe, and I do the kneading by hand. Not because I’m a purist, but because I don’t have any machinery that will do it for me.

Take 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of cornmeal, 1 tsp of instant yeast, 2 tsp of salt, 1 cup of water and 2 tbsp of olive oil, and use a wooden spoon to mix it together in a bowl. (You can use all flour if you don’t have cornmeal, but the cornmeal really does make a better tasting dough.)

Have another 1 1/2 cups of flour on the side, and add it a little at a time. Once it gets too tough to handle with the spoon, turn it out on a floured surface and continue to mix in the flour. Then knead it for about 10 minutes until it’s a smooth dough. Oil the inside of a bowl, put the dough ball inside.

Cover and place in a warm spot. After a couple of hours, the size of the dough will be doubled. Turn the dough out on a floured surface and gently knead into a ball. (At this point, you can divide the dough into smaller portions and wrap and freeze any that you want to save for another day. I use a quarter of the recipe for a one-serving pizza, or about half the recipe to make the pizza below.) Cover the ball of dough and let it sit for another 20 minutes; it will puff up a little.

While the dough is sitting, preheat the oven to 500, lightly oil a cookie sheet and get your toppings ready. I took out the sauce, grated cheeses, and sauteed the mushrooms with garlic in olive oil. Stretch or roll the dough out to the right size and move it to the cookie sheet. top with sauce, toppings and cheese. Bake for about 10 minutes until the crust is done and the cheese is bubbly.

This made a pretty good dinner last night with plenty left for lunch today. For a variation, I’m also a big fan of using this dough to make Bittman’s pan-fried pizza.

 

May flowers

I took my trip around campus with my camera yesterday, and found myself practicing one of the rules from Nikon School. Get in close to your subject.

I

 

System breakdown

I should have known that starting a blog was bad luck. After 4 months of a highly successful effort to change my eating habits, I’ve finally hit the week that threw me off the rails. It’s a perfect storm of:

• final exam period plus a consulting project (read: 12 hour work days),
• terrible allergies (no energy and no sleep),
• and moving in two weeks (with three going away parties this week).

Let me calm myself down (as I scarf down the sandwich and coffee I bought for lunch) by remembering that falling off the wagon is a temporary state. I can get right back on. A week of eating crap does not undo me.

On the bright side, the bulbs are blooming all over campus this week (a bequest from a Dutch benefactor pays for this every year), so tomorrow I’m bringing in my camera for a lunchtime photo expedition.

 

Sightings

Three years in New York, and I’ve never had a celebrity sighting.  On a number of occasions, I’ve been with a friend who says, “Hey, wasn’t that [famous person]?”  And I would have totally missed it.  So, it’s only appropriate that in my last couple of weeks here, I finally got my own.  Walking down Houston Street on Saturday, on my way to Brianna’s birthday dinner, I walked right past Matthew Perry.  I can leave now.

Another odd encounter: On Friday, after parking on my street, I got out of my car and a coworker of mine was walking down the street.  It was a faculty member from another department; I don’t know him well, but we’re both part of a small group of faculty that has a drink together every couple of months.  We chatted for a minute, and pointed out our respective houses, about 5 doors apart, where we have both lived for the last three years.

 

Playing with photoshop

I took a few minutes out from working today to play with some photos I took in Astoria Park right after I got my camera.  I used the online Photoshop Express for this.  The plus side is that I can just play around until I like what I see.  (I have Photoshop CS2 on my work computer, but I’m still learning how to use it.)  The down side is that I was playing around and have no recollection what changes I actually made, and Photoshop Express doesn’t seem to save that information.  Lesson learned, but I do think this made a prettier picture.

Here’s the before:

And after:

 

Placeholder

I had high hopes for both cooking and getting out on a photo trip this week, but work and allergies have kept me trapped indoors, either hunched over my computer, congested, or loopy from medication. And often all three.

Kristen inspires with her lunchtime parking lot photo trip that produced some really nice shots. In her follow up, she also uses some tips from Heather on using photoshop. Even if I can’t get out tomorrow (more work, and no doubt, more tree pollen), I’m planning on playing with some old photos to see whether I can work the magic like she does.

P.S.  A big happy birthday goes out to Brianna who made it to the big 3-0 today!

 

Top ten food-related places I will miss in NYC

With less than three weeks left in NY, I am thinking more about the things that I’ll miss. Not surprisingly, most of them are food-related. So, here’s my top ten list, in no particular order:

1. Zabar’s: The incredible gourmet market on the Upper West Side that is actually affordable. I go there for coffee and cheese, and when I need any kind of kitchen utensil or appliance.

2. The Union Square Greenmarket: I head into Manhattan for this year-round farmer’s market more often than for any other reason. It’s been a great place for me to learn about what vegetables are in season and to occasionally try some other foods (honey, meat and cheese) from small farms.

3. Bistro33: This restaurant moved to my part of the neighborhood a little over a year ago, and it’s my go-to for a nice dinner. I haven’t had a meal anywhere in Manhattan that I like as well as this place.

4. Fatty’s Cafe: Best burger in the neighborhood, with outdoor seating in the summer.

5. Kebab Cafe: This tiny Egyptian restaurant, and it’s chef/owner, are a neighborhood institution. Going there often feels like dinner and a show.

6. Any dumpling stall in Chinatown: There’s no better lunch for under $3 in lower Manhattan.

7. The Chili’s on Long Island: OK, this is about sentimental value. This chain restaurant has been the site of many, many after-work happy hours and dinners with Brianna, my best NY pal.

8. 31st Street in Astoria where I can buy almost anything I want. Parmesan from the Italian deli, lamb from the butcher, rice paper wrappers for spring rolls from the Asian grocery, vegetables from the produce stands, etc etc. A world of food all on one block. Plus the Trade Fair on 30th Avenue, which has every possible food product from any world cuisine I can think of.

9. Bagels from anywhere in the five boroughs.

10. Street food. Getting hungry in midtown Manhattan but don’t want to spend the cash? Whether it’s meat on a stick, meat (sort of) on a bun or pita, or honey roasted nuts, you’re never more than a block away.

 

Things I learned this week

1. Pasta with anchovy-lemon sauce tastes okay on the first day, but makes for really vile leftovers.

2. As good as oven roasted asparagus and fingerling potatoes should taste together, the cooking times are pretty darn different. And over-roasted asparagus is not so good.

On the bright side, I used Cookthink for the first time yesterday - it’s a site where you can find recipes using key words for ingredients, cuisines, and “moods.” I was going to stop at the grocery store on my way home, and wanted to make some kind of casserole with vegetables in it. The site came up with a butternut squash and sausage casserole that ended up being really delicious.

 

My next great challenge

About my summer adventure… I’m spending the month of June and July living on a sailboat with the Captain. (For those of you who are properly horrified to hear me refer to my boyfriend as the Captain, it’s important to note that he refers to me as the Admiral.)

The Captain (also known as Captain Gladiator or Captain Crankypants, depending on his mood and mine) has been living on the boat since October and chronicling his adventures here. I’ve spent a little bit of time on the boat with him (two weeks in January and one week in March), and I’m pretty excited to move on to the boat with him for a couple of months. In part because I haven’t seen very much of him recently, and I’m looking forward to some quality time. But more and more, I’m getting excited about the boat trip itself, learning how to sail and having a mostly carefree time.

I’ll have some materials I need to prep my fall classes, and I have some research work that I’ll do on board. Outside of that, our only agenda is to sail north to meet friends for the Best Vacation Ever in Martha’s Vineyard at the end of June, and then we’ll probably stop a couple other places up there before a nice sail back.

I expect I’ll have (and will write about) a lot of challenges, too. (Strangely enough, the one thing I’ll rarely have to go without on the boat is internet. If only we could get pipeless hot water as easily as one can get wireless internet.)

In a move I can only interpret as preparation for the summer, my TV died yesterday. And there’s no way I’m replacing it now, just before I put all my things in storage for the summer. I really need to get the carcass out of my living room, as my eyes keep wandering over to it, hoping for some sort of resurrection.