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.


Linking up to the host of Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard where you can see what's going around everyone's kitchen.

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard

What a busy week! I had a special guest visit me from overseas this week, and have not been able to do much in the garden. But I've sure been cooking a lot!

One of the things I made was this coconut Thai curry with the garden veggies (zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, onions) and shrimp, and squid.

This is surprisingly very easy if you have a jar of Thai curry paste (red or green) and a can of coconut milk (unsweetened) and whatever protein and veggies you want to put in it. My husband likes it with LOTS of hot chiles from the garden. We have several different types of hot peppers - mostly for him.

Then the next day, I grilled whole chickens with some jerk seasoning, corn, and some more veggies. It's usually my husband's job to grill, but he was busy with work this week, so I did it this time. I still need to improve my skills, especially when it comes to charcoal grilling, but I'm getting there.

I love these easy summer meals! (Our puppy thinks so too!)

Visit the host of Thursday Cupboard to see everyone's yummy treats!

My favorite salad

I absolutely love cobb salad! Especially when some of the ingredients come from my own garden, it makes the salad extra delicious. It's sort of like making soups, in that, you can just throw in anything you have in the fridge/garden. I wish I could say that the lettuce is from my garden, but it has been too hot for them.

For the toppings, we had onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots from the garden, plus bacon, shredded cheese, hard-boiled eggs, and cut up leftover grilled chicken from 2 nights ago. I usually make ranch or blue cheese dressing for this, but I wanted to go a little lighter. So I made a honey mustard dressing. Yummy!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard

I did not grow corn, but there are many local farms that grow wonderful corn for next to nothing. We had some steamed corn for dinner 2 days ago, and I still had 3 ears left, so I made some soup/chowder using some of the items from my garden: Onions, Celery, Carrots, herbs.

Most of the time, I don't use recipes. Instead, I just whip up things with what I have around. But this is roughly what I put in.

1TBSP oil
1TBSP butter
1 medium onion
3 small carrots
3 tiny stalks celery (probably equivalent to 1 regular size stalk)
2 cloves garlic
3 ears of corn shucked  (do not throw the cobs away!)

saute the above until they are soften
then add the following

3 cups chicken stock
pinch of thyme
bunch of parsley
salt, pepper
Shucked corn stalks (Very important!)

bring it to a boil and simmer for 30-40minutes
then remove the corn stalks
then add

1/2 cup of heavy cream
3 TBSP Grated Parmesan Cheese

taste and see if you need more salt

I thickened mine with some corn starch, flour, and water solution, but it's not necessary.