Broccoli Rabe, Feta and Olive Calzones

I worked at a health food store in high school, mostly 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. shifts. I'd go straight from school to cross country practice, run for an hour, and then throw my normal clothes back on and drive to work.

By the time I got there, I'd be starving. But because my shift was so short, I'd only get a 15 minute dinner break.

So, I'd usually choose an Amy's Pocket Sandwich. They were one of the cheapest meal-like products in the store, which fit my limited budget perfectly. They microwaved up in 2 minutes, so I could stick them in the microwave when my break started and still have a whopping 13 minutes left to eat. And they were pretty tasty.

But lately, I've really been making an effort not to eat prepackaged food. If I want something, I've decided I should make it myself.

Or buy it while I'm out to eat. A girl has to be reasonable.

These calzones are an attempt at that. I made six lunch or dinner-sized calzones, stuffed with a filling of broccoli rabe, feta and olives. I baked them up in a half whole wheat crust, cooled them completely and froze them.

They're my own frozen dinners, except I know exactly what's in them and how they were made. With the heat here, they'll be perfect for those days when I just can't bring myself to turn on the oven.

What would you stuff your calzones with?

Shaved Raw Asparagus Salad Pizza

It is still asparagus season. I've already told you how much I love asparagus when it's fresh, so I won't go into that again.

Instead, I'll just continue to celebrate it in recipes like this.

Here the asparagus is served raw, barely dressed up with olive oil, lemon juice and scallions. Enjoyed on top of a mozzarella and Parmesan topped pizza crust, the asparagus just shines.

 

The asparagus elevates your traditional pizza to a whole new level. It's light and fresh. Be generous with it. You'll want extra asparagus salad so you have enough to snack on while the pizza cooks.

Pizza with Cherries, Honey and Gorgonzola

I didn't wake up this morning planning to extract DNA from strawberries. Believe it or not. 

Apparently strawberries have extra large DNA, so that inside each cell there are 8 copies of each chromosome instead of just one. 

So, when you crush up the strawberries, mix them with a DNA extractor (can be purchased or made simply with soap and salt), and then strain them through a filter, you're left with this strawberry goo. The DNA in strawberries is insoluble in ethanol, particularly in really cold ethanol. 

We poured that cold ethanol in slowly. The white DNA threads formed into these cotton-like fibers, and they clung together. We lifted them out and got these long, globby strands of DNA. 

Don't worry. This pizza has nothing to do with strawberry DNA. 

But it has everything to do with trying something new. 

Our Super Bowl party a few weeks back was really an eating party. We made pizzas, salsas, potato chip cookies, mulled wine, and raw kale salad. We agreed to talk only during the game and to stay quiet during the commercials. We had our priorities. 

We made pizzas inspired by Paulie Gee's, a pizza restaurant I've never visited. Our first was pretty standard. Mozzarella cheese sprinkled over a pizza crust rubbed with olive oil. We cooked it until the cheese was blistery, and then we topped it with a light salad of arugula and olive oil. It's one of my favorites. Simple. Fresh. 

But then, we tried their Cherry Jones. Two cheeses--mozarella and gorganzola. Topped with dried cherries and drizzled with local honey when it came out of the oven. 

This one was divine. The complex flavor of the gorganzola cheese contrasted perfectly with the sweetness of the cherries. The drizzle of honey finished it off perfectly. 

It's better as a second pizza if you're making two. It might be hard to eat several slices of. But it's fantastic. 

Camping, Rapids and the Best S'mores Ever

Welcome to the blogging world, Casey from Tiny Brooklyn Oven! Visit her blog, say hi, and marvel at her delicious dishes!

I think meals served while camping should be treated with the same love and respect as the meals you serve around your dinner table each night. They should be well planned, well balanced and delicious. Campfire Cookery: Adventuresome Recipes and Other Curiosities for the Great Outdoors took this idea to the extreme. They suggest a boeuf bourguignon for dinner and wild blueberry steamed pudding for dessert, among dozens of other delicious suggestions. While their ideas are charming, I tend to look for camping meals that are flavorful and special, but that don't require tons of special equipment.

Who wants to lug a dutch oven into their canoe? Or traverse through rapids with fragile teacups for a proper afternoon tea? They certainly won't survive if your canoeing partner purposefully steers you toward rocks.

We went on a canoeing trip recently to the Delaware River. Everyone had a job. I was in charge of the menu. I wanted our meals to keep us energized over 25 miles of water and rapids, but still be rustic, authentic camping meals. I planned a mostly vegetarian weekend, and then Alex went shopping with me and made sure I got plenty of meat.

Here are our meals from the trip last weekend, and some favorite meals I've had during recent camping trips in the Adirondacks.

Hobo Dinners (or Foil Dinners): These foil dinners are a delicious way to invest everyone in the cooking process. Build a fire and let coals gather at the bottom. Chop up any vegetables you enjoy into small pieces. We used potatoes, onions, carrots, red peppers, asparagus, green beans, mushrooms and garlic. We had baked tofu, as well as sausages and hot dogs (all precooked). Make some quick vegetarian brown gravy. Assemble your own dinner on a tinfoil square, and then top it with gravy and seasonings (We used pepper, salt, cayenne, Old Bay). Seal it up tightly, write your name on top in permanent marker, and put it in the fire. Flip the foil packets every 5 to 10 minutes. Ours were done after about 25 minutes.

Before Cooking

After Cooking

Tomatoes and Mozzarella: While these are not the easiest camping snacks since the tomatoes require really careful transportation, they were delicious on our recent canoe trip. Slice fresh tomatoes, top them with slices buffalo mozzarella, and top with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Enjoy. 

Homemade S'mores: These were the most delicious s'mores I've ever had in my life. They were made by Casey from Tiny Brooklyn Oven. The marshmallows were from Smitten Kitchen, and the graham crackers were from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. The chocolate was just plain Hershey, but next time I'll go for a delicious dark chocolate with sea salt. A store-bought ingredient s'more will never taste the same again.

Breakfast Burritos with Scrambled Eggs and Hash Browns: These burritos are just perfect for a long day of canoeing or hiking. Grate pepper jack cheese and slice avocado. Heat up a can of black beans with a can of salsa. Make scrambled eggs, mixing in some pepper jack cheese and a splash of cayenne pepper. Assemble burritos to your liking. We also sauteed up some hash browns (with the leftover potatoes and onions from the hobo dinners) that were delicious in the burritos. 

Cold-brewed iced coffee: While it's not quite iced by day three of a camping trip, Smitten Kitchen's recipe for cold-brewed iced coffee is a winner. We in Brooklyn get used to having high-quality coffee at our fingertips, and it can be hard to do even a few days of Nestle's instant brew. I used paper towels to strain the coffee, but next time I will bring a fine mesh sieve to make the process easier and save quite a bit of time. Forget sugar? Just throw in a marshmallow to lighten and sweeten the coffee. 

Buckwheat with mushrooms and garlic: This recipe is simple and hearty. Boil packages of buckwheat in a covered pot over the stove. At the same time, saute garlic and mushrooms in olive oil. When the buckwheat is finished, combine the two mixtures. If you've got any freshly caught fish, saute it up to have on the side. 

Pizzas: Pizzas cooked over the fire are one of my favorite camping meals because they get everyone involved in the cooking. Wrap the grill grate with aluminum foil before starting the fire. We used garlic naan as the base of our pizzas (we learned after using tortillas last year that burned before the cheese could melt). Top the pizzas with your favorite toppings. Ours were simple with pizza sauce, shredded cheese and tomatoes. This summer, I think I'll bring some homemade pesto with me. 

Couscous with shrimp: Couscous is another one of those grains that cooks up ridiculously easily with little fuss. Boil water, add the couscous and set aside. In another pan, saute shrimp with garlic and top with a little lemon juice. Combine the two to serve. We added a nice, light salad to balance out the meal. 

Sunny-Side Up Eggs with Lox and Goat Cheese: This breakfast was certainly a splurge in terms of the time it took to make, but what else is there to do when you're up with the rising sun? We toasted baguettes lightly over the fire, topped them with goat cheese and lox, and fried up some eggs to finish them off. This was the best breakfast I had enjoyed in a long time, camping or not. 

 Middle Eastern Feast: We brought store-bought hummus and pita with us. We whipped up a batch of Fantastic Foods Falafel Mix, 10 oz., and we made Tabouli Mix (Casbah) 6oz (170g) to accompany it. The tabouli came together quickly, and we added spring onions and tomatoes for taste and texture. The falafel sauteed somewhat evenly in a large pan over the fire. This meal was full of protein, and the leftover falafel were great in sandwiches the next day. 

What's your favorite camping meal? I'd love more ideas for delicious meals this summer!

Pizza with Broccoli Raab and Roasted Onions

I get excited about any recipe that calls for just a pinch of red pepper flakes. Two years ago, Cooks Illustrated wrote an article remaking pasta alla norma. In the recipe, they wrote that "a small measure of red pepper flakes added a suggestion of heat."

That small pinch of red pepper flakes totally transformed the recipe. After each bite melted away, I was left with just the smallest suggestion of heat. I was hooked. So, when I read the ingredient list for Smitten Kitchen's pizza with broccoli raab and roasted onions, I was delighted to see a pinch of red pepper flakes added into the broccoli raab as it cooked. This tiny ingredient makes a huge difference. Do not leave it  out.

Although broccoli rabe just came into season here, I see why Deb from Smitten Kitchen made this recipe in January. It involves roasting onions for at least 30 minutes, and then letting your oven preheat to 500 degrees (!!!) for about an hour. It involves standing over the oven to slide your pizza in and take it out. Thankfully, it got down to the 70s tonight, and with a fan in the window the cooking experience was quite pleasant.

The recipe called for a chiffonade cut, which I had only heard mentioned before but had never actually attempted. Kitchen Daily had this great tutorial, which made the chiffonade cut feel more manageable. It involved making lots of adorable piles of broccoli rabe leaves and cutting them into careful, even-sized strips.

The grocery store only had olives with pits, so I used a handy trick Brooklyn Larder showed me a few months ago. I put the olive on a cutting board, placed the palm of my hand on it, and pressed down as hard as I could. When I removed my hand, the pit was exposed and easy to remove. The finished product is a little messy looking but still delicious.

The finished product was light and nutritious. This is my new go-to pizza recipe.

Basic Pizza Dough

I haven't had a pizza dough recipe I just loved for a long time. I've made Smitten Kitchen's Really Simple Pizza Dough several times, and while I'm always satisfied with the finished product, the 3/4 teaspoon of yeast her recipe calls for has never been enough for my pizza dough to rise the way I want.

I picked up some broccoli rabe at the farmers' market, and found this recipe for pizza with broccoli rabe. I needed a new pizza dough recipe fast, and The New Basics Cookbook didn't disappoint.

The dough came together easily (with the same ingredients as the Smitten Kitchen pizza dough mentioned above). It called for an entire packet of yeast, which resulted in a bread that was almost exploding out of the rising container after an hour. The dough was soft and pliable.

I think the men throwing pizza dough into the air at the pizzerias of my childhood gave me a false confidence. Since I had seen them shape so many pizzas, I assumed I could do it perfectly as well. However, several misshapen, uneven pies later, I realized I needed to read up about how to actually shape a pizza.

Again, The New Basics Cookbook was there. After I had separated the dough into two balls, I let it rise for 15 to 20 minutes. Then, I started with a ball of dough and shaped it into a 6 or 8 inch flat disk. Then, I flipped the disk over and laid it on a lightly floured surface. Using the palm of my hand, I worked in a circle clockwise, stretching the dough out to form a perfect circle. Once I had the circle my desired size, I pressed my fingers along the edge of the dough, creating a more pronounced crust.

Overall, I was delighted with this pizza dough recipe, and I'll return to it again and again. I'll definitely divide it into three even pieces next time since I prefer my pizza a little thinner.