It always seems to make the parents happy when I reassure them that I'm eating well. I think any recent picture of me should be plenty of evidence of that, but here are some more specific details.
Our tomatoes flourish. The vines drip with fruit and ripen one by one, outward along the stem. I'm now getting about a dozen ripe ones every couple of days with what looks like hundreds on deck.
We've also been getting massive cucumbers from Auntie's garden. For a salad we chopped up cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and some of the mint that grows like a weed along the side of the house and makes that section of lawn my favorite to mow. We also had some fancy shmancy cheeses, greek olives, baguette, and conventional salad.
Just yesterday I harvested a few more cherry tomatoes along with a pile of of basil and oregano from Ashley's herb garden to put on some pizza. We like our pizza crispy and it's always a pain when the yummy toppings slide off, so I took a few precautions against sogginess.
The tomatoes are seedy and juicy, but they are too small to seed individually. What I did was I sliced each one into three pieces and collected them in a medium mixing bowl. I filled the bowl and massaged and swirled the sliced tomatoes under the water. I transferred the tomatoes to a smaller bowl and found the bottom of the larger bowl filled with seeds and gunk. I let the tomatoes drip for a while, drained off the water again and wrapped them in paper towels to absorb what was left.
For the crust I use a just-add-water mix, but I add a little olive oil, and when the ball of dough is formed I toss it in some additional flour. I grease the cookie sheet we use with plenty of olive oil, which adds to the crispiness when its finished, but more importantly acts as a lubricant when I spread out the dough, which helps to get the dough thinner, better distributed, and prevents tears and holes.
For the toppings I use the bare minimum of tomato sauce, then mozzarella and peperoni, then the tomatoes, some onion, and the herbs. Having the veggies on top and not under the cheese helps to evaporate off the extra water and cook the veggies a little better.
Finally, I bake the pizza for twenty minutes at 450, which is much longer than recommended.
The tomatoes on our pizza were a little sour this time, but overall really tasty.
Our tomatoes flourish. The vines drip with fruit and ripen one by one, outward along the stem. I'm now getting about a dozen ripe ones every couple of days with what looks like hundreds on deck.
We've also been getting massive cucumbers from Auntie's garden. For a salad we chopped up cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and some of the mint that grows like a weed along the side of the house and makes that section of lawn my favorite to mow. We also had some fancy shmancy cheeses, greek olives, baguette, and conventional salad.
Just yesterday I harvested a few more cherry tomatoes along with a pile of of basil and oregano from Ashley's herb garden to put on some pizza. We like our pizza crispy and it's always a pain when the yummy toppings slide off, so I took a few precautions against sogginess.
The tomatoes are seedy and juicy, but they are too small to seed individually. What I did was I sliced each one into three pieces and collected them in a medium mixing bowl. I filled the bowl and massaged and swirled the sliced tomatoes under the water. I transferred the tomatoes to a smaller bowl and found the bottom of the larger bowl filled with seeds and gunk. I let the tomatoes drip for a while, drained off the water again and wrapped them in paper towels to absorb what was left.
For the crust I use a just-add-water mix, but I add a little olive oil, and when the ball of dough is formed I toss it in some additional flour. I grease the cookie sheet we use with plenty of olive oil, which adds to the crispiness when its finished, but more importantly acts as a lubricant when I spread out the dough, which helps to get the dough thinner, better distributed, and prevents tears and holes.
For the toppings I use the bare minimum of tomato sauce, then mozzarella and peperoni, then the tomatoes, some onion, and the herbs. Having the veggies on top and not under the cheese helps to evaporate off the extra water and cook the veggies a little better.
Finally, I bake the pizza for twenty minutes at 450, which is much longer than recommended.
The tomatoes on our pizza were a little sour this time, but overall really tasty.
Brigid and Dan made dinner for us for Ashley's birthday. I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures, but I was too busy eating. They grilled marinated salmon, which was very tasty, but probably only about a two on the scale of manly grilling, a boar on a spear over a bonfire of your enemies' longboats being a ten, and a garden burger in the microwave being a one. They also made gazpacho, which we had to restrain Ashley from reheating, and they got this nice tiramisu, which we were unable to restrain Ashly from decorating. Thanks guys!
The dog also got a chance to taste some delicacies yesterday. We think it may have been fermented rabbit on the bone, which is best enjoyed al fresco with a salad of mixed garden greens and a pairing of eau de toilette.
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