Sautéed Honey Bananas

Faced with a number of bananas that appeared shortly before dinnertime (see previous post on the largesse of neighbors), I was inspired to make up come for dessert. I got to thinking back to my childhood and to fried or honey bananas, something a bit like this.

Dessert in restaurants was always special – our family might have eaten out often, but dessert was not a regular part of our dining experience. Once in a while, when I was truly lucky, we ate at a fancier-than-some Chinese restaurant and could order the banana dessert. I don’t remember its name, or really much more than that the bananas were fried, perhaps shocked in cold water, and coated in some very sticky honey. The insides were warm and gooey; the outsides were crisp and sweet. And my chocolate-preferring little self loved every fruity bite.

Without the energy to research this childhood treat, I threw some items together to make sautéed honey bananas:

Melt some butter in a non-stick frying pan, perhaps a tablespoon.
Let it melt (but I bet brown butter would be awesome).
Add a good amount of honey, a little cinnamon, and a smidge of nutmeg.
Let it all heat into a gooey sauce.
Add some halved and quartered bananas, heat them through for about 5 minutes and turn them to coat.
Serve warm in a bowl. Or over ice cream. Or under ice cream that’s been topped with homemade chocolate sauce…
Enjoy.

Wherein we revisit my 2010 resolutions...

Hmmm...happy March!

Sometime in January, I belatedly thought to address my little note about why I even started this little blog.

So, here I am now, adding this little update for 2012: Still cooking, cleaning much less, exploring more via internet than anywhere else, but always attempting to nurture my family and trying to figure out when and how to say "no" to some of the demands on all of us.

I think the idea, two years ago, was to take some time for myself and explore what I do, try new things (like blogging and knitting), and maybe share it with a few interested parties.

I can report the knitting as a complete bust, but I am more mindful of cooking and trying new projects in the kitchen. And that the blog isn't complete, totally dead. Yet.

Berry Good Times Today

Ah, it's still blueberry season! The grocer is practically giving them away, and that has led to blueberry crisps, pies, muffins, cereal toppings, and plain ol' handfuls while passing through the kitchen. Good times.

I never did make that Father's Day berry pie (although the butter was yummy), but I think taking the time to think it through makes up for the lack.

My pie-making is much improved from last summer, and we had a truly lovely blueberry pie last weekend.

See?

This morning, it was some quickly made muffins eaten al fresco. Did you know it takes less than an hour to go from opening a cookbook to eating fresh blueberry muffins? Alas, the butter on hand was store-bought. Can't ever seem to make all the cooking projects happen all at once!

Summer Dinner Party: S'more Pie

An abundance of marshmallows, left over from winter's hot chocolate, made me search for a way to use them. I came across this on the Epicurious website.

Adapted from… Chocolate S'more Pie

Gourmet, November 2006
Yield: Makes 6-8 servings

For crust
1 graham cracker crumb crust, baked and cooled completely or purchased, pre-made

For chocolate cream filling
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate (not more than 70% cacao; not unsweetened), finely chopped OR 7 oz of bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
1 large egg, at room temperature for 30 minutes and the broken into a small container and slightly beaten

For marshmallow topping
3-4 handfuls of mini marshmallows

Directions:
1) Make chocolate cream filling:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.
Put chocolate in a large bowl.
Bring cream just to a boil in a 1- to 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan. (It will bubble a bit on the sides, but not in the middle.) Then pour hot cream over chocolate.
Let stand 1 minute, then gently whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
Gently whisk in egg and a pinch of salt until combined and pour into graham cracker crumb crust.

2) Bake until filling is softly set and trembles slightly in center when gently shaken, about 20 to 25 minutes.

3) Remove from oven and top with marshmallows.

4) Cool pie to room temperature on a rack (filling will firm as it cools), about 1 hour, and then refrigerate.

5) Brown topping before serving:
Preheat broiler.
Transfer pie to a baking sheet. Broil 3 to 4 inches from heat, rotating pie as necessary, until marshmallow topping is golden brown, about 3 minutes.
Cool pie on a rack 10 minutes.

Summer Dinner Party: Flank Steak Recipe

This is our go-to summer grilled recipe. It's Emeril's Grilled Marinated Flank Steaks and it's fabulous. The meat is marinaded earlier in the day, the steak cooks up quickly, and dinner is ready for guests with little active cooking time. And it's so much nicer than burgers and dogs. We serve with homemade coleslaw or a medley of grilled vegetables.

Tips from my husband, the grill master in our home:

Rob makes his own version of Emeril’s Essence. Essence is available in most stores OR you can buy any kind of Creole seasoning mix. We also prefer Sherry to red wine, but have used both successfully. We marinate for at least 4 hours, flipping the meat every couple hours, and then remove from the fridge an hour or so before cooking. Grill about 8 minutes on each side for medium-rare and do NOT cut into it for another 5 minutes after it comes off the grill. Oh, and we’ve never bothered to reserve the sauce and boil it, etc. like it says below.

Grilled Marinated Flank Steaks
Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2000

Ingredients
1 (2 to 3 pound) flank steak
1/2 cup dry Sherry or red wine
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons Creole seasoning, recipe available via the link above
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Place the flank steak in a large, plastic resealable bag. In a 2-cup measuring cup combine the remaining ingredients. Pour the marinade mixture into the bag with the steak, seal and marinate in the refrigerator at least 4 hours and up to 12 hours in advance.

Preheat a gas or charcoal grill. Remove the steak from the marinade. Pour the marinade into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer the marinade for 10 minutes. Remove saucepan from the heat and keep warm. Place the steak on the grill and cook to desired doneness, about 6 minutes per side for rare. Transfer the steak to plate and let stand for 5 minutes before carving. Cut the steak across the grain into thin diagonal slices, and serve with the marinade sauce.

Random tip: removing eggshells from broken eggs

While I would love to do that one-handed egg-cracking trick, my cooking style is a touch messier. And my sometime assistant, age 6, is not much neater about it. Thus we eagerly tried this trick, first seen by us on a Jamie Oliver (sigh...) show.

To remove a broken piece of eggshell from your cracked eggs, fish it out with another piece of eggshell. They will find each other and it's so much easier than going in there with slippery fingers.

Blueberries and Butter

Blueberry season! With our local grocer selling blueberries as a buy one pint/ get 2 pints free, and a husband with a yearning for pie, I sense another weekend baking project. It IS Father's Day tomorrow and a girl's gotta practice her pie crust.

Meanwhile, I started Saturday by baking 2 sourdough loaves and making some butter. Will have to write a bit more on the latter, as it evoked some food memories and prompted quite the inspirational riff about what to do with almost a pound of the stuff.

Knowing which side one’s bread is buttered on

About a year or so ago, I was lucky enough to attend a "carb heavy" Girls' Night Out that included a lesson in bread making. Wine, cheese, fresh bread, girlfriends... it was great. And I came home with my still-unnamed new pet, sourdough starter. And I baked a couple loaves, as seen here. (Yes, I really, really did it -- totally from scratch!)

Then the summer heat kicked in, and the idea of turning on an oven sounded horrific. Life went on. Yet, periodically, I would stumble across my yeasty, gassy little friend in the fridge and give it a feed. My daughter has now asked for homemade bread, our recent record-setting heatwave seems to have ended, and I think this is the weekend.

Perhaps I'll go all out and make Alex Guarnaschelli's homemade butter to spread on top.

Strawberry Cake via Smitten Kitchen

Yum...I tried Smitten Kitchen's Strawberry Summer Cake a couple weeks ago and it was all that Deb promised. And more.

Once I sliced it up and added a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream, I was transported back to childhood. The flavors caught me off-guard and almost brought me to tears, reminding me of the Erdbeertorte mit Sahne that played such a huge role in childhood summer visits to Oma. The only thing different was the presentation.

traditional Erdbeertorte mit Sahne

Make this NOW before berry season is gone!

Random tip: a clean cheese grater

To avoid a mess, spray your cheese greater with some cooking spray (like Pam) before you start grating. When you're done, rinse and pop in the dishwasher. Comes clean every time.

Pot Roast Recipe, Cliff Notes Version

Slow-Cooker Pot Roast with Gravy
Adapted from “Cook’s Country” Magazine

• 1 large boneless beef chuck roast (5-6 pounds)
• Salt and pepper
• Garlic, 1-2 cloves, sliced
• 4 teaspoons oil… Vegetable is preferred, but olive works.
• 3 or 4 medium yellow onions, chopped or sliced
• 1 large celery rib, chopped
• 4 medium carrots, chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in tomato puree
• 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth… You can also just use water.
• 1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes (optional)
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• Fresh parsley to garnish

1. At least an hour before cooking, slice small divots all over the roast and place slivers of garlic in these small cavities. Liberally season the roast with salt and pepper. You want a healthy teaspoon per side of salt, which is more than you’d ever think you’d need. Place in the fridge until ready to move on to the next step.

2. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the seasoned roast on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes total cooking time. Transfer roast to slow cooker.

3. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add remaining 2 teaspoons oil to skillet, along with onions. Sprinkle with some salt and gently cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are golden and almost translucent. This can easily take 10 to 15 minutes; lower your heat if they start to turn brown. Transfer onions to the slow cooker.

4. Add celery, carrots (or whatever root vegetables you like) and garlic to the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Transfer to slow cooker.

5. Increase heat to high. Add red wine to empty skillet, scraping up any browned bits with wooden spoon, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and broth (or water), and bring to a boil. Stir in pepper flakes, bay leaves and thyme. Transfer to slow cooker. If the liquid does not come up to the top edge of the roast, add a little more water.

6. Set slow cooker to high, cover, and cook until tender, 6 to 7 hours. Or, better yet, cook on low for 9 to 10 hours. You can check the temperature with a meat thermometer about 2 hours before the roast is supposed to be done to prevent overcooking. It will be well done at 160 degrees F.

7. Transfer roast to carving board; loosely tent with foil to keep warm. Discard bay leaves. Allow liquid in pot to settle, about 5 minutes, then use wide spoon to skim fat off surface.

8. To be really fancy about making gravy (and we did not do this in Santa Fe), puree liquids and solids in batches in blender or food processor. Or, use an immersion blender. Stir in some fresh parsley, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve in a gravy boat and wow your friends.

9. Cut roast into 1/2-inch-thick slices, ladle on some sauce, and serve over the starch of your choosing: buttered egg noodles, boiled potatoes, or mashed potatoes.

Katherine's Pot Roast, Part Two

Earlier this year, my little Sunshine and I had the chance to fly out to Santa Fe and spend a long weekend with Katherine and her family. To thank them for having us, and to make carnivore Mr. Katherine happy, I cooked them up a pot roast and some boiled red potatoes.

Below is, more or less, what I did and how to do this yourself… with some editorial for those that don’t cook much. Since the essence of the recipe is browning some meat and braising it with some vegetables and seasoning, there’s a lot of room for variation. You can vary the type and amounts of the vegetables and the seasonings. For me, what’s key, is having some red wine and tomato in the sauce to round it out and make good gravy.

Slow-Cooker Pot Roast with Gravy
Adapted from “Cook’s Country” Magazine

• 1 large boneless beef chuck roast (5-6 pounds)… This should be at least 2 inches high; smaller cuts seem not to cook as well.

• Salt and pepper… You have kosher salt and a pepper grinder, right?

• Garlic, 1-2 cloves, sliced… I made do with jarred, minced garlic and that worked well

• 4 teaspoons oil… Vegetable is preferred, but olive works.

• 3 or 4 medium yellow onions, chopped or sliced

• 1 large celery rib, chopped … Traditional, but optional if no one likes celery

• 4 medium carrots, chopped… I usually add more carrots, and am tempted to mix in some parsnips as well. Try to chop the root vegetables to more or less the same size, bite-sized for an adult.

• 6 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 cup red wine

• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in tomato puree

• 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth… You can also just use water.

• 1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes (optional)

• 3 bay leaves… You can use less if your host’s spice cabinet yields just one.

• 1 teaspoon dried thyme

• Fresh parsley to garnish…which I never, ever seem to have on hand.


1. At least an hour before cooking, slice small divots all over the roast and place slivers of garlic in these small cavities. Liberally season the roast with salt and pepper. You want a healthy teaspoon per side of salt, which is more than you’d ever think you’d need. Place in the fridge until ready to move on to the next step.

[This helps flavor the meat on the inside. I’ve done this up to 12 hours ahead of time. If you feel like it, rub some dried thyme into the meat too. Then again, if you don’t feel like doing much, skip this step. Just be sure to salt and pepper the roast prior to step 2.]

2. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the seasoned roast on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes total cooking time. Transfer roast to slow cooker.

[This is one area where a sturdy pair of spring-loaded tongs is an essential kitchen tool. And, really, with the amount of Food Network chefs selling kitchen lines to Target and such, you should have a Dutch oven by now or at least a good pot with a thick bottom. Should you wish to skip using a slow cooker, this meal can be done in a Dutch oven – lid on – in your oven at about 300 degrees F for at least 3 hours.]

3. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add remaining 2 teaspoons oil to skillet, along with onions. Sprinkle with some salt and gently cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are golden and almost translucent. This can easily take 10 to 15 minutes; lower your heat if they start to turn brown. Transfer onions to the slow cooker.

[Again, the lazy can skip step 3 and just cook the onions along with everything else in step 4. However, caramelized onions really add an extra yumminess to the sauce and, for my friends, I did take this step.]

4. Add celery, carrots (or whatever root vegetables you like) and garlic to the skillet. Cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Transfer to slow cooker.

5. Increase heat to high. Add red wine to empty skillet, scraping up any browned bits with wooden spoon, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and broth (or water), and bring to a boil. Stir in pepper flakes, bay leaves and thyme. Transfer to slow cooker. If the liquid does not come up to the top edge of the roast, add a little more water.

6. Set slow cooker to high, cover, and cook until tender, 6 to 7 hours. Or, better yet, cook on low for 9 to 10 hours. You can check the temperature with a meat thermometer about 2 hours before the roast is supposed to be done to prevent overcooking. It will be well done at 160 degrees F.

7. Transfer roast to carving board; loosely tent with foil to keep warm. Discard bay leaves. Allow liquid in pot to settle, about 5 minutes, then use wide spoon to skim fat off surface.

8. To be really fancy about making gravy (and we did not do this in Santa Fe), puree liquids and solids in batches in blender or food processor. Or, use an immersion blender. Stir in some fresh parsley, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve in a gravy boat and wow your friends.

9. Cut roast into 1/2-inch-thick slices, ladle on some sauce, and serve over the starch of your choosing: buttered egg noodles, boiled potatoes, or mashed potatoes.

Finally, Katherine's Pot Roast Recipe

April Fool!

Katherine's Pot Roast, Part One

Last month, my little Sunshine and I had the chance to fly out to Santa Fe and spend a long weekend with Katherine and her family. To thank them for having us, and to make carnivore Mr. Katherine happy, I cooked them up a pot roast. In fact, it burbled away in a Crock Pot while we went on a short hike up in the nearby mountains, seen here.

By way of a back-story, Katherine is a vegetarian and the Mr. is not. I promised to give them a recipe and then realized that writing one is harder than I had imagined. For one, pot roast is the one thing I can cook without even glancing at a recipe. Two, preparing a recipe for someone who rarely cooks – and never eats – meat might mean a little more expository writing than my tired brain could handle. Three, culling sources for a good recipe from which to start revealed an infinite variety out there.

One month later, and I’m working on it. I’ve figured out that what I do approaches an Italian pot roast or stracotto. Unlike the recipes online, I don’t use mushrooms. Also, due to my own biases, anything with too many prepackaged ingredients was right out.

For Katherine… this is the essence of what’s done and I promise I’ll break it out into an actual recipe very, very soon:

Season and brown a large hunk of cheap, tough red meat.
Cook down some vegetables in the same pot.
Combine meat and veggies in a slow cooker with enough liquid to cover.
Cook 7-10 hours.
Serve with the starch of your choosing.

"Emergency" Dinner

Everyone needs to have at least one meal trick up their sleeve. Something tasty, reasonably healthy, and QUICK to assemble that's more complicated than pasta with jarred sauce and more ambitious than cereal. That said, we've certainly had our share of both in this house. Once in a while, however, when ordering pizza doesn't appeal and breakfast-for-dinner seems a little too much like a cop-out, we have Emergency Dinner.

For this, I keep a bag of frozen salmon fillets (thank you wholesale club!) in the freezer, a quick starch mix in the pantry, and then use either salad or frozen veggies to round it all out. Within 30 minutes or less, we have three items on the dinner plate.

For the salmon:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a baking sheet or pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Place salmon skin-side down and top with yummy things. We like a little S&P, some whole grain mustard and panko breadcrumbs.*

If you want, drizzle a little oil in the top so the breadcrumbs crisp up.
Plan on baking it for about 10-12 minutes if thawed, about 15 minutes if cooking from frozen. (Yes, you can do that.) For a flourish, broil on low the last 2 minutes to brown the topping.

For the sides:

Pre-flavored couscous comes together in about 10 minutes. Last time, we used a rice blend instead (pictured) that took about 20.
Microwave some vegetables. Toss with a little butter or oil and some seasonings while the fish cooks.

Enjoy!

What's your emergency stand-by?

*You can use Dijon mustard and regular breadcrumbs too. Also good is a little soy sauce and honey whisked together and drizzled on the fish. Very basic is S&P and some lemon juice (and maybe dill or another herb) sprinkled on top.

Easy Peasy

For dinner, I’m finding it a constant challenge to come up with something at least marginally nutritious for the family to eat and easy enough for me to make. Bonus points if I get leftovers too. Now and again, I hit on something really good that makes us all happy. This is my version of Parker’s Split Pea Soup found in The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.

We love Ina Garten; her flavor palette meshes well with that of our family. I find her recipes work as promised, though she uses more salt that I would. And the servings yield in the cookbooks can be a bit too much for my small family, so I tend to half everything. Here, I took an already simple soup recipe and made it easier on myself. I add in some meat for extra protein and, unlike Ina, dump all the split peas into the pot at once. This can easily go vegetarian, and the soup can take a couple more carrots or potatoes if you have them.

The soup does get very thick as it stands, so I find it necessary to add in some water when reheating to get it to a better consistency. Since I tend to throw this together whenever I have time to let something sit on the stove a bit, we usually have this reheated for dinner and then again as leftovers.

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

• 1 chopped yellow onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups medium-diced carrots (3 to 4 carrots)
• 1 cup medium-diced red potatoes, unpeeled (3 small)
• Note: I’ve also used unpeeled Yukon Golds.
• 1 pound dried split green peas
• 8 cups chicken stock or water
• Note: I’ve used all stock or a combination of both, depending on what was on hand.
• Chopped, cooked ham or sausage (optional)
• Note: I buy vacuum-packed ham steaks and chop them up. These are already cooked and can be added in during the last 30 minutes of cooking.

Directions

In a 4-quart stockpot [I use my 5-quart Dutch oven] on medium heat, sauté the onions and garlic with the olive oil, oregano, salt, and pepper until the onions are translucent, 10 to 15 minutes.

Add the carrots, potatoes, split peas, and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for 90 minutes, or until all the peas are soft. Skim off the foam while cooking, if you can. Stir frequently to keep the solids from burning on the bottom. Or, lower the heat and lengthen the cooking time to off-set your not stirring quite so often.

Taste for salt and pepper. Serve hot. Pairs really well with crusty bread.

Food Biases

I like to cook and have a few biases I’ve noticed while doing it. Before I write about my pot-roast-for-Katherine and our favorite split pea soup, I thought I’d share my kitchen quibbles:

• Bacon really makes anything taste better.
• Ditto for pastry dough.
• Vegetables are awesome, but ham tends to make it into my vegetarian entrée recipes.
• I cannot fathom making savory foods without garlic, onions or both as part of the dish.
• Spicy foods aren’t my thing, but I like well-seasoned food.
• I tend to reject any recipe calling for a can of condensed soup as an ingredient.
• Actually, I’m not a fan of canned anything other than beans, tomatoes, and the occasional simmer sauce.
• While not completely opposed to convenience foods in cooking, I tend to think, “how can I make this myself?”

Can she bake cherry pie, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?

I’m certainly not a young thing and long ago left my mother, but am delighted to report my very first, unassisted pie-baking success.

The backstory: I can cook reasonably well, and pie fillings turn out great, but homemade pie crust has been my Waterloo. The results have not only been unappetizing, but often inedible and sometimes un-bakeable. This has been known as Tania’s Annual Pie Attempt around here and there have, at times, been tears.

This year I sought help. The talented Jen, who demonstrated sourdough bread earlier this year, invited me over to watch/assist her with some pies while our children went forth and played. Heaven – cooking, adult conversation, and my child safely occupied elsewhere. Thanks to Jen, I went home armed with the best blueberry pie ever


...and a round of dough to try baking myself.

For my solo attempt, I went with this peach and crème fraîche pie. Last year’s try resulted in a gloriously peachy and light filling inside of a dense, hard, greasy pie shell. I scooped out the middle and threw out the crust. This year I rolled and chilled and parbaked and… ended with a decent crust that somehow went short. For some reason, I lost the edges and the thing looked more like a very rustic tart. Frustration.

Do you see a crust? I don't.

Weeks passed and we found ourselves prepping for a small dinner party. It’s still peach season and I decided to try again. Braving record-setting high temperatures, my family sweltered at the farmer’s marker for (and I wish I could type out the drawl) “sweet peaches” from West Virginia. Huge, soft, and so juicy-they-can-only-be-eaten-over-the-sink, I felt the need to put them in a pie.

Enter Cook’s Illustrated and their Foolproof Pie Dough and Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Pie and Pastry Bible.

CI, with my tips from Jen, gave me a workable dough. Rose is my new hero and her meticulous, multi-step process for both the crust and the filling (wow – what a filling!), yielded my very first, very good, double-crust peach pie… that disappeared immediately.

Here it is before it vanished:

Happy 3rd!

Not sure where June went, but *I* went on vacation. Now that life is getting back to what constitutes normal in the summer, it's back to housewifery as usual. Ideas on the brain are my need to get the child on some kind of schedule, "emergency dinner," my new obsession with New Mexican food, and the transcendental pie I ate today.



My friend Jen attempted to teach me the art of pie crust. It's possible that I learned nothing -- though there's some pie dough in the fridge waiting for a solitary attempt this week -- but the fun was in the learning and the talking and the total enjoyment of all things food related. And this is some damn good pie. Perfect for the Third of July and Independence Day Eve.

Grandma’s Pizza Dough

Some weeks ago, as happens often around here, I found myself at a loss as to what to make for dinner. That morning, I threw together some pizza dough. It rose until dinnertime, and then my little munchkin happily helped me load it up with sauce, sautéed onions, pepperoni, black olives and cheese. Within 20 minutes, we had a warm dinner everyone likes and I could argue that I fulfilled my daily “teachable moment” quota.

As I have mentioned in regards to bread making, I’ve been making this dough so often that it’s fairly routine. And I have my husband’s grandmother to thank.

Shortly before Grandma passed away, she sat me down and proceeded to impart some of her kitchen wisdom. Since Grandma also tended to call me Fran and was getting on in years, I wasn’t sure what to make of this, but she insisted on writing down her pizza recipe. One of my prized possessions is small piece of yellow notebook paper with her recipe, as dictated…

6 cups flour
2 packages yeast in ½ cup warm (115 degree) water
½ teaspoon salt
1 to 2 cups water
½ cup olive oil

She then added that I should mix everything together, knead until it "feels right," and coat it with some more oil. It should rise at least an hour – until it doubles. Then just fry or bake and top.

Some days later, I eagerly tried this and, well, it didn’t work. But I tried again. And again. I watched Food Network shows about pizza, and I looked up recipes on the internet. Finally, I came up with something admittedly more like focaccia than pizza, but we like it.

And I have Grandma to thank. Not only did she give me an actual, family recipe to pass on to my daughter, but she gifted me with the inspiration to try something new along with a lovely memory of her. Sadly, she died before I could tell her about how much I enjoyed her recipe, but we remember her with love when we make

Grandma’s Pizza Dough
With some tweaking by Tania…

2 packages yeast in one cup warm water + pinch of sugar
3 teaspoons kosher salt
½ cup + 1 tablespoon olive oil
5 cups flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 to 2 cups water as needed

1) Dissolve 2 packages (check expiration dates) of yeast into one cup of warm (110 to 115 degree F) water. Add a large pinch of sugar and let bloom (about 5-10 minutes).

2) Pour yeast into a large bowl. Add salt, ½ cup olive oil, flour, and corn meal. Mix well. Add between one to two cups more water, as needed, until the dough is sticky but comes away from sides of the bowl into a ball. A stand mixer with a dough hook is great for this step.

3) Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly. Form into a ball.

4) Pour about a tablespoon olive oil into a clean bowl, add the dough ball and turn until all sides are covered with oil. Loosely cover bowl with cloth and set in a warm, dry place to rise for 2 to 4 hours. Dough should at least double in volume.

Grandma fried her dough, but we haven’t tied that. So:

5) Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

6) Stretch dough on one, lightly oiled half-sheet pan. Let dough rest in between stretches if it won’t take shape. The pan will NOT be completely covered with dough.

7) Top with your favorite toppings so long as they are not too wet.

8) Bake for about 15-18 minutes. Edges will puff a bit and the crust should be a pale golden color. Serves four to six people well.

Notes: Dough can be refrigerated for later use or frozen. Recipe can be halved. Dough also works for calzone. Cornmeal and up to 2 cups AP flour can be replaced with whole wheat flour.