Sunday, June 7


Whats cookin'

Tonight before Brian leaves town, I decided to go ahead and make him a rather basic dish to make him lonely for home cooked food. So, for dinner, I ended up making him a beautiful homemade margarita pizza. I am working on preparing things completely from scratch as Mme Julia Child's cooking philosophy has penetrated my heart. The dough is a simple recipe out of my Williams-Sonoma Savoring Italy book (pg 58). I chose to make the pasta sauce by hand, but really to keep it very simple with just some crushed tomatoes, oregano, garlic, a nice chiffionade of sage, salt and pepper. I will let you know how it ends up. After all, there is nothing like simple beautiful ingredients to make a perfect meal~

Ok, the update! The pizza "simple dough recipe" was more a labor of love than anticipated. Hah! This is why I love to practice recipes and then mark up the pages of the cookbook as I go. (Yes, it might be said that I have more notes in my cookbooks than bibles). Regardless, I failed to do something so basic, Mme Child put it in her foreword to her Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The true delight is that I JUST READ AND HILIGHTED IT LAST NIGHT!
It reads:
"We urge you, however much you have cooked, always read the recipe first, even if the dish is familiar to you. Visualize each step so you will know exactly what techniques, ingredients, time, and equipment are required AND YOU WILL ENCOUNTER NO SURPRISES."

Had I done so, I would have known that the dough is kneaded and then rests not just for the 2 hours I anticipated, but after punching it down, it needs to rest for ANOTHER hour! Why I didn't think of this very basic dough rule is beyond me. Anyhow, who doesn't want to eat dinner at a quarter to eleven! There is a rather remarkable comment to report, Brian actually said that it was good! I know that this doesnt seem signifigant, but in the almost seven years that we have been married, I can think of no other time this has occured. All that Brian has essentially ever said, is that the food was "fine". Tonight I got a "good!"

*Marriage is all about little victories*


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