Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard

Every week, I try to stick with the menu that I create at the beginning of that week. Of course, plans change all the time. This week was one of those weeks that I constantly had to change because of what's around my kitchen.

We had a bountiful mushroom harvest last weekend, so we absolutely had to make something with them. One of our favorite dishes is homemade pizza using those wild mushrooms. I bake bread quite often, so I have a bread machine, but for pizza doughs, I always use food processor. And I always make it the night before up to a few days in advance. It is the easiest and best dough ever for our taste. I'm a bit of a pizza snob ever since I spent some years in NY. So I've tried many many many many different recipes and methods over the years. I seem to stick to this one nowadays. Ideally, you want to grill the pizza, but I just crank up the oven as high as it goes, and it's usually pretty successful.

These are obviously white pizzas. I think the tomato sauce would overpower the delicate flavor of these mushrooms. I just brush the dough with garlic infused olive oil and put already sauteed mushrooms (in butter) and fresh mozzarella cheese on top.  Here is the pizza dough recipe:

7.5 oz Bread Flour
3/4 tsp salt

Pulse these in the food processor until mixed

Mix in a separate bowl the following

5 oz water
1/2 TBSP sugar
1TBSP Olive oil
3/4 tsp yeast

Add this mixture to the flour mixture in the food processor and let it process until a ball of dough forms (about 30 seconds). Take the dough out and put it in a greased plastic bag. Rest it in the fridge over night or 2-3 days until ready to use.



Last weekend was also my canning weekend, and I had a few jars of tomato sauce that did not seal. Do I made eggplant parmesan the next day. I wish the eggplant was from my garden, but they were the first thing to be affected by the fungal problem and died very quickly without producing any. Luckily, I bought 2 big beautiful eggplants at a local farm for 80 cents.

We had enough to eat for the dinner, lunch the next day, and 2 meals worth went to the freezer.

Then last night, I used up the leftover grilled chicken from the previous week and made chicken pot pie. I can't believe I forgot to take pictures, but here is what's left of it, ready for the freezer. I used carrots, celery, herbs, green beans, and onions from the garden.

It was certainly yummy, but it was way too early to have that kind of cozy soul food in shorts. I'm sure we'll appreciate it more when we pull them out of the freezer in a couple of months from now.


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