Getting in the (Cal) Zone

Me too, Ben. Me too. 

One of my most favorite flavor combos in the entire world is Caprese: mozzarella, basil, and tomato. I was having a massive craving, so I flipped through Moosewood and found the calzone recipe. Originally, this recipe calls for a spinach ricotta filling (which is also delicious) but it included a list of additional filling options, one of which was a caprese. I literally could not stop thinking about it, so I ran out to the grocery store after class and picked up all the ingredients necessary. I'm also making Moosewood's pesto.

Deconstructed

The calzone dough is incredibly simple, and just requires time to rise. It did take kind of a weirdly long time to rise. I might've made it a bit too wet because I was trying to half the recipe, so my calculations were probably a bit off. But I got there eventually. Similarly, the pesto is basically just a couple spurts with the blender. Then, all I had to do was assemble and bake. I spread some of the pesto along the dough, then topped it off with mozzarella and tomato slices and crush red pepper flakes. 

I decided to add spinach to my calzone filling because I had some leftover from the green salad dressing. I knew it would only add some substance and deliciousness to the calzone. I just quickly wilted it with some garlic and olive oil.

Maybe I should've called them
"baked sandwiches"??

The assembly process was very similar to the samosas. And I was equally bad at it. There must be an art to determining how much you need to fill the dough. An art at which I fail epically. But as I've said so many times before, aesthetics are not my strong suit. Taste however, usually is. 

I ate the calzone with a salad, which was very yummy. Great way to end a busy Wednesday! 

Happy Easter!

I decided to celebrate today with a holiday meal of frozen pizza. I haven't decided if making a DiGiorno's "Self-Rising Crust" joke is too religiously insensitive or not. But either way, it was delicious.

In addition to my lovely pizza, I thought I should at least attempt to eat like a real grown-up (especially because I also ate a LOT of Reese's peanut butter eggs), so I made Moosewood's Raw Vegetable Salad and Green Dressing. The essential element of this salad is that everything is chopped or grated into bite size pieces so that you don't really even have to chew. This also gave me an opportunity to use a new toy that my Grandma got me, the Salad Shooter! She knew how much I hated cutting things by hand, so she gave me this and I finally got to test it out. It came with a grating and slicing attachment, so I used the grating for the salad tonight. It actually worked really well! For the recipe, you can really use whatever vegetables you want so I had carrot, zucchini, cucumber, and bell pepper. I decided just to grate them all with the salad shooter, so I ended up with a kind of stringy, coleslaw-like blob. But it took about 5 minutes total. I would definitely recommend only using the Salad Shooter with very crispy vegetables. Otherwise things are going to get a little soggy and gross. I mean, it'll still taste fine, but look like mush. Moosewood emphasizes that this salad is supposed to look beautiful and you should serve it in glass bowls. I would not serve mine in a glass bowl.

The green dressing was similarly easy to whip up with my food processor. It basically consists of buttermilk, spinach, a little garlic, zucchini, and herbs. Also a little lemon juice and salt, for flavor. I accidentally forgot about the zucchini and had already used it all in the salad. But I had the rest of the ingredients so I just blended them together. Then, I poured it into the salad bowl and shook everything up! Very yummy! I think this dish is a good side salad for pretty much any dish. It definitely goes great with frozen pizza!

#blogfail

Okay, I am the worst at blogging. I'm also not great at cooking instead of eating at the dining hall, but I'm still doing okay with that. The recipe count has gone up by 3 since last time: tomato chutney, brownies, and polenta.

I made the chutney awhile ago, but I didn't use unripe tomatoes so it was a little weird. But still okay. Not much to say about it, honestly.

The brownies were a bit of a massive disappointment. I think mostly because of the way Moosewood described them: decadent, rich, and an "11" on the brownie intensity scale. However, they were not flaky or gooey. They were more like a rather dull chocolate cake, not a brownie. They were definitely quite chocolately, but not fudgy at all.

Polenta is basically cornmeal mush. I made it tonight to go under a bean and onion dish I whipped up with the ingredients I had in my pantry and fridge. I'm trying to use up food, rather than buy more groceries. I only have about a month left in this apartment before I have to move out, and my pantry is full of random crap. So the beans were very yummy and the polenta was okay. I mean, it doesn't really taste like anything. It's sort of a play-doh like substance that is very bright yellow. It provides a good base for the beans though and I enjoyed dinner.

So, I know my last gazillion posts have said that I was refocusing and going to knock out more recipes. And clearly, I haven't done that. But I really am working hard to try to finish this project. I'm starting to freak out a bit that I'm going to run out of time, which is quite motivating!

The semester is winding down as well, so I'm very committed!