Pizza Party!

Snacking is always an integral part of any football game, but when the Bears lose the food takes on a newfound import. I ate Chinese leftovers from Friendship while Bridget brunched with some family ladies. By early in the 2nd half, it became clear that the food I was making had to kick ass since the Bears wouldn't be doing any of that.

Now, I've been baking a bunch lately-- just trying to get good crumb from my loaves of bread and attempting to come up with a pizza crust that's both chewy and crisp in all the right ways. Some of my trials have been quite good, some have been fed mostly to Millie. We have lots of cookbooks and so I finally swallowed my pride and turned to a recipe for "basic pizza dough" out of Stephanie Izard's new Girl In the Kitchen.

I took Bridgie to a birthday dinner in February to Izard's Girl & the Goat, and we were treated like royalty: kitchen two-top where the chefs all chatted us up, fed us complimentary tastes, Stephanie said "Hi!" and "Happy Birthday!" to Bridge, and the wine flowed like...well, wine. So I turn to Steph for a good dough because she seems like a great gal.

Basic Pizza Dough

3/4 cup warm water
2 1/2 tsp dry yeast
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup stone ground cornmeal (not necessary)

Combine water, yeast, and wine in a large bowl and stir vigorously until yeast dissolves and mixture begins to bubble.

Add salt, olive oil, and honey until fully combined.

Add 1 cup of flour and mix with a wooden spoon (or dough hook) until it's a wet, loose batter.

Add 2 more cups of flour slowly until you can work the dough by hand (without getting super sticky hands). Knead for about 10 mins until smooth and firm. Form a loose round and rub with olive oil. Set round in a glass or wooden bowl and cover with a kitchen towel for about an hour, until doubled in size.

Pound down and knead for another few minutes. Roll out into a sheet and then...this is crucial, let it PROOF for 2 hours. The thin sheet of dough should once again double in size after this 2 hour proofing process.

Finally, simply roll this large buncha dough into one large round (or 4 personal pizza-sized rounds (only if you read enough books, kiddo). Sprinkle your stone or mat with cornmeal and preheat for 30 minutes. This preheating is key so the bottom of your crust get crisp as quick as top and inner dough cook up.

Put your pie on a stone or mat and load into the hottest oven you can -- I used a silicone pizza mat on top of a stone in a 550+ oven.

Oh yeah, you need to put stuff onto your p'zone!

Put whatever you want on there! Make an awesome red sauce and cook some sausage and toss that with some fresh basil. Do mushrooms and then put cheese on there. Whatever. Here, though, is what I did with this fashionably local and organic treat...

White Balsamic Black Mission Fig, Prosciutto, Melted Onion and Three Cheese Pizza

Lightly pan fry prosciutto or bacon-- set aside
Sprinkle a handful of figs with a capful of white balsamic
Handfuls each of Bleu Cheese, Mozz and Parm
Melt 3 small onions or 1 large onion for 20 mins on med-high heat  (I use some sugar or cola about 5 mins in)

Sprinkle and layer over rolled out dough and bake at a HIGH temp for 10 mins (or 15 for lesser oven temps)  

****We have a badass 1982 Kenmore double-oven that bakes at 550+ degrees****

...and an Early-Fall Stew

Two weeks ago we were complaining that our A/C was broken and dug out the extra fans from the closet.  This morning I was digging around for my coat.  Fall has arrived quickly this year.  I still have to reset my brain, but in general Mark and I love the fall.  To welcome in the cooler weather, we made a hearty – but not too hearty -- stew the other night.  

White Coq au Vin

2 pounds chicken thighs – we trimmed most of the skin off

1 jar pearl onions (the recipe called for frozen, which I couldn’t find)

1 8 oz package baby bella mushrooms

3oz prosciutto, minced

3-4 minced garlic cloves

¾ teaspoon dried tarragon

¼ cup flour

1 cup dry white wine

2 cups chicken broth

1 can artichoke hearts

1 ½ pounds baby yellow potatoes

Mark trimmed up the thighs and seasoned them with salt and pepper.  We heated some olive oil in a deep pan and browned the chicken for a few minutes on each side.  Set those aside.   

Add a little more olive oil and add the onions, scrapping up the good bits from the bottom of the pan.  After they get soft, put them aside with the chicken.

Add a little more oil and sauté the mushrooms until they get brown and season with salt and pepper.  Then  add the prosciutto, garlic and tarragon and stir around for about one minute or so.   

Dump in the flour, then pour in the wine and broth.  Now time to add the chicken and onions back in the pot along with the artichoke and potatoes.  This is the part of the recipe that gets weird, in my opinion.  It says to bring to a boil and then simmer for 15 minutes.  Our potatoes were nowhere near soft enough after 15 minutes, and we figured the longer the better anyway, so we simmered our stew for 45 minutes. 

Mark has taken over spaetzle duties in our house.  He whipped up a batch.  Pour the stew on top and eat!

                                          (And yes, I see that spaetzle could look like brains...)