Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One-Hundred Forty-Six (The Art of Multi-Tasking)

Recipe for Disaster a/k/a The Art of Multi-Tasking

I may not be known for many things, but I am known (within my circles) for being a master at multi-tasking. 1992: Graduate from law school, have the first baby, take bar exam all within a month. 1997: Have second baby, settle a case, and forget the third task. 2002: Help ailing father, do jury trial and lose, have third baby within 1 month. (No sympathy from the jury for waddling into court!) 2011: move business, move family, help ailing mother, visit sister in mid-west, deal with new diagnosis of hemophilia within a month.

And, somewhere along the way, I just wanted to make a simple dinner for two . But, this multi-tasker failed to remember that putting the oven on broil and leaving the room to do what we all must do in the water closet is not a good idea.

Luckily for my keen sense of smell, “Is something burning?” and excellent hearing "Is that the fire alarm?" the failure of my multi-tasking skills did not lead to a house fire. We simply got a slightly burned Spelt Right pizza for dinner, which, when all said and done, wasn’t a bad meal for someone with too much on her plate.

I will not give you this RECIPE for disaster. This is one you can figure out or avoid on your own.

Two essential ingredients: Spelt Right Pizza Dough and a Fire Extinguisher.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Ninety-Three (For this Labor Day, Dessert First Please, Pure Decadence with a touch of Maine Style)

Recipe: Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) of butter - REAL BUTTER (let sit at room temperature)- no margarine no way no how
1 and 1/2 cups organic cane sugar (this stuff has sooo much flavor)
2 TBL pure molasses
1/2 teaspoon baking SODA (whoops, I said powder earlier)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon REAL VANILLA - no fake stuff here
1 and 1/2 cups VITA SPELT organic or nonorganic white spelt flour (I use organic)
1 cup VITA SPELT organic or nonorganic whole spelt flour (I use organic)
1/2 cup Trader Joe's Just Almond Meal
6 ounces, Ghiradelli semi sweet chocolate chips
6 ounces, Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips


Recipe: Chocolate Milk

Oakhurst 1% White Milk
Trader Joe's Organic Midnight Moo - Chocolate Syrup
Angela Adams Lulu rock.

Directions for cookies:

Preheat oven to 375F. In a large bowl, beat butter until smooth.  Add sugar and  molasses.  Keep beating until smooth, add in eggs and vanilla.  Keep mixing.  In separate smaller bowl, mix together spelt flours, baking soda and almond meal.    Beat flour mixture into butter mixture, slowly adding in the flour.  It is great to have kids doing this by hand because it gives them a work out.   Stir in chocolate pieces.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoons about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake in 375 oven for about 10 minutes.  Because these are spelt, they tend to flatten out.  Done when edges are slightly brown.  Transfer to a wire rack for cooling.   YUM!!


Directions for Chocolate Milk:
Pour milk in Angela Adams Lulu designer rock (that means glass in designer lingo).  Add in desired amount of chocolate syrup.  Stir.

Suggested serving:  Perfect project for bored 8 and 9 year olds on a beautiful Maine Labor Day Weekend:  Serve two cookies each to two mischievous girls with chocolate milk delicately poured in an Angela Adams Lulu rock.  And for a special treat, serve BEFORE lunch or dinner, AND THEN, send girls outside to play until lunch (Spelt Right Pizza) is ready.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Ninety-Two (Goat Cheese, Fresh Basil and Tomato Fitayer)

What's with the Eight Ball?  Well, late August and early September have been record breakers for heat in Maine and we simply could not stand eating in our kitchen.  It was too darn hot!  So, after making some lovely fitayers and heating up the kitchen a bit with the oven, we headed down to the basement and had dinner on our pool table.   Much cooler down there.

Preheat oven to 450 F

Ingredients: One Spelt Right Pizza Dough (fully thawed and risen inside of bag), fresh basil, 1-2 fresh tomatoes, soft goat cheese.



Divide dough, make 6-8s, stretch or roll to 1/4 inch thick, place on lightly oiled baking pan. About 4-6 will fit on pan. Spread about 2 teaspoons of goat cheese in center of dough, add chopped tomatoes and basil, make triangle with dough. Bake at 450 for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Ninety!!!(Another great calzone compliments of Guest Chronicler Laura of the 'Hey Spelty' Blog)

The following recipe and commentary are from Laura of the Hey Spelty blog.   Laura is located somewhere outside of the Great State of Maine, but I learned about her blog from a friend.  She has discovered, like many other people, that the industrial wheat (aka common wheat) makes her feel not so great, and that the ancient grain spelt is a wonderful alternative for her.  She also has other food allergies and sensitivities so her blog may be especially useful for some of our readers with a range of food allergies.  Here is another calzone recipe that she posted.  

Laura speaking, "I've really gotten on a calzone kick lately.  they are easy to make in advance and are great to pack for lunch.  sadly, dairy still seems to be a problem for me, so i've had to rethink my typical filling ideas. a friend suggested using caramelized onions instead of cheese and while nothing will ever replace cheese (glorious cheese), these are so tasty that i don't miss it."

sausage and onion calzones made with Spelt Right dough
makes 4

1 ball Spelt Right pizza dough, thawed
2 large sweet onions, thinly sliced
1 link hot italian sausage, removed from casing and chopped
1 link sweet italian sausage, removed from casing and chopped
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp fresh thyme, chopped

olive oil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, spelt flour for dusting

allow pizza dough to rise at room temperature until roughly doubled in size

heat some olive oil in a large skillet, add sliced onions and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they have caramelized to a medium brown color.  this usually takes around 30-45 minutes.once onions are caramelized, transfer them to a medium bowl.

in the same skillet, brown the sausage, breaking it up into small chunks as it cooks
after sausage cooks, drain excess fat and add sausage to onions

add lemon zest and chopped thyme and mix well

preheat oven to 450

line an inverted sheet pan with parchment,
divide dough in to four equal sections
stretch and flatten each section into a flat disc

place 1/4 of the onion/sausage mixture onto one side of each flattened round of dough
fold the other side over the mixture and crimp shut

transfer each calzone to the baking sheet

top with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes

using a sharp knife or scissors, cut slits in the top of each calzone to allow steam to escape

bake for roughly 15 minutes or until golden brown

serve with tomato sauce

yum!

Although, I have not yet tried Laura's recipe, I am going to give it a TWO THUMBS up.  It looks and sounds so good.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Eighty-Seven (Blueberry, Cream Cheese Tarts - Decadent, but not too Decadent)

Blueberry and cream cheese tarts wrapped in Spelt Right Pizza Dough (this dough is NOT just for pizzas).  This is a nice little treat.  I used blueberry filling made by my mom (though you could get some premade or make some yourself) and cream cheese, along with one fully thawed and risen Spelt Right pizza dough.  Preheat oven to 375.  Divide fully risen dough into 8-10 equal balls, shape into flat rounds on a spelt floured or corn meal surface.  Place about 1 TBL of blueberry filling and 1/2 TBL of cream cheese in center.   Fold to make triangle.  (See earlier posts for explicit instructions).  Place on oiled baking pan.  Bake for 10-15 minutes or until slightly brown on top.  When finished, let cool for a few minutes, and then dig in.  Great treat for the kids.