[95] + [96] Pioneer Woman’s Pizza Crust and Potato-Leek Pizza

Cover of The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond

Note: Some of the photos in and associated on flickr with this post are being entered into a photo contest being run by Chicago’s Green City Market and by The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. I will be entering to win a 1 year membership at the “Seedling” level to GCM and a 1 year membership to the museum. You can check out the other entries, if you’re interested! There’s some truly amazing photos over there. You will likely drool, so I suggest laying a towel over your keyboard before clicking that last link.

I love a lot of things in this world, but some of the things I love the most are combined in this entry: pizza, farmers markets (Green City Market in particular, I must admit), trying new recipes (Pioneer Woman’s recipes in particular, I must admit) and photography.… Continue reading →

Have you wandered to our Flickr site recently?

Where “recently” is “in the last 24 hours”. I spent most of yesterday uploading photos, so that I could work during my time in California. And I realized, what the heck, I should share it with you guys even before I type it all up.

So now you can look to the right and see a list of upcoming recipes AND you can go to flickr and see what they looked like in our kitchen. Some photos make me drool all over again and some make me wonder why I ever thought I could use a camera.

Check it out! “http://www.flickr.com/photos/metacookbook/”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/metacookbook/

Also, this bus I’m on? Passing what’s clearly a vineyard. It makes me wonder what the grapes taste like straight off the vine.… Continue reading →

Santa Barbara is looking much warmer than Chicago.

Which, of course, means I’m all smiles. 😀 See?

Okay, even if Santa Barbara looked just as bone-chillingly cold as Chicago, I’d still be all smiles. I’m really looking forward to the “Edible Institute” (as I mentioned here). I’m still wondering what I’ll learn and how. Basically, I can’t wait.

I leave tomorrow, since the conference starts at super-duper early on Saturday. It looks like it will go fairly late as well, so I’m contemplating snacks to take. I’m also hoping it’s not too much of a challenge to get from the conference hotel to the “food and drink gala” at the Maritime Museum, since I didn’t rent a car. I will see (but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t be disappointed to miss that).… Continue reading →

[94] Salmon with Beurre Rouge

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

This recipe seems simple enough. It seems like it would be a great recipe for a novice cook who wants to impress a date, though it concedes that the cook will have to take a bit to get it right.

I think it lies. I think it’s tricky and complicated. I think a novice cook would do well to test this one on a friend before pulling it out on a date.

Either that, or I just cannot manage fish and sauces yet. Either one.

It was a fairly tasty meal, but the fish ended up a bit mangled and the sauce was nowhere near what the book said it should be like. I suspect it was close in taste, but not texture. Texture is always what I struggle with in sauces.… Continue reading →

[92] + [93] Sweet Potatoes, Simply Baked

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

Cover of How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, by Mark Bittman

I believe this is the first time I’ve discovered a recipe is in both cookbooks prior to posting. Thus, this entry is labeled as two recipes as discussed “here”:http://www.metacookbook.com/archives/87-Well,-was-it-a-new-recipe-or-not.html and “here.”:http://www.metacookbook.com/archives/90-46-Pasta-Carbonara.html As I type this, I get a vague feeling as if this is NOT the first time this has happened, but a quick scan of my archives via tags doesn’t net me another set of recipes like this. This is also altogether different from “recipes 84 & 85.”:http://www.metacookbook.com/archives/154-84-85-Bacon,-Roasted-and-Microwaved.html

So, now that we’ve cleared that up, on to the write-up.

Another super simple recipe. I picked it because I had a couple of sweet potatoes, and I just wanted to bake them and eat them. I figured Bittman’s book would give me the exact temperature and timing.… Continue reading →