arosenwald

I am a pretty obsessive bowl prepper. I'm not crazy enough to have individual ingredients in individual bowls, but I will say that the some of the most important pieces of equipment I have in my kitchen are my small stainless prep bowls. I've turned on a good 5 or 6 of my friends into bowl preppers, as well, after they watch me do my prep.

I had a nasty run-in with a medium-size Microplane, and I took off a nice layer of skin from next to my index fingernail. Bummer. Aside from the time I hacked off a good chunk of skin from the tip of my finger (which provided a GREAT lesson to my Forensics students about how fingerprints actually grow back), I am good pretty good about not cutting myself. Where I seem to fall flat is burns, which is hysterical to my wife since I teach high school science. Invariably, every time I take a hot saute pan out of the oven, I seem to forget that the handle is hot after it's sitting on the stovetop. So, I'll let it sit for minute, get some things plated, then grab the handle of the still-hot pan to plate the cooked food...forgetting that it was just sitting in a 400 degree oven. Awesome. Needless to say, I get made fun of every time.

Reading Righteous Porkchop by Nicolette Hahn Niman. All about the fight against industrialized meat farming. Also, a memoir about how the author ended up marrying the owner of Niman Ranch while fighting the good fight against the agribusiness industry. Definitely worthwhile, I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

What temperature are you baking at? How long do you preheat your stone? The best pizza I made was when I put my oven on the short self-clean cycle with the stone, then baked my pizza at 500. However, it still doesn't come out as good as the pizzeria. I'm not losing much sleep over this, though. I'm more than happy to support their business!

Popping popcorn on the stovetop. Memories of childhood.

My homemade pizza never EVER comes out as good as the pie from the local pizzeria. Even when I use fresh dough that I buy from said pizzeria, and I use my pizza stone and everything else...never comes out as good. Then again, I don't have a giant oven cranking out 1,000,000 BTUs.

Picolla Italia in Ocean, right off of Rt. 35. Can't be beat. Small, restaurant, excellent food, great service.

My first soup of the year was a roasted tomato soup, using some nice canned whole tomatoes that were on sale at the supermarket. Roasted up the tomatoes in the oven with a sprinkle of sugar and salt, then simmered with some stock and some reserved juice. Seasoned with some cayenne pepper, and spiked with goldfish crackers. Beats the hell out of Campbell's any day of the week.

As thin as I could possibly get them on the mandoline, then raw onto the pizza and into the oven. I'll admit they didn't pick up as much color as I'd have liked, but I was afraid of overcooking my crust. Some nicely rendered lardons and some fresh rosemary...delicious. Here's a link to the picture.

My first post on eGullet! Yes! I made a potato, bacon and rosemary pizza for some friends yesterday, making my pizza dough using my new KitchenAid (actually, my parents' old one, since they upgraded), with some double-smoked bacon and Parmigiano. First time I played around with a pizza like this one...will definitely make again!