Pizza again? Yes, but this time it has tomatoes.

Ok, I know that last time you were a little disappointed that I didn't have any actual tomatoes on a pizza, nor did I replace them with a pesto or make a white pizza. But did I make an abomination?! No. It was tasty. This time, however, I will bend to more conventional pizza stylings and give you tomatoes. Not just any tomatoes, though, tomatoes that you don't have to farm yourself yet have flavor. How is that possible (you ask)? Well, you roast them and they become magically delicious.

The key here is patience, as the process itself is extremely simple. Go out and buy a bunch of roma tomatoes, cut them in half, remove some of the inner juices (otherwise they will explode upon biting), toss them in some olive oil and salt (I throw in a hint of balsamic vinegar as well), then put them in the oven at 250 for at least two hours. AT LEAST. You can decide when they are done, but you want to dry them out a bit to intensify the flavor. I tend to cook an extra tomato or two just to eat straight out of the oven, and might I suggest you do the same.

Once you have these lovely tomatoes, you get to make a pizza...

On dads and cheese

Today, we shall discuss two things: 1) How awesome my dad is and 2) a food he wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. Yes, this is how I show him my love on Father's Day, I post a recipe he'd hate.

First, the good part: during the official Father's Day call this morning, Dad informed me that he made some changes to his traditional grilled chicken marinade inspired by one of my posts. I practically glowed I was so pleased. It's the little things.

Now, it is unfair to say that Dad doesn't appreciate a good pizza, he loves them... as long as there isn't a shred of cheese present. In fact, my house was impressively cheese-free (except for one Atkins burst inspired by my mother) for the first eighteen years of my life. As a result, I've come a little late to the cheese game and have been trying to sort out the sweet from the salty and the creamy from the hard and the goat from the cow from the sheep. Incidentally, I still can't handle bleu cheese and Snofrisk goat/cow cheese is happiness in a plastic container. In this attempt to catch up, I've started making a lot of cheese-related foods. I started with a fancy mac & cheese, moved on to bechamel sauces with whatever I had in reach melted in them, and now have started making my own pizzas. They. Are. Delicious. I even made one without cheese for Dad when I was home, because I'm nice sometimes.

This particular pizza is a nice balance between a spicy sausage and the sweetness of caramelized onions and peas, topped with fontina for the creamy, mild flavor. It's a little bit different from your average delivery, but not so far out that it would spark an outcry. Of course you can, and should, put anything you want on your pizza. In fact, the dough recipe I'm about to give you makes enough for not one, but two 10-14 inch pizzas. I popped the second dough ball in the freezer for round two (oh my, was that a pun?) later this week.

Enough talk, time to eat.

Improv!

"This sauce is amazing. Can you give me the recipe?"
"Thanks, but I pretty much just threw things in a pot and hoped for the best, I can give you a rough list of ingredients though."
"Um... yeah... I dunno."

Tragic. Why is it so scary to just try something? I wouldn't do it for years, and some people never do. While in Boston, I sacrificed my precious, precious sleep on Sunday mornings for a couple of months to take a class at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. My teacher drove me nuts. It always seemed like he was right behind me, commenting freely on my style or whatnot. I was completely uncomfortable cooking with an audience and this made me really jumpy. He was also always telling us that the recipe was merely a guide and that we should keep messing with it until we liked the way it tasted. "Don't like eggplant? Then why is it in your dish!" I did not like this.

Loathe though I am to admit it, he was good. Over the course of the class, I grew accustomed to cooking with an audience and even ended up just sassy enough to put something together from whatever happens to be in my kitchen. Admittedly, it's not always fancy, but it's usually good. And you know what? If it's not, no one is going to die (it's not like I serve raw chicken). This is why I now understand why all of the celebrity chefs are so arrogant: they essentially have to be or they would never try anything new and interesting.

So, today, I will list out ingredients in two different dishes (based on similar principles), but not tell you how much of each or in what order I did things, in part because I do not know. Very traditional and simple combinations, very tasty.


Trust me. You can do this.

Feeling kind of lazy? No problem.

There are days where I am just tired. I don't want to cook; I just want to lay on the couch and be laaaaaaaazy. I am ok with this. Much to my dismay, these days seem to often coincide with me completely running out of real food. Tragic. On these days, I resort to slacker cooking. There are many permutations of this, but last night I just roasted some chicken and steamed broccoli.

Quick warning: I love broccoli and you're going to see it with some frequency. That is all.

Fortunately, roasting chicken breasts is extremely easy and hands off, yet tastes amazing. I used boneless/skinless breasts because that's what I had around, though of course using bone-in adds a richer flavor. I always have lemons in the house these days, a tip I picked up in cooking class once upon a time, and a handful of really standard ingredients which, as it turns out, make for a very flavorful roasted chicken.

So, for those days when you really don't want to stand over the stove...

Risotto for Dessert

Sometimes, against your better judgment and respect for your waistline, you have to do something obscenely indulgent. Well, next time you get that urge... might I make a suggestion? Perhaps you should consider a white chocolate risotto. Yes. You should. And, no, I don't even really love white chocolate, I'm an all dark kind of a chocolate girl. It does not matter. I mean, just look at this:



Those are dark chocolate shavings on top, just in case it wasn't decadent enough before. It takes a little bit of time, but a lot less than I expected from a risotto. The real key is that you have to serve it immediately. If you wait it gets a little hardened again and far less magically delicious.

Trust me, it's worth a look.

Maybe a bit sneaky

Things I have learned: my grandfather says that he doesn't like onions or garlic, but will inhale food laced with both of these things (in no small quantity) as long as they aren't pointed out. In fact, he will ask for seconds and wonder why there wasn't more of the (garlic and onion flavored) sauce. Good to know. Mind you, I've been doing this to people for years. If I've cooked for you with any frequency and you have some extremely common ingredient that you say you don't like (but are not allergic to), I've fed it to you. In my defense, no one has ever noticed or complained. In fact, there's often an abundance of yummy noises.

Of course, this makes me a huge hypocrite as I would bring about a swift end to anyone trying to slip fish into my dinner. Though who knows? Maybe someone already has.

Back to my original point: dinner was tasty and considered edible by several different palate persuasions. It's just a simple chicken dish with a carrot orzo, but it really went fantastically and is a good family meal.

Recipes!

Lavender... not just for Bath and Body Works anymore.

During the summertime in the south, there is the feeling that you should be on a porch somewhere drinking a refreshing, but clearly alcoholic, drink and strolling through a conversation with your friends. As I am not a mint julep girl, I'm always on the lookout for a new warm weather beverage. Yesterday, my friend Jenna was perusing my spice rack and found a canister of lavender. Well, when you find an interesting ingredient, you have to use it. So we started perusing the web for ideas and came across several variations on lavender lemonade. After picking our favorite bits from different ones and a surprisingly long grocery store trip, we (and by "we" I mean "Jenna") started juicing lemons. Lots of lemons. 15 lemons. Admittedly, they were rather small and not as juicy as one would like, but still.

After various preparations (to be detailed below), we decided to try the finished product with vodka in one glass and tequila in the other. The vodka just tasted like the lavender lemonade, hardly even added a kick. The tequila, however, blended perfectly with the tangy sweetness of the underlying drink, and we both decided to stick to that version for the rest of the night. I'm writing this the following morning and I still think that was a good idea. Of course, you can go with whichever suits your tastes better (or any fear of tequila you may have developed after particularly interesting nights).

Tasty beverage recipe after the jump...

Little Rascals

I have found that, when you reach a certain age, from time to time you will invite friends over for dinner and a few of these little monsters end up tagging along as well.



As I have a kid-friendly policy, I'm happy to have them along, but trying to cook a meal that will keep both adults and children happy is a bit trixy. Basically, you have two options: (1) make a real meal for the adults and mac & cheese or the like for the kids or (2) dream the impossible dream and attempt to put together a single meal that is both interesting to adults and, at a minimum, tolerable to children. Not being one to shy away from a challenge, I picked option #2. Of course. I suspect that even though this is my third entry, you aren't surprised.

The solution? Thai food. Wait! Before you make that face, think about it. Thai food has a lot of peanut dishes or, more accurately a lot of peanut butter dishes. And, aside from children with violent peanut allergies, peanut butter is loved by all. Actually, I'll even argue that such children would love it, were they able to try it.

Recipe for child-friendly food after the jump!

Caramel Cake

Let us take a moment to discuss one of the most perfect cakes in existence (I say "one of" because I've developed a weakness for coconut cream cakes): the caramel cake. It's a bit of a misnomer because the cake itself can be just about anything, the icing is the key. The traditional combination is with a pound cake, but even I can only eat a tiny bit of that at a time, so I tend to pair it with a lighter, mildly vanilla cake.

When I was a child, my grandmother would always bring a four layer caramel cake made by, I can only assume, the gods themselves when she came to visit and it was an act of extreme fatherly devotion and restraint that I ever managed to get a piece. My aunt, who doesn't even eat sweets, always managed to appear at our house 15 minutes after the cake did. Unfortunately, the woman responsible for this magical confection retired and I've been trying to find an acceptable substitute ever since. Well, today I have. As a warning: I do not recommend making this icing if you live alone and are not planning on taking it to a party immediately... you will eat the whole cake.

I present to you caramel icing that does not require a candy thermometer!

It Starts

Despite what the header to this blog may imply, I am not an empty shell of a woman, crushed by the wicked fates into a tiny ball of hopelessness (swoon). In fact, though I am single, unemployed, and generally without any idea as to what is next, I'm pretty much ok. Perhaps I should explain?

About two and a half years ago, my five year relationship ended... badly... as they do. I was almost done with law school and I decided that it was time to move somewhere completely different. Being born, raised, and educated all over the south, naturally, I chose Boston. The following fall I got a job at a swanky giant firm, settled in, made a bunch of friends, and proceeded to ride out the first waves of the collapsing economy in style. After all, I was safe! I had good reviews, billed out plenty of hours, and was very good about not making waves.

I'm an idiot (I know, you're shocked).

No one is safe. Just over a year after I started work, the firm held yet another layoff and this time, it was my turn. Mind you, this is November 2009... right before things started to improve again. Literally a month later the firm was so understaffed that the remaining associates started quitting, but I digress. In my new-found downtime, after an appropriate wallowing period, I started picking back up some of my old hobbies that had fallen victim to the billable hour. I took a few cooking classes to force myself out of my rut, practically moved into my yoga studio, and started reading again.

One day, the subscription to Southern Living ordered for me as a Christmas present from AuntieM showed up in my mailbox and I have bordered on obsession ever since. I just cannot help it. I love throwing dinner parties, and now I'm finally good at piecing together a real, coherent menu. I love reading about places I've lived or visited (like a multi-article feature on Nashville they did right before the flood) or getting ideas about possible day trips. And, ok, I do not have a garden, but I want one, eventually, and someone is going to have to tell me what to put in it as I have no idea.

Did I mention the recipes? Oh yes. Every issue has a new cocktail begging to be drunk on a porch or by the pool and at least a half-dozen recipes that I actually cut out and cook some variation of before the next issue arrives. So, yes, as a 27 year old lawyer with no accent, I am now trying my absolute best to epitomize the Southern Living image, or at least my (quite probably skewed) interpretation of it. As I do this, I'm creating my own recipes and compiling themed dinner party menus that will, in all likelihood, end up on this blog; along with whatever other stories or nifty tricks I happen to come across.

Obviously I do more than cook and drink, though clearly those are very important parts of my life, but the important thing is, I'm having fun. Yes, I need a new job and will keep looking for one and yes, there have been more ideal periods of my life, but that's fine. All of my diversions have really proven entertaining and sometimes, that's just what you need.