back in bloomington.

Spent a fun 24 hours or so in Bloomington, where we managed to hike all around campus and town in spite of some really cruddy weather Saturday night. We watched the (very good) first half of the IU-Michigan State game at Nick's. Nick's is awesome: It never changes. The waitresses are rough around the edges but sweet, the crowd is a mix of Bloomington types (was that Ralph Waldo Emerson in the front booth?), the food is consistently good for a college bar. We recalled spending many weeknights there in our senior year at IU, especially during basketball season, when pitchers of beer were cheap and the popcorn just this side of stale. Halfway into my second pound jar of Killian's, it occurred to me that there's a always a point during the evening when the beer starts to taste a bit sour. Thing is, that happens earlier than it used to. (Oh, and we watched the truly awful second half of the IU–Michigan State game from our room at the Grant Street Inn. And feel asleep. Not that we missed anything.)

pizza.

It's a rare occasion that we have something at a restaurant and think, "Gee, we should make that at home." Like, I'll have a really fabulous roast chicken at, say, Jean Ro Bistro, and there's no way we could replicate it at home. Unless we unplugged the smoke detector, cranked the oven to 11 and figured, what the hell: we'll just burn the place down.

A visit to our favorite little California town, Healdsburg, offered up one of those "gee" restaurant dinners. On a visit a couple of years ago, we stopped into the Healdsburg Plaza Farms, a little storefront collective of local purveyors (including DaVero and Scharffen Berger). Tucked in the back was a mostly takeout joint called Bovolo. They dished up a pizza that we've made countless times since. Including tonight. Here goes:

Pizza with Prosciutto and Arugula
Pizza dough (we like Trader Joe's)
Grated Fontina (or, we like the Quattro Formaggio blend from TJ's)
Prosciutto
DaVero Meyer Lemon Olive Oil
Fresh cracked pepper
Arugula

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Roll out the dough and transfer to a baking sheet or pizza stone; bake for 10 minutes or so until lightly golden. Transfer crust to a baking sheet and remove from oven. Top with a drizzle of Meyer Lemon Olive Oil, a light coating of shredded cheese and a generous amount of cracked pepper. Return to oven for another few minutes until cheese is bubbly and starting to brown. Remove pizza from oven; top with prosciutto (torn into pieces). Top with a pile of arugula, then another drizzle of oil and more pepper.

There's no better pizza. No way.

file under: that'd suck.

I took a walk around mid-day; Wrigley made the wise decision not to go with me (we'd have had to stop every few steps to fish the ice/salt chunks out of the pawpads). Up the hill on Tweed Ave., I found a few folks who were none too happy with the weather.

Still, it was really beautiful.

It occurred to me, thinking of the tragic story of the 9-year-old girl in the city who was killed by a falling tree limb while walking her dog last night, that going outside may not have been the brightest thing to do.

I'll admit that the sound of tree branches crackling overhead like falling dominoes quickened my step. Still, I was out for nearly two hours (probably four miles, give or take), walking all through Mt. Lookout and Hyde Park.

Trudging over the rough sidewalks took quite a bit of exertion, so I got a healthy workout, even managed to keep my feet underneath me. Then I went home and took a power nap.

Yep, I love snow days.

snow day.

For the first time in memory, I have a grownup snow day. Like a schoolkid, I was glued to the TV this morning, watching the list of closings crawl across the bottom of the screen. There it was: F+W Publications: Closed. Hallelujah!

Rob left for the office a few minutes ago (boo!). So, what's on tap for the day? Let's see: Wrigley's upstairs having his post-breakfast nap. Giada's on the Today Show. I'm going to make Bill's Focaccia (recipe below).

A layer of ice (thanks to a full day of soaking rain yesterday, followed by below-freezing temps overnight) has settled over everything. The sun is just coming up, and the scene is right out of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." The highest branches are sparkling, and the dogwood in my window is shimmering. Two female cardinals (out for coffee and conversation) just landed in the upper branches; they're all puffed up to keep warm (sorry, girls). Assuming I can get Wigs out for a walk, we'll venture out this morning with our camera.

But first, the focaccia needs to go in the proofing drawer for a couple hours. This is very simple to make, in spite of the complicated-looking directions.

Bill's Focaccia
1 package yeast, dissolved in about 1/2 cup warm (110 degrees) water with a pinch of sugar and flour
4 1/2 cups flour
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 cup (ish) more warm water
salt to taste (I start with 1 teaspoon -- the dough should taste slightly salty, but not too much, because you'll salt the top before it bakes)

Dump the flour and olive oil in the KitchenAid (dough hook). When the yeast is bubbly in the water, add that to the bowl. Start the mixer; as the dough starts to come together, add the salt. Add the warm water carefully (not too much); the dough should be firm, smooth and just barely sticky. Knead it in the KitchenAid for 3 or 4 minutes until it's really smooth.

Take the dough out of the bowl, shape it into a round, and put it back in the bowl; pour a bit of olive oil over the top, turn the dough over in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until it reaches the top of the bowl (a couple of hours).

Pour some olive oil into either a quarter- or half-sheet pan (depending on how thick and puffy you want it; I like using the quarter size). Dump the dough out into the pan and let it rest for 20 minutes or so. With lightly oiled fingers, press, push and stretch the dough to roughly fill the pan. Cover with oiled plastic wrap and put the pan in a warm place to rise again. Bill says the dough should be jiggly when you put it in the oven (this takes an hour and a half or two hours, depending on the warmth of your rising space).

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Before baking, gently dimple the dough with your fingers, then pour some olive oil over it (the oil should settle into little pools). Generously sprinkle with coarse sea salt and coarse-ground pepper (you can also top it with fresh rosemary, a sprinkling of Parmesan or whatever you please). Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, until it's nicely golden.

a new toy.

Wrigley's new fleecy tug toy—that, and the Nylabone (thanks for the reco, Sarah), are big hits.

fine dining.

Last night, we opted for comfort food on a cold night (and with Mom here for a visit, that seemed apropos). So we did a little three-course dinner: fettuccine alfredo (nothing more than Italian panna da cucina and freshly grated parmesan), then veal scallops with a lemon-caper pan sauce, finished off with a bit of Madisono's gelato (the hazelnut is to die for).

Panna da cucina is a wonder: packaged in a little aseptic box and shipped over from Italy, it's an incredibly dense cream for cooking (hence, the "da cucina"). It takes heat well and doesn't separate, and renders a perfectly smooth cream sauce. Bill introduced us to it in Tuscany, where we stirred it into sauteed broccoli and dumped it over pasta. We've also used it to make a pasta sauce with dried porcini and canned tomatoes. We've found it at Italian markets in New Jersey and in Pittsburgh, but it's tough to come by. Too bad. (Tho maybe it's for the best.)

tangy tomatoes.

My favorite food blog, Chocolate & Zucchini, featured a recipe for a tomato-feta dip that writer Clotilde Dusoulier says she made after a fit of spring (a bit early, eh?) cleaning of her pantry. I tinkered with the recipe when I made it this evening: I doubled the amount of feta and reduced the tomatoes by about half, and I took her alternate suggestion and added an espresso-spoon full of capers in lieu of the anchovies (eew). I dumped it all into the container of my trusty stick blender (no sense hauling out its big Kitchenaid brother). When mom comes tomorrow night for a weekend visit, I'll toast up some pitas to go alongside, and maybe bring out some rosemary/spiced cashews that I made a couple of weeks ago and stashed in the freezer. Sounds like a tasty happy hour snack for a cold night.

<edit: this is really good!>

the best eggs in the world.

Really. They are.

DaVero, one of our favorite finds on our last trip to Wine Country, is a terrific source for olive oil and other goodies. And also recipes. They have one called The Best Eggs in the World: eggs gently scrambled in a pool of extra-virgin olive oil until they're just soft. We had them one Friday night of late—we stirred in some lightly sauteed cherry tomatoes and sliced mushrooms and did giant slices of crunchy, buttered toast on the side. The eggs were precisely as advertised; we loved the olive-y taste, which made them much more suitable for dinner than breakfast.

Today's New York Times food section has a recipe for eggs fried in olive oil, then served on a bed of polenta dusted with shaved Parmesan, with garlic-sauteed Swiss chard on the side.

We love breakfast for dinner!

the dog is smarter than we are.

These past few days, it's been bitterly cold. It's sort of put the kibosh on our morning walk with Wrigley—when we try to take him out, he just sits in the hallway and cocks his head, like, "You've got to be kidding." This morning, we tried again to get him out; ordinarily, he loves the snow, but today he stood in the driveway with his ears back and his tail tucked between his legs, shivering pitifully. So we sent him back inside, where he promptly did this:

the ultimate lemon drop cocktail.

After much trial and error, I've determined this is the best darn lemon drop...

This recipe makes 2 perfect lemon drops.

Juice of 1 Meyer Lemon (not a regular lemon, numbnuts!)
3 jiggers vodka
1/2 jigger sugar syrup (make sugar syrup with 2/1 ratio of sugar to boiling water)

Shake until slutty. Pour and enjoy!

biscuits.

Rob had the inspired suggestion to make Cheddar Cheese Biscuits from Grandma's cookbook for dinner tonight.

2 cups flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. baking soda
6 Tbsp. chilled unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar
1 cup cold buttermilk

Combine dry ingredients; cut in butter. Mix in cheese. Stir in enough buttermilk to bind dough. Turn onto floured surface and knead until combined. Pat out to 1/4-inch thickness. Using biscuit cutter, cut into 3-inch rounds. Transfer to ungreased cookie sheet. Brush with an egg wash (egg mixed with 1 Tbsp. milk); sprinkle with poppy seeds. Bake in 400-degree oven for 18 minutes.

happy birthday, edgar.

Today is Edgar's birthday (for anyone who's not made Edgar's acquaintance, he's the Big Bear). In a bit of non-coincidence, Edgar's birthday always falls on Super Bowl Sunday. In celebration of which, we had pancakes for lunch.

it's probably too early ...

... but my order from Burpee came today: Peas 'n a Pot, Triumph de Farcy filet beans, arugula, three kinds of lettuce. The Farmer's Almanac says to plant the lettuce and peas when the lilacs show leaves. Grandma says to plant peas on St. Patrick's Day. That's about 6 weeks from now. Guess we'll have to wait.

looking sharp.

Wrigley took a much-needed trip to The Groom Room on Friday. Here's the Before and After:

hello.

We're not sure where this blog thing is going. But we think it'll be cool to share odds and ends that we come across: new wines, great recipes, connections, even Rob's golf scores. Welcome.