Nourishing Words, Beautiful Food

Fresh Bagels

2012-03-17T15:52:00.001-07:00

Fresh Bagels, originally uploaded by salmonbear7.

Hot today~ Fresh bagels~

Poetry 180 - The Bagel

2012-03-14T15:21:00.001-07:00

Poetry 180 - The Bagel

What's better on a bagel than cream cheese and lox? Maybe nothing. But this poem is pretty tasty, too. From David Ignatow, and on the Poetry 180 website.

Fresh Sesame Bagel

2012-03-14T15:09:00.003-07:00

Fresh Sesame Bagel, originally uploaded by salmonbear7.

Fresh Plain Bagel

2012-03-14T15:09:00.001-07:00

Fresh Plain Bagel, originally uploaded by salmonbear7.

Fresh Sesame Bagel

2012-03-14T15:08:00.001-07:00

Fresh Sesame Bagel, originally uploaded by salmonbear7.

New York-Style Bagels

2012-03-14T14:33:00.001-07:00

New York-Style Bagels | New York-Style Bagels Recipe | The Sophisticated Gourmet

This comes from the Sophisticated Gourmet blog, and I think it's worth sharing~ The instructions are good, the photos great, and the blog site enjoyable. Well done~

I've made several batches of bagels from this recipe, and they really are good. Nicely risen, and delightfully chewy. I highly recommend it, and will share some photos in a later post.

Eat well,
R

Best pizza poetry | BookPage

2012-02-20T12:31:00.000-08:00

Best pizza poetry | BookPage

Pizza poetry~

A Pizza the Size of the Sun

I'm making a pizza the size of the sun,
a pizza that's sure to weigh more than a ton,
a pizza too massive to pick up and toss,
a pizza resplendent with oceans of sauce.

I'm topping my pizza with mountains of cheese,
with acres of peppers, pimentos, and peas,
with mushrooms, tomatoes, and sausage galore,
with every last olive they had at the store.

My pizza is sure to be one of a kind,
my pizza will leave other pizzas behind,
my pizza will be a delectable treat
that all who love pizza are welcome to eat.

The oven is hot, I believe it will take
a year and a half for my pizza to bake.
I hardly can wait till my pizza is done,
my wonderful pizza the size of the sun.

--Jack Prelutsky

Pesto Pizza close-up

2012-02-20T12:25:00.003-08:00

Pesto Pizza close-up, originally uploaded by salmonbear7.

Pesto Pizza, baked in deep dish clay pie pan

2012-02-20T12:25:00.001-08:00

Pesto Pizza, baked in deep dish clay pie pan, originally uploaded by salmonbear7.

Appetizer Pizza:

2012-02-20T12:24:00.005-08:00

Appetizer Pizza:, originally uploaded by salmonbear7.

Duncan's Pizza in the assembly stage

2012-02-20T12:24:00.003-08:00

Duncan's Pizza in the assembly stage, originally uploaded by salmonbear7.

Duncan's pizza: tomato sauce, olives, green peppers,

2012-02-20T12:24:00.001-08:00

Duncan's pizza: tomato sauce, olives, green peppers,, originally uploaded by salmonbear7.

Last Night was Pizza Night

2012-02-20T12:22:00.000-08:00

So, I am a Downton Abbey fan, and last night was was the airing of the final episode of season 2. And, as it was Sunday, I needed to do something a little more special for dinner. My wild hare notion was to make pizza, and because this is a lengthy process, especially if left up to one person to do, I knew I needed to allow at least 2.3-3 hours before my show started.

I always make 4 pizzas, because we eat more than 2, and the 1.5 or so left over makes a good lunch, or breakfast, depending on who you talk to.

Two pizzas were assembled on cookie sheets (then after 10 minutes of baking, transferred to the stone that lives permanently in my oven, for the last 5 minutes). I have only two of said sheets, and little time for baking. Note: my show was starting in 30 minutes.

So, I recruited my son to assemble the other two. Two of the four pizzas were baked in clay pie plates, which makes for a more deep dish pizza. This seems to work just fine, even though the dough recipe I use is for thin crust.

6:40: two pizzas out, two going in.

6:59: pizzas out, Downton Abbey starting in one minute. Phew!

Photos up next~

Simple Peanut Chicken

2012-02-07T18:57:00.000-08:00

In the same grain - using some left-overs to spark a new dish - I made a simple Peanut Chicken to go with the Fried Wild Rice & Quinoa.

I started with chicken breast, which I chopped into large chunks and heated in a pan. I used no oil, just made sure the pan was hot first, and left the small amounts of fat on the chicken to create the grease I needed to brown the chicken. Next, I scouted around in my pantry for some curry sauce, which I didn't. However, I found peanut sauce, and as I poured a little of it over my chicken, I remembered I had a tub of unsalted chunky peanut butter in the back of the fridge. So, I got that out, put a couple of generous spoonfuls into the pan, added water, and let the peanut butter soften and coat the chicken pieces.

After about 30-45 minutes the chicken was soft and infused with the make-shift peanut sauce. And, it was quite good with the Fried Wild Rice and Quinoa I was making at the same time.


Again, not the greatest photo, but I'm left wishing I had some more!

Fried Rice - Wild, and with Quinoa

2012-02-07T18:25:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, we love going to Costco.

Well, let me rephrase that: sometimes we got to Costco because we are out of a great many things, and sometimes, while perusing the many aisles, we find some treasures. One of my recent faves is quinoa. My husband, on a recent hunter/gathering trip, found a wild rice/quinoa blend that I was looking forward to trying out.

For Christmas my mom got me a rice cooker, and I've used it a lot, both for rice, and for quinoa. (Right now I'm steaming some broccoli over Japanese rice while typing.) So, I thought I'd fire up the rice cooker with the wild rice/quinoa blend with the plan to make a batch of fried rice. I had a little left-over ground beef that was cooked with onions, carrots and celery, and I thought I'd add that to the rice mix. I cut up another onion, a few small cloves of garlic, three more carrots, and two stalks of celery, and quickly sauteed that in canola oil, and then added the rice, some sesame oil, ginger, pepper and soy, and cooked it a little longer. The result was a tasty and healthful dish.

My photo lacks, as I took it after the rice had sat awhile, but maybe it'll still look tasty.

Fresh Bagels

2012-01-31T20:03:00.000-08:00

This afternoon I realised we were out of bagels, and I was not in the mood to go to the store. It had been awhile since I'd made bagels, and I recalled my daughter's first project in her Culinary Arts class in 9th grade: bagels.

Inspired, I looked up a recipe that got good ratings, and got started. Two hours later, I have a nice batch of hot fresh bagels, and best of all, they are home-made.

Bagels risen after being dropped into the simmering water.

About 4 minutes into simmering the bagels grow.

And grow.

Boiled bagels on buttered baking sheet, ready for the oven.

Thirty minutes later~

Fresh Challah

2012-01-31T18:49:00.001-08:00

Fresh Challah, originally uploaded by salmonbear7.

Another view of Challah loaves cooling on the rack.

Fresh-baked Challah

2012-01-31T18:46:00.001-08:00

Fresh-baked Challah, originally uploaded by salmonbear7.

I think I'm making up for lost time. The holidays bring out the baker in some of us, and I'm drawn mostly to bread. Don't get me wrong - I love a good cookie - but there is something special about bread.

I have memories from working in a bakery years ago, not as a baker, but working behind the counter, peddling donuts, cookies, and fresh loaves of bread. Among those loaves were the weekly Challah.

At Easter, my grandmother would create a braided bread with three colored eggs nestled in the V of each plait. Very beautiful indeed. I wish I had a photo to share - it's been many years.

The Day's Baking

2012-01-31T18:37:00.001-08:00

The Day's Baking, originally uploaded by salmonbear7.

Here's another view of the filled breads. One loaf is filled with olive paste, and the other one is filled with a blend of goat cheese, dates, and pecans. So so good~

Two Breads

2012-01-31T18:35:00.001-08:00

Two Breads, originally uploaded by salmonbear7.

I do enjoy a good bread, and this one lends itself well to being filled. My filler notes are as follows:

Via Flickr:
One filled with olive paste, and the other filled with goat cheese, dates, and pecans~

Popovers, baked this morning

2012-01-31T17:55:00.001-08:00

Popovers, baked this morning, originally uploaded by salmonbear7.

Just one more, up close and personal~

Hot Popovers~

Popovers, baked this morning

2012-01-31T17:42:00.001-08:00

Popovers, baked this morning, originally uploaded by salmonbear7.

As you can see, I've made these a time or two.

Sunday afternoon I was listening to KUOW, our local public radio station, to the Splendid Table. One of the callers on the show asked about popover pans. I baked mine in muffin tins, which is not as good, of course, as baking them in a real popover pan. However, they did turn out well enough.

A good popover pan has deeper cups, and each cup is either attached with a wire grid, or has holes open between each cluster of 4 cups, for air circulation. Some pans are non-stick, while I've heard the best ones are cast iron, yielding a crisper crust. I have my eye on a Nordic Ware ...

Hot Popovers

2012-01-31T17:36:00.001-08:00

Hot Popovers, originally uploaded by salmonbear7.

What could be more wonderful than a batch of hot popovers on a Sunday morning? With a teenage guy in the house it is imperative to make a double batch. Oh - so - good~

Radiatori with Pumkin Sauce and Mackerel

2011-10-28T15:01:00.001-07:00

Radiatori with Pumkin Sauce and Mackerel, originally uploaded by cpalmieri.

Another gorgeous plate using pumpkin~

Via Flickr:
Sauce adapted from a standard pumpkin soup recipe. Fried pancetta, pine nuts and
parsley to finish. Maybe a bit out of season, but what the heck.

Party squash soup!

2011-10-28T14:56:00.001-07:00

Party squash soup!, originally uploaded by domit.

Beautifully presented~