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 Forty-Two (Bananas and Pizza Dough??)

Thanks to Olivia, we have a very unique Lunch Box Chronicle for Day Forty-Two (though posted a day late). Olivia was on the computer and we were trying to persuade her to get off, which usually results in some sort of fit or another. Her response to divert our attention from her computer pursuits? "Just use a banana." "A banana?" I said, "Let me think, we need something else too, maybe date paste." Well the date paste was some sort of strange trigger. We convinced her to get off the computer, but she started hurling epithets at dates. "I hate date paste. It's the worse. It's like onions, in everything!! Everything always has dates in it! I hate dates! This isn't fair!!" "Really???" So not to be bullied by an 8 year old, I sent her outside so I could make the banana date dough wrap, only to later learn that it was really FIG PASTE, not date paste that I used. She calmed down, but a frightening scene followed. Olivia somehow convinced 84.5 year old grandma to get in her red wagon so she could pull her around and down a slight incline. All is well that ends well. We have spared you the photos.

RECIPE: Baked bananas with fig paste (not to be confused with date paste) (wrapped in Spelt Right Pizza Dough).

INGREDIENTS: Spelt Right Pizza Dough, fully thawed and risen. (We used only a few pieces for this experimental recipe and the rest for pizzas). One not too ripe banana. Fig paste (you can get it from Whole Foods or international food stores).

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut a small piece of dough, roll out until very thin, spread fig paste on dough, place a half a banana on the dough, roll, bake either on pan or on pizza stone at 400F for about 10 minutes.

RESPONSE: Olivia wouldn't try the one with figs (because she thought it had dates), but she did try the one sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. Yes, I capitulated a bit by making one of the recipes with cinnamon and sugar rather than fig (date) paste. Spencer inhaled one that was so hot that he could barely taste it, but definitely gave it a thumbs up. Emma thought it was pretty good. Grandma, up from her wagon journey, thought the wrapped baked bananas were quite good. Grandma's quote, "I never would have thought of it, but it's not bad."

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Twenty-One (Basil, Tomato and Mozzarella Triangles)

I was supposed to have a quiet day, sending out samples, gearing up for the week, but no...it just can't be that way. Still battling bureaucracy and not happy about it. Had to put my lawyer hat on today to argue about the interpretation of maps and contracts and such. I'd rather have the baker's cap on, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

After putting together my airtight argument (so I think), I decided to leave the computer behind and hang out with Spencer for a bit today. What a nice kid! We went to Yosaku, one of our favorite Japanese restaurants and headed off to Whole Foods to shop. He was thrilled to see that our pizza doughs had sold out in the freezer and were almost gone in the fresh shelf. I told him I needed some ideas for a fitaya, so we went foraging.

He had a hankering for fresh basil (we used Olivia's Garden's from New Gloucester), fresh mozzarella (we went for the Whole Foods brand, though he was really pushing for the brand from Bennington, Vermont - next time), and Backyard Beauty Tomatoes.

Good thing we had Spelt Right pizza dough at home because by the time we left Whole Foods, they were cleared out....

Ingredients: One bag of Spelt Right pizza dough, fully thawed, 1 ripe tomato, a few leaves of Olivia's Garden Fresh Basil, Mini Mozzarella balls. Make 12 small rounds and roll or stretch until thin, but not too thin. Place on lightly oiled baking pan. Place one small mozzarella ball in center add finely chopped basil and tomatoes if desired. Make triangles. Bake at 400-450 for 8-12 minutes until done. These were delicious, but I was too stuffed from dinner out to take more than a bite. Perfect for breakfast tomorrow.

Thank Goodness for Appreciative Customers from a small passionate business

Starting a business based upon passion and a mission to make a small positive impact on this world has its ups and downs. But, sometimes, appreciative emails, positive Face Book posts, and enthusiastic customers and stores make it all seem worthwhile.
This weekend provided a wealth of good karma for Spelt Right www.speltrightbaking.com

This email was from Brooke at Whole Foods in Portland, Maine "I wanted to let you know about our sandwich team members using your spelt dough in our chocolate fest we had Friday. The sandwich was a hit." As stated by the Demo Coordinator, "A shout out to Rob in Prep Foods and his team for having a medley of Valentine offerings dotted throughout his case…and did you see that Chocolate Fest Heart Shaped Sandwich(OMG).. it was such a show stopper..(butternut squash, goat cheese, pecans, honey, chocolate) sandwiched between 2 heart shaped pieces of [Spelt Right]spelt bread!"

And, on how Spelt Right products not only taste good, but make people feel great, read the comments from Erin in Maine, and Diana in New Hampshire,

From Erin who recently had knee surgery.... "I have been doing the no-wheat thing all week and my knees are definitely doing better! eating lots of spelt bagels!"

From Diana who is a new convert to Spelt Right products "I bought Sesame (my fave!) bagels for the week [from Hannaford]. My favorite thing about Spelt Right Bagels is that they don't cause the heart burn that traditional bagels cause in me. I love, love, love the sesame! Thank you for making this product! Now, I really want pizza dough.."

Well, thank you Brooke, Erin, and Diana. I needed the boost this week!