Saturday Update...September 8

The Pitt County Farmer's Market was rather quiet today. We bought fresh green beans, tomatoes, and cukes...that was it.

With these purchases behind us, we set out for home with the intent of making homemade pizza dough to rise until later in the day. Our niece, Leslie Anne, has asked for the recipe, so this request provides the perfect opportunity to post our pizza dough recipe below. Tonight, we topped the recipe with homemade tomato herb sauce, sauteed mushrooms, thinly sliced onions, and three cheeses (mozzarella, feta, parmesan) and pine nuts.


Les...the pizza was divine, so here is the recipe for you and Cam. You need to know the variations for your high altitudes in Colorado so that the recipe will be successful for you. Here are the high altitude facts....Looks like you will need to add a bit of additional flour and water to compensate for your 5000+ feet altitude. Here is a website providing all of the details...http://highaltitudebaking.com/adj_recipes.htm.



Whole Wheat Pizza Dough (makes 4 small pizzas…If you only want to make two small pizzas, freeze the other half of the dough AFTER it has risen.)

INGREDIENTS:
1 package dry yeast
1 tablespoon local honey
2 ¼ cups lukewarm water (105 degrees F/42 degrees C)
3 tablespoons canola or corn oil (this type of oil is recommended with whole wheat flour so the "earthiness" of the olive oil and whole wheat flour do not compete)
1 3/4 cups organic whole wheat flour
3 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
1 tablespoon salt

OIL FOR AFTER BAKING:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Crushed red pepper, to taste
Garlic, if you like

DIRECTIONS:
Stir honey into the lukewarm water. When honey is dissolved, add dry yeast. Let stand until mixture is creamy….7-10 minutes. Stir in oil and whisk in 1 ½ cups of the all purpose flour and the salt, stirring until smooth. Stir in remainder of both kinds of flour until the dough comes together into a rough clump. (I do all of this in my heavyweight counter-top mixer.)

Turn the dough out onto a generously floured work surface. Sprinkle flour over the top and on your hands. Form the dough into a ball ASAP without kneading (adding flour as needed so the dough does not stick to your hands). Place into oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise 3 hours to all day. If the dough rises more than 3 hours, punch dough down and let rise again (and again, if needed) until you begin to make the pizzas.

When “pizza-production” begins, cut the dough into four equal parts. Roll each fourth lightly in flour to make a “ball-like” shape. (Now is the time to freeze any dough that you will not use. Roll each ball to be frozen in plastic wrap and put these balls into zip-lock bag.) Grease pizza pans liberally with olive oil. Shape dough into ovals or rounds. Ensure that edges are thicker than center. PRECOOK dough with no toppings in 500 degree oven for 4 minutes. This will ensure a crisper crust. Remove crusts from oven, add toppings (see suggestions below), and bake in preheated 500 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until desired crispness has been achieved.

While pizza is cooking, heat ingredients noted above for OIL AFTER BAKING. Set the heated oil aside. After pizza comes out of oven, brush oil on pizza crust edges. This makes the crust crisp and incredibly delicious. Drizzle extra oil over pizza after serving.

Extra dough can be refrigerated for up to two days or frozen in an airtight container for up to one month.

FAVORITE TOPPINGS:
-JA’s fav… pesto sauce, pine nuts, and four cheeses (mozzarella, feta, parmesan, dollops of ricotta)

-Another JA fav…red sauce, pepperoni, mozzarella, feta, parmesan

-Tonight we used… Homemade red sauce with herbs (which we had in the freezer in 2 pizza portions) sautéed mushrooms, thinly sliced onions, thinly sliced red peppers, mozzarella, feta, parmesan, pine nuts, crushed red peppers)

-Another Terry and Stephen fav….pesto sauce, fresh spinach sautéed with garlic and olive oil, thinly sliced sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, Kalamata olives, four cheeses

Bottom line…combine any toppings that you like….the leftovers are divine!


FYI...In her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Kingsolver mentions that their regular Friday night fare is homemade pizza. Evidently, all "invited parties" bring their favorite local ingredients and multiple pizzas emerge from the oven after all ingredients are combined. What a GREAT idea!

Eating Locally or Eating Regionally?????

-picture taken at Williamsburg Farmer's Market during one of Rachael and Melissa's recent visits

The Eat-Local Backlash

I agree with Josh and Ellen from Charlotte who posted this link on their blog about eating locally in Charlotte. The article The Eat-Local Backlash is worth reading from beginning to end.

"What often arises in the food-miles debate, I think, is a false dichotomy: local vs. long distance. But the most attractive model might be a regional one. McWilliams touches on it, albeit vaguely, with a mention of a "hub-and-spoke system of food production and distribution." Crucially, he clings to the notion that Western consumers can continue to commandeer the globe's bounty perpetually, season be damned...."

I'll be anxious to see what you think.

Girls Just Gotta Have Fun....

Amber, Molly, and Honey had a heck of a day. They spent most of their time in their mobile pen in various locations around the backyard. Joseph (the young boy across the street) came over MANY times to bring a bevy of treats....bugs and corn on the cob...not to mention fresh cinnamon muffins that his mom, Lori, made for the humans who live at 303 Williams Street! Joseph and I searched for fresh crickets for the girls, which he eventually captured and dropped into the mobile pen as "fair game."

Later in the day, Stephen suggested that we offer the girls a fresh ear of corn, which they devoured in "short order." Watch below as they enjoy each and every fresh, juicy kernel...

Tomorrow, an account of "the PERFECT gift." Stephen LOVED it...and showed it off to the neighbors this evening...more about the perfect gift in the next post!

On A Mission...Tomato Road Trip

Melissa and I talked about canning tomatoes so much after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle that not following through was simply not an option. After buying quart jars when I bought jars to make fig preserves and buying the canner that Melissa found at Globe Hardware, the plans for canning tomatoes had to move forward. Unfortunately, I could not find homegrown tomatoes in bulk in Pitt County. During the past several weeks, the tomatoes offered at the Pitt County Farmer’s Market have been “few and far between.” Renston Homestead couldn’t help me (as grape tomatoes are their forte), so Stephen and I set off early Saturday morning on a “tomato road trip.”

We had several Triad locations on our itinerary, but the State Farmer’s Market in Raleigh was our most important destination. We arrived shortly after 2PM and the place was bustling. We began to look for tomatoes and were overwhelmed with all of the choices. Ranging in price from $.89 a pound to $1.25 a pound, I knew that that these prices were too steep for the large quantity that I came to buy. Although Barbara Kingsolver says that she never cans tomatoes unless she has at least thirty pounds of tomatoes, Melissa thought that beginning with a smaller quantity was fine. My first “find” netted a large box of canning tomatoes for $6. The box was heavy, although HOW HEAVY I did not know...I failed to ask how many pounds of tomatoes it contained. As we put the box in the car, I continued to search booth after booth and found no one who was willing to swing a deal for a large quantity of tomatoes. Sidetracked by several very interesting vendors, Stephen purchased a brown turkey fig bush (so he could compete with the other successful fig growers in our area…including his mom!) and I bought some amazingly perfect sunflowers and beautiful cockscomb in fuschia, gold, and chartreuse colors. After buying half a loaf of LaFarm Bakery’s signature farm bread (whole wheat sourdough), we finally hit paydirt. We found a vendor offering a large basket of canning tomatoes for $6.00. We left with 17 more pounds of tomatoes and a great market basket, as well. Last, we bought several ears of fresh corn for the chickens and some gorgeous peppers in an array of colors from a farmer who lives in Climax, NC.

On the way home we bought several local cheeses (Farmer’s Cheese and Herbed Goat Cheese from the Chapel Hill Creamery) and some local milk (Maple View Farm in Hillsborough) at Whole Foods. After one more stop at the Gem and Mineral Show at the State Fairgrounds, we headed home.

This morning as we prepared to begin canning, we weighed in our tomato collection. OK…I went a little overboard! Forty-five pounds of beautiful dead ripe tomatoes waiting to be canned. I might add that at $12 for the lot, these homegrown beauties cost us $.26 per pound. (You might be saying, “But what about the trip and the gas????” We consider this a bargain and a contribution to the local economy considering that the food on the average American’s table when purchased from a supermarket has traveled between 1,500 and 2,500 miles!) After consulting Kingsolver’s directions in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and the information at http://www.canning-food-recipes.com/canning_tomatoes.htm,
we plunged tomato after tomato into boiling water, slipped the skins off, and prepared them for hot packing into quart jars.

Six quarts of beautifully canned tomatoes behind us, the remainder of the tomatoes simmered into one of the most divine tomato sauces that I have ever tasted. Adapted from the “Family Secret Tomato Sauce” in Kingsolver’s book (p. 214), the sauce is not only beautiful, but topped whole wheat pasta, sautéed shrimp, red peppers, and garlic this evening to end our day on an exceptionally delicious note. Here is the recipe that I used for this outstanding tomato sauce:

Herb Tomato Sauce

10 quarts tomato puree (about 30 pounds)
4 large onions, chopped
½ cup chopped fresh basil
¼ cup chopped fresh chives
2 tablespoons fresh thyme
1 small bunch chopped Italian Flat Leaf Parsley
4 generous sprigs rosemary
¼ cup chopped fresh oregano
½ cup local honey
3 tablespoons salt
½ Moroccan preserved lemon, rinsed and slivered (fresh lemon rind if you do not have Moroccan preserved lemons...I made some this past winter with the lemons that we grew on our lemon trees.)
2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg

Soften onions in a heavy 3 gallon kettle-add a small amount of water if necessary, but no oil if you are canning (very important!). Add pureed tomatoes and all seasonings, bring to a boil, simmer on low heat for 3-4 hours or until sauce is of desired thickness. Stir frequently to avoid burning. Meanwhile, heat water in canner bath, sterilize jars in boiling water or dishwasher, and pour boiling water over jar lids. Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to each quart jar before filling with tomato sauce to assure safe acidity. Ladle into jars and leave ½ inch headspace. Cap jars, lower into canner and boil for 45 minutes. Remove, cool, check all seals. Can also be frozen.