Month: November 2012

Sorry for the lack of posts and comments, my blog friends.  My camera is in the shop and I don’t know when I will be getting it back.  I am hoping it will be sometime this week.  Until then, I will be a little quiet, but expect posts a go go when I get my camera back.  I will see you all soon!

On Election night, I made pizza and drank cranberry wine while waiting for the election results to come in.  I kinda overdid it on the wine, but it’s delicious, so I don’t mind.   Since it’s Autumn, the cranberry wine went well with the pumpkin pizza.

So pumpkin pizza, eh?  A couple of weeks ago, Mark and I were talking in the kitchen and he asked if pumpkin could be incorporated into pizza.  I said why not, but I thought it would have to be a savory pizza.  If I may say so, it turned out extremely well.  It was delicious!

For our anniversary last year, Mark bought me a pizza stone and a peel.  I have never used it, instead choosing to surrender to his pizza making prowess.  However, this was my first time using both to make a pizza (he helped a lot of course) and I did okay!  Now I can’t wait to make more pizzas with my stone and peel!

Pumpkin Pizza

1 wheat pizza crust

flour (just a bit to sprinkle on the dough)

1/2 cup of pureed pumpkin (use pie filling but make sure it’s plain pumpkin, no spices added)

1 tablespoon of butter or margarine

2 tablespoons of minced garlic

salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste

water

a splash of hot sauce

1  and 1/2 cups shredded Gruyere or Emmental cheese

one large shallot, thinly sliced

Now, I could tell you how to use the stone and peel, but since I am new to the whole process, I am not close to being confident to write those instructions.  What I will say, if you just roll out the dough or however you normally make dough, then you will be just fine.  I like to use a little flour though, to prevent the dough from sticking to the surface of what I am working it on.  I like to prepare the dough and then cook it for a bit in the oven, without the sauce and toppings.  Don’t cook it too long, just enough where it’s almost done, but still a little soft.

To make the sauce, melt the butter/margarine in a frying pan and add the garlic, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and cook for a little bit on low heat.  You don’t want to burn your garlic, but just cook it down a bit.  Next, add your pumpkin to the butter and spice mixture and mix well.  Add a splash of hot sauce at this time too.  At this point, you can turn the heat up a little.  You want this mixture to cook down like regular pizza sauce, but since the pumpkin is quite thick, keep stirring in small amounts of water as you cook the mixture down.  You want a thick sauce, but not too thick and you don’t want to thin it too much with the water either.  Eyeball it.  When it looks the consistency of thick marinara sauce and an easily spreadable consistency, you can remove it from the heat.

When the dough is where you want it, pull it from the oven and spread it with the pumpkin sauce.  Top with shredded cheese and sliced shallots and bake at 350 degrees until the dough is cooked to your preference and the cheese is melted.

Pull the pizza from the over and serve with cranberry wine or your favorite beverage!

Here’s a outfit shot from today.

Outfit details:  I have had this cape for years.  I bought it at a second hand shop in Vermont.  I think it’s first life was a coat and then ti was remade into a cape.  It’s got frog buttons and I just love it!  The hat came from a consignment shop I think.  I know I didn’t buy it new, but I’ve had it a long time and I can’t remember where I got it.  The green dress with the polka dot tie is thrifted, the tights, ring, and shoes are all retail.

Close up shot.  It sure was windy today!

Well, whatever you are up to tonight, I hope you have fun.  Tonight, I will be making a creamy pumpkin soup to use up the rest of the pumpkin pizza sauce.  If it turns out well, I will blog it!

Have a great night and keep cooking!

Hi blog friends!  How are you all doing?  Are you enjoying November?  I like November, although not nearly as much as like October.

Mark and I celebrated our 6th year wedding anniversary on Sunday.  Here’s the photo from our wedding invitation:

Here is a a photo from our wedding day:

Oh heck, here’s  another:

Our wedding car was a 1915 Lozier. The Lozier company was founded here in Plattsburgh.  Read more about Loziers here.

(The wedding photographs are copyright John Wayne Photographix and are reproduced with permission.)

The day before our anniversary, we went to my best friend Christine’s studio opening.  Here she is with some of her amazing work:

Check

Check out Christine’s  art blog:  http://christinelamarvtart.weebly.com/  or her cooking/lifestyle blog:  http://www.thetastynest.com/

We grabbed a bite to eat at Windjammer after the show to celebrate our anniversary. Many thanks to our server Margot for all her help with the menu. The seitan and chickpea burger was great!

On our actually anniversary we grabbed breakfast and then came home to be slugs. I took a nap and then we cracked the champagne and made bellinis. We ate chocolate and watched cartoons and it was nice.

Daylight Saving Time is once again kicking my butt. I just never get used to it getting darker earlier. To combat my blues, I did something I like to do last night: cook!

I roasted some green beans and I served them up with one of my favorite sauces, “Hot Little Honey of a Sauce.”  I came up with this sauce originally as a dipping sauce for fried tofu, but it works on so many things!

Hot Little Honey of a Sauce

vegan mayo

sriracha sauce

honey or agave (if you want to make it vegan which I have been doing more lately)

garlic powder

Mix the above ingredients together and dip your favorite nibble in it!  I have never measured this but the bulk of the sauce is mayo and then a squirt of sriracha (more if you like it spicy) and a small squirt of whichever sweetener you dedice to use.  Add a sprinkle of garlic powder and give the whole thing a good mix!

The green beans were leftovers from the Halloween party.  I also had a ton of kale left from a grocery shopping earlier in the month, so I make kale chips and sprinkled them with pepper and nutritional yeast.

I had a bunch of parsnips and a whole loaf of stale bread as well, so that means it’s a perfect opportunity to make soup!  I was craving something smokey and here’s what I came up with:

Smokey Roasted Parsnip Soup with homemade croutons and tempeh bacon crumble

The soup:

parsnips, peeled and sliced into medallions

a shallot, sliced

olive oil

salt and pepper

3 cups of vegetable broth

2 teaspoons of smoked paprika

1 tablespoon of prepared horseradish

garlic powder, to taste

Toss the parsnips and shallots with oil, salt, and pepper and roast in the oven at 400 degrees until tender.     Add the roasted veg mixture to the prepared broth and add the smoked paprika, horseradish, and garlic.  Bring to a boil and then cover the pot and reduce the heat to simmer.  Use an immersion blender to puree the soup.  Do not put hot soup in a blender.  It will explode and burn you.  Trust me!

The croutons:

To make the croutons, cube stale bread and put the bread cubes on a cookie sheet or in a baking pan.  You can toast these at the same time you are roasting veggies, but keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.

The tempeh bacon crumble:

I fried up some Tofurky tempeh bacon in a little butter and chopped it up with a fork in the pan

Sprinkle some croutons and tempeh bacon on the top of the soup and serve with a Newcastle Brown Ale. Yum!

Most importantly, today is Election Day in the States.  Here’s my PSA for the day:

If you are a U.S. citizen, please exercise your right to vote!

Outfit details:  My red, white, and blue was purely accidental today. I didn’t make the connection until Mark said something about how fitting the colors were for today. That said, I would never forget to vote and you shouldn’t either! Outfit details: 60’s white cardigan-belonged to my Gram, red shirt-clearance retail, square dancing skirt – thrifted, white tights – retail, red 6 inch heels-online but on super duper clearance, vote sign – made by me using the back of a newspaper flyer. My boss told me I looked like a cross between Dorothy and KISS. I’ll take it!

Have a great night gang!  Tonight I plan on making a new kind of pizza and then chilling out with some wine and the election results.  Whatever you plan on doing tonight, be safe!   Have a nice night and keep cooking!