Two-Face Pizza

[Note to self: must find better lighting in the kitchen]

The stats:

• Homemade pizza dough, using whey instead of water
• Pesto with local basil and garlic, "furraway" pine nuts and olive oil and Parmesan, thinned with whey
• Homemade mozzarella!!!
• Commercial sauce (bought it for camping, honest -- normally I make all of ours)
• Commercial sausages from the freezer

Yummmmmmmmmmmm.

The pesto recipe is in Simply In Season, just your everyday pesto. There are two blobs of it in the freezer for future delight.

Mozzarella question: when you buy fresh mozzarella, it's much softer, almost spongy. Is it soaked in something special? I put ours in cold water overnight, but it was pretty stiff after 24 hours. Is it something to do with the heating process instead?

Thursday night we had burritos made with local beef, probably-local onion-pepper sofrito, hoophouse tomatoes, local cilantro, probably New England pepper jack, and nonlocal rice. Probably the best burritos we have ever had. I finally got the meat seasoning right -- browning it before stewing is regrettably, deliciously essential. Three and a half pound roast, stewed in about 2 c beef broth, 2 Tbsp chili powder, and 1 Tbsp cumin. When the meat was shreddable, I threw in a big handful of dried mild green chili bits and a small pinch of habanero powder, and let the liquid cook down. The ultimate compliment was that Tim didn't spice his up further. It was so good (and so late in the evening, what with the slow stewing), the camera never had a chance.

Oh, and the Zucchini Chocolate Chip cookies are pretty darn good. I took 40 into work and they disappeared in a flash.

Comments

[Liz]

I think the kind of mozzarella you made is more like the factory-made kind. True fresh mozzarella is a different process, using a different technique, then stored in brine. I haven't tried the "real" stuff yet, because the quick kind is so quick. :)

Dough made with whey is just the best! Looks great!