Pizza done right

Twenty or thirty seconds in the microwave removes much of the grease from pepperoni slices.
Thank you to Cook's Illustrated for the tip.


Dough from Capone Foods "00" pizza flour with sauce made from milled Roma tomatoes. A little salt and fresh oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme and rosemary or some Penzey's Italian Herb Mix adds authentic flavor. Rao's tomatoes are the best canned tomatoes. Fresh mozzarella is topped with a sautéd mixture of mushrooms, shallots and minced Small Farm garlic. Pepperoni and Canadian Bacon or ham are last to go on before the pizza goes into a hot oven.

A Birthday Request for Alton's Fried Chicken

GB&D

We stayed pretty close to Alton Brown's Fried Chicken recipe mixing paprika, garlic powder, cayenne pepper and salt with the flour to dredge the chicken before frying in organic non-hydrogenated all vegetable shortening at 325 degrees F.

Doesn't take long and it beats the heck out of KFC.

Mussels Mariniere et Provencale

Mussels Mariniere with a Provencal twist, this dish starts with sliced scallions and minced (Small Farm) garlic sweated in butter with chopped parsely and basil. Stir in a little tomato sauce before turning the heat up and adding some dry white wine.

In goes a couple of pounds of cleaned, debearded mussels -a quick stir- and on goes the lid. Five minutes later, all but one of the mussels are open and opaque. The closed mussel is discarded and the rest are served with salad and toast points.

Delicious. The Super Stop & Shop in Hudson, MA has an interesting seafood department. Sometimes the display of seafood looks exactly like you would expect the seafood to look in a supermarket display case. Keep in mind that this is New England and the competition for fresh seafood is abundant. Seafood lovers who are used to the display at places like Captain Marden's
are not likely to be impressed by a supermarket seafood department.

Somehow, Stop & Shop is putting some exceptional seafood on the shelf. Not always. Not even regularly, but often enough to make the seafood department a regular stop when you make your way through the store. Since they expanded the Stop & Shop to a Super Stop & Shop, the likelihood of spotting a beautiful wild-caught salmon fillet or some fresh sea scallops has made it well worth looking. You might be disappointed, but you just might change the menu for tonight.

These mussels were very clean and fresh. The 2 pounds of shellfish contained not a single one with a broken shell and all but one opened during steaming. One or two mussels were a little gritty, but they were all firm, fresh and flavorful.

It would be preferable for customers not to have to carry around yet another plastic card in order to pay non-artificially inflated prices at Stop & Shop and preferable to not be "earning" Stop & Shop gas credits at a gas station 20 miles away. (That means paying more for milk and bread to "earn" so called credits that expire before there is any chance of redeeming them.)

The Stop & Shop marketing department is working hard to rip customers off for a little bit here and a little bit there, which is a lot of money when you have as many customers as Stop & Shop does. Actually, to be precise; Stop & Shop is a subsidiary of Royal Ahold. (They own Giant, Peapod and a number of grocery related businesses globally.) The marketing schemes might be Stop & Shop's work but it might just be Royal Ahold's.

The seafood department is worth a look.

Verrill Farmstand is gone

According to the owners, they will rebuild. In the meantime many regular customers including top area restaurants (No. 9 Park, Hamersley's Bistro, Lumiere and Jasper White's Summer Shack to name only a few), will have to find their fresh produce elsewhere.

ChiCheSau

Chicken Cheese and Sauce

Start with washed chicken cutlets. Dip in milk and coat with panko.
Fry in a little Canola oil and transfer to foil covered cookie sheet. Top with your choice of cheese. We topped with crumbled blue cheese for the adult palate and milder cheddar cheese slices for younger palates. Warm in a preheated 225-250 degree oven for 10-15 minutes until cheese is melted.

Simmer D'Amico Brand or your favorite tomato sauce (D'Amico can be difficult to find).

Plate chicken with jasmin rice and serve with fresh bread.

Add tomato sauce and garnish.

This dish pairs well with a Pinot Grigio.

Pizza night

How long does pizza delivery take? This pizza takes 30-40 minutes.

And this pizza is spectacular.

Start with Capone Foods Neapolitan "00" Pizza Flour for your pizza dough. Also available already made into pizza dough and frozen. Just move it from the freezer to the refrigerator a day before you intend to use it, for perfect, high-gluten dough.

Form the dough and place on parchment paper on a peel.

Using a simple homemade tomato sauce made with homegrown or locally grown tomatoes will guarantee best results. Tonight's pizza is being sauced with D'Amico tomato sauce.

Fresh, local ingredients also include in-season Small Farm garlic.

Sauté Cremini mushrooms with Canadian bacon and minced garlic adding the garlic at the very end and turn the flame off.

Add a light layer of D'Amico tomato sauce with Penzey's Italian herb mix. Top with fresh mozzarella and grated mild and sharp cheddar cheeses.


Add garlic mushroom bacon toppings. Put pizza on your pizza stone in a preheated 450-475 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

When it looks like this in the oven, it is done. Take it out and let it rest for a couple of minutes before cutting.

Ready to cut and serve with a nice salad.

and a nice Chianti...no fava beens...tonight.

Wines labeled Cabernet Savignon or Merlot, for example, are named for the grape. European wines are often named for the region in which the grapes are grown. Champagne refers to wine from the region of the same name. Chianti is a wine from an area called "Chianti," which is inside of a region of Italy called Tuscany. Within Chianti is a smaller area called "Chianti Classico." The "Riserva" label applies to Chianti aged for at least two years and is generally the most expensive Chianti.

"Chianti" always, in accordance with Italian wine law, contains at least 80% of the native grape Sangiovese. This grape produces a wine that has a distinctive cherry character, high acidity, and medium to substantial tannins -- all elements that lead to a food-friendly wine. particularly well paired with pasta.

D'Amico Chianti 2007 has a light nose of fresh, ripe black cherries. Still young, bright flavors of black and red cherry greet the palate, smoothed together with ample acidity and medium tannins. The finish is sour cherry , with mouthwatering acidity and almost no trace of alcohol. The tart acidity and almost mild tannins make it a perfect match for pizza or any pasta with marinara sauce. The D'Amico label, noticeably absent from the bottle, would leave us wondering. Had we not spoken to the vintner, we would not have known to give this young bottle a little extra time to breathe. The similarly labeled D'Amico pasta sauce, with a fresh, bright tomato and basil presence, paired with this easygoing Chianti perfectly.

Mussels

Mussels in a Spicy Vinaigrette

6 lbs live mussels in the shell

¼ cup EVOO

¼ cup Pomegranate Champagne Vinegar (or other high quality red wine vinegar)

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp hot paprika

1 lemon sliced and quartered

2 cloves garlic, minced Small Farms garlic is best.

2 T rough chopped fresh parsley

salt

Clean mussels under cold water and remove beards. Discard beards, broken and open unresponsive mussels. Shellfish begin to decompose very rapidly when they expire. If they have expired prior to cooking, they should be discarded. When mussels expire during cooking they open. Mussels that do not open during the cooking process should be discarded.

Add all ingredients except the mussels to a lidded pan or stockpot and bring to a boil uncovered. Simmer for a minute, add mussels and cover to cook for 4-5 minutes until mussels open. Discard unopened mussels.

The original recipe for this dish in the Williams Sonoma Kitchen Library series Hors d’Oeuvres & Appetizers calls for cooling to room temperature and then refrigerating for 2-4 hours before serving.

Brooke says that they are better served warm, immediately after steaming. Brooke is correct. Hot or chilled, a squeeze of a fresh lemon wedge just before serving enhances the flavor of the fresh shellfish.

Taco Taco

Tacos are always better with a nice guac. Well we have finally found one you don't have to make. Wholly Guacamole is on the shelf (in the produce section) at the grocery store.

Delicious. Made with Haas avocados and not a shred of the vile weed.

Happy Birthday Sophie!

A special day of swimming pool fun, pizza, limbo dancing, a tiny bit of light rain, and of course - cake and ice cream made for a wonderful celebration of day one of Sophie's tenth year.

cake model credit: Teddy

Lychee Ice Cream

Fresh Lychees, otherwise know as Lychee Nuts. They have a rough, tough skin, but they are not nuts.

Sweet and unique, the Lychee is an excellent candidate for and ice cream flavor. The skin is easily removed from the fruit with a serrated blade. The seed, however, leaves a tough skin behind when removed.

Bring in the food mill. Problem solved.

Temper, chill and churn the next day.

Lychee Ice Cream.

Garnish with candied Kumquats.

July means Blueberry Pie!

Crust: Use your favorite recipe or a "Jiffy" pie crust shortcut. Pie Filling: 1 quart fresh blueberries, washed 3 tablespoons cornstarch 3/4 cup sugar Dash freshly grated nutmeg 1 teaspoon lemon juice 3-4 teaspoons butter Berry pie filling: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Stir lightly into the washed berries cornstarch, sugar, and freshly grated nutmeg. Place the berry mixture in the bottom crust and sprinkle lemon juice over it. Then place little 1/2 teaspoons soft butter evenly over the top of the berry filling. Place top crust and into the oven it goes. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes. When the crust is golden brown and delicious...who wants pie?! Serve with fresh heavy cream or vanilla ice cream.

July 4th Fireworks

Happy Independence Day!