Pizza! The Trial Run…

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I learned something new tonight. Did you know a pizza can catch fire? 😮

The curing process for the new wood-fired oven was pretty tedious. Especially for someone like Victor who’s ready to jump in and play with his new toy. Keeping the temperature low is no fun. Lots of monitoring the temp, adjusting to make sure it doesn’t get too hot too fast. Luckily, he had company with the pups. And several neighbors stopped by to check on the progress and keep him company as well.

FINALLY! Tonight he got to take it for a test spin, cranking it up to 900 or so degrees.

Tomorrow night, to celebrate our upcoming trip to Italy and break in the wood-fired oven, we’re planning to fire it up for our weekly potluck. With tonight’s test run, we learned a few things we’ll do differently next time around. But we suspect that it will take a few attempts to get it right. The pizza was half and half: pesto and a homemade red sauce, with caramelized onions, mushrooms, and mozzarella on all. It got a little toasty and even caught fire for a second! Exciting! But was pretty tasty nonetheless.

However, the pizza dough from Toscano & Sons was fabulous! Puffed up and was tender, crunchy and chewy as it should be. Let’s see if we can improve upon it for tomorrow night!

A Corny but Peachy Night in Georgia!

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Corn and peaches were the seasonal ingredients of the night! Corn chowder and corn pudding, and peach cobbler and peach tart with chestnut flour crust.

Potluck di Funghi Speciale!

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This was another great potluck, with special finds!

Sam & Cornelia brought a portion of their bounty – morel mushrooms foraged earlier in the day! – to share with us. Sam sautéed them in a little butter and that’s about it… and all they needed! They were mouthwatering.

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And we harvested our few not-so-little oyster mushrooms grown from the bag they gave us.  We may have more growing in the floorboards of our guest room, as that’s where we put the bag for safekeeping from the rambunctious Luce. When I checked on it, the table and floor were white with spores, but we had the beautiful crop for use in our dinner.

Apologies to all, as I’ve now forgotten what the other dishes were (posting this after the fact), EVEN the one we made with the oyster ‘shrooms. If you snapped a pic of the dishes, please forward to me. OR let me know and I’ll make you a contributor to the blog so you can post them yourself! 🙂

 

Dogs & Dulcimers

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Tonight may have been a record for attendance at our little gathering. We had 19 people total! If it isn’t the record, it’s close!

It all started at 6:30, when our neighbor Marcia showed up, for the first time! What a great surprise! We had a lovely chat while I folded napkins and other last-minute (as usual)  prep. Then others started coming, and coming, and coming! It was a delight every time the door opened. After awhile, our neighbors from across the street, having seen the line of cars on the street, texted me to say, “Do you have room for us tonight?” But of course! The more the merrier!!! Ah! We’ve achieved critical mass? (But not capacity! No! Never! We’ll find room.)

We got to actually expand into the annex – the media room, which we’ve only had to do a handful of times so far. The food was as usual phenomenal. And there was definitely a common theme: kale!!! One of our all-time favorite foods. And lots of other goodies! And for dessert – a birthday cake for our dear friends Tana and Harriet! We’re not telling their ages!

And by now, you’re probably wondering why the title is what it is? We had our god-dogs here that night (Mani & Moe) in addition to our own Coop-ster, all a little rowdy from all the excitement. And our across the street neighbor, who saw all the cars on the street and thought we had no room at the inn? He and his lovely bride came, and brought his dulcimer! He didn’t bring it out until later in the evening, when we could actually hear it over the lively chatter (oh, makes my heart go pitter-patter – both the musical accompaniment and the chatter!).

Posting food photos and will try to list the dishes as we can… and if we can get recipes to post will do that as well. If you see something you’d like the recipe for, post a comment and we’ll do what we can to get it and post it here!  And of course, there was lots of great wine!

Still in Italy (nel cuore e nella mente): Post-Trip #2

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We loved our trip so much, we’re still on the high. We may be physically back in the ATL, but that’s about it. The heart and mind take a little longer, thankfully!

Tartufi bianchi!!!The picture here is of the local tartufi bianchi from the Piemonte (Piedmont) region we visited this year. They’re so amazing, but not more so than the local chicken of the woods mushroom our friends Sam & Cornelia shared with the Mushroom Club of Georgia attendees, but we were having too much fun on Monday night to snap a photo of those (yes, again). So…

What you missed on Monday night:

  • Sage battered Chicken of the Woods with Cheddar Fonduta (by Victor, inspired by Sam, courtesy of the recipe in Kevin Gillespie’s new cookbook “Fire in My Belly” and requested by me!)
  • Cornmeal battered Chicken of the Woods mushrooms with Lime-Horseradish Aioli (made by Sam!)
  • Yummy Cheese and Crudité (provided by Hank)
  • Sweet Potato Home Fries (made by Tana)
  • Curried Eggplant with Mustard Greens (made by me, with sous chef Victor; again inspired by, and with apologies to!, Kevin Gillespie’s chef demo at the Morningside Farmer’s Market on Saturday)
  • Chocolate torte (from Hank’s birthday party)
  • Vanilla ice cream with AMAZING assortment of balsamic drizzles: chocolate, cherry, blueberry and fig (generously shared by Sam & Cornelia)

Oh, yeah, and a few bottles of delicious vino… certo!