Homegrown.... PIZZA

This month's Homegrown Gourmet challenge features... PIZZA!

Elizabeth at Elizabeth's Cooking Experiments is the host, and I think chose a great challenge! I ended up making two different kinds (since most pizza dough recipes make a ton anyhow... and I had great ideas for a pizza for my home, and one for DHs hometown too!)

First, the pizza for CT: this is basically a local pizza. We have a fabulous farm nearby, Rosedale Farm, with the best corn... anywhere! This is where we get all our produce from in the summer, and fall, thanks largely to a weekly farm membership. All the toppings for this pizza were included in that weeks bag even! This pizza featured roasted garlic mashed with olive oil and smeared as the 'sauce,' local heirloom tomatos, sliced, fresh basil chiffonade, super sweet yellow corn sliced off the cob, and two medium balls of local fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced. It was SO good! Even better the next day, reheated. Only thing I would do differently is use way more garlic - the flavor did not come through as much as I would have liked.

Pizza dough recipe from Cooks Illustrated, online. I made the crust as thin as I could without breaking!

Pizza numero two is representative of DHs hometown of Johnstown PA. In western PA, pierogies are crazy popular. They are sold at almost every booth at the local city fair every year... where I had never really heard of them before! They exist up north... but generally our filled pasta of choice is ravioli :)

Normally, pierogies are potato filled pasta, that are cooked through and served with carmelized onions. They are very yummy and very unhealthy! There are a ton of variations, so I chose our favorite to base this pizza on - the cheddar bacon pierogi. MMmmmm...

The crust of the pizza would be the pasta. I topped it with lots of carmelized onions, and then mashed potatos (I used small new potatos, boiled until cooked through, and roughly mashed with some butter and milk added to taste) that I mixed with about a cup of cabot shredded sharp cheddar (the best bagged pre-shredded cheddar in my area IMO) and a package of that precooked bacon... roughly shredded. When the pizza was almost done, I added even more cheddar on top of it.

WOW. This pizza was REALLY good! I really did feel like the flavor captured the essence of pierogies, too.

I dont really ever make homemade pizza, but I may be a convert... this stuff was good, and easier than expected! Thanks for the challenge Elizabeth :)

Homegrown Gourmet 9: Roundup!

Sorry this is so late... this summer has been crazy busy thus far! But finally...

I had the pleasure of hosting this round of Homegrown Gourmet and chose PASTA as the challenge! See the original post, with the rules, history, etc here.

We had some great entries this month - I think in many areas pasta definitely takes on a local flair! My entry was more challenging. I realized after choosing the dish that CT really doesnt have a unique pasta. We love Italian food up here, and eat plenty of it... but its normal, not really unique. So I went local instead and made some homemade egg noodles (ehh I think we both prefer the store bought whole wheat), my mom's meatballs from her 1976 cope of Feeding Your Unborn Child, and a homemade sauce from local ingredients.

Our fearless founder Erika of Bean's Bistro submitted a pasta homage to the Hometown team, the Celtics. Green and white pasta... but not in the order you think! Spinach (green) noodles topped with a good new englandy (white) clam sauce. Very festive and unique!

Kate at Paved with Good Intentions submitted a Torpasta. Basically, a San Diego sandwich shop makes a sandwich filled with pasta! Crazy! Almost as crazy and french fries on a sandwich ;) Kate's entry consisted of homemade pizza dough, pasta, and pesto full of yummy garlic. It sure sounds like comfort food to me!

Elizabeth of Elizabeth's Cooking Experiments gives us Swedish Meatballs. Secret family recipes, improved upon! And Minnesota definitely has the Scandinavian history. Thanks for sharing your recipe with us! Secret family recipes are great fun but sad when they die with the secret-keeper :)

Becke at Columbus Foodie submitted a gorgeous Chef's Pasta salad made from local ingredients. Look at those colors! Beautiful AND yummy!

Ning of Heart and Hearth offered up Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Milkfish. Milkfish is the national fish of the Phillipines, where she lives. Considering I have never even heard of milkfish, and it is the national fish for her country... I would say this qualifies as Homegrown Gourmet!

A local challenge featuring pasta would be empty without Cincinnati Chili... and Melissa of Delicious Melicious did not leave us hanging! Chili on spaghetti... sounds weird but those Ohioans sure love it!

Last but not least, Michelle of Big Black Dog made pasta with Gorgonzola. This looks so good for the summertime! All those great dark greens!

So now I am charged with choosing a winner, and the newest host for the challenge! I am so glad we had SO many great and fabulous entries... but it also makes MY job hard! For me... it came down to Swedish Meatballs or Cincinnati Chili. I am very torn (and am going back and forth right now, as I type) between the two... a secret family recipe that died with the owner, recreated and improved upon... or a pasta dish so local that it bears the city's name...

I am pleased to announce the winner of Homegrown Gourmet 9...

Swedish Meatballs by Elizabeth! I am a sucker for family lore, and not only is this a family recipe (improved upon) but it also is local to Sweden, and well I have a bit of Swede in me too :) Congrats Elizabeth and thanks to everyone for participating! Looking forward to seeing what round 10 will hold for us!

Homegrown Gourmet NINE

Last month, Katie at KBK Bakery was our fabulous host for Homegrown Gourmet, volume 8: Peanut Butter.

Let me first back up. Many moons ago, Erika at Bean's Bistro started this challenge with the mighty sandwich. Her idea was to highlight local cuisine, local products, local whatever! Each month(ish) we are treated to a culinary themed tour!

So far, we have been challenged by sandwiches, soups, pies/tarts, stews, quick breads and breakfast, potatos, and peanut butter. Lucky me, I am hosting my second time! I wanted to try to come up with something that would allow everyone some creativity, let us really flex our collective homegrown muscles! I have been wrestling with my choice for the past 48 hours... drinks? Burgers? cookies? Salad? Pizza? What to do, what to do... Finally I decided, I kept coming back to it. A dish that can be really customized in a million ways... something that exists in so many cultures around the world...

HOMEGROWN GOURMET NINE IS....

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Ready for it?

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You sure???

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Drumroll please...

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BBBLLLLRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR (thats a drumroll FYI)

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*********!PASTA!**********

Noodley goodness! It can be spaghetti or penne or raviolis or any other pasta that strikes your fancy. It can be homemade if you are so inclined, or from the store but just make sure that your dish, somehow, is HomeGrown Gourmet!

THE RULES:

1. Anyone can play!

2. A theme will be picked by the host. Participants will make a dish that follows the theme and that somehow represents their home region - town, state, area. Representation can feature a local ingredient, be a traditional dish from your area, or be a creative twist.

3. Participants will have 3-4 weeks (host discretion) to complete their recipes and post them to their blog (or email the pics and text), and notify the host. The host will then post the results and then let everyone know via email or message board the results are up!

4. An explanation of your dish is required; it can be a story about the local custom or ingredient, how you came about eating/making the recipe, or an explanation about how your creative dish fits the theme.

5. Fresh and local foods are encouraged!

6. When the round is done, the host will announce their favorite dish by updating their blog. Favorite is completely subjective to the host- no one expects the host to make and taste test all the dishes, it is just something that strikes the host’s fancy! The creator of the fave gets the honor of hosting the next round, if they so choose!

To participate in Homegrown Gourmet #9, create a pasta dish that somehow relates to your home. Post about it in your blog and tell the world what makes your recipe Homegrown… be sure to link back to this post. Then send me an email at megpug at gmail dot com with “Homegrown Gourmet 9″ in the subject line. I will reply to all emails to confirm receipt (so if you dont get a reply, comment and let me know!)

Please include the following in your e-mail: your name, your location, your blog name and URL, and a permalink to your entry. Don’t forget to attach a picture (preferably 250 x 250) of your dish to the email if you dont blog! (Not a blogger and still want to enter? Why aren’t you blogging already? Come on, you know you want to do it. All the cool kids are doing it these days… what? still no? Ok, email me all the details and I’ll post for you.)

Deadline for the event is MONDAY JUNE 30 2008!!

*NOTE: Extended Deadline!!*

HomeGrown Gourmet - Peanut Butter Gobs

This is my entry for this month's HomeGrown Gourmet, a challenge in which you make a dish based on the host's theme that somehow represents your area.

This month's theme was... peanut butter. Ill admit, I was thrown and had no clue what to make - figured I would skip out this month. THEN I had an epiphany... Ryan's birthday was in mid-May and I was planning to make him Gobs anyhow - a favorite treat of his from his hometown of Johnstown, PA and something that really doesnt exist outside of J'town under that name (they are everywhere else as Whoopie Pies though). They don't even get their own wiki entry (but are noted under whoopie pies) they are THAT unique to the area!

Basically, they are chocolate cake cooked in large cookie form with fluffy white frosting in between. So, I added peanut butter to have of them and VOILA! Peanut Butter Gobs!

I got the recipe from someone on the local Pittsburgh Nest board (since really, they dont exist anywhere else!) and THey turned out well with the addition of some PB - ryan said they were authentic :)

Recipe Courtesy of Amber (waltsgirl102503) on the Pittsburgh Nest's Grandma

CHOCOLATE GOBS
2 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup shortening
41/4 cup flour (sifted)
2 t soda
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup sour milk
1/2 cup boiling water
2 t vanilla
Cream together eggs, sugar, shortening until fluffy.
Sift together all dry ingredients.
Alternately add dry ingred. and milk.
Finally add boiling water and vanilla
Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.
I like to use a small ice cream scoop to make gobs so they are the same size annd bake evenly.
CREAM FILLING
1/2 cup white shortening
1/2 cup margarine (butter will work but stick margarine is the best)
1 cup sugar
1 egg white (room temp.)
2 t vanilla
1/2 cup hot milk (microwave about a minute)
Cream shortening, margarine, and sugar until fluffy.
Add egg white and then vanilla.
Keep beating while adding hot milk a little at a time.

When the cake is cooled scoop filling in between two and wrap in plastic and refridgerate until serving.

I added about 1/2 a cup of peanut butter to the filling (only half the filling) for this challenge.

Check out the rules here and the other entries soon!

PITTSBURGH Dinner Salad

This round of Homegrown Gourmet is hosted by The Tempered Woman. She chose the theme of POTATOS. Hmm. I was unsure what I would make for the potato to represent our hometowns... I asked if sweet potatos, my fav, were allowed. Check. Finally it hit me. Potatos - fries - salad. Yes. Thats right. FRIES - SALAD. You see, in Pittsburgh, the standard salad is usually lettuce (iceberg) topped with fries and ranch. Yet people still say "Im on a diet, Im getting a salad" :)

I was introduced to this strange phenomenon when I moved to da Burgh for college, and it is the norm to ryan since he is from the area. I always felt this was a sign of the problem in America - even salads have greasy fries atop them.

So I submit to the honorable Chairwoman, a healthied-up Pittsburgh Salad.

The salad consists of: Fresh torn romaine and red leaf lettuce tossed with a little (about half the norm) Good Seasons Italian made with Raspberry Vinegar. I topped them with diced mango, avocado, sliced almonds.

Then I cooked 1 pound of shelled and deveined thawed shrimp, tossed in 1/4 cup of honey and 1/2 cup of orange juice plus a tablespoon of oil in a hot pan until just done.

As for the star - the POTATO:

I took a large sweet potato and peeled it, and chopped into fries. We both love sweet potatos: they are a super food and much healthier than regula potatos and the sweet flavor is just fab.

I cooked them in some olive oil in a hot pan until brown and crispy and done through. I let them sit on a paper towel to soak up some oil and then tossed with kosher salt.

They were the crowning glory to our dinner salads. Ryan was quite thrilled to see an homage to the Pittsburgh salad, reminiscent of his home. And I must say - I never cared for Pittsburgh Salads in their traditional format, but this was great! The color was beautiful and the potatos went really well with the other ingredients. I may do this next time I make this salad!

BLACKberry and GOLDen Pineapple Breakfast

Homegrown Gourmet time! I missed the last few challenges but the holidays are way over by now - no more excuses! The premise of this event is that you create a dish that somehow represents your hometown. It can be whatever interpretation works for you! This month's challenge was BREAKFAST!

Not my hometown, but where Ryan is from and we both went to school - PITTSBURGH bleeds black and gold. The only city where all its professional teams have the same colors (Steelers, Pirates, Penguins): Black and Gold.

I decided to run with that and created BLACKberry and GOLDen Pineapple Pancakes! We ate them this morning... yum!

I based it on a recipe from Martha Stewart Living with a few tweaks.

1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 small handfuls of diced fresh pineapple
Vegetable-oil cooking spray
1 pint blueberries (about 2 cups)
6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 pint blackberries (about 1 cup)

Directions
Make the pancakes: Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Whisk together flour, wheat germ, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Whisk in buttermilk, oil, and eggs. Let stand 10 minutes and fold in pineapple

Make the compote: Heat blueberries, lemon juice, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat until berries begin to burst, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in sugar. Simmer, stirring often, until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, and stir in blackberries.
Coat a nonstick skillet with cooking spray, and heat over medium heat. Spoon in 1 tablespoon batter for each pancake. Cook until bubbles appear. Flip, and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Keep warm in oven while you cook remaining batter. Serve with compote.

Healthy and yummy! These are quite sweet with the berries and the pineapple and Ryan loved the theme (big steelers fan) and that they included some of his favorite fruits.

Pumpkin Corn Chowdah

For this round of homegrown gourmet, I chose the challenge to be SOUP. And what better way to make a soup representative of New England than to make a chowder (something enw for me too!) I ahve no interest in dealing with clams so I thought I would put my own twist on it... I added corn, since corn chowder is a classic, and 1/2 a local pumpkin, some bacon and local tomato for color. I topped it with lobster, and Ryan and I had a fabulous, albeit not so healthy, meal!

Pumpkin Corn Chowder

6 oz bacon, cooked in soup pot, removed and crumbled (leave the fat)

1 large onion, diced (add to pot on med high with bacon fat, stirring)

1/2 a smallish pumpkin, peeled, seeded, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes

4 ears of corn, kernals cut off

3-4 med to large red potatos, chopped into bite sized pieces

Let cook, stirring, about 5 min. Add 3-4 cups of stock (more for a thinner broth, less for thicker) and let the soup come to a boil. Cook until the pumpkin and potatos are cooked through. Add 1 cup of half and half, 1-2 tablespoons fresh thyme, and the bacon. Chop up 2 small tomatos into small pieces and stir in about 5 minutes in. Let simmer until thickens slightly (about 5 more min). Serve, topping with Lobster meat (optional)

Homegrown Gourmet 2 Wrap-up - SOUP

I had the pleasure of hosting this round of homegrown gourmet and chose the challenge to be soup - it is october after all!

There were some great entries... Kate from Paved with Good Intentions is from Orange County (the REAL OC ;) ) and put together pumpkin for the season with Orange, in honor of her home county. This sounds like a really unique flavor combo! Though I personally think she should try to make an avocado soup... a cold one would be perfect for the warm weather there!

Carrie of Carrie's Cooking Creations made a wild rice soup since Northern Wild Rice is native to Minnesota - I never knew that! Her soup looksthick and creamy - perfect for those cold Northern nights!

Erika from Bean's Bistro, our founder, made a Haddock Chowder. A soup, as she put it, perfect for watching the Sox, up in chilly Maine. Understandably... the traditional lobster didnt make the menu but I like a good twist myself!

My entry was another Chowder - I am also a New Englander after all! Mine was a corn chowder with pumpkin and bacon, topped with a little bit of lobster. The corn, pumpkin, potatos and tomatos were all local, and Im sure the lobster did not travel far.

And finally my choice for our winner:

Becke from Columbus Foodie made a Butternut Bisque made from totally local ingredients! I have lately been so inspired by the book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" that this approach totally appeals to me. Everything from the butter to the stock to the vegetables and goat cheese garnish were from her home state and area, and the result looks fabulous! Congrats! Becke's challenge, should she choose to accept it, is to pick the next round's challenge and judge the results!

HomeGrown Gourmet: Round TWO

Look at me Im a WINNER! :) My sandwich entries were picked as the round one winner of HomeGrown Gourmet so that means I am the host and official picker of the new challenge food!

First the rules:

• Anyone can play!


• A theme will be picked by the host. Participants will make a dish that follows the theme and that somehow represents their home region- town, state, area. Representation can feature a local ingredient, be a traditional dish from your area, or be a creative twist.


• Participants will have 3-4 weeks (host discretion) to complete their recipes and post them to their blog (or email the pics and text), and notify the host. The host will then post the results and then let everyone know via email or message board the results are up!
  An explanation of your dish is required; it can be a story about the local custom or ingredient, how you came about eating/ making the recipe, or an explanation about how your creative dish fits the theme.


• Fresh and local foods are encouraged!


• When the round is done, the host will announce their favorite dish by updating their blog. Favorite is completely subjective to the host- no one expects the host to make and taste test all the dishes, it is just something that strikes the host's fancy! The creator of the fave gets the honor of hosting the next round, if they so choose!

Round Two:

For this round, I had a hard time choosing. THere are so many good ideas... ! I wanted to try and have it be something perfect for fall, so I decided to go with:

SOUP

I am new to soup making and am a convert! I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! Please leave a message on this with a link to your blog with your entry or email homegrown.gourmet@gmail.com by October 22nd.

Homegrown Gourmet: SANDWICHES!

This is a new challenge I am participating called Hometown Gourmet. For the rules, click the link.

The general idea is that the host picks a type of dish and then everyone makes a version of that dish that somehow represents their area. This first dish is the SANDWICH.

I ended up making two. One is my take on a Pittsburgh tradition: the Primanti's Sandwich.

A primanti's sandwich is:

Primanti Brothers Restaurant, founded in 1934, is a chain of sandwich shops found throughout Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and its suburbs, with an additional two locations in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Its signature items are its sandwiches, which consists of grilled meat, a vinegar-based cole slaw, tomato slices, and French fries between two pieces of Italian bread.[1]

The sandwich is said to have its origins in the city's steel days when blue collar workers needed a hot meal mid-shift that would keep them full all day long. However, the workers had neither the time nor the utensils for such a meal. By combining the sides with the sandwich, a Pittsburgh staple was born. Of course, the restaurant offers a slightly humorous take on it, offering the explanation that the Primanti brothers simply forgot the plates and forks one day. According to the restaurant, Joe Primanti invented the sandwich during the Great Depression. His brothers, Dick and Stanley, later joined him along with John DePriter who was the cook. The Primantis opened their hole-in-the-wall restaurant on Smallman Street in the Strip District of Pittsburgh and served the late-night and early-morning workers who were unloading fish, fruits and vegetables.[2]
The restaurant has evolved to become a casual neighborhood restaurant with 13 Pittsburgh locations, including those found in PNC Park and Heinz Field. There are also two locations in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.[3]
The restaurant was featured in an article in the August 2003 edition of National Geographic Magazine.[4]

I decided to make this because, though I am not from Pittburgh, my husband is from the area and we both went to college and grad school there. And it seemed like a perfect fit for this challenge! The sandwiches at the restaurant while good are not the best for you. They are greasy, with white bread and fries. I decided to make a healthier version.

I made mine with whole wheat bread, pork, homemade cole slaw, and sweet potato fries (simply tossed with olive oil and kosher salt and baked at 450 until done - about 15 minutes, turning once). Pepperjack cheese for Ryan and cheddar for me. They were really great! Yummy enough that we may just ahve them again sometime!

I needed to represent MY roots too though. After some brainstorming with my husband, I came up with the:

Whalers Melt

Ryan jokingly said something about making a whalers sandwich when I told him that the foods we chose could represent a local team colors. Well. 10 years ago, the Hartford Whalers hockey team left CT to go to NC (hockey in NORTH CAROLINA?!?! puh-lease). They have been sorely missed by many here, and we are left with no pro teams.

So, my entry for a Connecticut / New England Sandwich consists of:

Anadama Bread: According to Wikipedia: Anadama bread is a traditional bread of New England made with white flour, cornmeal, molasses and sometimes rye flour. There are several popular myths about the origin of the name, which mostly take this form:"A fisherman, angry with his wife, Anna, for serving him nothing but cornmeal and molasses, one day adds flour and yeast to his porridge and eats the resultant bread, while cursing, 'Anna, damn her.'"

This Anadama recipe also included Nutmeg (since we CT natives are called "nutmeggers")
For fun, the story of nutmeg and CT: Connecticut gets its nickname ("the Nutmeg State", "Nutmegger") from the legend that some unscrupulous Connecticut traders would whittle "nutmeg" out of wood, creating a "wooden nutmeg" (a term which came to mean any fraud)

I put a slice of bread on a buttered skillet with thin slices of apples which came from my local farm, Rosedales. many many apples are grown on orchards here in CT. I topped that with cheddar cheese (the best cheddar is from Vermont) and let the cheese melt a little while the bread toasted. I topped that with:

Tuna made with chopped dried cranberries (cranberries are famously grown in Mass) and miracle whip

The some slices of local Rosedales tomatos, and a second slice of bread.

The end result, my Whalers Melt, was really good! The cranberries were a nice alternative to the usual relish in tuna.