Susan, Beth and Kevin are right. If there ever was a fear of baking bread (of the kneading variety), making pizza is the perfect way to to cure it. B and I finally decided to make pizza this week and I, obviously, was in charge of the crust. I decided to use Beth's Pizza Dough Recipe. I followed it exactly except for substituing using all-purpose flour for bread flour (Oddly, the market was out. I didn't know there was a huge demand for bread flour during Easter). Every thing went smoothly until it was time to shape the first pizza. Not thinking, I took the first third of the dough and started trying to shape it. Let's just say that when you take a rectangular log-ish shaped portion of dough and try to flatten and shape it into a circle, you won't be very successful.

Once it was my desired thickness, fairly thin, I realized it may be too big for our pizza stone. The remedy? Line up some crushed garlic along the perimeter of the dough and then fold and seal the edge of the dough over it. Garlic stuffed crust! Being that I was in charge of the crust and not really thinking about toppings and B forgetting we were making pizza, we didn't have a very large selection of toppings. Fortunately he had some shredded mozzarella and romano cheese and tomatoes at home and I had pasta sauce and asparagus. And 1, 2, 3... we have pizza!

Pizza 1: Tomato pizza with garlic stuffed crust

Pizza 2: Asparagus and tomato pizza

Pizza 3: Two cheese pizza

The results were yummy! I couldn't stop from staring into the oven to watch the pizza cook, all bubbly and golden. The first pizza came out a bit off as B decided we needed to put cornmeal on the parchment before putting the dough on it. He didn't realized that I was going to be putting the pizza in with the parchment and thought the cornmeal was needed to help the dough slide off the paper. What the cornmeal ended up doing in this case was creating a less than crisp crust. Our theory is that the cornmeal kind of steamed the crust instead of allowing it to crisp up against the pizza stone. The crust on the other two were done without the cornmeal and they came out perfect. It wasn't floppy and had the perfect texture for a thinner crust pizza, chewy, firm and not too doughy.

Next time I will try to make a thicker crust. Given my fear of play-doh, the last thing I wanted happen in my first bread making experience was to discover undercooked dough as bite into my pizza (which as happened to me before and absolutely ruined my meal). Now that I'm more confident in my pizza dough skills, I will definitely attempt a thicker crust pizza.

Some things to remember for my future pizza making endeavors..

1. Don't stretch out the dough too much while shaping it. It will distort as you transfer it to the parchment for baking (hence why pizza #3 isn't exactly round). A remendy for this could be putting the dough on the parchment just before finishing up the shaping.
   
2. Plan toppings in advance. I definitely will use fresh mozzarella the next time around and also remember to get some fresh herbs as well. And if there's time, I definitely want to make my own sauce, too.
   
3. Deseed fresh tomatoes or they'll "soggify" your pizza
   

This pizza dough experience was definitely an accomplishment for me. Not only did I make something that actually tasted like it's supposed to but I also got some validation as well. This is a very little known fact, but one of papaFasu's first jobs in San Francisco was at a pizza parlor. So of course he's a self-proclaimed expert on pizza, especially on the crust. So when he saw that I made pizza, he immediately displayed his skepticism. "You made pizza? You can't make pizza like that. Don't you know I used to make pizza?" He then picks up a slice, takes a bite, and says surprisingly, "This will work," which in papaFasu speak translates to, "This isn't half bad." He was impressed. So of course I'm smiling inside and say back to him, "You better know you whose daughter I am."**

So papaFasu, this crust's for you.

**(That's probably horrible grammar, but it's the best English translation I could come up with -- of course now that I think of it, the better translation for that would be, "Don't you know who my father is?").

I think there's something in the air. Because for the past week, all I can think about is starting something new. A pair of socks, a shawl, a sweater, something, ANYTHING! Is it because I've set this goal for myself to finish all my WIPs before anything else and I'm just craving the thing I can't have? Or is it because all you darn bloggers keep tempting and distracting me with ideas for new projects? Or could it be something else altogether?

This morning I walked out of the house with those items you see there. I wasn't until I was walking to the Farmers Market that I realize I was screaming Project Spectrum. Maybe it's a combination of me wanting to start something new and wanting to knit up the greens in my stash, the sock yarn, the laceweight and some felted tweed. Whatever the case may be, it's definitely been a green day.

Dinner, anyone?

My dinner tonight came out of my apple green Le Creuset. What's inside? A creation inspired by and adapted from another Everyday Food recipe, curried Lentils in tomato sauce from the March 2007 issue. Using what I had I in my pantry I came up with my own version.

Curried Lentils and Tomatoes
adapted from Curried Lentils in tomato sauce, Everyday Food March 2007

3 tablespoons oil oil
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 1-inch piece of ginger finely chopped
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup uncooked lentils
1 can 20oz diced tomatoes
juice from 1 lime

Prepare lentils by rinsing them and placing them in a pot with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Heat oil in a skillet (or in my case, a 2qt dutch oven) and add onions and ginger. Cook for about 5-8 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking until onions begin to brown and caramelize. Add spices and stir for about a minute. Add lentils and tomatoes and let simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add lime juice and salt to taste and simmer for another 5 minutes. Serve over your preferred grain (shown with short grain brown rice).

Notes:
Not bad for my first try at adapting a recipe. It's good but not amazing. This is relatively spicey, so if you're not accustomed to spice, you may want to omit the cayenne and adjust the other spices accordingly. I can't compare this to the original as I haven't made it, but the original may be tastier as it calls for a jar of tomato sauce. Since I didn't have any, I used what I had. So this version of it may be a bit more bland since tomato sauce comes seasoned. Also, if you're planning on cooking for one or two, you might want to halve the recipe. The original calls for pre-cooked canned lentils and I kind of guessed the amount of uncooked lentils to use. If I had to guess the amount of people this recipe serves, I'd say 6. Let's just put it this way. It filled my 2qt dutch oven and if I don't find some people to feed, I'm going to be eating this for a week. Anyone want to come over for dinner?

For those of you who have never had a Vietnamese sandwich (formally known as banh mi), you are surely missing out. I've had these sandwiches since I was young and have loved them since. It's really simple sandwich with only a few ingredients, french roll, meat of choice (usually bbq pork, chicken, hams and pate), cilantro, pickled carrots and daikons, peppers, and a bit of mayo. Now that I don't eat meat anymore, I've been searching for good non-meat banh mi. Usually, they have deep fried tofu ones. But the ones I had are drowning in this sweet sauce that doesn't jive with me. I've also had a sardine version in New York from Nicky's in the Lower Eastside which was probably the best non-meat banh mi I've had (Ah, that ellusive New York trip that I still haven't blogged about. All blame goes to B since he was scheduled as a guest blogger to talk about the happs on that trip).

This weekend B wanted to make banh mi for dinner. So off to the store I went to grab some ingredients. The only thing missing was the "meat". Luckily I had some frozen shrimp at home and decided to saute it with some garlic and I added some curry powder for flavor.

Shrimp with their tails off, of course, and we added some S'n'P as well.

The french rolls I got were a bit on the soft side so we toasted them a bit, added some Vegenaise and the shrimp.

Next we added sliced serrano peppers and the pickled carrot and daikon mixture. We followed this recipe for the pickling mixture which was where we also got the idea in the first place. Then we added the cilantro and sprinkled a little S'n'P and we were ready to eat!

Verdict? I would have upped the curry powder a bit just to get a little more flavor in there, but otherwise it was good. I'm definitely going to try to experiment a bit more to find other yummy non-meat fillings. If you ever get the chance to try one, you definitely should. It's the perfect blend of sweet, savory and crunch all rolled up in to a sandwich! And you want to know why else these sandwiches rock? They cost anywhere from $2-4!!

-------
Need help in finding banh mi near you? You may be in luck! Other than the mom and pop sandwich shops you'd find in the asian district in your locale, I just discovered a chain store that serves banh mi as well as other sandwiches and vietnamese desserts, Lee's Sandwiches! Unfortunately they're mostly located in California, but there are some locations in Arizona, Oklahoma and Texas. I had tried Lee's recently on a trip down to the South Bay, but it definitely can't beat my local faves, Saigon Sandwich in the Tenderloin and Little Vietnam Cafe in the Richmond.

So a little good news and a little bad news. Since my last post I was able to trace out three patterns! Wooohooo! But since then, I haven't done anything, not even wash and press my fabric. I'll get on that this week for sure. Slowly but surely, this wardrobe is going to come together.

So the real bad news is, my camera is dead. Okay, really it's not dead, dead. The batteries are dead. I got this camera almost two years ago and it came with rechargeable batteries and they finally gave out a few weeks ago. So what's a girl to do? I can't take photos and refuse to buy regular disposable batteries now (part of my green living quest). And who came to save the day, green LA girl! She posted about battery chargers the other day and I've been looking for it ever since! I tried to order it from Amazon and they had an estimated ship date of May 31st!! WTF? Okay, I can't live without a camera for that long. I did some searching around and ordered them (and some new rechargeable batteries, of course) yesterday and they're coming on Monday, yahooooo! So one of my short term goals, have a FO to shoot by the time it gets here.

Yeah, I put myself out there.

So let me leave you with of the final shots from my camera before my rechargeables decided to leave me camera-less.

Recipe: Orange Oatmeal Currant Cookies, Tartine Cookbook

Notes:
So very yummy!! This was my first try at an "icebox cookie." The recipe calls for you to roll the dough into logs and chill them overnight. I'm not sure if it was me or the recipe, but the dough was pretty sticky and I had a bit of a hard time rolling them up because the dough was so malleable. Even when I sliced them after freezing, they didn't quite hold their shape (they're supposed to be ovals). I have a feeling it has to do with the currants and the rolled oats preventing a clean cut. But despite these minor issues, the flavor is amazing! They're not crispy or firm (something I'd expect since they were frozen), rather they're soft with a bit of texture from the currants and oatmeal. Yum, seriously, yum!

Recipe: Tofu Quiche with Leeks and Asparagus, Real Food Daily Cookbook

Notes:
Let me give a little background before I go on about this recipe:

A few weeks ago, I went to a training weekend with my triathlon club to prep for an upcoming race. It's a pretty big affair with rented out cabins, coached workouts and fun social time. Anyways, our cabin decided to do a potluck and I set out to bring quiche. This was my first quiche ever (and I'm really sorry I don't have any photos.. well wait, actually.. you can see in the left corner of this photo) and I was surprised to find out that it has a lot fewer eggs in it than I thought! I used the recipe for the Asparagus and Scallion quiche from the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking book. The entire recipe called for only 2 eggs. The rest of the custard was made with half and half, cream cheese and goat cheese. Can you say heart attack city? HEART ATTACK CITY! HEART ATTACK CITAAAAAAAY!! Well first thing's first, it was amazing, AMAZING! It's the kind of thing you eat once in a while, with a HUGE green salad and like no dessert *sniff*. So anyways, since then I've been on a quest to find a healthier quiche recipe, either something with more eggs or tofu and less dairy. Here enters the Real Food Daily Cookbook recommended to me by a coworker.

So now onto the recipe. It's a vegan tofu-based recipe with no butter or dairy. So silly me, thought that I was going to get a healthier quiche recipe tasting like the full screaming fat dairy version. So when I tasted it, I was floored and really disappointed. I was complaining to friends that I didn't like it, that it wasn't absolutely horrible. It just wasn't what I was hoping it would be (the full screaming fat dairy version). I was so disappointed by it that I actually considered chucking it. What stopped me was that I didn't want to waste all the ingredients just because it didn't turn out as I expected. So the next day, mama- and papaFasu said to me, "Hey, you're pie is good!" That caught me totally off guard. I decided to give it another try, and indeed. There was really nothing wrong with it at all. It wasn't the best quiche ever, but it also definitely wasn't close to being the worst. I think because I was so set on having it taste like my first quiche, it felt like an utter disappointment. You definitely won't fool any meaties into thinking that what they're eating is really quiche. There are definitely a lot of recipes out there that you can use to "trick" meaties into eating vege, but this is probably not one of them. Like I've read before, there is seriously no real substitute for eggs and dairy, but there are certainly a lot of things that can come quite close. Either way, I'm still on a quest for a better, heathier quiche recipe.

Well hello there.. just stopping by to share some yummy goodness for those cold evenings. This recipe takes 30-40 minutes tops. B and I will never buy canned tomato soup again.

I'll be back soon, promise.

Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup
adapted from Cooks Illustrated, September 2008

Ingredients
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped medium (about 1 cup)
5 medium garlic cloves, minced (recipe calls for 3 - we like garlic)
2 pinches hot red pepper flakes (recipe calls for one optional - we like spicy just as much as we like garlic)
1 bay leaf
2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes packed in juice
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 large slices good-quality sandwich bread , crusts removed, torn into 1-inch pieces (we used the middle slices from a loaf of seeded sourdough)
2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons brandy (optional)
Table salt and ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

Equipment
4-6qt Dutch oven or pot
potato masher
blender

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat and add onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, and bay leaf. Cook, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and their juice and mash with a potato masher until no pieces bigger than 2 inches remain. Stir in sugar and bread and bring soup to boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until bread is completely saturated and starts to break down, about 5 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaf.

Transfer half of soup to blender. Add 1 tablespoon oil and process until soup is smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to large bowl and repeat with remaining soup and oil. Rinse out Dutch oven and return soup to pot. Stir in chicken broth and brandy (if using). Bring soup back up to boil and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve soup in individual bowls. Sprinkle each portion with pepper and chives and drizzle with olive oil. And for extra yummy, comfort goodness... serve with grilled cheese. B and I are partial to grilled cheese made with sourdough and sharp cheddar. Be sure to let some cheese hang off the edge for those yummy, cheesy, crusty bits!

**chef's notes: B and I always add more garlic than recommended in a recipe. That's just how we roll. We also like things spicier than most. One pinch of red pepper flakes will probably give you a hint of spice while the 2 pinches we used gave us a more noticeable amount of heat (but not enough to deem it spicy by our standards). I thought it was the perfect amount of spice, but B likes things even spicier so he went further and added tabasco after plating. We used seeded sourdough because we didn't want to buy two types of bread, one for the soup and one for the sandwiches. We weren't sure how it would affect the soup, but we ended up licking the bowl. The seeds in the sourdough also didn't affect the taste, but, visually, it gave it a nice speckled look. We didn't use brandy, but didn't feel like it needed it. We also want to try it with veggie broth but didn't have any on hand when we made it.

It's really not that hard drool and want to make everything that Deb of Smitten Kitchen blogs about. I bookmark just about every other recipe she posts. Add hers to the many other numerous food blogs I keep tabs on, the chances that I'll make every single recipe I've bookmarked are really really really low. But this week, the stars must have been aligned in my favor because I just so happened to have a 5-pound box of matzoh crackers on hand.

Yah, the only thing I can say is, don't go shopping for a passover meal the night before.. or you'll end up with more that you need. In my case, I ended up with a LOT more than I needed. So what to do with all the leftover matzoh? Deb pointed my way.. chocolate caramel crack(ers)

Deb, if I've never told you before, which I probably haven't, I love you.

I don't doubt that I will use the remaining 3 and a half pounds to make more crack(ers). It was the easiest thing to make. You can make these with saltines, too, but for my own waistline and the waistlines of those I love, I might just tell myself that these are reserved for post-passover treats only. I'm not sure that I'll believe myself because they're so easy to make... that and mama- and papaFasu quite often always have a box or two of saltines in their pantry.

I'm going to try to make these last as long as possible. I will only allow myself one piece per day, with my tactic will be to search out the smallest piece.. leaving me the biggest pieces to enjoy at the end, my reward for having so much self control and discipline. But then again, Deb said these would only keep for a week.. I gotta finish them all before they go bad right?