Cook Together, Watch Alone

Like many other people out there I spent yesterday evening in the land of Lost, celebrating the end of six years of thoughtful, twisty, fun, and always engrossing storytelling. In the week preceding last night’s 4.5 hour extravaganza (including the pre-show), the blogosphere was ablaze with clever ideas for a Lost last supper—Smoked Lox, Shepard’s Pie, Jin and Tonics, etc. We chose to mark the occasion with homemade pizza (and by we, I mean me because Jason is not a Lost fan and while he watched a few snippets here and there and wanted to know how it all ended, I pretty much went this one alone which was fine by me).

While Jason may not have been all that enthralled by the show, he definitely enjoyed the pizza. One of the things I like so much about when we decide to make homemade pizza is that it is a truly collaborative process. I do the prep work while Jason is in charge of shaping the dough into individual rounds and we each get to top one just how we like it. This is the only meal I can think of that we always make together and, cramped apartment kitchen aside, it’s always fun.

We make pizza using a pizza stone but you can still make this dish without one. According to Smitten Kitchen, pizza baked at high heat on the bottom of a cookie sheet is pretty darn delicious (in fact the link provided there has lots of good tips from SK about making pizza at home—you should definitely check it out). But I have to say, pizza stones are a pretty cheap investment (assuming you don’t buy a defective one your first time around) and the results are delicious.

We kept our pizzas pretty simple last night—tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and roasted red peppers. But the world is your oyster when it comes to making pizza so get creative (one of the best homemade pizzas I’ve ever had was one topped with an artichoke dip and shrimp courtesy of my friend Katy—decadent but oh so good). They key is making sure you have a clean oven and that you heat it and the pizza stone for at least 30 minutes before popping in your pie.

All in all it was a solid end to a good weekend. And, for the record, I was pretty satisfied by Lost’s uplifting conclusion.

Jason working his magic on the dough

 

 My pizza before....

 

And after

 

 Jason's pizza

Homemade Pizza with Roasted Red Pepper and Basil

Ingredients:
1 package of fresh Whole Foods pizza dough (next time around I am going to make my own so stay tuned for that but we decided to keep it easy last night)
1 can pizza sauce (we like Don Pepino brand and usually freeze what’s leftover for the next time around)
¼ cup freshly chopped basil
2 roasted red peppers, thinly sliced
6 ounces of fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Cornmeal

1.Place pizza stone onto the middle rack of your oven. Preheat oven to 500 for at least 30 minutes.
2.Divide dough into two equal portions. Dust your workspace with cornmeal and work dough until you have thin rounds (or squares). We have tried both a rolling pin and our hands (see picture above) and would have to say the hands work better.
3.Move rounds to a cookie sheet that has been generously dusted with cornmeal.
4.Top pizza with a few spoonfuls of pizza sauce, mozzarella, red peppers, and basil. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
5.Slide pizza off of the cookie sheet and onto the pizza stone. Bake for 9 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. To remove the pizza, we like to grab the crust with some tongs and slide it back onto the cookie sheet. Be sure to let the oven have time get back to temp before adding the second (or third or fourth) pizza.
6.Let stand for a couple minutes before slicing and enjoy!

Another Cooking Fear Bites the Dust

It’s Tuesday which has me excited for several reasons—

1.Glee comes on tonight! And this week it features guest star Neil Patrick Harris which I am very excited about.

2.Also coming on tonight—Lost! I have been a Lost fan since Season 1 (which is still, in my opinion, the best season ever) and even though I have not completely understood all of the series’ twists and turns, I have seen it through and I am really excited about the remaining two episodes and hopeful that it will all come together in the end.

3.I faced another one of my cooking fears in making dinner tonight….scallops. Now I am not really sure why I have been so reluctant to try my hand at this over the years…maybe because scallops done right are wonderful but scallops done poorly are just plain gross?

I decided to try a relatively simple preparation to start with—Seared Scallops with Spinach and Bacon.  I mean come on—scallops seared in bacon fat? How could you possibly go wrong with that?

Overall I would give the recipe and resulting dish a B. Definitely an A for presentation—Jason and I both thought it looked delightful. But I was a bit disappointed with the result. Part of it was certainly my fault—the scallops were not all the same size and I think the smaller ones ended up suffering in order for the larger ones to cook all the way through. In retrospect, I probably should have pulled the smaller ones off sooner. Also, I accidentally bought a pre-washed package of regular spinach instead of baby spinach and did not realize my mistake until I added the spinach to the pan. The baby spinach probably would have been a bit more tender. Overall, I’d say dinner was good, but not as great as I was hoping for.  But I was happy to have successfully faced down another cooking fear.

Seared Scallops with Spinach and Bacon
Adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients:
3 slices of center-cut bacon
6 jumbo sea scallops (about 1 lb)
½ white onion, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
6 ounces fresh spinach
Salt and pepper

1.Cook bacon in large skillet over medium-high heat until crisp (do not use non-stick as it will prevent the scallops from properly searing). Remove back from pan and set aside, reserving 1 TBL drippings in the pan.  Increase heat to high.
2.Pat scallops dry with paper towels. Sprinkle scallops evenly with salt and pepper. Add scallops to pan, cooking 2-3 minutes per side or until done. Transfer to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm.
3.Reduce heat to medium-high. Add onion and garlic to pan and sauté for about three minutes, stirring frequently. Add half of spinach, cook 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add remaining spinach and cook until just wilted. Remove from heat.  Add salt and pepper.
4.Divide spinach mixture among plates and top with chopped bacon and scallops.