Hello your newsletter has arrived! Here are a few things I ate and liked this week:
A cheeseburger with bacon from Poe’s on Sullivan’s Island after a lightning storm interrupted a very fun tennis match. Cheeseburgers always taste the best to me after doing something outside in the summer.
A giant plate of sauteed veggies by my friend’s brother at a socially distanced cookout. It was delicious and also kind— I had a sad veggie burger in my purse (you know, the usual) and mentioned that I try not to eat meat during the week and next thing I know, a giant plate of grilled veggies appeared in front of me made by a person I had known for approximately 15 minutes. I think cooking something for someone is the nicest act of friendship.
Homemade pizza, to be continued.
A big bowl of sauteed veggies made by me, using veggies from this week’s Community Supported Groceries delivery. I never want okra season to enddddd.
Peanut butter toast on a stormy morning in my sister’s car. I usually walk to work but it was full on summer storming at 8:00 AM. We sat in the driveway of my office laughing while I got crumbs all over her front seat. Having a built in best friend is my favorite thing.
A VERY! EASY! recipe!
Why did nobody tell me how easy it is to make pizza dough??? I’m not kidding. It takes five ingredients and one of those is water. It is literally easier (especially in pandemic times) to make this dough in your kitchen then to find a clean mask, find your dusty car keys that you never use because there is nowhere to go, drive to the Piggly Wiggly, buy premade dough, drive home, let it defrost, and cook it in the oven. This is easier and more fun, I promise. Watching the dough grow is the same amount of fun satisfaction as watching your chia seed sprout. You really don’t even need a spoon to mix it if you don’t mind getting dough under your nails.
3 3/4 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons instant or other active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon sugar
1 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon room-temperature water
Stir together the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the water and, using a wooden spoon or your hand, mix until blended. Cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature until the dough has more than doubled (!!!), 3 hours or up to overnight. Divide the dough in two and shape into flattened balls. Add toppings (mine: olive oil, mozzarella, tomato, pesto, artichoke; my boyfriend: pizza sauce, bacon, sausage, italian cheese blend) (mine was better sorry matty) and bake at 450 degrees for 12-20 minutes or freeze.****
This recipe went so well I contemplated dropping out of my real life, moving to Italy, going to culinary school and becoming a person who knows a lot about wine and talks fast and gruff like Anthony Bourdain. Am I the type of person who could pull off several arm tattoos??? I thought to myself as I ate my perfect pizza. Alas, I will probably not be getting on a plane for five hundred years and also my voice sounds more Minnie Mouse than Cool Scary Chef Figure.
****A note: I do live in a city that lies below sea level, basically Atlantis. You may have to adjust cooking/rising time if you live in a normal place.
Dessert
For those of you who love peanut butter: please immediately buy Trader Joe’s mixed nut butter, put it in your fridge, and then eat it by the spoonful out of the jar on your lunch break while reciting to yourself: “It’s not dessert if it’s organic!”
Happy Friday! Hope your weekend is full of crab dip, wine that doesn’t give you a headache, and a Starbucks cheese danish or three.