recipe: scalloped potatoes

Before we get started, let me just say, if your New Year's resolution was "eat healthy" ... you should skip this recipe. Ain't nothing healthy about it.

So last fall, I made a tasty tasty macaroni and cheese that used a bechamel white sauce. I made the recipe once with cow's milk, and once with soy milk, and there was no discernible difference. Which was an exciting discovery for me because the soy-based bechamel can be a good way to make creamy recipes without any dairy. So for the past several months, I've been trying/inventing recipes with bechamel sauce, but none have turned out well enough to post on the blog.

Until today, my friends.

I was talking to my mom about bechamel one day, and she said she makes it for her scalloped potatoes.

So I turned to whom I presume is the authority on the matter of scalloped potatoes and bechamel: Julia Child. Except her recipes for scalloped potatoes (which she calls gratin dauphinois, how fancy) doesn't use bechamel. She says to just use boiling milk.

But I really wanted to use bechamel, so I made some adaptations to Julia's recipe. (Is that blasphemy -- tweaking a Julia Child recipe?)

The result? OMG, delicious. Mmmm, crispy brown edges.

Scalloped Potatoes

Inspired by Mastering the Art of French Cooking

For bechamel sauce

• 1 cup milk (or soy milk)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons flour

For filling

• 2 pounds potatoes
• 5 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pepper to taste

Peel potatoes, and use a mandoline to slice into super thin 1/8-inch slices. Store in a bowl of cold water until ready to use.

For the bechamel sauce, begin heating milk in a saucepan over medium-low heat.

In a separate saucepan, melt butter. Add flour, continue stirring, and cook for 2 minutes while mixture froths. This is called the roux. Remove the roux from the heat.

Turn the heat up on the milk, so it begins to boil around the edges.

Add hot milk to the roux, and whisk vigorously until the mixture is smooth.

Put saucepan over the heat again, continuing to stir with the whip, and boil for 1 minute. Remove the bechamel from the heat.

Grease a 9-by-9 casserole dish with 2-inch sides.

Drain the potatoes, and pat dry on a dish towel.

Layer half of the potatoes in the casserole dish. Spread half of the bechamel. Dot with half of the butter. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste. Repeat with the remaining potatoes, bechamel, butter, salt and pepper.

Bake at 425 degrees on top rack, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Then broil for 2 minutes, turning the dish 90 degrees after 1 minute.

Julia says it serves 6, but it's more like 4 or 5.

recipe: chicago deep-dish pizza

I made this pizza for the first time after Tony and I got back to D.C. after Christmas. And I'm not ashamed to say that I made it again three days later because both of us were craving it. Tony has since declared this to be his favorite pizza ever.

I found this recipe when I was poking around the recipe pages of the King Arthur flour website. The crust is the best part about this pizza. It's thick like a Chicago pizza should be, and the bottom is crispy-fried. The sauce is the second best part about this pizza. It's chunky and spicy and unexpected.

Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Crust

• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons warm water
• 2 3/4 teaspoons yeast
• 4 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons cornmeal
• 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons olive oil for crust + 4 tablespoons olive oil for pans

Sauce

• 28-ounce can petite diced tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 garlic cloves, minced

Toppings

• 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• toppings of your choice (I used 1 pound cooked Lightlife ground veggie sausage, 2 cans mushrooms drained and sauteed, and a handful of green olives and a handful of onions)
• 4 tablespoons olive oil to drizzle on top

Preheat oven to 200 degrees, and turn off when it comes to temperature.

Dissolve yeast in warm water.

In stand mixer bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, salt, butter, vegetable oil and olive oil. Add yeast mixture. On speed 2 with a dough hook, mix until dough comes together. Continue to knead for a few minutes after dough comes together.

Place dough in a greased bowl. Cover bowl with a towel, and place in warm oven for 1 hour.

Prepare 2 9-inch cake pans by pouring 2 tablespoons olive oil into each pan, and tilt pans, so oil covers the bottoms. (The original recipe calls for a 14-inch round pie plate, but I do not have that.)

Once dough has risen, divide in half and roll each half into a 11-inch circle with a rolling pin. Place the circles into the cake pans, and mold the dough up the sides of the pan.

Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

Poke 10 holes in the bottom of each crust. Par-bake the crust for 10 minutes at 425 degrees.

For the sauce, drain the tomatoes thoroughly. In a large bowl, combine tomatoes, oregano, basil, hot pepper flakes, salt, sugar and garlic.

Cover bottom of each par-baked crust with 1 cup cheese. Add toppings. Add sauce. Add additional 1/2 cup cheese. (Original recipe called for grated Parmesan here, but I only had mozzarella.) Top with 2 tablespoons olive oil on each pizza.

Bake for an additional 25 minutes at 425 degrees. Use a spatula to transfer the pizzas to a cutting board. Cutting through the crust will require a big whack with a sharp pizza cutter.

Makes 2 9-inch pizzas.

recipe: ginger fruit salad

Happy New Year! If your resolution was to "eat healthy," boy, do I have the recipe for you. I made this fruit salad when Mike, Jen and Jamie came over for our Christmas brunch. I like it because the ginger is unexpected.

The ingredients sound weird (honey + red wine vinegar + ginger) -- but trust me on this one. It's good.

Ginger Fruit Salad

Adapted from The Cook's Country Cookbook

• Fruit to fill a medium bowl (I used 2 large apples, 1 can mandarin oranges, 2 handfuls of frozen blueberries and 2 handfuls of grapes that I froze when they were on sale)
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

Combine 1/8 cup oranges (or any fruit of your choice), water, honey, vinegar and ginger in a small saucepan. Break down with a potato masher. Bring mixture to a simmer and cook 2 minutes. Cool to room temperature. Strain, reserving the juices and throwing away the solids.

Toss the remaining fruit in a bowl with the fruit juice. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

(By the way, after I cut the apples, I sprinkled them with lemon juice to keep them from browning.)

decor: santa brought me a typewriter

Tony and I are back in D.C. after spending Christmas in Ohio, which involved so. many. cookies. And loads of good family time. The highlight of the weekend was playing with the Lionel train set my dad has had since he was a kid. When Stephanie and I were growing up, he'd get it out, but it'd been a long time since he'd it set up. This year, my dad and brother-in-law dug it out and set it up in the basement, making a whole town, which they're calling Trainville. Here's Tony enjoying the fruit of their labors.

Cute conductor hat FTW.

Fun also was had shooting off model rockets. Last year, Tony and I got my dad a model rocket launch kit for Christmas. The two of them put it all together, and we went out to a field to shoot it off, but it disappeared into the heavens on its inaugural launch.

We tried again this year. We went back to the hobby store, and Tony, Ian and Dad each got their own rocket.

We shot them off in the middle of nowhere this year, and I'm happy to report there was only one casualty. One failed parachute put an end to my dad's rocket.

<3

As you may have been able to tell from this blog, I was very good this year. Santa clearly realized this because he left all kinds of goodies under the tree. Including this beautiful old typewriter. Santa must be a rowhouse home reader, haha.

I have the old girl parked in my dining room, on top of the white dresser.

And it works! Tony and I are using it to leave messages to each other. (Awwww.)

That deep dish reference, by the way, is a reference to our pizza dinner last night. So good. Recipe coming soon!

Merry Christmas! And Happy New Year!

life: it's snowing!

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

 

the garden: surprise radishes

Tony was working in the backyard recently, and when he came inside, he brought a radish with him. The radishes were ready to be picked, he said.

RADISHES. I totally forgot about them. Actually, I thought they never came up after I planted them in the fall. And then leaves fell and made a mess of my garden, and I totally forgot about the radishes.

Soooo, we had some radishes on our salad. With romaine, spinach and tomatoes, all from the garden. I told you I love this climate. We get all four seasons with an emphasis on the spring and fall.

<3

So, this was a blog post about my radishes, which I acknowledge is not the most interesting thing in the world. So, to reward you for making it this far into the post, I present you with a super cute picture of my cat.