Cooking at Gramma's House

It has been some time that I have made something just for the fun of it. We have mostly been in survival mode since moving to my father's and adopting a rather unorthodox schedule. My husband commutes 5 hrs plus door to door one to two times a week, leaving me on 24hr twin tot duty for days at a time and my new 'at home' sewing business.... (anyone want an apron) have completely monopolized my time. Remember time? This is not a new struggle for me... As crazy as it may seem and as much as I bitch about it, this schedule makes me happy.... slightly crazy yes (but that is half the fun) but happy none the less. It helps me appreciate times like now, when we get to spend a few quieter days at gramma's house just hanging out.

The tot's gramma loves cooking and all things food, so when I announced that I was going to make quick pickles at her house and asked her "what old vegetables did she have?", she started  handing them over with reckless abandonment. She like most cooks get one, two, five, ten recipes worth of ingredients in their fridge and like most,  run out of time to make them all before the ingredients go off.

Quick Pickles

this is an adapted recipe from someone? 

that I just kinda winged on the fly

because I couldn't remember, who, where or when I had read it....

• One to One water/vinegar- I used 1 litre water to to 800ml white vinegar/200 ml apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 tbsp course salt
• 1 tbsp pickling spices (whole cloves, mustard seed, cinnamon, pepper, bay leaf)
• hefty amount of vegetables, clean, peeled and sliced or quartered- I used 3 medium carrots peeled and cut into sticks, one and a half red peppers sliced, half a head of cauliflower in florets, sliced fennel bulb, one large white onion sliced, one medium zucchini (which is what started the whole thing because gramma's pea patch had yield tonnes of them and they were going slightly off) or anything else you can find.

Put water, vinegar, sugar, salt and pickling spices in a large pot and bring to a boil. Once at a boil taste mixture for sweet, salt, sour balance and adjust for your liking- I found I had to add a bit more sugar.

Start adding in vegetables depending on cooking time for a total of about 15 mins. All are done when onion and zucchini are transparent. To keep the some crunch of of the veg remove from the warm liquid right away and allow them to cool separately, you can combine them later to store in the refrigerator.

Experiments

The big event is Pizza night Friday nights. Pizza is and always should be with a capital P. I am constantly trying to out geek myself and last week I think I did it, so this week there is a lot of pressure on me.

I have spent the last five years becoming more and more obsessed with this culinary treat, one that most people don't think of as a gourmet food, true there has been a revival of late with fancy obscure toppings but what about the grass roots? Simple, classic, and clean flavour? Crust, Sauce, Cheese with minimal adornment. For that reason we do two types, the classic margarita and a fennel salami, but this blog is about the crust - this is the vehicle.

Pizza has an immediacy to it, the first bite, hot from the oven. It has a slight crunch, not crisp like a cracker but nearly. The texture should give slightly but have some chew. The flavour should be subtle with a slight tang and there should be air. My first recipe for pizza dough was simply yeast, salt, water and flour. It still is, but because I learned to crawl before I could walk, I can now run.

Experiment after experiment I have finally come up with a base recipe that works for me, so now I can play with it. One of our friends joined the first grain CSA in our area and share some of the product with us. I am trying two separate batches with two different whole wheat grains- a Hard Red Winter and a Hard Red Spring Wheat. Tomorrow night will be the Winter slowly fermenting in the refrigerator and next week the Spring safely stored in the freezer.

 photos by me

The dough was a minor disaster- but not major enough that it couldn't be fix by time. I allowed another day of resting and rising and it made an adequate crust. I now have some experience and can make adjustments  next time.