Just Cyd.

It's allegedly winter here in SW Ohio, which is the time to eat all the warm carby coomfort foods. The other day I wanted mashed potatoes, but needed it to be a hands off thing as I was working. Enter the trusty slowcooker. I knew my big one was going to be too big and inefficient for this job, so Idug t the 1qt one gave it a shot.

Pro: a 1qt crockpot with removable crock was the perfect size
Con: this one has one temp setting - ON - and is known to burn foods.

Peeled and diced up a couple-three fist-sized potatoes, plopped them in the crock covered in water, and left them in the fridge overnight. In the morning, Idrained the water, rinsed and refilled the crock with hot tap water, and let it sit on the counter to warm up. I didn't want the cold crock to crack when the heat was applied. About 8am i got things going. At the 1.5 hour mark, things were just warming up. At the 3.5 hour mark, we had actual simmering with bubbles, but still too-al-dente-for-mashing cubes. At the 5 hour mark, the dramatacally shattered when stabbed with a fork, so Idrained and mashed them with butter and cream and pink salt.

The crock was pretty much full with the water, and once drained and mashed, Ihad two very generous or four normal sized servings. A+ will nom again.

was reminded recently of the ultimate struggle food: cereal! I have some on auto-ship from Amazon, but I don't usually buy it otherwise for reasons that I'm still not clear on. So when this shipment showed up, I already had the almond milk in the fridge, ready to go. this past week+ has been me existing on this, my dopamine snacks, and fast food, or, some days, nothing else. not going to force-feed myself, after all.

But courtesy of Facebook memories, this gem came up in a post about a day spent road-tripping with Dan. It was the first time I'd packed us a lunch for a road trip, and I went a bit overboard, maybe. The sandwich was based on one I'd had at The Pickety Place, a cute restaurant/shop near my office. Service was a bit slow, but the decor was all shabby-chic country, and the food was amazing. I still think of this sandwich often, and wanted to be sure I captured the recipe somewhere I could find it again.

Pickety Place Sandwich a la cyd:
homemade oatmeal bread
turkey
cranberry sauce
muenster (or gouda?)
cream cheese with pecans
thinly sliced granny smith apples

-This needs a good, hearty bread that'll hold up to the varying textures being applied.
-Spread some cranberry sauce on one slice of bread
-spread some pecan cream cheese on the other slice of bread
-layer thinly sliced granny smith apples on top of the cream cheese
-pile some turkey on the apples
-add some muenster on the turkey
-a bit more turkey on the cheese
-top with the first piece of bread, cranberry sauce side in
-toast in a skillet with lots of butter over low heat until the bread is golden on both sides, and things are warm and melty on the inside.

I don't remember the official layering, but I think alternating the sweet/savory/creamy/tart is the best approach

I believe for the picnic I sliced the apple at the time of serving so it wouldn't brown, and we ate the sandwich cold, with the rest of the granny smith apple, and chips, carrots and a dessert of some sort (cookies, no doubt). the toasted version is my preference, but still SO MUCH better than a pb&j. And I like a good pb&j.

After my friend Doug shared his beautiful Detroit style pizza on the 'gram, I decided I needed to give it a go. The catalyst for his was finding Wisconsin brick cheese, which is apparently the traditional cheese for this. With that in mind, some friends and I made a trek to Jungle Jim's, where I was able to acquire two kinds of WI brick cheese (in the German cheese section?), as well as Pizza Flour type 00.

To start, I used King Arthur's recipe. For the first time ever, I weight the flour rather than measuring it with measuring cups. I should have at least checked to see how the two compared. I did not weigh the water, and it did not occur to me to do so until much later.

it's a very basic dough, and the initial mix to "shaggy" was my first indication that i had too much water or too little flour. I let it rest, then started the kneading in my KitchenAid. It was more like batter than bread dough, so i added more bread flour, three spoonfuls in all (about 1/4c), to get it to actually hold together, kneading it well, then let it take its first nap. By this point I was texting Doug, and he provided some much-needed encouragement and inspiration by showing me his just-baked bagels.

Not knowing if my yeast was still good, I was please to see that after two hours, the dough had easily doubled, and had that yeast-y smell. I divided it into the only dark pans I could find - a 7" springform and a Perfect Brownie pan. both had the ability to free the contents easily, were dark and nonstick.

The dough only needed one rest between smushings to get it to fill the pan, and then it was time for nap #2. During the dough's nap I cubed up the cheese, two different kinds of WI Brick. One was commercially packaged, and was drier, and tried to crumble a bit when broken, the way a sharp cheddar will. The taste was mild and pleasant. The second cheese came from a larger block and was re-packaged by JJ's. it was much creamier, but had that pungent bite of a sharp aged swiss. It also had some of the glossy interior bubbles you see with swiss. very strong, and it lingered. The creamy texture was divine, but even my dormant tastebuds could register this one, and disapproved.

The dough puffed some during this final rise, but I didn't see the big bubbles that I thought I would. With the oven heated to 500F, it was time to assemble and bake. I tossed the combined cheeses onto both pizzas, making sure each got the appropriate amount for the available surface area (equitable vs equal?), then dolloped on some (too runny) canned pasta sauce. Into the oven for 12 minutes, worried that the full 15 would have been too much.

I should have used the full 15 minutes. I did have the crusty burned cheese along the edges that is the hallmark of Detroit style pizza, but the crust was a bit under-done. Also, the sauce was too runny and/or the cheeses were too much or too fatty? lots of extra and unexpected grease. The crusty cheese released well, and once cooled enough to handle, I devoured the smaller of the two. It's not exactly the same as the stuff I get locally, but with some adjustments, I think i can get a LOT closer for a lot less money.