Pizza with caramelized onions, beet stems and ricotta

Coming back from Europe, there wasn't much in the house by way of food, aside from some veggies mouldering in the fridge and half a quart of whole milk.  Ed has been in Vermont a lot lately, and eating up there, so I guess it wasn't entirely his fault that the food situation was so dire.  Anyway, he went off to the midatlantic somewhere this weekend to test radios for the upcoming North American Orienteering Championships (he installs these radio gizmos at a certain control, and that gives information to the announcer about who is in what place at an intermediate control.  But, getting these things set up so that there is a signal back to the stadium can be a bit delicate, and takes pre-planning), leaving me on my own for dinner.  Since I made eggs last night, I figured I probably shouldn't do that again, but I wasn't feeling all that inspired staring at a bundle of beet stems whose leaves had long since been used.  They were sorta shriveled at the edges, but at least they were pink and crunchy in the middle.  I also was feeling a wave of laziness, that totally kept me from going to the store.  Then it hit me - put it on a pizza!  

But pizza needs cheese.  No matter, I have that leftover whole milk.  Within minutes, the dough was kneaded, and I had some milk heating to turn into ricotta.  Meanwhile, I caramelized an onion and sweated the salvageable parts of the beet stems.  

Once the milk was close to boiling, I added the vinegar, watched it curdle, and dumped it into a cheesecloth over a colander.  That drained while I finished the onions and beets, and stretched the pizza dough.  I made it with whole wheat, so it tasted too dry, despite smearing the top with some butternut squash seed oil we've had living in our pantry for a while.  Ah, well.  Onions and beets onto the pizza, I squeezed the ricotta to hurry its draining, crumbled it with my fingers on top of the pizza, and cooked it for 15min or so at 450.  Voila! pizza!  

Coulda used some goopier cheese... at least it filled my growling belly.

Simple sangria

Because some days, all you want for dinner is fruit and chilled wine.  Ed was experimenting with mint juleps, and it turns out I don't like those.  So, I made myself a glass of sangria, so as to not feel left out.  Usually, we'll make a pitcher, and I like to mix in bubbly water and something a little harder, but today, I just wanted fruity wine.  It was a cheap bottle of something or other, a pinot grigio I think, from Marty's 2 for 10 shelf.  It worked perfectly for a refreshing drink of melon balls, mint leaves, and frozen strawberries and raspberries!  The fruit was quite delicious after, too, all wine-soaked and soggy.  Yum.

Tomato-sardine stack salad

After a week of blissfully cool temperatures, the dial got twisted recently, and life got hot.  Way too warm for me to want to do anything other than lie in the shade and eat watermelon.  Eventually, on days like that, hunger gets to me, and I realize I have to do something about feeding myself.  Thankfully, there was some food available that didn't require cooking, and I had a tomato-avocado-sardine salad.  It was good, and even got a passable Ed-rating, when I made the exact same thing for dinner.

Tomato-sardine stack salad

1 large tomato, sliced into rounds
1 can sardines in oil, drained and cut in half lengthwise
1/2 lemon
1/2 avocado, sliced
~1/2C bread crumbs
salt to taste

I admit, I did cook the bread crumbs, but that was a different day.  You could use them raw, or toss with some olive oil and dried herbs and pan fry for a few minutes to give them more flavor.  Anyway, the salad:

Sprinkle some breadcrumbs on the plate.  Put down a tomato.  Top with some sardine pieces, then squeeze a healthy dose of lemon juice on top.  Sprinkle on some salt.  Put down a couple pieces of avocado.  Sprinkle on more bread crumbs.  Repeat these layers.  Eat!  With a knife and fork, to minimize mess.

Creamed spinach... or not

I wanted creamed spinach.  However, I was lacking every single one of the required ingredients.  I could get close, though, if I got creative.  Ed was quite skeptical, but in the end, the curried coconut creamed swiss chard was quite delicious, and even got a stamp of approval in the Ed-ratings.  In fact, it was so good that I'll probably make it again some day, although maybe with spinach, or beet greens, instead of swiss chard.  Basically, I replaced the cream with coconut milk, since we did have a can of that open in the fridge, and then added spices and things, using swiss chard instead of spinach.  The end result was basically a Thai-flavored red curry with only one veggie in it, but it was sure tasty.

I admit, not the most appetizing of photos.  Actually, that looks gross.  Be prepared.

Curried coconut creamed swiss chard
Made enough for 2
1 bunch swiss chard, stems removed and chopped very finely
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1" cube of fresh ginger, diced
olive oil
1/2 can coconut milk, well-mixed
1 tbs Thai red curry powder
salt to taste

Put some oil in the pan, heat it up, then cook the onion for 15 minutes or so, until it's starting to caramelize.  Add the garlic and ginger and cook until just toasted, another 5 minutes.  Add the chard, and the coconut milk, and the curry powder and salt.  Taste. adjust. taste. adjust. taste.

Cook another 10-15 minutes until the chard leaves are soft and silky, and infused with curry and coconut flavor.  Serve!

Find something else useful to do with the stems.  They're plenty edible.




We served this with the sauteed chard stems on top, and some meatballs and rice.  Pretty tasty lil' meal.