Ina's White Pizza with Arugula, Denver's Chalk Art Festival and Strawberry Salad with Feta and Almonds

The other day I found myself thinking about Ina Garten. I love her as much as you can love a 64-year old, former nuclear policy wonk/budget writer, author, gourmand, home entertaining super-star that you don't really know. And I totally credit Ina with inspiring me to cook-- I mean really cook, for the first time, which happened about 3 years ago. She got me to value high-quality ingredients, delve into seasonal cooking and, okay, decadent desserts too. Time is flying because it's more than a year and a half since I met her at this book signing...and it feels like yesterday. 
I have all of Ina'a cookbooks and decided to revisit Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics. That's when this recipe for White Pizza with Arugula caught my eye. Now ever since I made homemade tart dough (pâte brisée), I've become a big fan of making things from scratch...time permitting. Sure, there are some really good quality store-bought pizza doughs out there, but I decided to make my dough the night before, after the boys went to bed.
The dough was perfect but next time I think I will have to let it get a little more pliable before I start kneading it. I don't think I kept it at room temperature long enough. As for the baking time of the pizza, the recipe calls for 10-15 minutes in the oven. My pie was done in about 9 minutes-- and had I kept it in the oven for one minute longer, it would have burnt to a crisp. Maybe it's my oven or maybe it's the altitude-- just keep an eye on it.
Now I prefer making recipes that don't require me to buy a ton of ingredients, and in this case I had some goat cheese in the fridge and some leftover fontina cheese from this recipe. I also had a big bag filled with arugula, so pizza with greens it would be. 
I loved this pizza. There's creamy, cheesy goodness, tangy-lemon dressing and peppery arugula. You can see how this one might be hard to beat...

For the garlic oil I used some of my new purple garlic which I picked up at my local farmers market.

Dressed arugula.

White Pizza with Arugula (Courtesy of Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics)
Makes 6 Pizzas
Ingredients:
For the Dough:1 1/4 cups warm (100 to 110) water
2 packages dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
Good olive oil
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
Kosher salt
For the Garlic Oil:
4 cloves garlic, sliced
5 sprigs fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
For the topping:
3 cups grated Italian fontina cheese (8 ounces)
1 1/2 cups grated fresh mozzarella cheese (7 ounces)
11 ounces creamy goat cheese, such as montrachet, crumbled
For the vinaigrette:
1/2 cup good olive oil
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces baby arugula
1 lemon, sliced

Directions:
Mix the dough:

• Combine the water, yeast, honey and 3 tablespoons of olive oil in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. When the yeast is dissolved, add 3 cups of flour, then 2 teaspoons salt, and mix on medium-low speed. While mixing, add up to 1 more cup of flour, or just enough to make a soft dough. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until smooth, sprinkling it with the flour as necessary to keep it from sticking to the bowl.

• Knead by hand.

• When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a floured board and knead it by hand a dozen times. It should be smooth and elastic.

• Let it rise.

• Place the dough in a well-oiled bowl and turn it to cover it lightly with oil. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Make garlic oil:  Place 1/2 cup of olive oil, the garlic, thyme and red pepper flakes in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over low heat. Cook for 10 minutes, making sure the garlic doesn't burn. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. 

Portion the dough.

Dump the dough onto a board and divide it into 6 equal pieces. Place the doughs on sheet pans lined with parchment paper and cover them with a damp towel. Allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes. Use immediately, or refrigerate for up to 4 hours.

Stretch the dough.
Press and stretch each ball into an 8-inch circle and place 2 circles on each sheet pan lined with parchment paper. (If you've chilled the dough, take it out of the refrigerator approximately 30 minutes ahead to let it come to room temperature.)

Top the dough.
Brush the pizzas with the garlic oil, and sprinkle each one liberally with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the pizzas evenly with fontina, mozzarella and goat cheese. Drizzle each pizza with 1 tablespoon more of the garlic oil and bake for 10 to 15 minutes,* until the crusts are crisp and the cheeses begin to brown.**


Make the vinaigrette.
Meanwhile, whisk together 1/2 cup of olive oil, the lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.
Add the greens.


When the pizzas are done, place the arugula in a large bowl and toss with just enough lemon vinaigrette to moisten. Place a large bunch of arugula on each pizza and a slice of lemon and serve immediately.

* Mine took 9 minutes.

** Note: I brushed some of the garlic oil on my pizza mesh (wire) and placed my pie on the mesh. I placed it on my pizza stone-- which I had preheated for 20 minutes at 500 degrees.

                        


TIP Make sure the bowl is warm before you put the water and yeast in; the water must be warm for the yeast to develop.
TIP Salt inhibits the growth of yeast; add half the flour, then the salt, and then the rest of the flour.
TIP To make sure yeast is still "alive," or active, put it in water and allow it to sit for a few minutes. If it becomes creamy or foamy, it's active.

* * *

After lunch, I took the boys down to Larimer Square for the Denver Chalk Art Festival. Now here in the house we use sidewalk chalk all the time. This festival, however, took it to a whole new level. It was so cool. And so creative. Otis really wanted to add his own unique touch to some of the murals, but I told him maybe next year. He looked excited about the prospect and when we got home he started on his sketches. Theo watched him carefully...maybe he'll be the budding artist of the family!                    

***

Today I used some leftover greens to make this salad for lunch. It was delicious! 

         

Baby Lettuces, with Feta, Strawberries and Almonds (Courtesy of Food & Wine Magazine)
Serves 8
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
1 small shallot, minced
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, preferably Banyuls
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
12 cups packed assorted baby lettuces (about 6 ounces)
1 quart strawberries, hulled—small berries halved, large ones quartered
4 ounces feta (preferably French), crumbled (1 cup)
1 cup smoked almonds, chopped

In a small bowl, stir together the mustard, honey, shallot and vinegar. Stir in the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Put the lettuces in a large bowl. Add the strawberries, feta and almonds. Drizzle the dressing over the salad, toss well and serve.

Suggested Pairing:
Bright, berry-scented rosé echoes the strawberries in this summer salad. Pour a crisp, dry rosé from Provence.

Birthday Perfection: Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

There's something really summery-sounding about "Pink Lemonade Cupcakes." When I think of summer, sipping lemonade and hanging out on the beach come to mind. But since we live in land-locked  Colorado, at least for now, we'll have to settle for the lemonade-bit alone...this recipe hits the spot.

Our friend Rachel made these cupcakes for her daughter's birthday party a little while back. They were really good. They are also really sweet, so if sweet isn't your thing then this recipe isn't for you. But personally I kind of think that's the point of pink lemonade cupcakes, no? I thought they were the perfect topper to the birthday celebration. 
Happy birthday to the birthday girl! Now, can I have another one?! 

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes (Courtesy of Real Mom Kitchen)

Cake:

• 1 package white cake mix 
• 1 small package vanilla instant pudding 
• 3 Tbsp sweetened pink lemonade drink mix (like Country Time Pink Lemonade mix) 
• 1 cup sour cream 
• 2 tsp lemon zest 
• 3/4 cup water 
• 3/4 cup oil 
• 4 whites eggs 
• 6 drops of pink food coloring

Frosting:

• 1 cup butter, softened 
• 1 cup shortening 
• 1/2 cup frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed 
• 2 tablespoons milk 
• 2 teaspoons vanilla 
• Zest from 1 lemon 
• 2 pound package or 7 1/2 cups confectioners sugar 
• 3 drops of pink food coloring 

Decorations: (Optional)

• 24 lemon slice candies or grapefruit slice candies
• 12 colored flexible drinking straws

1. In a large bowl, whisk cake mix, pudding mix, and drink mix together.  Add sour cream, lemon zest, water, oil, and egg whites to the dry mix. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed for about two minutes. Use a strong mixer, this batter is thick.
2. Scoop batter into 24 lined muffin tins.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes until cupcakes don’t look wet and a toothpick inserted in one comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting the cupcakes.
3. Prepare the frosting by creaming butter, shortening, and lemon zest together. Then add lemonade concentrate, milk and vanilla with a mixer. Beat until smooth.  Then gradually add the sugar, mixing well until light and fluffy. Beat in the food coloring.
4. Pipe frosting onto the cupcakes.  (You will have plenty to pile it on.  I had over 1 cup leftover.  Leftover frosting is good sandwiched between two graham crackers).      Optional: Place a lemon candy wedge on top of each cupcakes.  With the straws cut the top 1/3 of the straw off just below the flexible part.  Discard the tops.  Then cut the remaining straw pieces in half.  Place one straw piece in each cupcake to resemble a drink.

Cupcake recipe is a Real Mom Kitchen Original, Frosting is adapted from A Little Loveliness
A note on the cupcakes: Rachel followed the recipe except she took another person's advice and substituted the powdered lemonade mix and the 3/4 cup water in the cake with 3/4 cup frozen pink lemonade concentrate. I recommend making the substitute.
I'm not sure how many this recipe yields, but it's a lot-- you can make small, medium and large cupcakes! 

14,000 Feet and Some Orange Ricotta Pancakes

We moved to Colorado about 8 months ago. This was around the time the uber-delicious Linger opened in Denver (yay!) and many of the mountain passes began to closed for the season. In October, or maybe it was November, we had set out to hike in the areas surrounding Mt. Evans. We soon discovered that the roads were already closed. Snow had accumulated at the higher elevations and the roads were considered unsafe by those in charge.

Mt. Evans is high. I'm talking over 14,000 feet high. I haven't been to such heights since hiking Cotopaxi in Ecuador about 7 years ago...and for those of you who know me, you might recall that hike didn't go very well. Cotopaxi is a stratovolcano and it reaches over 19,000 feet. Now I don't remember exactly where I was, but let's say that it was 16,000 feet. We were well above the tree-line, the air was thin, and I remember that the only sensation I had was to urinate (pardon me, but apparently this is very common). I felt really short of breath and wasn't sure if I could make the hike. In fact, I wasn't sure I was going to make it...period! I told my then boyfriend/now husband to go on without me...to "save himself." And indeed he did. He told me that he would come back and get me after he got to where we were supposed to meet the rest of our group. In the meantime I managed to crawl on all fours and I found my group. I was exhausted. The rest of the story isn't so important. Obviously I made it, but the scars of going up into the sky left their mark on my psyche. I was nervous about being that high again.

After a long winter closure, the gates to Mt. Evans reopened today (May 25th) at 12:00. We just had to go! Thinking like typical New Yorkers we were sure there was going to be a line of cars and weren't even certain we would get in. But there were no big lines, cars went in and out of the gate with ease, and we decided to take the boys on a walk through an alpine forest, right around the tree-line. (I suspect things get crowded on the weekend, but on opening-day things were easy as could be.)

The mountains were absolutely spectacular. Idaho Springs, the closest "city" to Mt. Evans, is only 45 minutes away from our house in Denver. Add another 20 minutes on winding roads with phenomenal views and you can get pretty remote pretty quickly. It's really amazing. As far as feeling nauseated or short-of-breath, the sensations were slight. I guess that is another benefit of living at altitude; I was already a bit acclimated.

Otis didn't seem to notice the altitude and Theo was just happy to be clapping his hands (his newest trick). We then continued on to Summit Lake and from there we got to the very top of Mt. Evans. Amazing. Spectacular. Sensational. And cold. Temperatures in Denver were around 80 degrees today. At Mt. Evans they were 20 something. Brrrr. And beautiful.

On the way down we saw a pair of mountain goats and a some yellow-bellied marmots (cute!). Otis had been on the lookout for mountain goats for about 1/2 hour, but by the time we spotted them he was sleeping soundly in the backseat...

Of course before you head out for high-altitude walks you need to eat a solid breakfast. I made these Orange-Ricotta Pancakes for the occasion. The recipe comes from The Breslin (in the Ace Hotel in NYC). I thought it was a really nice change from our standard buttermilk pancakes and my (relatively-new) favorite oatmeal pancakes. The syrup really added to the pancakes but, truth be told, the consistency was very un-syrupy. I'm not sure what went wrong, as I followed the instructions exactly. Perhaps it had something to do with the altitude. Never the less, they were delicious and a wonderful way to start out the day.

{Note: use a good, fresh ricotta for this recipe...or don't...but I think that makes a difference. I used a local cheese from LazEwe 2 Bar Goat Dairy in Colorado.

Orange Ricotta Pancakes (From The Breslin, by way of Food & Wine)
ORANGE SYRUP
1 orange
1 cup fresh orange juice
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
RICOTTA TOPPING (I omitted this step, but will add it next time)
1 1/2 cups fresh ricotta
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
Seeds scraped from 1/2 vanilla bean
PANCAKES
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup fine white cornmeal
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup fresh ricotta
Vegetable oil, for frying
Toasted almond slices, for serving
Preparation
Peel the zest from the orange in long strips and julienne. In a saucepan of boiling water, blanch the zest for 30 seconds. Drain and repeat. In the saucepan, simmer the orange juice, sugar, water and blanched zest until syrupy, about 10 minutes. Let cool.
In a bowl, mix together all of the ingredients. (This step is for the ricotta topping)
In a large bowl, whisk the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking powder and soda. In another large bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg yolks and ricotta. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. In a large, clean stainless steel bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry; fold them into the batter.
In a large cast-iron skillet, heat a thin film of vegetable oil. Drop in 1/4-cup dollops of batter and cook over moderately high heat, 2 minutes per side, until golden and fluffy. Serve about 3 pancakes per person. Pass the orange syrup, ricotta topping and toasted almonds at the table.

Asparagus Bisque with Fresh Dill (and some Black and Whites)

After a long winter break, the farmers markets were (finally) slated to reopen. But hail and rain were in the forecast and just as I stepped out the door it started raining...hard. The prospect of going to the market on the other side of town, with a toddler and infant in tow (sans the protection of our trusty umbrella which somehow disappeared), just didn't seem worth it. 
So I decided to go to In Season, our local market that only stocks locally grown produce that is...in season. "We are at the end of asparagus season here in Colorado," I was told by an incredibly knowledgeable woman at the counter. "Right, of course you are," I said. No asparagus. But I really wanted to make this bisque that I had seen in Love Soup by Anna Thomas.. 
While I try to purchase local, sustainable, seasonal fare as much as possible (it tastes better and is often cheaper), if I'm craving something that is not exactly in season, it's no big deal. I found some really bright, delicious looking asparagus at the Sunflower Market by my house (grown in California), but before I left In Season I picked up some dill, fennel bulb and the most amazing (makes you want to clap your hands) ricotta cheese made by Laz Ewe 2 Bar Goat Dairy in Del Norte, Colorado. Oh man, that is the good stuff!
About the bisque. It is packed with fresh dill and the lemon juice gives it a nice cut of acid. And, like all of Anna's recipes I've made before, it was delicious. (Anna's Old Fashioned Mushroom Soup.)
I topped a toasted crostini with some goat cheese and served it along side a big bowl of bisque. That really made the meal complete. 

Asaparagus Bisque with Fresh Dill (Courtesy of Anna Thomas, Love Soup)

Ingredients

1 1/4 lbs. green asparagus

2 medium leeks

1 large fennel bulb

zest+juice of a lemon

2 tablespoons unsalted butter (you could substitute with olive oil)

3 tablespoons arborio rice 

1 1/2 teaspoons salt, plus more to taste

2 1/2 cups light vegetable broth

1/2 cup finely chopped fresh dill, plus more to taste

white pepper (I used black)

cayenne

2-3 tablespoons heavy cream (optional)

Directions
Using a vegetable peeler or sharp knife, thinly peel the bottom 2 or 3 inches of the asparagus stalks, then snap off the toughest bits at the bottoms (peeling the bottoms first allows you to keep much more of the stalk.) Cut the stalks into 1-inch pieces; you should have about 4 cups.

Wash the leeks and chop the white and light green parts only. Trim, wash, and chop the fennel bulb. Grate the zest of the lemon, making sure to get only the yellow and none of the white pith.

Melt the butter in a large skillet or soup pot and cook the leeks over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until they are soft and begin to take on a hint of color. Add the asparagus, fennel, lemon zest, rice, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and 3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer uncovered for about half an hour, or until all the vegetables are tender.
Add 2 cups of vegetable broth, the dill, and a pinch of each pepper and cayenne.
Puree the soup in a blender, in batches, until it is perfectly smooth. (I usually use an immersion blender for pureed soups, but asparagus is fibrous, so you might want to use that blender in order to get it really smooth.) Add broth if the soup seems too thick. Return the pureed soup to a clean pot and stir in a couple of teaspoons of fresh lemon juice, more if you like. Bring the soup back to a simmer, taste it ,and season with tiny amounts of pepper, and more salt if needed. Stir in 2-3 tablespoons of cream if you are making the asparagus a bisque (or more precisely a "cream soup" as traditionally bisque refers to smooth, cream soups, based on a broth from crustaceans).

Ladle and enjoy!

* * *

As I mentioned, we had a rainy Saturday here in Denver, so it was a good excuse for us to stay indoors. While we weren't able to go to the farmers market, we tidied up our little abode and we also did a lot of cooking...

Roasted Potato, Leek and Kale Soup (by way of Not-Eating-Out-In-New-York)

Spinach and Feta Risotto (by way of Ezra Pound Cake)

Zucchini Olive-Oil Cake with Crunchy Lemon Glaze (posted here on Sparrows & Spatulas)

Beet and Tahini Dip (by way of A Lovely Morning)

Sensing that the boys were restless and could use some physical activity, I opted to let them "up-down-up-down" on our bed. Then I took these black and white photos with my 50mm lens, which I'm still fooling around with.

It wasn't long before the rain stopped and the sun was out again. The next 10 days? Sunny with temperatures in the 70s and 80s. And hopefully a lot of farmers markets in our future...

Not a bad way to spend a rainy afternoon.