Happy Valentine’s Day to all! May your day be filled with fun and time spent with your favorite people. This past month while grappling with the reality of death and loss I have found myself thinking a lot about what it means to live. I have come to believe that when I reach the end of my life, what I have accomplished will quite likely not matter very much. Rather, it will be those whom I have loved that will provide my life with it’s greatest meaning. So instead of rolling my eyes at the ridiculousness and manufactured commercial sentiment of today, I will take it as a reminder to tell those I love how much they mean to me- because in one lifetime could I ever tell them enough?

On a lighter note, yes that is a Williams-Sonoma Chocolate filled croissant saved in the freezer by sheer willpower from our Christmas morning breakfast. With a nice cup of Peet’s coffee it was the perfect way to start the morning! And to end this post on a very happy note, here’s a little puppy love for everyone.

You know you might be living in the country if you don’t have pizza delivery. That’s right, dialing for dinner is a pipe dream around these parts. If we ever have kids they’ll have a lot to learn when they go to college!

To make up for our lack of ability to have pizza in under 30 minutes, I’ve developed a routine for making delicious pizza with minimal effort. Both Mr. B and I love this pizza and I end up making it about once a week during the winter. Now typically I’m a big proponent of making things from scratch, and one day I will develop a favorite recipe for homemade dough and sauce. However, this is weekday pizza- not weekend pizza. I don’t know about your weekdays but mine don’t include the time to make sauce and dough! (Yes, I realize I could make all of these things ahead of time and freeze them – I’m working on it!)

First I’ll share the breakdown of the routine I’ve developed to crank out great pizzas with minimal effort, and then I’ll list the recipe in a simplified fashion.

The Routine

1.) Start the night before – take pre-made dough, buffalo style mozzarella, and pepperoni out of the freezer. Place all in the fridge to thaw overnight. (Yes, I realize this totally kills the last minute aspect, but at least it gives me something to look forward to the next day!)

I buy lots of frozen pizza dough from the pizza counter whenever I’m in a Whole Foods. It keeps in the freezer sealed in plastic bags for months. You could also stop by a pizza restaurant that you really like and talk them into selling you dough. Whole Foods additionally carries high quality nitrate-free pepperoni, which can be frozen. Similarly I buy buffalo mozzarella in bulk at Costco whenever I can and freeze it. If you let it thaw for 24 hours in the fridge before using it works out beautifully.

2.) An hour before baking the pizza, turn the oven on to the hottest setting (mine is High Broil) and place a pizza stone on the lowest rack of oven. Let everything get nice and hot for at least an hour.

3.) At the same time you turn the oven on, take the pizza dough and mozzarella out of the fridge. Open the bag of dough to give it room to “grow” a bit. Let it sit out for about an hour before assembling the pizza.

4.) Liberally spread cornmeal on a pizza peel. The corn meal will act as little ball bearings that will roll your pizza from the peel onto the hot stone without sticking, so don’t skimp here!

5.) When you are ready to assemble the pizza, look at the dough. If it looks wet and sticky, toss a handful of flour into the bag and shake it a bit to coat. This will make it easier to handle the dough. Turn the bag inside out, to easily remove the dough, and then hold the dough in your hands. Turn the dough like you are turning a steering wheel in slow circles. Keep doing this until the dough has stretched out to the size of your pizza peel. Then carefully lay it on top of the cornmeal.

This method will create a thicker edge which will become a nice puffy crust in the oven. If you want to toss the pizza around in the air, be my guest. You can clean up the flour on the floor!

6.) Apply sauce (just use enough to create a thin layer or the pizza will be soggy!) and other ingredients ending with the mozzarella on top. Placing the mozzarella on top will allow it to brown nicely and will also help protect other ingredients from burning in the high heat of the oven. Go easy on the quantity of toppings. I always try to restrain myself and regret it if I use too many and end up with a soggy pizza.

7.) Open the oven and pull the rack out if you can. Place the edge of the pizza peel about two-thirds back on the pizza stone, and hold the peel at about a 45 degree angle to the stone. Start jerking the pizza peel sharply toward you to move the pizza off of the peel and onto the stone. If you can get the far edge of the dough onto the hot stone it will typically stick and make it easier to smoothly pull the peel out from the rest of the dough. Be brave here and don’t give up if the first few pizzas look rather misshapen. It took me a while to get the feel of this process.

8.) Quickly close up the oven and let it bake for about 6-10 minutes. Keep an eye on things to learn how hot your oven bakes. The pizza will be done when the outer crust is looking very well browned and the mozzarella is melted and mostly brown. Stick the peel underneath the pizza in a quick movement, and lift it off the stone to cool. Let the pizza cool for about 5-10 minutes before slicing and eating.

You can cook a second pizza immediately following the first one, however the crust will be slightly less chewy because the stone will not have had an hour to re-heat. I use a rimless cookie sheet to take the first pizza out of the oven if I have a second pizza on my peel ready to go. (My father says he has never noticed any difference in the second pizza, but I do!)

Weeknight Pizza
Serves 2-4
(Depends on the size of your appetite and if it’s all you are having for dinner!)

Ingredients:
1.5 lb pre-made pizza dough (thawed for 24 hours in fridge if previously frozen)
8 oz buffalo style mozzarella
3.5 oz quality pepperoni
1/2 cup pizza sauce (a non-chunky spaghetti sauce works in a pinch)
6 leaves fresh basil, thinly sliced

1/4 cup sun dried tomatos, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, thinly sliced
1, 4oz can sliced black olives
thinly sliced red onion (as much as you like)
1/4 cup artichoke hearts, chopped
Cornmeal

Special Equipment:
Pizza Stone
Pizza Peel

Directions: (Read The Routine above for more detailed directions)

Pre-heat oven at hottest setting for at least 60 minutes. Allow dough and cheese to sit at room temperature for 1 hour.

Spread cornmeal on pizza peel. Turn out dough until it reaches desired size. Place on pizza peel. Spread sauce evenly on pizza dough. Evenly distribute remaining ingredients, ending with the cheese.

Use peel to place pizza on hot stone and bake for 6-10 minutes until cheese and crust are well browned.

Remove from oven using peel and allow pizza to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.

This past week, Mr. B and I headed to the West Coast to attend the funeral of my ‘adopted’ grandmother. It was sad. It was beautiful. And I was so glad to be there with my family. However, getting out of town proved to be a challenge.

Our trip started off with the usual frenzy of working all day, last minute packing, taking Oscar to the dog sitter, and driving several hours to the airport. As we rushed toward the security line, Mr. B glanced up at the flight monitor and came to a sudden stop. Canceled. The flight had been canceled and of course there were no other flights out that night. Driving home wasn’t really an option since we needed to be back at the airport at 5:00am, so we found ourselves stuck in the “big city” for the night- wishing we were halfway to our destination.

To make the best of a frustrating situation, Mr. B had the brilliant idea of heading to a new wine bar that we had been wanting to check out. It was the perfect suggestion. We found the wine bar, settled into comfy brown couches and ordered a flight of red wine. The next few hours spent talking, sipping, and laughing were just what I needed to let the stress melt away and re-charge before the rest of our trip. Being the bloggers that we are, we managed to snap a photo and take notes to share our thoughts on the wine. Here are the results from Mr. B!

Here are the tasting notes:

Walter Horse, Pinot Noir: Nose of a good berry pie. Light and bright with balanced acidity. Apparent alcohol is refined and not overpowering. This would be a good Pinot for salmon.

Yalumba Bush Vine, Grenache: This wine tastes like it smells- plum, fig, and chocolate covered cherry. Very smooth, dry, and with a long flavor. This would be good with an aged blue cheese or the pork roast with winter fruits and port sauce. If you like Grenache this wine is for you.

Calina, Carmenere Reserva: Smells smoky. Has a leather/pepper flavor with petrol and a slight funk. Not special…unfocused and weak. Since this was our first carmenere we do not know if our dislike is for the varietal or just this producer. We have more carmeneres in the cellar to try later.

Marquis Phillips, Shiraz: Well balanced, lush, and silky. The fruit of this wine is controlled, complex and delivers a burst of flavor at the finish. Nice aroma of wild huckleberries. This is a delicious shiraz from a stellar producer who has not disappointed in previous tastings. Phoo-D thought it was “sexy” and would be excellent with lamb.

Punta Pays, Malbec: This wine smelled like a cigar and tasted tannic, boring and funky. Phoo-D flat out did not like it. Mr. B thought it could redeem itself with the right food (if you’re in to that sort of thing). Not the usual Argentinian Malbec we have come to like so much.

Colle Dei Venti Tufu Blu, Barolo: This wine pleased us the most. The aroma was the first clue to its complexity. The closest comparison we could come up with was fermented cherries. It tasted like dried cherries, juicy, complex with a soft beginning and a burst of juice at the end. This wine has finesse. We think it would go well with a pasta and a slow cooked tomato sauce with balsamic vinegar.

Tikal Patriota, 2006: This blend of malbec and bonarda from Argentina produced a very dark purple wine that was sweet and spicy but not cloying. The nose is dried fruit and mild chocolate. It yields to a dry peppery finish with no oak in the profile. We both thought it would benefit from decanting. If you are looking for something new and different to try from South America this would be a great choice. We think it could pair well with a buffalo burger with cheddar on an onion roll.

The shrimp go marching one by one hurrah, hurrah!

Mexican Pineapple Salad
From Gourmet Magazine, February 2009
Serves 4-6 (as a side dish)

Ingredients:
1 (3-pound) pineapple, peeled, cored, and diced
1/2 pound jicama, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch cubed pieces
1 (7-to 8-ounce) avocado, cut into cubes (I used two- we love avocado)
1 small red onion, thinly sliced and then chopped (1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

Directions:
Toss together all ingredients with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

If I close my eyes and imagine the perfect comfort food from my childhood, this soup immediately comes to mind. I can almost smell it bubbling on the stove in our tiny house and my mouth waters just at the memory of it. My mom frequently made a large batch of this soup during the winter. It was satisfying, healthy, and a way to get my brother to eat his vegetables without realizing it! I loved the combination of Italian sausage, leeks, and tomatoes topped with tiny macaroni and fluffy piles of grated Parmesan.

My family is not Italian (tragic-I know) but this recipe came to my mother via her friend Nina’s Italian grandmother who lived Italy her entire life. Nina loved the recipe so much that she wrote it down on a visit in the 1970′s while her grandmother was making the soup and then thankfully shared it with my mother. So through a round-about way this recipe did come straight from an Italian grandmother. (Just not mine, darn it!)

The soup can be made ahead, and even frozen. Simply leave out the macaroni and add it in right before serving the soup (it will get soggy if you add it in ahead of time or put it in the freezer). Minestrone is excellent with a rustic bread and the recipe can easily be doubled to serve a crowd. If you want to keep things healthy, low-fat chicken Italian sausage will still make a very tasty soup. The refried beans are a surprising and seemingly non-Italian addition. All I can say is that they work really well here, and provide a texture that would be missing if they were omitted.

So if you’re looking for a comforting soup that will make your home smell like your own Italian grandmother has been visiting, here you go.
Buon Appetito!

Mom’s Minestrone
Serves 4 (main course)

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons butter
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 leeks, rinsed and chopped
2 Italian sausages
1 14.5oz can refried beans
6 celery stalks w/ tops, strings removed, cut into bite sized pieces
2 carrots, peeled and sliced into bite sized pieces
2 medium zucchini, sliced into bite sized pieces
1 medium potato, peeled and cubed
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano flakes
8 cups broth (chicken or vegetable)
1 14.5oz can chopped tomato
1/2 cup salad macaroni

Fresh Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Place a large stockpot over medium heat. Add oil and butter to the pot. Saute onion, garlic, parsley, leeks, and sausage until vegetables are just wilted and sausage is broken into pieces. Add refried beans. Stir and cook one minute to soften beans. Add in broth and the remaining ingredients (except the zucchini). Simmer for 40 minutes. Add in the zucchini and simmer for another 20 minutes.

In a separate medium pot, cook salad macaroni according to package instructions until al dente. Drain and set aside.

Just before serving the soup, add in cooked macaroni along with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with plenty of freshly grated Parmesan on top.