Stuffed

It's amazing to me that no matter if I am working or staying at home, I find a way to fill my days. Since our move, I have been one of the unemployed. Gladly. In fact, it's been a nice vacation (once our stuff was unpacked, anyway). Because I worked these past few years while Our Hero was in school, he's urging me to take it easy and relax a while. For the past month, I've happily obliged.

Perhaps my most highly anticipated "vacation" excitement is a trip I'll be embarking upon this Friday. We'll drive up to our OldHome and stay with dear friends for the weekend. Monday, Our Hero becomes DR. Our Hero, which is such a happy happy occasion (once the committee is through with him). Tuesday I'm off to visit my BFF Forever, and then spending time in HomeTown with my parents.

I know being far from family and friends is a fact of modern life, but I find that fact combined with the reality of full-time jobs' vacation allowances (even the good companies!) makes it difficult to see your family when your family isn't in the area. So with that in mind, I am taking full advantage of this job-free time and hanging out with some of the people I love most.

I fully intend to cook and post as I travel. Drea will be getting some food, and I think I'm up to the challenge to cook salt-free for my Pops. But for now, I'm enjoying chatting about the day with Our Hero over a simple meal made with market-fresh ingredients.

This high-protein recipe comes from Simplicity from a Monastery Kitchen by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette, kindly via M. Thanks, M!

Stuffed Red Peppers Basque Style
3 good-size red peppers
1 T. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 hard-boiled eggs, crumbled
One 8-oz. can light tuna fish, drained and crumbled
6 sprigs of parsley, finely chopped
2 eggs, beaten
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Fresh bread crumbs, to taste (I used 1 slice whole-wheat bread)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Slice the peppers lengthwise in halves (including the stems). Scoop out the seeds and ribs. Put pepper halves into a greased ovenproof dish.

Pour the oil into a skillet, Add the onion and garlic and saute briefly over medium-low heat for a couple of minutes. Combine the onion-garlic mixtures in a bowl with all of the remaining ingredients except the bread crumbs. Mix well.

Stuff each pepper half with the mixture. Cover each top with bread crumbs, and bake uncovered for about 25 minutes.

Happy to Be Back!

Thank you for your well wishes, your demands (ahem, Drea), and your patience! Here I am! First, a short digest of what's been going on.

A move (we all felt this way):

Beautiful new surroundings (Our Hero and I have climbed that mountain several times now!):

Aaaaand, a high-speed chase ended in our front yard. No better way to meet the neighbors, I say. You can't see it in this (very poor quality) picture, but the truck hit THREE trees in our yard, like a pinball. Amazing. It was all complete with the guy attempting to escape. Very surreal.

Indeed, things are well. Our Hero has started his work nurturing the minds of the young, and I have been puttering, filing, labeling, budgeting, alternately panicking and relaxing, reading, hiking, swimming, and . . . cooking of course!

I'm excited to get the blog rolling here again as we ease into harvest season. Farmers' Markets here are plentiful, and this weekend I spied the first squash of the season! My father made the mistake of calling me and asking what to do with a squash, and I'm afraid I went on and on and on and on, exciting myself as I shared about pasta sauces, soups, pizzas . . . I'm doing it again. Better quit while I'm ahead.

In any event, I will be posting regularly again, and can smell my next post finishing up in the oven as I write. Stay tuned, I'm getting in touch with my roots by making Basque-style stuffed peppers.

. . . Coming Soon!

After a bit of internet-access frustration and the all-around craziness of finding your way around a new town and settling into a new place, we have a date for internet service: August 30th! Barring any unforseen problems, I will be returning to the fold then! Miss you all . . . xxxooo

Thanks for your well-wishes!

We have arrived safely here in MyTown, Part Two. The house still resembles a disaster area, and my internet access is spotty at best.

Thank you for all your happy thoughts, keep sending 'em our way! Be back to posting (hopefully) in a few weeks!

Movin' on up

I am busy wrapping things up at work, and then we must begin the ardous tasks involved in preparing to move to another state. We move in two-and-a-half weeks, and the stress has already begun.

If I have the time and resources, I will try to post, but it may be a little sparse until August. Be gentle! Come back and check soon!

Hummousesque

I had a freezer bag full of chipotle chiles in adobo leftover from another recipe; I had two cans of chickpeas and a languishing lime. From these meager beginnings, I made perhaps one of the most addictive snacks ever to find its way out of my Cuisinart. This isn't really a hummous, more of a chickpea spread that doubles easily as a dip.

I have a sick love for both chickpeas and spice, which could be easily construed as an addiction, and this stuff really feeds my need.

Of late, I've been struggling with a herniated disc in my lower back, and have recently made a decision to try cutting sugar from my diet, which is an inflammatory and may be making my pain worse. As much as I am not a sweet-craver (I prefer salty on about a four-to-one ratio), having yummy snacks like this around make it a little easier to pass on a bit of frozen yogurt or honey-drizzled banana. I don't know how this whole no-sugar thing will work out, but if I keep getting to eat this stuff, I think I'll be able to cope.

Chipotle-Chickpea Spread
2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2-4 canned chipotle peppers (depending on your preferred level of spice)
1 T. adobo sauce
Juice from 1/2 lime
Salt
3 T. olive oil
Low-fat yogurt, as needed

Combine chickpeas, chipotle, adobo, lime juice, and olive oil in a food processor. Process until pureed. Season with salt to taste, add yogurt or olive oil as needed to reach desired consistency. Allow flavors to meld in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving.

In the 'Zone

Our Hero loves pizza. Deeply. So deeply I often wonder if I should be jealous. No matter how recently he's ordered a slice or three for a meal, he's ready for more. A friend of his with whom he traveled talks of great detours in walking trips in order to procure a droopy wedge of the stuff.

Our Hero's favorite pizzas are pretty standard stuff, generally from the pizzaria around the corner (any corner): floppy crust, the barest schmear of marinara, greasy cheese, sausage and/or pepperoni. That's it. Oh, and the bigger, the better.

And here's where we part ways . . . Though I can enjoy a neighborhood slice, my favorite pizzas are usually homemade and healthier: white with lots of veggies and a bit of flavorful cheese.

(Note that one of my past recipes is called "Our Hero's Favorite Pizza" - let me qualify that as Our Hero's Favorite Homemade Pizza.)

. . . so it was with love in my heart that I decided to make "supreme" calzone for dinner. I had a couple of fresh italian chicken sausages, 1/2 a red bell pepper, and mushrooms in my fridge - all pleading to be used - calzone was calling. This was my first official try at a calzone (though there was one "rustic Greek calzone" accidental pizza fold-over my brother may remember), and it was as easy as I expected. I have been toying with a new pizza dough recipe, adapted from Mark Bittman's version. I have also (gasp) been taking to making it in the Cuisinart. I refuse to apologize. It's so fast!

Calzone Supreme

Dough:
1 pkg. rapid-rise yeast
2 t. salt
3 cups white whole-wheat flour
2 T. olive oil
1-1 1/4 cup water

In a food processor: Combine yeast, salt, and flour in the bowl of the processor. Turn the machine on. Slowly pour in the oil and 1 cup of the water. Allow to mix a bit, adding additional water little by little if needed until the dough forms a ball. Process for 30 more seconds. Remove from machine and shape into a ball. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise 1-2 hours, until doubled in bulk.

By hand: Combine yeast, salt, and flour in a bowl. Stir in oil and enough water for dough to form a ball. Knead for 5-10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise 1-2 hours, until doubled in bulk.

Filling:
1 cup thick marinara or pizza sauce
2 links fresh italian hot chicken sausage, removed from casing
1/2 red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
10 oz. baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1 cup part-skim mozzerella cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat a skillet over medium-high. Add sausage, breaking up into small pieces until fully cooked. Place in a bowl and set aside. Add mushrooms to any accumulated fat from the sausage (it should be a modest amount), stir, cover, and cook 2-3 minutes, until juices begin to release. Add peppers, remove cover and cook until all juices have evaporated, 5 minutes or so. Season with salt and pepper. It's important to cook away the moisture so that the calzone do not get soggy. When veggies have cooked, remove to a plate.

Divide the risen dough into four equal pieces. Flatten and stretch each piece into a circle 7-8 inches in diameter. You may need to let the dough rest a bit between stretches.

Spread 2-3 T. marinara on 1/2 of each dough circle, leaving 3/4-inch border. Sprinkle with 1/4 of the sausage and a good 1/4-cup of the veggies. Sprinkle with 2-3 T. of cheese You want the calzone full, but still able to close. Wet the edge with a bit of water and fold the dough over the filling. Pinch the two sides together with your fingers, and crimp the edges with a fork. Cut three steam vents in the top of the turnover.

Place on an oiled baking sheet and bake 20-30 minutes, until golden. Let cool a bit before serving.