This is why I love to cook. Because even the simplest motions tell stories.
Flour + light + mom's old rolling pin
Cooking infuses simple ingredients with meaning, motion, a way to use energy and though to create something new that didn't exist before. It's such an easy way to attain transformation in my life that sometimes, it feels like cheating.If only I could change my person as quickly as I can change flour, salt, yeast, and water into dough.
The more I write about food, the more I read what others write about food.
In particular, I love stories by Molly of Orangette, Tara at sevenspoons, and Pioneer Woman Ree. Hearing these women share their food stories propels me to share mine. They write because they want to and need to, and the food is just a vehicle to convey their thoughts and wishes into the world. I'm wrapped in a warm cocoon of their words, bouncing happily along until hey! There's also a recipe at the end! Shouldn't all cooking be that?
I hate regarding food simply as a means to an end ---calories, salt, fat, fiber---or as a status symbol ("Oh, just a SaladeNiçoise and mineral water for me...") Food is energy, but it's also change. It changes when we prepare it and when we eat it. Think how much you have learned about baking since the first time you tried to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch. I've learned (among other things) that baking soda and powder are not interchangeable, and that talking on the phone makes me prone to measure 1/2 a cup of salt into brownie batter....
Many blogs are styled after cookbooks, with a photo, a quick lead, and a no-frills recipe. If I wanted that, I'd crack open my copy of Better Homes and Gardens (which I do weekly.) But I'm after the stories. Yes, we eat to survive and to feed our bodies, but if we can feed our hearts while we're at it....well, why not? We honor each other when we share food that was created in love.
Prosciutto, red onion, and mozzarella pizza from the Pioneer Woman, who makes me glad when she shares the joys of life in rural Oklahoma.
Serves 4
Wheat pizza crust
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 (generous) teaspoon active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (120 - 130 degrees Fahrenheit)
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. olive oil
Caramelized onion topping
1 whole large onion, halved and thinly sliced
1/4 cup brown sugar
Parmesan cheese, grated (optional)
sea salt, Kosher salt, or Fleur deseul to taste
10 oz fresh Mozzarella cheese, sliced thin (about one "chub")
8 slices Prosciutto
Preheat an oven to 500 degrees and warm two tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet.
In a medium bowl, stir together the yeast and warm water. Let the yeast sit for 10 minutes or so, until the water's surface is coated in air bubbles.
Once the oil is heated, toss in the onion slices and brown sugar. Coat them all well. Let the onions caramelize, stirring occasionally.
In a small bowl, mix together the flours and salt. Mix as much of the flours as you can into the yeast and water, and drizzle in the olive oil. Mix until just combined, when you have a sticky mass. Coat the small bowl with olive oil and let the dough rest in there for a few minutes.
Slice the mozzarella and prosciutto and tend to the onions, which should be halfway done by now. Keep cooking them until they're golden brown and tender.
Pour the pizza dough onto a floured surface and knead for a few minutes, until the dough begins to feel elastic. Then, stretch/roll the dough until it covers your pizza pan. Flip the dough in the air like an Italian chef it you want! Then, let the dough rest and rise in a warm place--perhaps a counter top near the oven. I took this time to clean the flour off my counter top and finish the onions.
Glide a thin layer of olive oil onto the pizza dough and layer it with mozzarella slices. Follow next with the onions, then prosciutto. Sprinkle on a little Parmesan and some salt. Bake for 15 - 17 minutes on a lower rack of the oven, until the mozzarella is brown and bubbly. Enjoy.
Hey Portland! Enough with the manic weather already. How's a girl supposed to dress for success when it's clear and sunny at 9 am but pouring buckets by 10:30? My office-mates and I have observed about 5 distinct weather patterns roll through before lunch. It's like the sky is a teen-aged girl deciding what to wear to the spring dance.
Now, I don't want to rush Teenage Skies along. (No one wants to witness a tantrum of that proportion.) My official stance is "Wear whatever you want, Weather! I'm sure you'll look fine. I'm just going to perk myself up with some candied citrus slices while you decide. And no, I won't French Braid your hair."
These citrus slices are made from some of the first fruits of my baby Meyer Lemon tree--a birthday present from the husband--and discount limes from Fred Meyer. That's me, but you may want to candy tangerines and blood oranges. The world is your candy store.
Candied citrus slices are easy to love on their own, but they also fancy-up a cake or a mix of chocolates and nuts, etc. I'm filing them under a cooking method, a melody on which you can riff. Enjoy the crazy weather and have something sweet!
two cooking pots (to accommodate all those slices)
Place two pieces of parchment paper under two cooling racks, then forgetaboudit.
Bring the sugar and three cups of water to a simmer in a pot. Try to let the sugar and water marry on their own through heating, without stirring. When the solution is clear and bubbling, reduce the heat to medium-low and divide the solution equally between both pots. Keep each pot over medium-low heat, barely bubbling.
Add citrus slices in a single layer, not overlapping. (You might have to cook the citrus in shifts.) Simmer until rinds are almost translucent, about 40 minutes. Let cool completely on a rack until dry and slightly firm, about 8 hours. If some of the slices are still wet/sticky after that, place them with some sugar in a plastic bag. Shake it 'till you make it.
Store in an air-tight container for two or three weeks. Snack on the slices plain, use them to top cupcakes, or dip them in chocolate. Delish.
My friend Sadie says it took her a year after she moved to Portland to stop missing the folks back in Boise, Idaho. She says I'll be completely homesick until I've experienced a full year in a new place -- a year of holidays, new friends, and new landscapes. After that, it's cake.
I needed some of that cake yesterday (preferably in the form of a cute petit-four.) Homesickness hit me hard. If you've ever moved away from a familiar landscape, you may have experienced this same unanchored feeling - being separated from an old life, not yet absorbed into a new one. I'm still an amalgam of Kansas and Oregon.
One of my coworkers wore a KMUW shirt yesterday. I looked at him, read the words "Wichita Public Radio" emblazoned on his chest and thought, "Hey cool. I've got that shirt." That my Portland coworker was wearing a shirt from a Kansas radio station sounded no alarms. I did not think, how did that shirt get here? (He begged the shirt off somebody from KMUW at a conference because it "looked so cool.")
I'm still trying to find my new anchor. That mental push-pin mapping where and what home is, since "home" is now a mental and no longer a physical place. It's a suitcase of memories, recipes, and post cards I tote around everywhere.
One of the recipes I carry in my suitcase is for Grandma Mickey's ranger cookies*. Grandma calls these ranger cookies, but I've heard other Kansas people call them "cowboy" or even "everything" cookies. Ranger cookies combine buttery, crunchy, chewy and sweet in one, easy-to-carry shape.
While the ranger cookies baked, I thought of how other Kansas transplants I know pack their home suitcase. Immediately, my friend Dustin came to mind.
Hello there
Dustin's a boy with ICT pride. He loves Wichita and being from Kansas, and he'll share this love with anyone he meets. He gets plenty of opportunities, since he sings the blues in a travelling band. People hear him play and say, "Man, they've got the blues in Kansas?" and he says, "Hell, yes." When people admit they don't know where Wichita is, all Dustin has to do is hold out his left arm.
I love it. You've got a covered wagon, an outline of the Sunflower State's major rivers, and a big yellow star where Dustin's heart lies - right in the Air Capital. I also love that the covered wagon conceals Medicine Lodge. Ugh, Medicine Lodge. Nobody needs to witness that.
Dustin's not the only friend I know with a Kansas tattoo.
Photo by Kelly Evans
Meet Isaac, one of my old hometown friends. As you can tell from the photo (he's on the left), Isaac's now lives in Texas. In Denton, he plays guitar, sings and loves the new NX35 music festival. Isaac loves living Texas, but he remembers his first home with the Kansas state motto: ad astra per aspera, or "to the stars, through difficulties." There's a motto that can take you places.
Some famous Kansans who have kept their sights on far on the horizon include: crazed abolitionist John Brown, aviation darling Amelia Earhart, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, axe-wielding temperance advocate Carry A. Nation, and poet Langston Hughes. They all reached for the stars, though I wish John Brown hadn't used so many guns to achieve his vision.
Perhaps we're all shooting stars, making our course through difficulties. All I know is that I'm not quite ready to have Kansas tattooed on my arm. Baking cookies cures my homesickness...for now.
"Ranger" or "cowboy" cookiesmakes 2 dozen
1/2 cup cool, unsalted butter
1 cup cane sugar
1 tsp. molasses
1 large egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup shredded, sweetened coconut
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. sea salt
Preheat an oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, then line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a stand mixer, whip the ever-lovin' heck out of the butter until it's fluffy.Beat in the sugar, molasses, and vanilla. Add in the egg on a medium speed.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Pour the whole mess in with the butter/sugar, and mix until just combined. Stir in the oats, coconut, and chopped walnuts.
Grease a tablespoon to plop heaping spoon-fulls of cookie dough onto the parchment paper. The cookies should be spaced at least two inches apart. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the very edges start to turn golden brown. The cookies should be thin, chewy, and crispy at the edges.
Most of the time, I love rooting through well planned, information-dense blogs like C&Z. But occasionally my brain needs a break. Something fluffy and sweet as cotton candy, like Woman's World Magazine.
Unlike other mags you'll find at the Safeway checkout, Woman's World at least *tries* to be woman-positive. Their weekly "lose 30 pounds in a week!" diet is mostly based in science, it encourages readers to fight cancer with vitamins, supplements, and exercise--plus, there's always a recipe for an animal-shaped party cake. (An edible panda bear constructed of cupcakes? Sure!) WW is a lot of laughs for only $1.79.
When I worked at a healthy grocery in Wichita, we'd keep a copy of Woman's World on the break room table, somewhere near Jordan Rubin's newest Bible-health book. Like an oracle of things to come, if WW published on açaí berries one week, we'd see a rush of customers asking about açaí the next. We'd clip recipes for Milky Way cheesecake and roasted asparagus amandine and try to interpret our horoscopes.
Last week, I stayed home sick from work, so I had oodles of time to revel in a trashy magazine while watching Stranger Than Fiction for the 150th time. That's where I found the recipe for these spicy-sweet nuts. The title read: "Get slim with our sweet n' spicy curried nut mix! Lose weight by eating nuts? Yes!"
It's plain refreshing to get a little low-brow. Now, If you'll excuse me, I've got some leftover Chinese take-out to reheat. Sweet n' Spicy Curried Nut Mix from Woman's World Magazine Volume 31, Issue 17
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with foil, then coat the foil with cooking spray or a light layer of coconut oil.
Mix together seasoning, oil, and honey in a large bowl. Stir in the nuts and mix well to coat. Transfer the nuts to the sheet; bake for 10 minutes, stirring once. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
Flour + light + mom's old rolling pin 
