Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Seventy-Three (PEACE of Pizza)

The humidity is putting a damper on home cooked meals.   No oven for me these days.  Thank goodness we have a grill.

We made some grilled pizzas yesterday.  The grill was bit too hot (500) so burned the bottoms.  Next time, the grill should be lower 400 with the center burner off to create convention but not direct heat in the center.   Here's a picture of our creations:   Spelt Right Pizza Dough, Anjon's Pizza Sauce, Hannaford Mozzarella, sauteed mushrooms and garlic, chopped onions.   As you will see, I prefer a thick crust on the grill so the goodies on top don't seep through.

Notice the Peace Sign?

Yum.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Seventy-Two (Happy Birthday Spelt Lime Cake)

Yesterday Spencer turned 13.  I cried at strange times, talking on the phone with my sister, meeting with the sales rep from Sunrise Guide.  Perhaps, it was the complete lack of sleep last night, or perhaps, the fact that the little three year old who was once screaming out for help is now the thirteen year old who reaches out to help.  Or, maybe it was just the relentless humidity?  Not quite sure, but it was just a day for crying. 

Tim and Spencer made a great tofu stir fry while I was on the computer sending Emma and Sophie directions for their three days of demos in Connecticut.  I give these girls a lot of credit.  It's not easy out there convincing people to try a product that you have thrown your heart and soul into.  Yet, it is gratifying, especially when the customers' mouths are too full to talk, but they signal you with the universal sign of approval - a thumbs up.

I asked Spencer what kind of cake he would like.  "Just, something really, really special,"  he said.  I threw together a typical yellow cake recipe, but modified it to make it quite tasty (and special), but a bit solidly gooey.

Fresh Lime Spelt Cake with Fresh Lemon Drizzle
3/4 cup butter - softened in a bowl
1 3/4 cups organic cane sugar or organic evaporated cane juice (same stuff as far as I can tell)
2-3 eggs (depending upon size)
1 1/2 cups Vita Organic Spelt Flour
1 cup Vita Organic Whole Spelt Flour
2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla (which I did not put in)
Juice from one fresh lime
1 1/4 cups of milk

Preheat oven to 375.   In a bowl blend the butter and sugar until creamy.  Add the eggs, keep blending.  Mix together the flour and baking powder in another bowl.  Alternately pour milk and flour into butter mix.  Squeeze in a full lime, alternately add in with milk, flour, etc.   Butter to round cake pans, pour in batter.  Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until done.

WARNING!!!  DO NOT PUT THIS IN A BUNDT PAN like I did (to make it very very special), because it will leak through and SMOKE up the entire house.   We tell you this from experience.

We then made a lemon glaze, recipe is a little of this and that, but take about 2 TBL butter, melt, add some milk, add some confectioner's sugar, add some fresh lemon juice, mix until glazey.    Pour over top of cakes after cooled.   You can stack these cakes.  Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar.  Spencer garnished with slices of fresh lemon and lime.  YUMM!!

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Seventy-One (Grilled Dough with garlic and olive oil)

It has been blazin' hot in Maine and the thought of turning on an oven is just too much.  We really appreciate our grills at times like these. 
Perfect night for grilled veggies and grilled dough, and grilled veggies on dough.

Spelt Right Pizza Dough is so awesome.  This stuff needs to be in more places.  Hey, NYC!!!  We are ready for you!   Please start ordering, you will be so happy you did. (PS - Check out this plug we received from Toni on NY http://www.tonionny.com/spelt-pizza-horray

Menu:
Ratatouie - thank you Tim for making this.  It was wonderful, but the recipe is too complicated for tonight.
Grilled zucchini stuffed with chevre, finely minced mint, pepper, and minced garlic (thank you Olivia for picking the mint and to Spencer for preparing the Zucchini)
Grilled zucchini with olive oil and garlic
Spelt Right flat breads - grilled

Instructions for the flatbreads:  One Spelt Right Pizza Dough (fully thawed and risen).  Divide into 6-8 balls, shape rounds (not too thin) on cornmeal dusted pizza board.  Brush with EVOO and mashed garlic with salt (we do this with a mortar and pestle).  Also, can use other toppings.  Place on Hot Grill.  Check in about 3 minutes.  You will know when they are done.  Enjoy!

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Seventy (Homemade Pesto on Spelt Dough)

This my second post today.   This morning we joined the Scarborough Farmer's Market for some Fourth of July marketing.  The market had a steady flow of customers, but not quite as busy as we would have liked.  Our focaccia was a big hit.  Sold out and know what to bring more of next time.  After the market, I crashed for an early afternoon nap, only to be awaken by the VERY LOUD "MOM!!!!, When are we going to Aquaboggan!?!?"  Thank you Olivia for waking me from my deep sleep....I dreamed my way out of my dream and into reality knowing that I could not break the promise of an Aquaboggan Day.   So, along came Grandma, Spencer, Tim and Olivia and made our way into aquatic heaven.   Arriving after 3pm is always a treat with discounted prices and less crowds. 

We made our way back home around 6:30pm to sort through all of the wonderful finds from the Scarborough Farmer's Market - lettuces of all varieties, more lettuce, more lettuce, beets, mesclum greens, and some other unknown greens.   The night before, we bought some basil from Olivia's Garden (not to be confused with Olivia the 8 yr old).  We set to work, chopping and preparing.

MENU: Spelt Right Pizzettes with homemade pesto (some topped with mozzarella and fresh tomatoes), salad, beets, and beet greens.

HOMEMADE PESTO (adapted from The Treasury of Creative Cooking):
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 TBL pine nuts
1 bunch of Olivia's Garden basil (or any other variety you can find)
2 medium garlic cloves (peeled)
1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (fresh is best, but I used already grated)

Step One: saute pine nuts in 1 TBL of EVOO until golden - be careful not to burn
Step Two: Combine all ingredients, except the cheese, in a food process.  Blend until finely chopped.
Step Three: Transfer basil mixture into bowl, fold in cheese.
Set Aside

Preheat oven to 450F.  Take one fully thawed and risen Spelt Right dough.   Cut into 6-8 balls.  Shape into pizzettes on to lightly oiled baking pan.  Top with Pesto.  Add mozzarella and sliced tomatoes if desired.   Bake until edges are golden brown.   Serve with salad, beets, beet greens or whatever else you may find at a Farmer's Market.  Enjoy!  Two Thumbs Up

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Sixty-Nine (Spelt Right Bagels with Lobsta!)

I am posting twice today because the Fourth has been an awesome day with family and I'm a bit delinquent on the posts.  The first "recipe" is a Spelt Right Everything Bagel with some of the best lobster salad I have ever had. 

The other day I received an email from Phil of Derosier's Brewtopia Trading Co. in Freeport, Maine asking to sample Spelt Right Pizza dough for possibly including it on their menu.   After delivering bagels, breads, and dough to Royal River Natural Foods and Bow Street Market in Freeport, I made a quick stop at Derosier's.  I was expecting a large fancy glitzy place to fit the glitziness that has become Freeport (what happen to the campiness of Bean Boots?).  Instead, I found a small family owned mom and pop grocery/pizzeria/scoop shop with pictures on the wall dating back to 1905 when the Derosier family started the business.   Phil proudly shared that DeRosier's is one of the few family businesses remaining on Main Street in Freeport and that it has been in his family for five generations.  It was either his "great great" or his "great" grandfather who started the business.  Seeing the pictures on the wall reminded me of George's Market in Adams, MA, the market founded by my father's father in 1915, but now, long gone.

Having become enamored with the Deroiser story, I ended up giving Phil two pizza doughs, a sample bag of Sesame Mucho bagels, and a few stray Everything Emmas.  I then asked him if he could make me a lobster sandwich on an Everything Emma.  He kindly offered it as a fair trade. What a treat!  Truly the best tasting lobster salad I have had, ever!  Now, I was only going to take a bite, but it was way too good to save, so I took a pic with my Blackberry - slightly blurry and half way eaten, but the best I could do.

I'm not sure if Derosier's will pick up Spelt Right as a dough.  It may or may not be the perfect addition to their shop, but one thing I know for sure, I will be visiting Derosier's again for a Lobster Roll, but because I am such a spelt fan, it will likely be BYOB, bring your own bagel.   As for my readers, if you are in Freeport, and are looking for a great quick lunch, stop by Derosier's on Main St.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Sixty-Eight (Apple Tarts complimented by Break Dancing)

Well today has offered quite a treat after coming home semi (or actually really) grumpy.  The first was taking a nice long walk with Tim around the neighborhoods and to the Scarborough Marsh.  The second was watching 8 year old Olivia break dance - which she made me rate on a scale of one to ten.  Dance One started at a 7.5, Dance Three, with its squiggly moves and cross over arms ended with a 10.   Maine Has Got Talent -- or, at least, boundless energy.

Good thing we had some left over Spelt Right Apple Turnovers made the night before to feed the Mainer Who Has Got Talent.

Ingredients: One Spelt Right Pizza Dough (fully thawed and risen).  Four apples sliced sliced very thin and then chopped in small chunks.  Cinnamon and Sugar to taste.  We used Ceylon Cinnamon from Frontier Spices and Organic Evaporated Cane Juice for the sugar.

On a pizza peel that is dusted with fine corn meal or on a lightly oiled pan, cut dough into 8 even balls, roll or gently shape into rounds.  In a bowl, mix apples, cinnamon and sugar.  Place a dollop of the apple mix on the dough, fold over into a half circle.  Pinch ends.  Place on oiled baking pan.  Bake at 375 until golden brown.   Yumm!

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Sixty-Seven (We're back!!)

Well, we survived our first attempt at the Fancy Food Show and thank McMahon's Farms for inviting us into their vendors' booth.  We were so busy just meeting and greeting and sampling that we hardly had a moment to check out the thousands of other vendors there.  Overall, it was a good first experience for us, though we did leave with ideas on how to make it better next year.

As always, we find NYC exhilarating, exhausting, frustrating, magnetic.   We love visiting with our relatives and friends (thank you both Mickey and Alissa for separate nights out at Turkish restaurants - one on the East Side and one on the West).  And, we thank Erica and Jim for making it possible to be in the City without Olivia....And, we thank our friends of friends of friends' friends who toured Spencer around the City while we worked the show.

After our six hour return drive, we came home to a house that was depleted of the fixins' for dinner, but somehow I cobbled together a meal with grass fed beef burgers, pita made Spelt Right dough, assorted lettuces from Tim's backyard garden, olives from Cortas Lebanese foods (I love Cortas brands and I actually got to meet the Cortas family at the Fancy Food Show), spelt focaccia strips, some left over cheese hiding in the fridge, and my almost famous three bean salad. Recipe to be provided at a later date.

Overall, not a bad meal for slim pickins', but as for a recipe...you're just going to have to think creatively with the list I provided.