Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One Hundred Ninety-Three (A Mid-Summers Day Spelt Pizza)

Father's Day (continued)

A Mid-Summers Day Spelt Pizza

We started Father's Day with Spelt Crumb Cake Orange Muffins....Yum.  And we finished the day, with a Spelt Right Pizza, made in layers, after a joyful day in the park.

Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander everywhere.

We often say, "when it rains, it pours."   On this Father's Day, I will say "When it is sunny, it gets sunnier...."

Ingredients:

• Spelt Right Pizza Dough (fully thawed and risen in the bag)
• 5 or 6 garlic cloves - smashed with a mortar and pestle, with a little EVOO and salt added in
• Fresh Mozzarella (I got the pre-sliced from Trader Joe's)
• Fresh Mushrooms (sliced thinly and sauteed with EVOO and salt and pepper)
• Fresh Tomatoes (I like kumatos - sliced, quarter inch)
• Fresh Basil (rinsed, dried, and chopped)
• One Onion - caramelized by cooking slowly on stove top with a little EVOO until onion is crispy brown (another way to do this is to coat the onion with a little spelt flour before pan frying)

Preheat oven to 450F.

Stretch dough on well oiled with EVOO stainless steel pizza pan.   Smear garlic mix on dough, sprinkle with some dried basil.  Bake for about 10 minutes until firm.

Take out pizza shell.  Layer with Mozzarella, mushrooms, and onions.  Place back in oven for 10 minutes.   

Take out pizza shell.  Add tomatoes.  Bake for 5-10 minutes.   Take out pizza shell.  Cover with fresh basil, bake for another 5 minutes.

Serve for Father's Day Dinner after a beautiful day in the sun, prancing around the dreamy Ft. Tyron Park.

Now the hungry lion roars,
And the wolf behowls the moon;
Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,
All with weary task fordone.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One Hundred Ninety Two (Father's Day Spelt Orange Crumb Cake Muffins)

FATHER’S DAY SPELT ORANGE CRUMB CAKE MUFFINS

I have allowed my self-imposed chaos to interfere with the ritual I created over the past few years of sharing personal recipes and the moments that inspired them.  Months have passed since I have posted a recipe, though I have a backlog waiting to be shared when I steal that moment of time. Father’s Day is too important of a day to let the meal and the men who inspired this recipe to go unnoticed.

I slowed down today, to honor my father, a great soul who I have missed every day since his passing in 2002, a man with a gruff outer self and the gentlest of souls, who provided the profound the lesson that being kind to the world is the best we can do in this complex web we call life; my husband, who is one of those one in a million dads, taking the time to listen, teach, guide, and simply have fun with his children as he joins them daily in their journey from infancy through adulthood; and for my many father friends both near and far, who have found both great joy and sorrow as they meander their way through the labyrinth of parenthood.

Here is a recipe that, similar to parenthood, is seemingly complicated, but if taken step by step, is not too daunting.  Though unlike parenthood, the rewards from this recipe come without any talking back.

Prepare 12 large cupcake/muffin pans with cooking spray or papers (I used coconut oil spray from Trader Joe’s)

Preheat Oven to 350F

STEP ONE – Mix Dry Ingredients in Step One in A Large Mixing Bowl

3 cups Vita Spelt flour

1 cup and 2 tablespoons organic sugar (I substituted with half coconut palm sugar)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

       

                        STEP TWO – Mix Wet Ingredients in Step Two in A Separate Bowl (put eggs in last so the warm butter does not cook them)

1/2 cup melted butter (skimmed – meaning, I boiled the butter on low and skimmed off the foam on top and left the settlement on bottom to make rendered butter)
1 cup orange juice

3/4 cup buttermilk  (I used whole milk, plus squeezed in 1/2 fresh lemon)

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 eggs

STEP THREE – Make an indentation in the dry mix and pour in wet mix.  Mix ingredients together until well blended.  It is o.k. if it is lumpy.

STEP FOUR – In a separate bowl, mix the following.

       

1/4 cup and 1 teaspoon brown sugar (I used organic white sugar)

2-1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

chopped walnuts (about 1/4 cup)

       

STEP FIVE – In yet another bowl, crumble together the following ingredients.

1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons of vita spelt flour

1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons organic sugar sugar

2-1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 tablespoons softened butter

1/4 to 1/2 cup oats

1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Once you have the steps done, create an assembly line for yourself:

• First, scoop batter into muffin pans until about half full. 
• Second, after you have the twelve cups half full, sprinkle the sugar/cinnamon/nut mix in the batter and swirl slightly.
• Third, scoop the remaining batter to cover the swirl.
• Fourth, top with struessel (crumble)
• Fifth, place pan in oven and bake for 22-25 minutes
• Sixth, let cool to touch
• Seventh, enjoy with the fathers in your life!