Lebanese inspiration: Pizza on pita bread crust

Carrie Rengers forwarded me her terrific pita pizza recipe. Her husband, food writer Joe Stumpe, got this idea from someone in the local Lebanese community. What an inspiration to make quick pizza on a pita bread crust. She recommends buying pitas at N&J Bakery in Wichita. You can freeze the pita bread and thaw briefly in the microwave for 15-20 seconds, or just top pita and cook frozen.

Spread sun-dried tomato paste on several pita rounds in a thin layer. (Carrie recommends the squeezable tubes of tomato paste, available in the veggie aisle at Dillons.) Then top with whatever fresh ingredients you like: fresh veggies, diced bell peppers, olives, shredded chicken, sausage, fresh herbs, a few raisins. Add some cheese, maybe some crumbled feta or blue cheese. You can also add a few pine nuts or chopped pecans. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over the pizzas and bake on a cookie sheet at 375 to 400 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes, depending on your desired level of crunchiness. "Joe likes them a little less crunchy," Carrie says. "I like them a bit more crunchy. Seriously, these are a great way to use leftovers -- the pitas don't take many toppings. And they make a fine meal (perhaps served with a salad) or appetizer. It's fun to experiment with different toppings."

Start and end the day with Irish soda bread

This month's book group selection is "Life with Mae," by Neal Shine. Great, funny book about Shine's Irish mother and their family's life in Detroit. We're getting together tonight to discuss, so I got up early this morning to make Irish soda bread for the occasion. When Dave and I were in Ireland a couple of years ago with our mothers, this was served at every meal. It's remarkably easy to make. Here's the recipe I used:

Irish soda bread

4 cups all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup raisins

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and 1/2 cup butter. Stir in 1 cup buttermilk and egg. Add raisins. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead slightly. Form dough into a round and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. In a small bowl, mix melted butter with 1/4 cup buttermilk. Brush loaf with this mixture. With a sharp knife, cut an X into the top of the loaf. Bake in 375 degree oven (350 if using convection) for 40 to 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Brush the loaf again with buttermilk mixture after first 20 minutes of baking.

March Madness in April: Quick couscous salad

Yesterday we went to an open-air concert in the afternoon with friends and then invited them to our house to watch KU play North Carolina in the Final Four. I didn't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen during the day, so I bought nice German sausage at YB Meats (great store-- I gotta shop there more often!) to grill once we got back to the house, and before we left for the concert, I made a very quick couscous salad. Our friends contributed an elegant spinach salad and pita-bread pizza appetizers. (I'll post that recipe once I get it from Carrie.) Excellent food, and (as it turned out) an excellent game.

Making couscous salad takes all of five minutes from start to finish. Pour two boxes of quick-cook couscous into boiling water according to package directions, remove from heat, cover and let sit for five minutes. During that five minutes, chop 1/2 cup green onions, a red bell pepper, a peeled, seeded cucumber, three or four large tomatoes, a handful of fresh basil. Mix in a large bowl with 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice, 3 tablespoons olive oil and 1 cup halved pitted Kalamata olives. Add couscous. Stir well. Chill for several hours before serving. Then add 1 cup crumbled feta cheese.

The recipe made plenty, so we have leftovers to enjoy during KU's championship game tomorrow night.

Celebrate Easter with macaroon pie

Gotta blog quickly. It's 5 a.m. and I have a plane to catch-- I'm off to join my kids, brothers, sister, mom for Easter. Before I go, here's a very nice dessert to make for Easter dinner. This delectable recipe comes from my Aunt Katie. I took it to a dinner party last week and it was a hit.

Macaroon pie

1-1/2 cups crushed soda cracker crumbs (more commonly known, I guess, as saltines)
3/4 cup pitted, chopped dates
3/4 cup chopped nuts
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon almond extract

Beat egg whites until very stiff. Slowly add sugar. Fold in all other ingredients. Pour into well-buttered pie pan and bake 30 minutes at 300 degrees. For serving, top wedges with sweetened, almond flavored whipping cream, or (my preference) add 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract to a cup of sour cream and spread over the top of the pie. Sprinkle with sliced almonds.

Add a cup of cranberries to oatmeal cookies

I love making oatmeal cookies. I add handfuls of extras to pack them with goodness: chocolate chips, coconut, raisins and nuts. I've just made a big batch and added dried cranberries for a little variety. They're yummy. Here's the basic recipe for about four dozen cookies:

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup no-transfat Crisco
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups uncooked oatmeal (quick or old-fashioned)
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Heat oven to 350 degrees (325 if using convection oven). In large bowl or standing mixer, mix brown sugar, shortening and granulated sugar until creamy. Add egg, water and vanilla. Beat well. Add oats, flour, baking soda; mix well. Add handfuls of anything else that sounds good-- chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, dried fruit, nuts, coconut.

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto sheets. Bake 11-13 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered or freeze in plastic freezer bags.

Happy birthday: Bell pepper chicken with orzo

For my birthday last week, Dave gave me a cookbook, "Cooking Light Weeknight," along with a promise that he would cook recipes from this book on a regular basis. This was an excellent gift, as my schedule is so packed lately that weeknight cooking has become something of a challenge. Dave made good on his promise Thursday night. It was lovely to come home to find him sautéing chicken with peppers and cooking orzo with feta to go with. In the time it took him to cook this fine, healthy meal, I was able to slip into my jeans, take the dog on a nice walk, and then enjoy dinner feeling pampered and relaxed.

Feta orzo is a cinch. Two ingredients-- cooked orzo (start with 4 ounces uncooked), mixed with three ounces crumbled feta. A nice pasta variation.

Here's the chicken recipe:

Bell pepper chicken with lemon juice

4 teaspoons olive oil
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (Dave used a package of chicken tenders)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 cup red bell pepper strips
1 cup green bell pepper strips
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Heat two teaspoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper and red pepper. Cook chicken in oil 4 minutes to each side. Remove chicken from pan and place in warming oven.

Add remaining oil and bell peppers to pan. Sauté 2 minutes. Add oregano and garlic. Sauté 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in lemon juice. Serve with feta orzo.

Look mom, no iodine: Cranberry orzo salad

We have a friend, Mike, who is being treated for thyroid cancer. For the next few days he needs to be on a low-iodine diet. My impulse when someone is sick is to take them something to eat, so I was grateful when Chris, one of the women at book group, shared some of her own experience with this illness (check out her blog entry on the topic)-- and a good link for recipes at http://www.thyca.org/. She recommended an orzo salad that I made today. It turned out so nicely that I think I will make this again and again. I didn't add any salt, although the Web site version says it's OK to used the non-iodized variety. I left a container of this, along with a card and the recipe, on Mike's porch this afternoon.

Orzo salad with cranberries

1 16-ounce box orzo pasta
1 cup dried cranberries
1 large diced red onion
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil

Cook orzo according to package directions. Drain, mix with remaining ingredients. Serve warm or at room temperature.

"United States of Arugula" alive at the olive bar

I've joined a book group -- a terrific circle of smart, funny women. This month's reading selection was "The United States of Arugula: The Sun Dried, Cold Pressed, Dark Roasted, Extra Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution ," by David Kamp. What a great read. Kamp examines how the American food scene has evolved, thanks in large measure to foodie pioneers such as James Beard, Julia Child, Alice Waters and Craig Claiborne. I loved the book-- it's a lively examination of how what we eat has changed for the better over the last 50 years.

Book group is a potluck event, and for this week's get-together I really wanted to cook something excellent to match our subject matter. But I had no time, so I decided to just stop at the store after work to pick up munchies. Cop-out, yeah. But what first caught my attention when I walked into the new Dillon's store on Douglas Avenue was the olive bar, filled with all kinds of beautiful olives, stuffed grape leaves, marinated cheese, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. It was beautiful, and illustrated perfectly what Kamp describes in his book-- the wonderful supply of delectable ingredients available everywhere we shop, a different food universe than the landscape Julia or James or Craig inhabited when they started out in the middle of the last century. So I bought several plastic containers of goodies from the olive bar, picked up some water crackers and some goat cheese brie. Also a little jar of yummy oily sundried tomatoes. Used to be you only found this kind of stuff at Dean & DeLuca's (the founders of which were also significant characters, by the way, in Kamp's book.) Now good food surrounds us everywhere. I felt very happy.

I went home, arranged my cheese, olives and everything else in a white serving dish I'd picked up at DeHillerins in Paris. I packed this off to book group with a bottle of wine. Life is good. And food has gotten really good.

This mac and cheese suits grown-up tastes

Tonight I made mac and cheese that suited our adult tastes just a bit more than the blue-box variety I used to serve my kids. I just threw in some ingredients we happened to have on hand-- a bit of ham, some fresh spinach, three different kinds of cheese, a shot of Chardonnay. It was really quite good-- a bit lighter on the butter than a traditional recipe.

Macaroni and cheese for grown-ups

1 pound of pasta (rotini, penne, whatever you like)
2 cups grated cheese (I used a mixture of jack cheese, sharp cheddar and colby)
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 cup ham, cut into small chunks
1 fresh tomato, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1-1/2 cups fresh spinach leaves
3/4 cup white wine
1 teaspoon marjoram
1 cup milk
1/2 cup panko crumbs

Cook pasta in a large pot according to package instructions. While pasta cooks, melt butter in a deep skillet. Cook onion pieces over medium high heat until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in ham, spinach and tomato pieces. Stir for about two minutes. Add milk, reduce heat and stir with a whisk for about three minutes until milk is heated through. Add wine and all by 1/4 cup of the cheese. Continue stirring until cheese melts and sauce is smooth. Add marjoram. Drain pasta, and pour back into the pasta pot. Stir in cheese sauce. Butter an 11-by-13-by-2 inch casserole dish and spoon in pasta with sauce. Top with panko crumbs. Top with 1/4 cup cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

Couscous is worth the price of herbs, olives

Here's the recipe I used Sunday for couscous with Greek olives. It is delicious. This recipe makes enough to serve eight or so. We had the last of the leftovers at supper tonight. I know this is not the best time of year to use fresh herbs-- they're not growing in the garden, and are plenty pricey in the produce aisle. But I splurged and bought what I needed for this. I also indulged in a nice jar of pitted, halved Kalamata olives.

Couscous with olives and fresh herbs

1 stick butter
3 large onions, chopped
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2-1/4 cups chicken broth
1 cup pitted halved Kalamata olives
1/2 cup fresh basil
1/3 cup chopped fresh mint
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 cups couscous

Melt butter in deep saucepan over medium-low heat. Add onions, stir and cook, covered, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes. Add ginger and turmeric. Add broth, olives, basil, mint and lemon juice. Bring to a boil. Add couscous. Cover pan, turn off heat. Let stand until liquid is absorbed and couscous is tender, about 10 minutes.

Inspired by cafeteria fare: Greek chicken

I'm blessed to work for a company that provides first-rate fare in the employee cafeteria-- a good selection of healthy, nicely prepared dishes. One day last week the menu featured delicious Moroccan chicken with couscous, which inspired me to try something similar at home. I found a good recipe in "The Bon Appetit Cookbook" for chicken wth artichoke hearts (Greek, not Morrocan) and also a recipe for couscous with Kalamata olives and fresh herbs. With a simple spinach salad, this made for a nice dinner tonight just for the two of us.

Here's how I cooked the chicken. I'll blog about the couscous in my next post.

Greek chicken and artichokes

2 tablespoon olive oil
2 chicken breasts and 4 thighs, with skin and bones
2 6-ounce jars marinated artichoke hearts
1 15-ounce can chicken broth
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
3 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute chicken until browned, about 5 minutes per side. Drain artichokes, saving marinade in a small bowl. Add to the chicken: 2 tablespoons marinade, broth, lemon juice, lemon peel and crushed red pepper. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer about 10 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Stir in artichokes and 2 tablespoons of the oregano. Simmer about 5 minutes longer. Stir in remaining oregano. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Up for some variety? Try barley casserole

Craig Claiborne's "New York Times Cookbook" is an excellent resource. For years I kept a copy at my mom's vacation place in Florida, and when I was there with her last week, she insisted I take it home, since we don't use it as much as I'd thought we might when we're at the beach. It's got no glossy photos, just really lovely recipes, many of them pretty simple. So I packed it into my suitcase and brought it home where I can put it to good use.

Yesterday we invited friends over for Sunday dinner, and then circumstances dictated I had to work most of the day. So I didn't have much time to prepare anything. Dave agreed to grill pork chops, one set of guests agreed to bring a salad and our other guests agreed to bring a dessert. So my only responsibility was a side dish. Potatoes? Rice? Pasta? No, I wanted to do something more interesting. I thumbed through Claiborne's cookbook and found a recipe for barley mushroom casserole that was delightful. I love barley. It deserves better than its status as just something to throw into soup. And this was very easy to put together in the short time I had between work and my party. I used twice the barley and broth that Claiborne recommended , so we'd have enough for our party of six. Here's my adaptation of his recipe:

Barley mushroom casserole

2 cups pearl barley
1 large onion, chopped
5 tablespoons butter
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

Melt butter in a deep skillet. Cook onion and mushrooms until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add barley and cook until slightly browned. Add two cups broth. Bring to a boil. Pour into a buttered casserole dish. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, add remaining broth. Cook, covered, another 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and barley is tender.

The world is my oyster, nicely breaded

I love oysters. Our church, St. James Episcopal in Wichita, celebrates Mardi Gras with an amazing all-you-can-eat oyster and beer fest. It's a tradition we wouldn't miss. Last night, after Dave and I had our fill of all manner of oysters (cooked, raw and swimming in steaming cream with fresh leeks and tabasco) we helped with post-party clean-up. And before the night was over, we scored a bucket of fresh oysters to cook at home for our Ash Wednesday supper.

Tonight I dipped my stash of oysters in ice water and then coated each in cornmeal. I heated about a cup of vegetable oil in the wok on high heat, threw in oysters about a half dozen at a time, and fried for just a couple minutes, 'til they were nicely browned. After moving the oysters to a plate, and soaking up the excess oil with a paper towel, I served them with lemon and tartar sauce. Dave made a nice salad to go with. Nice way to kick off the Lenten season, I'd say.