flat bread pizzas!

so i'm at stanley's looking for my pitas that are so delish and actually made on kedzie which is nice and close, and i can't find them anywhere. i circle the little shelf that holds the breadish things and don't find them. but i find 'pocket-less pitas'. what the heck do you do with pocket-less pitas? flat bread pizza, my friend. 

on tuesday after a ridiculous bike ride to oak park i was so hungry and sweaty that i needed something so great for lunch. so i saw an opportunity for using the sub-par pitas. i also made these last night for dinner since my cousin, paula and her friend angela were visiting and we were all out of money. 

it's the easiest and i'll post what i put on it, but really there shouldn't be a recipe. 

flat bread or pocket-less pita

olive oil

cheese

fixin's. 

i laid one flat bread on a cookie sheet and pre-heated the oven to 350. 

spread a little olive oil on the bread. 

cover with grated cheese

add toppings. for me i used veg from our csa: parsley, onions, broccoli and

 zucchini.  last night i used onions, chives, corn and zucchini. 

sprinkle with salt and pepp and bake until the bread is crispy. 

last night i also made a side dish of veg medley. freshly picked green beans from our garden, carrots from the csa, baby zucchini and squash blossoms from iron creek farms (for free from the wicker park market - the best) 

and of course beet cake for dessert. about which no one says anything bad except for raul who says it tastes like beets. he's full of it. 

right now i'm eating a ridiculous nectarine that mick klug grew even though he says 'God did it, honey'. 

have a great day. 

love,

keighty

beet cake... ugh gross...

no! beet cake is great. especially if you put too much nutmeg in it like i did, now it's gingerbread beet cake! 

but seriously, folks, you got a ton of beets at home just sittin' in your 'fridge. what should you do with them?! answer: make a chocolate beet cake. 

i didn't make dinner last night because it was sunday and the sunday special at piece is $25 for an x-large pizza and a growler of beer. (growler, i'll agree, is the dumbest word, but it's like at mccminnamin's when you buy that mason jar and then can refill it)

anyway, back to the cake. 

1 cup butter, divided

1 1.5 cup packed brown sugar

3 eggs

1.5 oz dark chocolate - i used more! 

5 medium beets or 2 cups pureed beets

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

.25 tsp salt

.5 tsp cinnamon

.25 tsp nutmeg

boil beets until they're tender. let them cool! they're so hot you'll burn your hands. get the skins off. then puree them in the blender until smooth. 

cream half the butter and sugar. add eggs. melt the chocolate with the rest of the butter and add to the mix. add the beets and vanilla, mix well. (as if you were going to mix poorly, that step is condescending) 

add the rest of the dry ingredients and remember that it's 1/4 tsp nutmeg not 1/2 tsp -- ugh. i have to follow directions better. 

bake at 375 until it's done. and don't eat it until it's cool - when it's hot it tastes like beets, gross, but when it's cool it'll just taste like chocolate -- or nutmeg in my case. 

hope it's great. 

i got a helmet yesterday and i look lame but at least when i get hit by a car my head won't break. charlie getting doored on damen was the last straw. also mogan accidently bought a girl's bike and i'm going to buy it from him! 

hope you're doing well.

love,

keighty

 

old soup

while i was on my writing break i made some french onion soup that was ridiculous. and i thought i would share it. it's so easy too, it just takes a while.

when i made it i watched this video

but here is the recipe...

4 tbs butter cut into pieces

6 medium onions, thinly sliced - i used vidalia onions because they're sweet

1/4 tsp salt

4 cups water

14 1/2 oz of beef broth - a little under two cups

1/4 tsp dried thyme - i didn't have any so i skipped it

4 slices french bread -  i had ciabatta

4 oz guyere, grated - french swiss cheese, so you could use american swiss too

in a non stick pan melt butter over medium heat. add onions and salt and cook, stirring occasionally until onions begin to caramelize - about 45 minutes. if you see that they're wilting but not turning brown turn up the heat a little bit. and yes it's a long time but you get to smell the delish smell of caramelizing sweet onions! 

reduce the heat and cook for 15 minutes more.

it says to transfer onions to a dutch oven, but i don't have one so i put them in a bit pot. add 1/2 cup water to the pan and bring to boil to deglaze the sticky goodness on the bottom of the pan. 

--- side note. deglazing is a cool technique that you do when cooking something in a skillet or pan for a long time. while it's cooking some of it's deliciousness will get stuck to the bottom of the pan. you traditionally would add red wine to the pan or tomato juice - something acidic- to loosened the stuck on stuff. the french are good at what they do and i think it's great that they think ahead to the horrible dishes they'll have to scrub and instead just deglaze! 

add deglazing water to the onions. add remaining 1/3 cup of water, broth and thyme (or not) and bring to boil over high heat. reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes.

preheat oven to 450 degrees. arrange bread slices on the rack to toast. 

pour soup  into four oven safe bowls. 

--i've never yearned for ceramic crocks more than at this moment. having nothing to use i used regular bowls. sigh. it doesn't look as great for the picture but it tastes just as good. if you have souflee dishes - bigger ones - you can use those, but seriously, bowls will work. good housekeeping says only certain bowls are oven safe. all bowls are unless they're wood, plastic or not pyrex glass, duh. 

arrange bowls on a sheet pan. place a piece of bread on top of each one and gently press it down into the soup. not all the way down but so it's steady. sprinkle the grated cheese generously over the bowls. put in the oven and bake until the cheese begins to brown. 

this makes 5 cups or 4 first course servings. 

i made it for soup night because it's raul's favorite soup. and i was really worried because my water-based soups had been turning out horribly lately. but this one, to toot my own horn (toot toot), was so good. 

enjoy.

love,

keighty

goat chops!

i work at the andersonville market on wednesday nights (best market ever). and my table is next door to the mint creek farm table which is run by rea, the nice blonde daughter of the farmer. she's very cool and have rad shoes every week. this week her generator ran out of gas so i rode my bike to the station to get her some more. then when i realized that mary had the tomato scale in her car she let us share her's. 

usually we're not that busy because produce farmers take all the business - she sells meat and eggs and i sell salsa etc. but this week i had tomatoes so i was busy and we didn't get to talk as much. i offered her a tomato but she's allergic so i decided i needed to buy some meat. and i chose goat - thinking that was super weird.

i got them very cheap since i know the farmers' daughter and i rode them home to my unsuspecting family. 

i broiled them for about 15 minutes and served them with csa veg - sauteed broccoli and string beans. and having realized that we ran out of bread we ate pitas with tomato mountain farm preserves. 

i slathered the chops with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and rosemary then just broiled them. 

all in all, they tasted like rosemary but were very tough. we ended up eating them like ribs since they were too hard to cut. they were good though. i'm not that into meat so i'd probably skip it next time but raul really seemed to like them. i think he was just so excited there was meat for dinner. 

i'd recommend a try at goat, maybe a different part, like the sirloin or something. with that giant bone in the middle the chops were hard to eat. but even one little chop was very filling. (i think i just really like the word chop)

in garden news, i'm going to transplant our patio tomato into the garden. after the death of the onion, garlic, shallots there is half a garden just sitting there empty and half taking over the yard. the beans we picked so far are perfectly delicious and i can't wait for cucumber blossoms! 

have a great day.

love,

keighty

it's been a while.

due to a request from my one reader, jessica. i will start posting again. 

a lot has been happening in our house lately. james 'les' rorick has moved in for the summer but has decided to stay for good. gretchen and paul came to visit, we had a party etc. etc. etc. 

i will update with one meal i made when the whole family was together (les, keighty, raul and alisa) 

it was on wednesday when i got the fresh batch of csa veg. we finally got dill instead of parsley. and some beautiful beets. 

for les' first day i made stuffed zucchini. 

1.5 pounds of zucchini -- it was about three zucchinis halved then sliced in half - like boats

1.5 cups of bread crumbs

2 oz shredded cheddar cheese - i used gouda because that's all august had.

.25 cup minced onion - i used the spring onions that came in my csa

2 tbls chopped dill

1.25 tsp salt

.25 cups grated parmesan cheese - and a little extra for the top!

2 eggs, beaten

2 tbls butter, diced - i actually had no butter so i skipped it, it was still great. 

 

preheat oven to 350 degrees

boil the zuccs until tender about 15 minutes. careful. they're ridiculously hot so put them on a dish outside next to the 90/94 freeway to cool. 

when they're done being hot, carefully scoop out the zucc flesh and save it in a bowl. now you have six zucc boats!

mix zucc flesh, bread crumbs, cheddar cheese, onion, dill, salt, most of the parmesan, the gouda and the egg. Mix it up! fill up the zucc boats and sprinkle them with more cheese - both kinds! 

bake in the oven for 30 minutes, just check - you'll know. 

unfortunately, this was the week i felt like writing a blog was dumb. but i've seen the light and i'm happy to be back. but that all means that there are no pictures. but you can use your imaginations. 

in other news my garden is doing great. we had a side dish of green beans last night for dinner. and there are so many more!

i'll give you that recipe too. 

green bean side dish.

plant green beans.

wait.

pick.

sautee and serve.

hope everyone is well.

love,

keighty

mexican food night.

for reals. i ate mexican food. 

i came home and worked on wedding stuff all day and i was in the middle of watching 'californication' and addressing invitations when alisa came home. she said she wanted to make black bean and goat cheese quesadillas. i said, be my guest. 

we walked to guarajato your favorite mexican grocery store. we got the fixins and raul drooled over the mexican cokes. in mexico, and every other country, coke is made with sugar and not high fructose corn syrup (aka s'orn). raul is trying to detox from his s'orn addiction (i didn't even make him, he decided this on his own). so he stocked up on mexicoke so he can have soda. true, soda still isn't good for you, sugar at least is real and can be understood by your body. 

alisa went to work on her dinner.... she made homemade tortillas! so ridiculous. 

raul sat in front of the tv, watching the colbert report, and made his famous guacamole. 

no, i didn't just sit around. i took advantage of our summer squash from our csa and made zucchini bread (and muffins because i had leftover batter and only one loaf pan). 

it was a super special family dinner.

and i have a picture to prove that i ate mexican food.