Carmelized Onions, Gruyere Cheese and Mushroom White Pizza

This beautiful pizza had the odds stacked against it from the beginning: I was tired, I was very sore (I am now training to become a kick ass super fly fighting machine) and (drum roll please) I had just bought a new Canon Digital Rebel XTi. Yes, I have finally stepped into the world of SLR (thank you economic stimulus package). To say I was excited is an understatement…and as Greyhound Celebrity pointed out, it was kind of sad a piece of gear would get me that worked up. Either way, all of these things spelled impending doom for my little pizza. But it would not accept defeat easily and the brave little soldier came through in the clutch!

Nothing Beats Fresh and Local…

As I have said on several occasions, I am a huge proponent of buying in season, fresh produce from local farmers. The health benefits to the consumer are more than enough to switch from grocery store produce shipped from out of state to the wonderful bounty of local fruits and vegetables offered from small farms. However, it is hard to do this when you don’t live in a city like D.C., which has an abundance of farmers markets to choose from around the metro area.

While working at the farm stand last weekend, Farmer Randy told me about a non-profit organization called Buy Fresh Buy Local based in Pennsylvania. Buy Fresh Buy Local (BFBL) uses its resources to market and promote the use of fresh produce from local farms. Its mission is to strengthen the small farms throughout the country and encourage the concept of sustainable agriculture. Within the parent organization are local chapters throughout the USA, most of which have a presence on the internet thanks to BFBL. Even better, the local chapter websites provide the user with tools to identify local farms stands, markets, CSAs and direct-farm purchase opportunities. If you are interested in using more local produce in your cooking, visit the BFBL website or Local Harvest, another website that provides search engines for local produce opportunities. Trust me, the flavors of fresh produce alone are worth it!

I will be visiting a few of the farmer’s markets this weekend to get a feel for what is currently available. I will be sure to report back! Have a good weekend!

Faux-lognese Sauce

I have really been on a sun dried tomato kick for the last few weeks, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I was craving them at work. I had to get some supplies for this upcoming weekend, so I headed to (sadly) the Giant after work. Shockingly, this bastion of gourmet delights didn’t sell goat cheese or won ton wrappers (my intent was to try a dumpling with the cheese, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms and basil), forcing me to improvise. What I ended up with looked so much like a bolognese sauce, I had to coin the dish Faux-lognese!

My Quest for Croissant Gold…

Cockiness has no place in a kitchen, no matter what Bobby Flay believes. It could have been my complete and utter downfall this past weekend when I flippantly decided to try my hand at croissants. I found an entry on Veronica’s Test Kitchen and cavalierly said, “Gee, I think I’ll make croissants this weekend”. These are the words of quite the fool indeed. And I found that this flaky creation lulled me into a false sense of security before giving me a Van Damme move at the end.

The Breakfast of (Baking) Champions

I spent a majority of this past weekend diving head first into a huge baking challenge of my own design: making homemade croissants. While the process (and end result) will be a post in and of itself, I had to show off the beautiful breakfast I made on Sunday to give me strength to finish them (for all you Mortal Kombat fans of yesteryear, I am in fact imagining pulling out the bloody spine of my opponent when I say “finish them”).

The beautiful strawberries came from my CSA this weekend and I just couldn’t wait to eat them. There was only a pint worth of strawberries, so I opted to use them as a great topping for my Fage Greek yogurt (love, love, love the stuff…all other yogurts bow down to the magnificence that is Fage), along with local honey I also got from Star Hollow Farm. There is just something about fresh strawberries that makes everything seem less daunting…including that croissant dough taunting me from the refrigerator.

Gentlemen, Start Your Skillets!

So does anyone want free Morel mushrooms? No? Really? What’s wrong with you? These babies ain’t cheap and you’re going to turn your nose up at 2 (yes, I said 2) pounds of them? The good folks over at Marx Foods are gambling that you are in the minority. They are sponsoring a mushroom recipe contest with the winning dish receiving two pounds of fresh Morel mushrooms. Even though telling everyone on my blog about this lowers my odds, I still felt it my food blogger duty to inform others of the chance for free Morel mushrooms. The contest ends on May 15th, so take out your knives and start to slicin’!

Adventures in…Fast Food 1

During a lunch break at a seminar, I was talking to a few ladies about (brace yourself for the shocker) food. They all said it was easier to buy frozen meals or grab takeout than to cook their own meals. When I insisted it didn’t take that much longer to make a meal from scratch than to wait for takeout, they scoffed. Yes, dear readers, they scoffed! When I pointed out that the meal I was eating only required five ingredients (orzo not pictured above…mostly because it was cooking when I shot it) and took me only about 15 minutes to make, they were shocked.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Let me get something off my chest: I’m not a fan of Emeril Lagasse. If I hear “bam” one more time, I’m liable to hit someone with my pasta roller. Even worse, his face practically follows me down the pasta aisle. But when I saw rave reviews for his sweet pie crust dough recipe, I set aside my bias long enough to give it a try…with flaky results!

They Like Me! They Really, Really Like Me!!!

The people over at Cookthink have deemed my take on Nola’s sweet potatoes as worthy enough to bear the Root Source Challenge Featured Recipe logo! And I get a copy of Bon Appetit, Y’all by Virginia Willis, a cookbook that was on my list of “must haves (read: I love free shit). And yes, this qualifies as the coolest thing that has happened to me since starting this blog…not sure what that says about my life, but I’m humbled and honored to have won.

So you will be seeing a lot of experiments with this book in coming entries. And no, my winning has nothing to do with me plugging Cookthink in my “Spinach, Goat Cheese and Sun Dried Tomatoes Pasta” entry…what cynics!

Have a great weekend and happy eating!

Ramps, Mushrooms and Spinach Tart

Ramps…so beautiful, so flavorful, so unbeknownst to me! Until now that is. And as soon as I learned about their existence, I was itching to get my hands on some. So imagine my sheer joy when I found out I would be getting ramps in my CSA box this past weekend. But I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with it. Then I saw a post on Closet Cooking for Mushroom and Goat Strudels. The combination of savory and phyllo dough intrigued me, so I adapted the recipe to incorporate the ramps I got…with delicious results!