Much to my sheer and utter excitement, the 14th & U Farmers Market opened for the season this past Saturday.  To say I’ve missed the familiar sights and sounds of this little market would be an understatement.  Some of my favorite Chesapeake foodshed farmers sell their amazing fruits, veggies, meats and cheeses at the corner of 14th & U.  And I’ve been dying for some of Panorama Bakery’s fresh, sliced multigrain deli bread all Winter long.  So on Saturday morning, I was more than eager to grab my shopping bags and head down 14th Street to mingle among my favorite vendors.

We got to the market a bit early because I was anxious to get my hands on the seasons first crop of strawberries from Garner’s Produce.  The brief spurt of Summer like weather in the beginning of Spring led to an earlier-than-usual bounty of my favorite berries.  As we walked up to Garner’s table, I could smell the fragrant aroma of the berries wafting towards me.  I wanted to dive right into the table of red jewels, but decided to show a bit of restraint.  Garner’s Produce also had some big, floral bouquets of spinach that instantly inspired an idea for a simple, cool spinach salad (more about that later).

I had resolved to pick up a bag of stinging nettles in an attempt to be more adventurous (yes, I consider trying new produce adventurous) and found some at Mountain View.  Rich in iron and calcium, stinging nettles have been touted as a wonder food, especially for women.  Unfortunately, the word “stinging” doesn’t really make people jump to cook with this plant.  When touched with bare hands, raw stinging nettles have tiny hairs (called trichomes) that turn into needles and can release several chemicals that result in a stinging sensation.  These stinging agents are neutralized once they are cooked, even for only a few minutes.  So it was with care that The Boy and I picked out two bags of them and placed them in our shopping totes.  While chatting with one of the Mountain View vendors, she suggested a recipe for French Nettle Soup.  I filed it away along with her recipe for a Nettle-Walnut Pesto Crostini.

Asparagus was at almost every vendor table, much to my delight, as were radishes:

And just when I thought I was going to faint from farmers market happiness, I stumbled upon sunchokes AND the season’s first rhubarb at Kuhn Orchards!

Kuhn also had fragrant and delicate lilac stems and my favorite pink lady apples.  I couldn’t resist the lilacs, especially after inhaling their hypnotic scent.

And speaking of plants, there were plenty of herb and vegetable plants for the urban gardener.  Still a little gun shy after last Spring’s failed windowsill herb garden, I opted to wait before buying any more plants.

We picked up some eggs from Pecan Meadows, who also had duck and goose eggs for sale.  Even though I was tempted by the duck eggs (lately they seem to be on every restaurant menu in DC), I knew I needed chicken eggs for some whole wheat pasta I planned to make.

After I picked up a fresh loaf of Panorama Bakery’s bread (and sniffed and squeezed it lovingly), I ran into Robin Shuster, the market manager.  That’s when I learned Keswick Creamery sadly had to bow out of all their Saturday farmers markets.  Robin assured me Keswick would be at the Bloomingdale Farmers Markets on Sunday and told me she was looking into finding another cheese vendor.  And just when I thought we were done, Robin insisted I pick up some pea shoots to try.  Since she’s never steered me wrong, I took her advice and bought a bag of them from Mountain View before heading home.  I decided to add the pea shoots to an asparagus and goat cheese pizza idea I had floating around in my head.

I love my new apartment…really I do.  But sadly, as much as I have compared to the old apartment (windows, light, drawers…an apartment that doesn’t smell dank all the time), I would love to have a place to grill out.  Enter my wonderful friends Carmen and Aster!  I had been dying to try grilling pizzas and Carmen and Aster have a fabulous rooftop deck (I’ve brunched there before, remember?) – put two and two together and I was back in my old Shaw stomping grounds!  And this time, I had dough!

Let me just start off by showing you Carmen and Aster’s beautiful deck gardens:

Gorgeous, right?  Who wouldn’t want to eat among these beautiful plants?  They have mint, they have basil, they have parsley…and they share.  Need I say more?

On Saturday evening, I headed over to Shaw with Brian and another friend who was kind enough to drive us all.  Brian supplied his homemade Sangria (which was fan-freakin-tastic, mind you) and I brought along olive oil dough balls, fresh mozzarella from Blue Ridge Dairy, pepperoni from Red Apron Butchery, pesto and my homemade tomato sauce.  I hadn’t been back to Shaw since moving to Columbia Heights and sadly, I hadn’t seen Carmen and Aster since than either.  So I was giddy with joy to be back.

Carmen and Aster had a new gas grill but none of us had ever grilled pizza before.  I will admit, I was a little nervous about tossing dough onto a grill.  I was convinced the dough would ooze through the breaks in the grill rack and we’d all be eating hot dogs.  But alas, Carmen and I became quickly adept at the whole process.  It turned out to be a great idea for a dinner party as everyone got to participate in each step of the pizza making process!

I put one of the guests to work rolling out the pizza dough (even though I had only just met him that night…and yes, that would be called being bossy…and this should surprise no one) while Carmen and I set up the table on the rooftop deck and got the grill going.  Putting out the toppings first allowed the guests to make the pizzas while Carmen and I tended to the grill.  And even better, guests brought some toppings as well!

After the dough was rolled out, we tossed it straight onto the grill (okay tossed isn’t really the right word…Carmen and I lovingly placed it on the grill – we were scared out of our gourds it would melt).  We let it grill on one side until bubbles started forming on the top and the bottom became more solid.  We then flipped it over to grill for only a short little time (I’d say about 15-30 seconds…it wasn’t really an exact science…especially once the Sangria began to flow).

Once it was grilled for a short time on both sides, we quickly took it off and guests began dressing the less grilled side of the pizza.

Once the pizza was topped, Carmen and I placed it back on the grill to allow the toppings to meld together and the dough to finish cooking.

Carmen and I got a system going with grilling the pizzas and before you know it, we had well over 5 pizzas grilled and on the table.  Guests began eating as the pizzas were taken off the grill, so a new pizza was always available to them.

Seriously, this is a fantastic Summer dinner party idea.  As the guests were topping the pizzas (and very creatively might I add), it gave them a chance to talk and get to know each other.  I had the pleasure of meeting a wonderful (and newly married) couple, Steve and Joe – and I found out we were neighbors!  And I also got to catch up with my friends Gene and Jim…who were also JUST married earlier that week!  To celebrate these two joyous occasions, Carmen got the fabulous idea of getting mini wedding cakes for the happy couples!  And tiaras…that lit up!!!!

It was a wonderful evening and a beautifully mild Summer night.  Usually by mid July in DC, the humidity’s so high my hair becomes a permanent Brillo pad.  But we’ve been fairly lucky so far and have had a mild Summer…and this night was no exception.  So we ate under a brilliant sky (hop over to Brian’s blog to see a picture of it…I was a bit distracted) and enjoyed a light breeze on the deck.  And I thought to myself…damnit, I need to get a freakin’ rooftop deck!

This simple Summer pizza has a bit of a back story (but then again, don’t all of my dishes have some disaster behind them).  It all started innocently enough when I came across a post by Pete from Pete Bakes about creating a make shift brick oven using unglazed quarry tiles.  I was growing disenchanted with the relatively small size of my pizza stones, so the idea of using these tiles to create a larger baking surface intrigued me.  And not one to sit on my laurels when it comes to buying things for the kitchen, I headed out in search of these tiles.  And this is when the story really began…

You’d think it would be easy to find unglazed quarry tiles, right?  Well then, you’d be wrong.  I started out by looking at the Garden District idly one day while walking along 14^th Street.  I didn’t find any tiles, but wasn’t too surprised given the fact that it’s not really Garden District’s specialty.  So instead I tried the Home Depot in DC…and was told they don’t carry them anymore.  No big deal, I thought, I’ll just try the Home Depot and Lowe’s stores in the ‘burbs.  Nope…same answer of “Sorry, we don’t carry those anymore.”  Had every store banded together and decided they no longer wanted to supply the home bakers of the world with their unglazed quarry tiles???? What the hell was going on?  Out of desperation, we stopped at a Lowe’s on the way home from somewhere in BFE Maryland one day and I lucked out.  I was giddy with excitement at finally getting my hands on a big box of tiles (that only cost me $9).  This is where you would think the story ended with me happily throwing dough up in the air and proclaiming victory, right?  Well once again, you’d be wrong.  And where my issues with geometry would come in.

I will freely admit that I didn’t like Geometry in high school.  I figured that unless I was going into a field that relied heavily on geometric principles, it would never be useful in my life.  This would probably explain why I didn’t comprehend that 6 inch by 6 inch tiles wouldn’t all fit nicely in my oven.  Or why I kept trying to force them in even when it was obvious they weren’t going to work unless they were cut.  I had no idea what I was going to do.  However, apparently the Boy had paid attention in Geometry class, as he whipped out a piece of paper, pen and a measuring tape and drew up the configuration I needed to cover the entire bottom rack in tiles.  This, however, wasn’t helping me now.  I was so looking forward to throwing a pizza on my new simulated brick oven that I may have had some irrational reactions (read: I went out to our balcony and started banging the tiles against the steps in hopes it would break just where I needed it).

Surprisingly, my tactics didn’t work, so I began calling around asking hardware stores if they cut tiles.  I called one place (I’ll refrain from saying the name but it’s a well known local hardware chain) and spoke with someone who said it’s not a service they normally offer.  When he offered to rent me a wet saw to cut the tile, I pointed out that I lived in an apartment and didn’t have the room to turn my place into a tile cutting factory.  He then graciously told me, “If you come by here by 5:30 tomorrow evening, I’ll cut ‘em for you.”  I was so ecstatic and thanked him profusely for offering to cut them for me.  The Boy offered to take them over after work since I didn’t get off until 5.  And I bet you’re probably thinking this is the end of the story and the beginning of my love affair with my new simulated brick oven, right?  Shock of all shocks, you would (once again) be wrong.  You’re not doing so well, are you?

When the Boy made his way to the hardware store that shan’t be named, he discovered that the person who offered to cut the tiles for us had already left…at 4:30.  I was apoplectic, not only at the lack of consideration on hardware guy’s part but at the fact that I wouldn’t be using my simulated brick oven that night.  But being ever so resourceful, the Boy had contacted several places in Annapolis and found a Lowe’s that was willing to cut the tiles for us.  So on his way home from work the next day, he stopped at the Lowe’s with the tiles in hand.  And they cut them…for free!  I’m still not sure how or why that came about, but I had my tiles!  So you’re probably thinking this is where I happily throw together this amazing pizza and toss it into my new simulated brick oven, right?  Congratulations because you finally got one right.

This is an easy pizza to make (if you’re not sobbing hysterically because of the lack of a simulated brick oven) and even better, it highlights the flavors of Summer.  All of the ingredients for the pizza toppings came straight from my trip to the Falls Church Farmers Market:  plump, big tomatoes; a huge hunk of elephant garlic; fragrant basil (that you could smell from a mile away at the market) and fresh balls of mozzarella.  Even the milk for the roasted garlic sauce that served as the base for the pizza came from the farmers market.  The freshness of the ingredients and the wonderfully versatile olive oil dough made for a fantastic Summer dinner.

Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella White Pizza

Toppings for the Pizza:

2-3 ripe tomatoes, sliced

1 small bunch fresh basil, julienned

1 ball fresh mozzarella, sliced

1/4 cup brown sugar

2-3 tablespoons salt

1 batch roasted garlic sauce (see recipe below)

1 pizza crust dough (I used the fabulous Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day Olive Oil Dough recipe)

Place the tomato slices on a baking sheet and sprinkle them with the brown sugar and salt.  Let them stand for at least 35 minutes before using them on the pizza.  Now turn your attention to the roasted garlic sauce.

For the roasted garlic sauce:

4 garlic heads, roasted

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 500 degrees (or the highest temperature on your oven).  If you have a baking stone, place it in the oven now.

NOTE: Make sure you have all ingredients right at the stove and ready to go before starting to make the sauce. Also, make sure you have a small whisk at the ready.

Roast four heads of garlic for about an hour (see this post if you are not familiar with roasting garlic). Remove the garlic from the oven, slightly open each garlic pouch and allow to cool completely. Once cool, squeeze out the garlic “paste” from each clove of garlic into a bowl.

Next, warm the milk slightly (this can be achieved either via the stove or the microwave…I used the microwave and it worked great), making sure to keep it from foaming up. Set aside the warmed milk. In a saucepan, completely melt the butter over medium heat. When the butter starts to bubble, slowly stir in the flour and milk, whisking with the other hand. Whisk until the mixture is smooth, ensuring no lumps have formed. Remove the mixture from the heat and add the garlic paste. Continue whisking until the garlic is incorporated into the sauce completely.

To build the pizza:

When your dough is ready to use, roll it out on a floured surface until it’s about 10 inches in diameter.  Sprinkle corn meal on a baker’s peel (or the back of a baking sheet if you don’t have a peel) and place the dough on the cornmeal.  Using a large spoon, dollop some of the garlic sauce in the center.  Using the back of the spoon, spread the sauce out over the dough in a circular fashion.  Do not put sauce along the edges of the dough.  Continue to do this until there is enough sauce on the dough to your liking.  Place the tomatoes around the dough and then place the mozzarella slices strategically around the tomatoes and in the spaces where there are no tomatoes on the pizza.  Finally sprinkle the pizza with the basil.

Shimmy the pizza from the peel (or baking sheet) and onto the baking stone.  If you don’t have a baking stone, simply place the pizza in the oven on the back of the baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.  Check the pizza half-way through to see if one side is browning faster than the other.  If this is the case, rotate the pizza for even cooking.

I really should be baking…

I really, really should be baking…

Damnit, why are you making a pizza? Did you not hear me? You should be BAKING!!!!

Why do I even bother fighting my foodie urges?

I was very tired after work, so the intent was to rest. I knew I had holiday baking to do before Friday, but the thought of measuring and being all exact was too taxing. With that settled, my thoughts went to dinner and for some reason I immediately wanted a pizza. This is nothing new really, since I adore anything that usually involves bread and cheese. But I knew the kind of pizza I wanted wasn’t available via delivery. So I pulled out an olive oil dough I made (you can probably guess from which book I got the recipe) and threw together this very easy, very flavorful pizza.

Carmelized Onions, Spinach and Mushroom Pizza with Garlic White Sauce

Premade Pizza Dough (I used the Olive Oil Dough recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes, but you can use this one)

1 large onion, sliced thinly and carmelized (for instructions on how to carmelize the onion, hop on over to an older post)

1 small package crimini mushrooms, sliced

1/2 bag fresh baby spinach

4 ounces Vermeer cheese, grated

Garlic White Sauce:

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon butter

3 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven (and a baker’s stone) to it’s highest temperature.

Make the garlic white sauce first. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for three minutes. With a whisk in one hand, whisk in the flour and cook for another three minutes. Slowly add the milk, whisking constantly to prevent lumps. Cook for about four minutes or until the sauce starts to thicken. Salt and pepper to taste and put aside.

Once the onions are almost completely carmelized, add in the mushrooms and continue to saute until the mushrooms are softened and the onions are completely carmelized. Remove from the heat and allow the mixture to cool. While waiting, grate the cheese and remove the stems from the baby spinach. You can rip the baby spinach into smaller pieces or use the leaves as is.

Roll out the dough into a large circle and gently place it on a baker’s peel sprinkled with corn meal. Pour the garlic sauce into the center of the dough and with a back of a ladle, in a circular pattern, evenly distribute the sauce amongst the dough. Be sure to leave enough space around the edges sauce free (no one likes sauce all over their hands). Sprinkle half the cheese on top of the sauce and then evenly distribute the onion/mushroom mixture around the dough. Top with the spinach and finally sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Carefully shimmy the pizza onto the baker’s stone in the oven and bake for 8 to 10 minutes (you may have to rotate the pizza halfway through to ensure even baking), or until the crust is golden brown.

Somehow I don’t think any holiday baking will get done tonight.

I so love For the Love of Food’s Taste and Create monthly blog event. The concept is simple: two food bloggers are paired together and must create (and blog about, of course) a recipe from their partner’s blog. My Taste and Create partner this month was Tara over at Tara Blogs About Everything, who also happens to be a Daring Baker! This Summer, I took a bit of a break from the Daring Bakers group and was saddened to learn during said break I missed out on making pizza. But when I clicked over to Tara’s blog, I spotted the Daring Baker recipe and did a bit of a happy dance (sadly, I am not exaggerating when I say I did a dance in my living room).

I don’t just love pizza, I LOVE PIZZA. It’s the perfect excuse to combine cheese and carmelized onions, so I take it whenever I can get it. I followed Tara’s Basic Pizza Dough, but opted for different toppings…cheese and carmelized onions (surprise, surprise). I also threw in the last of the heirloom tomatoes for our area, prosciutto strips and fresh rosemary. And even as I write this post, I’m hungry for another slice (sadly, it’s all gone…too good to resist).

I have found the Holy Grail of pizza doughs…and I am a better woman because of it. This dough can take on any toppings and still come out crisp and sturdy. It can withstand my falling asleep slightly while waiting for it to cook in the oven and still come out tasting fantastic. And since I still had three balls of dough left from the original recipe, I decided a homemade pizza would be a good way to pass the time sick in bed.

I had some tomato sauce left over from the asparagus, roasted red pepper and tomato saute I made and I was too sick to make a new sauce for the pizza. So I rolled out the dough, placed it on a baker’s peel sprinkled with corn meal (to prevent sticking) and topped it with the remaining sauce. I looked through my refrigerator and found some artichoke hearts and the remaining roasted red peppers, along with the goat cheese from the farmer’s market. I cut the peppers in long strips and tore apart the artichoke hearts, tossing them on top of the sauce. I crumbled the goat cheese over everything and used the olive oil from the artichokes to brush the exposed parts of the crust. I shimmied the pizza into the oven (preheated at your oven’s highest degree) and onto the baking stone…a momentous feat considering my medicated state. As always, if you have a baking stone, use that for a crispier crust. After about four minutes, turn the stone halfway to ensure even cooking. Cook for another five minutes or until the dough is golden.

When I originally made the dough, it took two days of preparation. But once the dough was made and the individual balls of dough were frozen, it was easy to throw together a pizza. In fact, not including defrosting time, it took only about 10 minutes to make…and tasted better than Ella’s Pizza (if I do say so myself).

This beautiful pizza had the odds stacked against it from the beginning: I was tired, I was very sore (I am now training to become a kick ass super fly fighting machine) and (drum roll please) I had just bought a new Canon Digital Rebel XTi. Yes, I have finally stepped into the world of SLR (thank you economic stimulus package). To say I was excited is an understatement…and as Greyhound Celebrity pointed out, it was kind of sad a piece of gear would get me that worked up. Either way, all of these things spelled impending doom for my little pizza. But it would not accept defeat easily and the brave little soldier came through in the clutch!

I love making homemade pizzas…usually. But I was not in the mood to make it on Friday night, especially since I could barely lift my arms (seriously, you try doing punching drills for two minute intervals and tell me if you want to roll out dough). All this aside, I had already made the dough two days before and had all the ingredients staring at me. Not only that, since I have always had issues with my pizza crusts, I had researched and researched to find a great pizza dough recipe and I really believed I stumbled upon a winner. So with tired arms (and legs…and abs…and back), I rolled out the dough and let it rest, as the recipe instructed, while I made the roasted garlic white sauce and carmelized fig infused balsamic vinegar onions/mushroom mixture for the top.

Before starting anything, if you have a baking stone, place it in the oven and set the oven at its highest temperature. If you don’t have a baking stone, just preheat the oven at its highest temperature and get out a large, non-stick baking sheet.

For the carmelized onions:

1 large white onion

1/4 cup fig infused balsamic vinegar (can substitute other flavored balsamic vinegars)

2 tablespoons butter

1 package of shiitake mushrooms

Over medium heat, melt the butter in a saute pan. While the butter is melting, cut the onion in half lengthwise and then thinly slice each half. Throw the onions into the pan, stirring them on a constant basis (to prevent burning). A little after the onions become translucent (and start to brown a little) add the vinegar, making sure to pour it evenly over all the onions. Continue stirring until the onions have carmelized nicely. At this point, toss in the mushrooms and let them saute for about two to three minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

For the roasted garlic white sauce:

4 garlic heads, roasted

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

salt and pepper to taste

NOTE: Make sure you have all ingredients right at the stove and ready to go before starting to make the sauce. Also, make sure you have a small whisk at the ready.

Roast four heads of garlic for about an hour (see this post if you are not familiar with roasting garlic). Remove the garlic from the oven, slightly open each garlic pouch and allow to cool completely. Once cool, squeeze out the garlic “paste” from each clove of garlic into a bowl.

Next, warm the milk slightly (this can be achieved either via the stove or the microwave…I used the microwave and it worked great), making sure to keep it from foaming up. Set aside the warmed milk. In a saucepan, completely melt the butter over medium heat. When the butter starts to bubble, slowly stir in the flour and milk, whisking with the other hand. Whisk until the mixture is smooth, ensuring no lumps have formed. Remove the mixture from the heat and add the garlic paste. Continue whisking until the garlic is incorporated into the sauce completely.

Building the pizza:

1/2 to 1 cup gruyere cheese, shredded

Roasted garlic sauce

Carmelized onions and mushroom mixture

Lightly dust a baker’s peel with cornmeal and gently place the dough on top of it. With a wide spoon, dish out a generous amount of the sauce onto the center of the dough. With the back of the spoon, and in a circular pattern, spread the sauce out evenly onto the dough. Sprinkle the onion/mushroom mixture evenly over the dough and then liberally toss the cheese over the pizza. As usual, I have no restraint, so I used a whole cup of cheese. But I’m an addict and have no shame…don’t let this happen to you. Open up the oven and slide the pizza from the peel onto the stone carefully. Close the oven and allow the pizza to cook for four minutes. Then rotate the pizza and continue to bake it for another four minutes (or until the crust reaches your desired crispiness).

Let me just tell you that I was fiddling with my camera and the pizza was temporarily neglected. So my pizza ended up a wee bit crispier than I anticipated. However, this in no way detracted from how unbelievably awesome it tasted. The fruity flavor of the carmelized onions were the Shaggy to the Gruyere Cheese’s Scooby Doo. And the crust was one of the best thin pizza crusts I have ever tasted. Even better: the dough recipe I used (linked at the beginning of this post) made a total of four balls, three of which are happily residing in my freezer – and can stay there for up to four months (read: I will be making lots of pizzas in the coming weeks).

Finally, please bear with me as I learn all of the bells and whistles of my new Canon (sadly, it took me almost an hour to realize I left the lens cap on and that’s why my shots weren’t coming out – I told you I was tired). Hopefully in the coming weeks, you will notice a marked improvement in my pictures (or for you DC folks, you may see a news story about a crazy woman in Shaw running down the streets screaming “How the hell do you adjust the aperture).