Homemade pizza

So this is a pretty smart way to cut a small pizza, for those who like those big, giant, foldable slices:


We make homemade pizza on our pizza stone on a semi-regular basis. Now why didn't I think of this myself? (Plus, you end up with yummy end pieces for crust lovers!)

On my obsession with the colour red

This weekend, I fell in love.

With this:



I swear, it really was love at first sight. I was just shopping for a small housewarming gift for my neighbours. When I turned into the aisle, it jumped out at me (like all red objects usually do). Then I moved closer. I picked it up. I stroked it. Yes, I really did.

It's a heavy, enameled cast iron French oven. In the most beautiful colour. The perfect size. AND it was "only" $40. (Ok, that may seem like a lot, but it's cheap for enameled cast iron - another brand this size, or even just this brand, but in another store, would normally cost around $100.) It came home with me. Hopefully the graduation gift my parents hinted toward will make up for this (rather unnecessary) expense! ;)

Of course the first thing I did was make bread with it. I've been a bit obsessed with making bread in French ovens ever since I found the No Knead bread recipe. Last year (or was it the year before?), for my birthday, my parents bought me a big black Staub one. I wanted a classic, neutral colour since I knew this thing would probably outlive me. And I liked the matte black.

But when I saw this little red one, I thought, well, it's not like all the accessories in my kitchen aren't already red! Even without "deciding" on this colour for my kitchen, over the years, I've always gravitated toward red utensils, red pots, red pans, etc.

(See, even the cooling rack is red!)


It's like I can't help it. I joke that I'm attracted to red because I'm a bull (Taurus)... but that's what it is - a real, strong attraction! I don't know, it's always been like this. It's more than just my favourite colour. It attracts my eye like no other colour does.

Ah, the simple pleasures in life: looking at this little pot really does make me happy.

Trying out new recipes

I’ve made two ‘dud’ recipes in the past two weeks. I guess that’s part of trying out new recipes, but it’s still somewhat disappointing.

Last night I decided to make zucchini sticks, which I love, since my grandmother gave me some leftover caesar dressing I wanted to use up (it was a great dip!). I’ve never made zucchini sticks at home, but I thought, why not? I even found a recipe for baked zucchini sticks on Epicurious.

So I made up some bread crumbs, did the triple-dipping thing (flour, egg, bread-crumb topping) and stuck them in the oven. Well, they were edible… but it’s a good thing I really like zucchini because that’s pretty much all they tasted like.

The moral of the story: some things taste better fried. No, wait, everything tastes better fried. So I guess I should say there are some things that only taste good fried!

I don’t know if I’ll actually try making fried zucchini sticks one of these days because (a) I try to avoid fatty foods and (b) frying makes a giant mess and stinks up the house. Oh, and it scares me. I spilled some olive oil from a dish in the oven the other day and it set the oven on fire…

By the way, the other dud was a recipe for Moroccan Chickpea Stew. I thought it would be really flavourful, which I guess it was, but I found the tomato flavour overpowering. Maybe I’m just not used to eating tomatoes anymore? (MB isn’t a fan.) Actually, not true – I had a tomato sandwich the other day and it was GREAT. Yum. But anyway, I don’t think I’ll be making that recipe again.

On the other hand, one new recipe I tried recently had my friend raving about it – it’s a good way to make cauliflower interesting (recipe here). I didn’t think it was that great, but I’ll probably make it again just to see how it turns out.

Some food blogs I like: Smitten Kitchen (beautiful photos), Chocolate and Zucchini (there's an English version of her blog as well), Not Martha (not just a food blog)and 30 Bucks a Week. I just recently discovered One Frugal Foodie. And I also regularly check out Epicurious (obviously) and Mark Bittman's column in the New York Times.

A chef's goal

A random goal: learn to cook with tofu. And make it taste good.

I was looking up recipes last night and found a lot of very highly-rated tofu recipes, but most of them involved frying - duh, everything deep-fried tastes good! But I know it's possible to make good food with tofu in it (with all the nutritious qualities it has, on top of being dirt-cheap) -- I have made an avocado dip with tofu in it before that was really delicious. There's a teriyaki tofu recipe that I'll be trying for sure.

To be continued...

Recipe

There are only two ingredients in pasta?? Really?

To make: fresh pasta!