Now that's an OSX upgrade

When's Apple going to go for a truly powerful feline?

pizza progress

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I've been working on my sourdough pizza-making. It's been going super-well, and we've been eating tasty pizza every 2 weeks or so. My sister says it's the best in the Bay Area. She is my sister, after all.

Here's the recipe:

Josh's Sourdough Pizza

Note: always use a plastic or wooden spoon when working with sourdough. And non-metallic bowls.

1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. w.w. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
2–3 tbsp. warm water
1 1/2 c. active sourdough starter*
2 tbsp. olive oil

1. Prepare 2 smallish mixing bowls by spraying with olive oil spray
2. In a medium bowl, combine flours and salt.
3. Add starter and water and combine into a tough dough. Usually, I start with 2 tbsp. water and it's plenty, but you can add a little more if the dough seems too dry.
4. Add olive oil to the dough and work in. This is a weird, messy step, but it's OK.
5. Once the oil has absorbed into the dough, knead it for 5 min. I do it on the (clean) counter with no flour. The oil should keep it from sticking.
6. Once it's smooth and slightly elastic, cut the dough into 2 balls and put them in the 2 bowls. Cover with plastic wrap and set them in a warmish place to rise. After about 2-2 1/2 hours, they should at least double in size.

At this point you can proceed with your pizza making (see below) or stick the dough in the fridge to use later. It should keep for 2–3 days. Just be sure to take it out at least 1 hour before you want to use it to bring it back to room temp or so.

7. Preheat oven to 500° with pizza stone inside. (If you don't have a pizza stone, I'm not sure what to tell you. Go get a bunch of bricks?)
8. While oven is preheating, roll crusts out onto heavily floured boards to about 12 inch circles (or close to circles). Cover loosely with dishtowels to rest while you collect your cheeses and toppings and warm up some sauce.
9. When oven is ready, dust a pizza paddle (again, if you don't have one, hmmm... back of a cookie sheet?) generously with cornmeal and place your first crust on it.
10. IMPORTANT: spray or wipe the entire crust with olive oil all the way to the edges. This will help keep your sauce and toppings from soaking in.
11. Dress 'er up. Try to be moderate with your toppings and cheese because a) a little goes a long way on a pizza with a good-tasting crust, and b) you have to get this thing in the oven in one piece.
12. Optional: if you have some fancy coarse salt, sprinkle a little around the edges of the crust.
13. Slide the pizza off the paddle onto the hot stone. Cook for about 8–10 min. I keep the oven light on so I can watch it. When the cheese starts to brown, it's done. Bring it out and cut it.

TIP: If you're using fresh herbs, don't put them on 'til the cheese just starts to brown. They only need about 45 seconds–1 minute in the oven. You don't want them to be brown and dry.

ANOTHER TIP: Break an egg in the middle of the pie right as the cheese starts to melt. Don't be scared. Num.

* On sourdough: there are literally thousands of books and websites about making sourdough starters, so I can't pretend to be an kind of authority or give much advice other than look up a recipe and try it. You do have to commit to keeping the baby alive which really isn't hard. In a nutshell: put equal parts flour and water in a non-metallic container and leave it loosely covered on your counter for a few days until it starts to smell sour and make hooch (alcohol). Discard the hooch, pour about half of the starter out and add 1 c. flour/ 3/4 c. warm water. Repeat this 2 or 3 times until your starter basically doubles in size when you feed it. It's now "active" and ready to use in a recipe. Then, you stick the remainder in the fridge and feed it at least every 2 weeks. Really, you know, you should just watch this video. I've been maintaining my starter for about 2 years now and it's totally worth it. 

salami, green garlic, red pepper, goat cheese, italian parsley

hot italian sausage, nm green chile, fancy (oyster?) mushrooms

In Praise of our Veg Box

This week's box from Dan's:

• red butter lettuce
• peas
• savoy cabbage
• carrots
• little potatoes
• broccoli
• corn
• green garlic
• 3 kinds of mushrooms
• apples
• blueberries
• strawberries
• cantaloupe

All organic, all local, delivered to our door. $32. I'm just saying…*

Plus, Dan's about the cutest produce man with a handlebar moustache you ever did see. Watch:




* Rant about my hatred of this phrase to come

Happy New Year! Redux!

I won't gush out a bunch of excuses about why I haven't posted since February. Let's just say I've been preoccupied in many good and bad ways this 2011 and thus have been absent from the blog. I am sorry, not for you, dear readers (all 3 of you), but for me because I really want this blog to find its way, and I feel bad for not doing my part.

Anyway... let's revisit those new year's resolutions, shall we?

• Make beer: soon, soon.
• Catch up on my New Yorkers: accomplished in March! However, the damn things just keep arriving every week, so I'm 4 issues behind again (Do I really have to finish the Franzen article about the history of the novel/Robinson Crusoe/David Foster Wallace? Really?)
• Hang 2 pieces of remaining artwork in living room: unaccomplished. pathetic.
• Run a mile in less than 11 minutes: Yeah! I can even keep up 10 min/mile for 2 miles as evidenced by our recent fun run in Eureka (official time 19:58!).
• Watch the video tutorials about Blogger: meh.
• Go through the dauntingly giant box of family photos: partially accomplished. Sadly, the death of my father gave this project a kick in the pants. My sister and I weeded out all the bad/repeated/uninteresting photos and did a primary sort, but still need to get them into boxes. 

• Run 3 times/week: on average, yes.
• Get to work on time: on average, no.
• Keep up the flossing: keeping up.
• Take more photos and try to add one/day to the Project 365 app: You know, that app turned out to suck. After 1 year's worth of photos it imploded, so I'm crossing this one off. 
• More blogging, fewer words: see above; will try again.

So, that gives a little sketch of what I've been up to. Also, the cooking continues, sometimes improving on recipes (better spaghetti and meatballs occurred in March, for example), sometimes just sticking with standbys. My sourdough pizza reached a new level of crispy deliciousness a couple of weeks ago when, inspired by Serious Pie in Seattle, I sprinkled the crust with a smidge of Utah basin (huh?) salt. We're doing pizza again either tonight or tomorrow night, so I'll try to document (unless my bragging has cursed it).

The explorative drinking of course continues, too. Although, in an attempt to even things out a bit, Liz and I have vowed to teetotal for a week prior to any races we enter. Believe it or not, we're averaging 1 race/month so far, so we've effectively cut our drinking down by about 25%. My yoga teacher used to say, "everything's better in moderation, including moderation itself," so to balance out the dry spells, I got spectacularly drunk on my 39th birthday on Fernet of all things. There is a photo (thanks to Shannon), but it's not pretty. I'll keep that to myself.

OK, enough with the updating. I close with a recommendation and a gift:

Josh recommends: Daydream Disaster with Andy on KZSU, 90.1 FM, Thursdays, 9–noon PST. This show wows me every week with its perfect blend of alt country, indie, and 80s–90s goodness. I am sadly out of touch with new music, so I listen to KZSU pretty much all day at work to broaden my horizons. Tune in on the webz or check out Andy's Tumblr to listen to archived shows. 

Free gift(?): Those of you on a Mac can download an icon set of the characters on this blog!

 

this one's for Marcy

You asked for it, lady.

Josh will undoubtedly post something of questionable entertainment value soon.

Cats in Tanks from Whitehouse Post on Vimeo.