THREE THUMBS UP, GRANDMA!

Adult grilled cheese yum.

Gruyere, swiss, salami, basic, french bread.

Best cookbook there is.

And I burned ‘em. Still edible.

Source: Grilled Cheese Social (thanks, Pinterest!)

Myself and Dr. Molen

Had some sushi for dinner in celebration… tough food to eat when you have brackets!

Merry Christmas to me!

Fresh mozzarella, basil, sun-dried tomatoes, and salami. On a stick!

I do better at cooking. The following meal comes to you from the August of 2010 issue of Cooking Light Magazine.

Look, ma! Tomatoes. And I ate them all! Your little girl is growing up.

Thanks to my friends at Amazon (who thank my wallet multiple times a week) I now own smoked Paprika.

Said Cooking Light recipe. Well worn.

Guacamole

Salsa!

The works.

Birds’ eye view of “the works”.

Two tostadas for a whopping caloric intake of 345. Pretty awesome.

I’m going to have do this same exact recipe but substitute the chicken for some blackened fish. And add some feta. It’d be perfection.

I recently attended an event with Isaac for the winners of Parent Map’s Golden Teddy Awards. Isaac won best Children’s Live Entertainment. Pretty cool and ego boosting for him. What I got out of the deal was to meet the brand manager of Tutta Bella’s, one of the best Neapolitan Pizzeria’s in the Seattle area. I told her of my pizza obsession and she hooked me up. Free pizza coupon, the recipe to the pizza sauce and pizza dough, and the promise of taste testing in December and January. Very fruitful evening for me.

I needed some ingredients I can’t get at my local grocery store so I stocked up on Italian Type OO flour on Amazon and headed to Tacoma’s Metropolitan Market for fresh compressed yeast and San Marzano tomatoes. I’ve since stocked up on those on Amazon as well. Much cheaper, and amazing sauce! Let’s not forget Salumi’s salami and more bufala mozzarella. It’s not our first time at the buffalo rodeo.

Holey Grail, or something like it.

Fresh, compressed yeast.

Italian Typo 00 Flour and Sea Salt

Italian San Marzano canned tomatoes. DOP designation and all. Majorly official.

Mozzarella Bufala!

Best stuff. Ever.

This is why God invented the Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer (with dough hook).

3 Weekends’ worth of pizza dough.

Is it weird that I think they’re super cute? And they smell like what heaven must smell like.

Pizza making station. Ready. Set. Go!

As round as it’s gonna get over here.

Ella’s pie. Basic Kraft mozzarella and turkey pepperoni.

The grown-up pie with the mozzarella bufala, basil, and Salumi salami. And truffle oil.

I’ve got to admit that the crust turned out better on Ella’s pie and I know it’s because the fresh mozzarella has a much higher water content. I think I need to give the crust a head start by putting it in the oven with no toppings and then piling it on. It turned out soggier than it should be even for a Neapolitan.

Still, we’re on the right track and it still tasted amazing. We soldier on. It’s a tough gig.

Let’s eat already!

When visiting my friend in New Hampshire we made sure to visit Portsmouth and they have a store there that I’ve never seen here in Washington called “Stonewall Kitchen”. You will on occasion find their products in specialty food stores but not the full store.

I picked up some champaign blueberry preserves and a recipe card for a blueberry tart. Couldn’t wait to try it out.

I had to pick up a tart pan because I didn’t yet own one. Never get tired of adding “toys” to the kitchen, even something as silly as a tart pan.

It was pretty good, but a bit sweet. Coming from some one with a serious sweet tooth this is saying something.

This was my 2nd attempt at the dough recipe in “The Silver Spoon”. The first time I accidentally used a “rapid rise” yeast. It turned out fine, but this time I went with the standard dry yeast. I’m dying to get my hands on some fresh cake yeast like the recipe would prefer. Any one know where to find some? Other than Metropolitan Market in Seattle which isn’t exactly convenient for me.

I visited DeLaurenti’s at Pike Place Market yesterday to get some mozzarella di Bufala (Buffalo mozzarella). Seems to be an authentic ingredient for pizzas from the Naples area. I also bought a slightly spicy salami. Really yummy on its own. To complete the pizza there were also garlic slices, mushrooms, a pinch of dried basil (really wishing I had bought more fresh basil) and the pinchiest of pinches of truffle salt.

Other than the crust being a bit hard it was really good.

blueberry yogurt multigrain pancakes from Smitten Kitchen.

And, honestly, if you haven’t been to her site before, you can’t call yourself an even kind of on special occasions cook.

Marinated these steaks in some “steakhouse” marinade. Sure was tasty. Finally getting the hang of doing steak after many charred and briskit-y steak.

A bit pink for me but Isaac likes it.

A giant mound of mashed potatoes. Red potatoes, heavy cream (because I have some), sour cream, butter, garlic powder, liquid smoke, salt, and better. Oh, and freshly grated Parmesan. Because I had some.

Tri-fecta of goodness.

I was too lazy for my poor-man’s raspberry dressing, so I tossed this salad with blue cheese. Romaine, apples, red onions, cranberries, walnuts, feta. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.