5. Watermelons are very high in iron.

3. Microwaving Rice can result in your getting a nasty food poisoning.

2. Girl scouts sell cookies, while boy scouts are federally funded.

1. Bananas are going to be extinct might suffer a setback in growth* in less than 10 years

*
Snopes
Plagues
“while in no danger of outright extinction…”
Rumours etc

All that said, there is clear evidence of some serious threats to our little yellow friends. Anyone interested in doing more research is welcome.

He suggests you CRANK your subwoofer. The whole thing should sound very “womb-y”

heart-rate.mp3

So Yesterday Ryan Schenk and JonAbad and… maybe a few others. Joined forces to post a day of MikeDiDonato.com. I didn’t write any of the content yesterday. But I liked the idea and figured I’d counter JonAbad and Ryan Schenk by feigning continuation of 720. Actually, originally I decided that I’d actually go for it. Whip together another 720 post marathon and shock the world!!

but I just spent way too much time generating… barely a days worth of posts. and I’m tired. So let’s go ahead and slow back down to normal posting speed again.

In other news, did you get pwned by any April Fools jokes yesterday?

“Mini muffins are like muffin popcorn.”

“There is a lot more juice in grapefruit than meets the eye.”

har har

I don’t think I’ve talked on the website about my simplification goals. I’ve really been digging minimalist art and architecture lately. And I want to try to minimalist the House of Rock a bit. This does not, however, include the kitchen. The kitchen shall remain stocked with as many awesome gadgets and delicious tools as possible.

that is all.

Don’t freak out! It’s okay!

If you have cooking chocolate you can just mix it with sugar to get delicious hot cocoa. Sometimes the little carton’s of cooking chocolate will even have a recipe on the side. If not, just try a 1 to 1 ratio of chocolate and sugar. Heat up your milk and add your mixture… mixing really really well.

Result? Delicious.

1. Pressure Cooker.
2. Strainer (you’d think I’d have one of these)
3. Awesomely Sweet Thermometer

Yesterday I went to Ohio with Sander.

Every time I fly with Sander, the flight attendant has to make modifications to the seating plan to accommodate an ‘unbalanced weight.’

coincidence? I think not.

What I forgot to mention in that last post is my new passion for making pizza doughs. I tried a basic recipe off the internet… it was “eh” at best. Then I pulled one out of my Beard on Bread book. It was delicious… but didn’t have the structure I was hoping for.

Earlier today you read about the DiDonato Italian Feast. Helping out at this event was Chef Sarah. After I got my pizza stone I sent her a question about how to make a good dough. She wrote back with the following:

Funny that you mention pizza dough. I literally used to have to make it every Saturday and Sunday morning when I worked at Tresca in the North End. I don’t really have the exact measurements because I kind of put ingredients together and based a “good” dough on texture and sight, but I can tell you secrets:

Always allow your yeast to “come alive” in warm water (110 degrees) with a little sugar.

Make that your first job and set aside until you see foam at the top of your bowl. This means the yeast is active. Then, in a separate bowl combine flour, salt and yeast mixture. (If you have a kitchen aid with a dough hook perfect, but if you don’t do not be discouraged.) By the time you are done incorporating all of the flour necessary you should have a ball of dough that is wet but not wet enough to stick to your hands in full. What I mean is if you placed the palm of your hand in the center of the dough ball and raised it the dough would stick to a point but would eventually fall back into the ball.

As soon as you are done with this step, taste a bit of the dough. You will be able to tell if there is or is not enough salt according to your individual palate. If there isn’t, don’t worry. Add a little more and knead until completely incorporated. Once incorporated coat a large container or bowl with a small amount of olive oil. Roll the dough around in the container and cover. Place in a humid environment - the microwave is awesome if you do not have a shelf warm enough above your stove - and set until the dough doubles in size.

Take out and punch down. Put back in or on the microwave or shelf and again allow to double in size. Once it has doubled, you are ready to form the dough onto a baking sheet, stone, pie plate, whatever you have. So the dough does not stick after it comes out of the oven, sprinkle liberal amounts of semolina on the bottom of your “pan” of choice before forming the shape of the pizza.

Once you have formed the dough proof one last time again in a warm environment. This time don’t cover it. Allow to double. Without punching down and making sure you don’t, carefully cover the dough with toppings of choice. Leave about 1″ the circumference free of toppings . (I would suggest if you like vegetables on the pizza blanch, saute or roast them first because it does not take long for the pizza to cook and you’ll end up with crunchy vegetables) Bake in the oven at 375 until the dough is a gold, uniform, color and the cheese begins to bubble. Take out and set on a cooling wrack for at least 10 minutes. For best results of a gold, uniform color on your crust make sure to gently brush the edges with olive oil before baking.

Using some of Chef Sarah’s tips… I made a fantastic pizza.

I recently got a pizza stone and a pizza peel, and I’ve probably talked about both on this website. As I sifted through my photographs, I realized that I had this picture of a pizza I made pre-stone. Check it out!

I’ll have to snag a picture of a pizza one of these days to show you how it comes out when made on a stone.

You’ll need this.

Oh delicious food
How I ache for your sweet taste
Please stop tempting me.

Spinach and Mozzarella Polenta
with roasted vegetables, herbs, and balsamic

Roasting must be one of the simplest of all cooking techniques. It reinforces the idea that when good quality ingredients are used, very little has to be done to them. It brings out the natural sweetness of the vegetables and here this is complemented by the contrasting, oaky flavor of balsamic vinegar. Include as many different colored vegetable as possible, cut them into different shapes and don’t be tempted to cook everything at once.

Polenta (cornmeal) rounds
5 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
4 cups vegetable stock
1 cup polenta or yellow cornmeal
8 scallions, thinly sliced
4 oz. spinach, thinly sliced, about 1 cup
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 oz. mozzarella cheese, sliced

Roasted vegetables
1 ½ lb. butternut squash, peeled, cut in half, with seeds removed
1 red Cubanelle pepper, halved and seeded, or regular bell pepper
1 yellow Cubanelle pepper, halved and seeded, or regular bell pepper
2 red onions, cut into wedges
1 whole head of garlic, cloves separated but skins left on
4 heads of baby fennel, quartered, or 2 medium heads, thickly sliced
A handful of thyme sprigs, stalks left on
A handful of oregano sprigs, stalks left on
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
¼ cup olive oil
8 oz. cherry tomatoes
15 asparagus spears
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 large baking trays, 14 x 9 inches
A cookie cutter, 3-inch diameter

SERVES 4

Instructions:

To make the polenta, put the butter, oil, and garlic in a medium saucepan. Cook lightly, then add the stock and bring to a boil. Pour in the polenta, beating constantly, and then add the scallions and spinach. Add salt and pepper to taste, and then continue stirring. Cook as instructed on the polenta package – the time will vary depending on the type of polenta used. Spoon into one of the baking trays and set aside for about 2 hours, or until firm to the touch.

To cook the vegetables, put all the vegetables, except the tomatoes and asparagus, on the second baking tray. Sprinkle with the herbs, o9live oil, salt, and pepper and mix well. Roast in a preheated oven at 400F for 30 minutes, and then stir in the tomatoes and asparagus. Continue cooking for a further 20 minutes until all the vegetables are tender.

Invert the polenta onto a work surface and cut out 8 rounds with the cookie cutter. Brush the baking tray with olive oil and arrange the rounds on the tray. Tope each round with a slice of mozzarella and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

Put 2 rounds of polenta on each plate, add the roasted vegetables, and then sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Serve immediately.

Variation

Try this with chunks of eggplant, carrots, zucchini, patty pan squash, or sweet potatoes.

Notes:
• We used “instant” polenta, made in 3 minutes, dropped in the fridge while the vegetables were roasting. Worked great.
• Butternut squash are big, you don’t need much. We only used half of one “medium” sized one, and it was plenty.
• Used regular bell peppers since Cubanelle weren’t at the store
• 2 red onions is a lot. Use small onions.
• Used 2 medium fennel bulbs. It was a ton. 2 small is probably fine unless you LOVE fennel
• We used all dry spices since we already had them. Seemed fine.
• Used large tomatoes diced instead of cherry tomatoes since we had them around.
• The vegetable tray was LOADED while roasting. The bigger the tray you have the better. Pre-mix everything in a HUGE bowl, it will help a lot with homogenizing the seasonings (and help with NOT dropping a ton of stuff on the floor – trust me).
• Round cookie cutters are boring (you’ll see what I mean)
• We think it serves 6

On a recent Sunday I headed back to Boston where my family was meeting for a cooking event of epic proportions.

The D’s: Me, Dad D, Mom D, Alicia D-P, Dwane P, and Tree D were accompanied by my Uncle John, Family Friends Peter and Joan, and College Friends Tom & Mykal.

The venue? Eurostove in Beverly Mass.

The food? Italian.

We arrived around 2:30 and got started pretty much right away. Susan Lacy, a woman of incredible culinary skill, lead us in a mass cooking party. We made intense tuna salads, oysters, manicotti, honey balls, beef wraps… the list goes on.

Check out pictures… here!

Today’s April 720 event will be dedicated entirely to food. Delicious foods and stories of food.

Enjoy!