Bagel panzanella

I've been wanting to make bagel panzanella for several months. Now that the best summer tomatoes are here, it is time. Oh man, is it time.

You almost certainly know my love of bagels. Bagels are wonderful. Bagels are delicious. Bagels are the best breakfast on a holiday morning. You can put anything on a bagel. And while I usually discuss my love of bagels through a series of various cream cheese schmears, I thought it was time to mix it up in a more bready way, so I could shoehorn even more bagels into my diet. What recipe combines a delicious bread product and many tasty vegetables? Panzanella. And so bagel panzanella was born.

Probably the most important component of panzanella is the bread. It's supposed to be dry, so it can soak up all the vegetable juices and vinaigrette readily, yet not turn into a pile of soggy mush. So preparing the bread is critical. It also needs to be done a good 12 hours in advance, unless your bagel is already quite stale. You can get away with toasting your bread pieces gently in a low oven, but the texture is going to be a little different.

I chose an everything bagel, for optimal all-bagel flavor content. Cherry tomatoes came out of the garden; cucumber, red onion, and basil came from the CSA box. Actually, the basil could have come out of the garden too, since there's plenty of it out there. But it didn't.

To make this even more substantial (and bagely), you could serve big scoops of it over some tangy salad greens -- arugula would be my pick -- and scatter some chunks of cream cheese or goat cheese rolled in sesame and poppy seeds over the top to serve. For that matter, if you wanted to take the whole thing in a sweeter direction, you could go for a blueberry bagel, an assortment of halved berries, and fresh mint, give it a squeeze of lemon juice, and serve it all over a bed of spinach, with optional goat cheese. Panzanella!

Bagel panzanella
serves 2

1 savory bagel to make 2-3 cups cubed bread
2 cups chopped tomato (14 cherry tomatoes in my case)
1 1/2 cups chopped cucumber
3/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/2 bunch or up to 1 cup chiffonaded fresh basil
1/4 cup or more red wine vinaigrette

Cut your bagel into bite-sized pieces. I'd recommend going a bit on the small side, to create optimal bites with cucumber and tomato later.

Put your bagel pieces on a rack and let them dry out overnight. If your bagel is already a day old (mine was fresh from the bagel shop), I'd guess you only need 4-6 hours.

The next day, it's time to make your salad. Chop up your tomato and cucumber into bite-sized pieces; thinly sliver your red onion; chiffonade your basil. Combine your bagel pieces, tomato, cucumber, red onion, basil, and vinaigrette. Mix everything together well. Let sit on the counter (no tomatoes in the fridge) for at least a half hour, and up to four hours.

Taste, correct seasoning, and serve with the delights of your choice.

Red wine vinaigrette

1 clove garlic, crushed and minced
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
12 good grinds of pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Put all the ingredients into a small jar. Lid the jar and shake well to emulsify. Voila! Red wine vinaigrette.

You'll have some vinaigrette left over, so put the jar into the fridge and use it on any salads you may be eating in the next week or so. Let the dressing come to room temperature before using.

It's so dramatic-looking with the black cherry tomatoes.

We had our bagel panzanella with slices of Spanish tortilla, but it would be pretty happy alongside a whole lot of different main dishes. Eat it for breakfast, with some scrambled eggs. Eat it for lunch, with a cup of Tuscan white bean soup. Eat it for dinner, with a burger of your choice, or maybe a seared steak if that's how you roll.

How are you eating your bagels lately?

Multigrain scones with chard and parmesan

Cookie season is officially over. It's time for the mainstays of winter food: hearty stews, roasted root vegetables, and big bunches of sturdy greens. But that doesn't mean no baking! Winter is one of the best possible times to mix up a batter and produce a steaming loaf of bread, a platter of rolls, or a fluffy muffin. Who doesn't want to crack open the oven to release a gush of heat and a pan of delicious, crispy baked goods? I ask you.

So I made a pan of scones--but not just any scones. These guys are packed with grains and stuffed with chopped chard leaves and parmesan to produce a slightly sweet, slightly salty, mild, tender, and delicious result. It's the season of greens, after all. Why not push past the typical steamed and sauteed preparations and go for a scone?

I used AP flour, rolled oats, 10-grain cereal mix, and a little ground flaxseed to punch these guys up with as many grains as possible. The cornmeal in my cereal mix gave the end product a nice subtle crunch. If you don't have a similar mix hanging around your kitchen, you can always substitute in the flour of your choice. I would probably go for wheat or rye flour here, since we already have oats in the mix, but more exotic flours like buckwheat could also produce some really interesting results.

Multigrain scones with chard and parmesan
w ref to maple oat multigrain scones

1 1/2 cup flour of your choice
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup 10-grain cereal mix (or wheat, rye, or oat flour)
1 tbsp flaxseed meal (optional)
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup cold butter
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup milk
1 cup chopped chard or other greens of choice
~1 cup grated parmesan, not packed

Start by preheating your oven to 375F and lining a baking sheet with parchment or silicone mats.

Mix all your dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add your butter, cut into small chunks, and combine with a pasty blender or two forks. I like to use grated frozen butter for maximum ease. You will definitely get butter all over your hands if you try to grate a big chunk of frozen butter, but it's worth it. Mix until your mixture resembles a pile of breadcrumbs.

Add your egg and milk to the dry ingredients and mix just enough to combine, using a wooden spoon or spatula. Fold in your prepared greens and cheese. It's super easy to substitute other greens or cheeses here if you prefer; for instance, spinach and feta is classic. I would reduce the amount of cheese to 1/2 cup if you use something more solid than fluffy freshly grated parmesan, however. Just use your judgement and you should be fine.

Knead everything together a few times and your dough will be ready. Flatten it slightly to form a round disk, and divide it into eight wedges with a pastry cutter.

Arrange your finished scones on your baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until your scones are golden brown underneath and sound hollow when tapped. If you want to, you can add some cheese to each scone in the last few minutes of cooking. I topped mine with cheese at the 18 minute mark, and then baked for another 5 minutes before checking for doneness. I don't think this is really necessary, but hey--cheese!

Let your scones rest for five minutes on the baking sheet before removing them to a rack. Eat warm or let them cool; it's up to you.

These guys are good split in half, toasted, and spread with butter. They're good just by themselves, eaten in a few bites as you walk to the bus stop in the morning. I bet they would make some very interesting little savory sandwiches, if that's how you roll. And it goes without saying that they're the perfect accompaniment to a giant bowl of the dal, chowder, or bisque of your choice. Soup and homemade scones: together at last.

Hooray! Scones!

How are you eating your winter greens?

Whole wheat jalapeno cornbread

Yes, even though I pickled a boatload of jalapeno peppers the other day, we are still supplied with plenty of fresh ones. It's a good thing we like spice. Of course, that's why I planted the jalapenos in the first place, so overall I think things are going pretty well.

Next year I'm definitely going to have to plant a couple different kinds of hot peppers. If only there were more space! Maybe I'll finally get my act together and finally dig out the side bed--currently full of rampant mint, lemon balm, and weeds galore--for an extra-sunny pepper patch. At that point I'll probably have to look into stringing and drying peppers as well as pickling them. I can't wait.

In the meantime, we are throwing fresh jalapenos not only into the pickling vat, but into soups, sauces, pastas, and now, cornbread.

Spicy cornbread is the best possible accompaniment to a huge vat of chili--for instance, this fresh farmer's market chili. Eat it on the side! Crumble it over the top! Ladle some chili on top! Any way you choose, it's all good.

Our backyard jalapenos are sufficiently spicy and vibrant that one can flavor an entire pan of cornbread. If you have milder peppers, you may wish to use more than one. If you aren't as spice-tolerant as we are, you can either use less jalapeno, choose a milder pepper, or give your chopped pepper bits a quick saute to mellow them out before adding them to the batter. It's all good.

Whole wheat jalapeno cornbread

1 1/4 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tbs sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1-2 jalapenos or other hot peppers
1 egg
3 tbs butter, melted
1 cup milk

Preheat your oven to 425F. Grease and flour an 8x8 square pan or a loaf pan. You could also make this in muffin form if you reduce the cooking time to 8-10 minutes.

Mix your dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Mince your jalapenos finely. I only used one because our harvest has been pretty hot, but you can always add more if you're working with milder peppers. Or you can choose to go for less if you have a lower spice tolerance. It's all good.

Gently toss your minced jalapeno with a spoonful of your dry mix. You just want to barely coat the pieces. In theory, this will keep all your pepper bits from sinking to the bottom of your cornbread. In actuality, I doubt that it would be very easy for anything to fall very far through a thick cornbread batter like this, but hey.

Add your egg, melted butter, and milk to your bowl of dry ingredients. Mix until well incorporated. Fold your jalapenos in at the very end.

Pour your batter into your prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Eat with chili, tomato soup, or a full Southern spread with the collards and barbecue of your choice. It's all good.

Are you buried in an overabundant harvest? How are you using it up?

Summer raspberries for breakfast

Look what was at the farmer's market the other day! ALL THE RASPBERRIES.

I bought three pints and hauled them all home virtuously intact. Then, of course, I washed them, put them in a bowl, and served us the best summer weekend breakfast ever.

So we had a pint and a half of raspberries still warm from the sun, a loaf of Acme Bread's amazing herbslab, and a chunk of Petunia sheep's milk gouda from Garden Variety Cheese.

It was totally decadent and entirely worth it.

What amazing summer produce are you eating?

Coconut extravaganza!

I have a new favorite ingredient and its name is coconut. Coconut oil, coconut milk, actual shreds of sweetened coconut--I want it all. Okay! Let's do it!

My stash of extra virgin coconut oil had been sitting around alone and unloved ever since I used it in my 3-ingredient DIY deodorant. (This has been working just about perfectly for me, incidentally, so if you've been putting off making your own homemade deodorant, go for it!) But now? Now it is no longer alone and unloved. I've started using it as a cooking oil, and is it ever great.

I started out by making Gena's curried lentils, substituting red lentils for the specified yellow, and serving the whole shebang over basmati rice. The coconut oil gives this curry a faint tropical undertone and a richer mouthfeel, making the whole dish much more satisfying.

This was amazing, not to mention practically free. Isn't that a great feeling? I heart practically free food. And it tasted just about perfect, whether with avocado (always a plus) or with a big spoonful of plain yogurt and some sriracha sauce. When you put those two traits together, you know you have a good thing on your hands.

I liked it so much that I made a big pot of very similar red lentil soup with coconut oil and quinoa several days later. That one got the yogurt and sriracha treatment too. So good.

Next, I started drooling over Michelle's beautiful-looking coconut bread. Clearly, I needed to test it out and determine its actual deliciousness level. So I bought a bag of shredded coconut and went to town.

This recipe is based on the original at Smitten Kitchen, but substitutes in coconut milk in place of dairy. I'm thinking this made the loaf a bit heavier overall--but it also made it an especially coconutty delight. COCONUT!

The only change I made was to sub in wheat flour in place of the all-purpose. This is kind of the default at our house, since we almost never have all-purpose flour, but always have whole wheat kicking around. Wheat flour generally gives a slightly more damp and hearty character to baked goods, and that was certainly the case here. I think it worked especially well with all the chewy strands of sweet shredded coconut.

Toasted in the toaster oven, cut into cubes, and topped with sliced sugared strawberries, this bread made one of the best desserts ever. Or maybe one of the best breakfasts ever. Either. Both. Yes.

Speaking of strawberries, how about a coconut milk and strawberry smoothie?

I had just about 1/4 cup of coconut milk left after making my coconut bread, so I stuck it in the freezer for a few days. Then, when I scored some windfall white grapefruit, but didn't want to make it into a typical alcoholic beverage--the fact that it was Monday at 11:30 am helped a lot there--I decided it was smoothie time.

White grapefruit, strawberries, frozen coconut milk, and yogurt made a delightfully tart, thick, and filling creation. I also got to avoid the bane of my smoothie existence: frozen bananas. Seriously, frozen bananas are one of the main reasons I don't do smoothies more often (the other reasons are my visceral repulsion as regards the word "smoothie" and my dislike of washing the blender), so discovering the wonders of frozen coconut milk essentially made the heavens open right there.

I put my smoothie in a mason jar. This worked out especially well, because when I discovered I was too full to drink the entire thing, I just put a lid on it and put it in the refrigerator, a la KERF. Then, the next day, I drank it for completely instant and ready-made breakfast. Hooray!

What's next on the coconut agenda? Hmmm...any suggestions?

Happy new year!

The perfect new year's breakfast is always bagels. Bagels with cream cheese. Bagels with hummus. Coffee. Yes.

BAGELS!!

In other news, if you still have eggnog in the house, have I got a deal for you! First, in John's words, "Just admit it! Admit that you like eggnog-flavored things!" Of course, if you have eggnog in the house you may have already accepted this. I had not. ANYWAY, here's what you need to do. Go brew a cup of strong hot chai. Now, instead of adding milk to it, add eggnog.

AMAZING.

If you happen to have made any of the gingerbread liqueur we discussed a few weeks ago, and you have remained sober enough throughout the holiday season to consider drinking now, you may want to add a glug of that too. It's so good.

Fig, mozzarella, and basil sandwich

I bought a pint of figs at the farmer's market this weekend. For the next few days, as I ate the vast majority of them out of hand, here's what I heard.

"You're going to make The Sandwich."
"When are you going to have The Sandwich?"
"Did you make The Sandwich?"

Yes. With the last two figs left in the basket, I made The Sandwich.

The Sandwich consists of figs, mozzarella, and basil on bread toasted and brushed with olive oil. It's a variation on the fig and mozzarella sandwich I first read about on Chocolate and Zucchini in 2004. That means I've been making it for EIGHT YEARS.

It's definitely worth eating one of these every fig season for eight years running. That's all I'm saying.

The Sandwich

bread, preferably sourdough, ciabatta, or sliced baguette
olive oil
ripe black mission figs
mozzarella cheese
fresh basil leaves
freshly ground pepper

Toast your bread lightly by the method of your choice. I use the toaster oven. Did you know we don't own a toaster? FACT.

Brush your bread with a light layer of olive oil. The original recipe has you use pesto, but I tend not to have any on hand. Olive oil works very well.

Layer each piece of bread with slices of mozzarella and fig, as well as leaves of basil. Be generous with the basil. If you want to add a couple leaves of arugula, that would work too.

Grind a layer of pepper over each piece of bread. Voila!

Eat open-faced or closed at your discretion.

Faint with happiness.

Ginger almond yogurt cake

You guys may have noticed that nobody has much of a sweet tooth at our house, but when I saw Mary's recipe for ginger almond bread the other day, I couldn't resist. A batter redolent of sugar, butter, and eggs, plus a massive amount of fresh ginger and a scattering of almonds? Yes. I can do that.

Of course, I had to change the recipe just a little. This is more of a cake than a bread, to my mind, with a dense, moist crumb and a delicate sweetness. So let's change the title first, shall we?

We don't generally have either sour cream or milk around, but we do have lots of plain yogurt. This was not Greek yogurt, but ordinary semi-runny yogurt. So I switched out the original 1/3 cup sour cream and 1/4 cup milk for 1/2 cup yogurt and a splash--probably 1/8 cup--of water. I also used vanilla instead of almond extract, because we bake seldom enough that we don't actually own any almond extract.

The original recipe also called for 1 full cup of fresh ginger. WOW. That is some serious punch. I didn't actually end up measuring how much chopped ginger I got from my 5-inch root--I just peeled and finely chopped the whole thing. I'm guessing I used about 3/4 cup total. I think using the full cup would still be great, though, so I'm keeping that as the official measurement.

Finally, because I am a lazy baker, I made the entire cake batter in one bowl, with no pre-sifting of dry ingredients. This worked out fine (it nearly always does). If you are a more careful baker, you may want to mix all the dry ingredients together before you add them, but hey! Do whatever works for you.

Ginger Almond Yogurt Bread Cake

3/4 cup room temperature butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3 eggs
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 cup fresh ginger
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups flour
extra almonds for garnish

First, preheat your oven to 350F/175C. Butter a loaf pan and line it with parchment paper. Or you can just butter and flour the pan if you prefer.

Prep your ginger before starting the whole baking process. Peel your ginger using the spoon trick (just scrape it with a teaspoon & the skin will come off), and chop it as finely as you like. If your almonds are whole, slice them up as well. It's certainly faster to just buy sliced almonds, though.

Cream the butter with the sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the yogurt and mix until smooth, scraping the bowl down as needed. Then mix in your eggs (I added mine all at once) and vanilla.

Add your ginger and almonds to the batter, folding them in with a spatula. Sprinkle the baking powder and salt over the top of the batter and fold them in gently but thoroughly. Then add the flour, one cup at a time. After each addition, fold gently with the spatula until the flour is thoroughly incorporated with the wet batter. No overmixing!

Pour and scrape your batter into your prepared loaf pan. The batter will smell great, but try not to eat too much, ok? Spread a couple handfuls of additional almonds over the top.

Bake for approximately one hour, or until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. I actually did not have an eye on the clock at all while baking, so I'm not quite sure of the time I needed, but it was in the general neighborhood of one hour.

Let cool in the pan for about 15-30 minutes before removing. (This is why I like parchment paper--you can just lift it up and the cake comes out perfectly intact.) Then cool the finished cake to room temperature on a wire rack.

Now you can eat cake! Eat it with coffee. Eat it with tea. Eat it for breakfast, certainly. The finished cake is dense enough that you can walk out the door with a slice on your way to work, no problem.

What else might you want to put in this cake? Grated lemon zest might be a nice idea. Dried cranberries or apricots might work. Chopped dried cherries could definitely work. I think I'd reduce the amount of sugar to 3/4 cup if I added fruit, though, since it'd tip the balance toward more sweetness.

CAKE!

Irish soda bread

I keep meaning to document this one. St. Patrick's Day seems like a reasonable time, right?

Okay. In the long-forgotten days of Diary-L, before the term "blog" existed, I was internet friends with a girl named Siobhan, who lived in NYC, went to art school, and occasionally wrote down the things she cooked and baked. So I read her recipes, tried them out, and added them to my rotation. I baked my first acorn squash ever, I voluntarily ate pecans, and I mixed up flour and lemon juice-curdled milk to make her grandmother's soda bread.

I wrote out the soda bread recipe by hand. For two years it hung on the wall of our terrible drafty gradschool house, alongside our scribbled formulas for eggplant business, pizza dough, and lentil soup. I baked it every couple weeks, and in our seven-person household, it vanished damn near instantly. Soda bread warm from the oven, with butter. Soda bread with peanut butter. Soda bread plain, cold from the fridge at 2 am.

I haven't baked Siobhan's grandmother's soda bread in years. This is largely because John and I can't drink even a quart of milk before it goes off, and so we almost never have it in the house. But I may go ahead and chance it for a batch of soda bread.

This is transcribed exactly from the page that was taped to our wall. I always used caraway seeds instead of raisins or currants, 100%. Of course, this time we had no caraway seeds, so I baked half the dough with mixed dried cherries and half plain. It still worked admirably.

Eat Siobhan's grandmother's soda bread.

4 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup veg oil
2 eggs
1 c buttermilk (aka milk w lemon juice)
raisins, currants, or caraway seeds
bowl.

Mix up all the dry stuff besides 1 c flour and raisins. Add eggs, oil, & buttermilk.

Knead in the last cup of flour on the previously cleaned kitchen counter. Then knead in the raisins or whatever.

Make the dough round and loafy & put it on a baking sheet. You can cut a cross in the top or you can not cut one.

Bake @ 325/350F for 1 hour, or until good.

Exhausted bagel longings

I don't know about you, but this is just about exactly what I'd like to be eating right now: toasty bagels with cream cheese or hummus and coffee with actual cream. In actuality, I went to the dentist this afternoon, so I had to cut my delivery pizza dinner into small pieces and eat it with a fork due to inability to bite with the left side of my mouth. Soon it will be time for sleeping. Hooray!

Post-holiday baking roundup

I'm definitely sure you guys want to see these now, on January 5th, during the "I never want to see another sugar-oriented food ever again" phase, right? Of course, we seem to have surpassed that phase and gone straight for more cookies, so let's just run with it.

We produced a pretty substantial amount of baked business, considering there were only two of us to feed. This also meant a "substantial amount" could consist of one batch of cookies and one cake. Both came from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book, which I highly recommend.

First I busted out the flour and made these refrigerator cookies.

Swedish farmer cookies

2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup slivered almonds
1 tbsp molasses
2/3 cup softened butter
1 egg
2 tbsp water

These are super, super easy. Just throw all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix them well. If you discover that you have forgotten to buy pre-slivered almonds at the Persian market, you can sliver whole almonds by hand. It's ok! It doesn't take that long, and you get nice pieces of contrast skin as well. Just try for the thinnest pieces possible, since they'lll make for a nicer texture later.

You will note that the dough is pretty crumbly. This is ok, though; it isn't actually dry, and holds together well.

Form your dough into three long cylinders about an inch and a half in diameter. I mostly just used my hands instead of trying to roll them out. Wrap the pieces in plastic wrap or foil and put them in the refrigerator for at least an hour. You can also put one or two of them in the freezer for later slice and bake action. Do it!

When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 400F. Slice your dough about 1/4 inch thick to form lots and lots of cookies. See that baking sheet down there? That's only a third of the dough!

Put the cookies on a parchment-covered baking sheet with little to no regard for spacing; these do not spread. Bake for eight to ten minutes, or until the cookie edges are slightly golden. Then pull them out of the oven, let them cool, and eat them.

These dudes are satisfyingly short, not very sweet, and a lovely shade of golden brown on the bottom. I ate several with copious smears of apricot jam. Tea is another obvious choice.

Ok. So those were our christmas cookies. How about an actual ridiculous cake? This seemed like the ideal time for such a thing, if ever such a time were to occur. To guard against the typical eat-one-piece-of-cake-and-let-the-rest-sit situation, I chose a coffee-oriented cinnamon roll ring called, for some reason, a Boston cake.

Boston cake

Dough:
2 1/4 tsp/1 packet yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup soft butter
2-2 1/2 cups flour

Filling:
1/4 cup soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon

This is a yeast-risen dough (as you can see, considering the yeast in the ingredients), so plan ahead for rising time. I planned ahead so thoroughly that it was more or less my undoing: I made the full roll of cake dough and filling, left it in the refrigerator overnight, and then brought it to room temperature for a rise the next morning. In our cold, winter-oriented house (well, cold for a heated CA apartment--our heat is currently set at 65F), the warmup and the rise took FOREVER. I therefore recommend that you allow plenty of time if you try such a thing.

For the dough, put the yeast and water in a mixing bowl with a sprinkle of sugar. When the yeast bubbles and froths, mix in all the other dough ingredients but the flour. Then beat in the flour to create a good, solid dough. I did this in three or four batches. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled.

When the dough is all risen and nice, put it on a floured board and use your hands to gently stretch it into an even rectangle. For filling, spread the butter over the dough. Mix the cinnamon and sugar and spread them over the butter layer. Then roll the whole business up into a long dough log. (This was the point at which I stuck my dough in the refrigerator.)

Cut your dough log into eight cinnamon rolls. Put the rolls into a buttered bundt pan or other reasonable ring-shaped cake pan, cover the pan, and let the whole business rise again.

When everything is nice and puffy, bake at 375F for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool, unmold, and eat.

I would err on the side of 25 minutes for appropriately sticky cinnamon business. I would especially do this now, as I slightly overcooked the cake I actually baked...which, of course, led directly back to the eat-one-piece-of-cake-and-let-the-rest-sit situation. Boo! If only we were the kind of people who have two pounds of powdered sugar sitting around, ready for glaze-making at a moment's notice.

Christmas eve carbohydrate party

You guys, I think the pizza party for christmas eve was the best idea ever. We are definitely going to do this as close to every year as possible. YES.

Dough: I used a pretty standard recipe that I got off the Pioneer Woman, because hey, why not? I used wheat flour, and kneaded the living daylights out of the dough before letting it rise.

We spent all afternoon occasionally stirring a massive pot of excellent sauce. Just imagine it about two feet to the left, ok? Then there was the grating cheese/chopping peppers/slicing mushrooms/dicing onions part of the day. Look at all the cheese! We had mozzarella, parmesan, romano, and asiago. CHEESE.

This pizza was mine and mine alone: A HA HA HA HA. Look at those excellent crispy edges! Thin crust for the win.

Here is my preferred method of eating pizza: smother it in arugula. That's one excellent thing about California: there is still available baby arugula in the farmer's market on December 19th. Nice.

I ate it.

HERBSLAB

Our local bakery of preference is called Acme Bread. I for one find this hysterical. So every weekend I go to the farmer's market and stand in their bread line (also hysterical, although for very different and somewhat disconcerting reasons), trying to figure out which kind of bread I should get. Since it's real bread, the time consideration is critical. Which bread will last the longest? Clearly, a bread packed full of damp herbs is a good choice. So last weekend I brought home our first herb slab.

Clearly, herb slab is great completely plain, as the herb content is delicious. (What exactly is the herb content? I'm not sure, but it is delicious nonetheless.) However, for further application, we had to make some sandwiches.

This one is herb slab with labneh, Turkish figs, greens, and pepper, because figs are finally, finally in season, and I cannot stop eating them. I knew this would be good, not only because I love figs, but also because I do some fig/herb/cheese variants every fall. How could it go wrong? It could not.

The next day (slab moisture still intact) we decided to have a kind of abbreviated smörgåsbord for dinner. Butter, mustard, cheddar, mozzarella, olives, spinach, apples, salt, and pepper. Practically any combination of the above turned out beautifully. Mustard, cheddar, and apples worked particularly well, as did plain butter, greens, and salt. If we had been feeling a little less lazy, we might have made some hard boiled eggs to slice and layer on as well.

I was a little miffed that we didn't have radishes to add to the board until I remembered the huge daikon hiding in the crisper.

Herb slab with butter, thinly sliced daikon, salt, and pepper: priceless.

Toaster ovens = awesome.

Man, everything I want to talk about lately seems to be either breakfast or noodles. So, in the interest of avoiding a long spate of all-noodle entries, I present: breakfast.

Though in possession of an excellent bag of salad greens, I was in serious want of some croutons. So I grabbed a piece of sourdough, cut it into pieces, and baked them in the toaster oven for about five minutes. No oil, no salt, no addenda of any kind. This produced perhaps the best croutons I've ever had in my life.

Salad: check. Croutons: check. What else?

Three minutes later, that bowl looked like this.

I fried an egg with the steam trick, added some vinaigrette and pepper, and that was it. Awesome breakfast yet again.

Tomato tomato

I like using nearly identical ingredients to make two different things!

- garlic
- tomatoes
- gold bar squash (or zucchini)
- basil
- olive oil
- maybe some dry vermouth
- salt and pepper

A plate of pasta.

Soften fresh garlic in olive oil. Add a handful of halved grape tomatoes plus a pinch of salt and cook until crumpled. Add cubed gold bar squash and cook again, until done. Deglaze with dry vermouth if you want. At the end, add pepper and maybe some more salt. Toss it with pasta and eat it with torn basil and maybe some cubed mozzarella if you want any.

Panzanella.

Soften fresh garlic in olive oil. Dice a gigantic beefsteak tomato, add it and a pinch of salt, and cook until reduced. Add cubed gold bar squash and potential deglazing vermouth; cook another few minutes as above. Pepper and maybe more salt. Toss it over a plate of toasted torn sourdough; eat with a handful of torn basil and maybe a drizzle of olive oil to finish.

Breakfast breakfast

Oh man. I have been having some awesome breakfasts lately.

Sourdough toast with butter, four minute egg, green beans with garlic, assam tea. Green beans are the best breakfast food ever. I want them right now. Four minute eggs are also great if you have any inclination at all toward a runny yolk mashed into toast. Double energy absorption bomb!

I finally told myself to suck it up and peeled a bowlful of the ever-increasing supply of peaches. Now I feel a little dumb for not doing it before. This is three peaches and one apricot and I totally ate it all.

Another egg, this one fried using the steam trick. Garlic herb toast, redleaf lettuce with good vinaigrette, green tea. I totally broke the egg yolk, folded the business over and had a fried egg sandwich.

This one was the best, though. I woke up yesterday with a serious need for bagel. Ok. So I went to the bagel shop and got a sesame bagel, although without the creamy creamy cheesy cheesy creamy cheese. No! Instead I also went to the grocery store, where, among other things, I got an actual brick of cream cheese. When I got home I whipped out a bunch of dill that had been slowly expiring in our refrigerator. I cut out all the good dill fronds, minced them up, and mashed them into a big whack of cream cheese. Then I toasted my bagel and covered it with as much cheese as possible. Voila: bagel of herbal awesome!

It also helps that it totally looks like a big smiley one-eyed monster. I'm just saying.