My weekend of béchamel.
This weekend was a good weekend for food. On Thursday I baked onion rye bread, about which Ben said that if I’d told him I bought it at Bread and Cie (a San Diego bakery) he would have believed me. Win! I also made a chard and beet greens gratin, my first gratin, and it turned out thoroughly edible – even to my non-veggie-eating husband and progeny. I made everything in it on my own, down to the toasted bread crumbs. I was so exhausted after the gratin that I just reheated some of the (bazillion pounds of…) leftover turkey.
One successful dinner down, one weekend to go. On Friday I baked challah according to Sami’s preschool’s pre-K class recipe, and it turned out as I had expected it to, and as it had when I tasted the pre-K class’s yield – heavy, doughy, but completely tasty. It’s not so much challah-like, per se, but it is good bread, and I bet we’ll like the sandwiches, French toast and bread pudding that eventually come from it.
For Friday dinner I made a dish I will heretofore lovingly refer to as “how to kill a lot of the week’s vegetables in one pot before the next vegetable delivery needs to be refrigerated.” I sliced thin potatoes, onions, mushrooms and bell peppers, layered them in a Dutch oven with some parmesan and cayenne seasoned béchamel sauce, and baked the whole thing within an inch of its life at about 350* for 30 minutes. It burned a little along the bottom, but not enough to impact the scrumptiousness.
If there’s a name for that dish, I don’t know what it is, and I don’t really care. It was onion/potato/veggie heaven.
Saturday I made pizza and had friends Laura and Josef for dinner. My first pizza dough turned out lovely except that it was yeast free. I set that aside and made another ball of dough, from which two veggie pizzas emerged – topped with – you guessed it – red-pepper seasoned béchamel, tomato sauce and parmigiano – fantastic. Dessert was angel food cake (I didn’t bake it – sadly, no springform pan) with strawberries and crème fraîche. Simple and delicious.
Today I pondered what to do with my yeastless dough, and came up with proofing yeast in a separate container of water, then kneading it in and letting it sit. Come dinner time, I pushed it flat and round, brushed it with olive oil and sprinkled salt, oregano and basil on it. Homemade focaccia, along with the leftover Kill the Veggies in a Pot – killer filler leftover meal.
I’m getting prouder of myself every day for all the stuff I make at home. Also, eventually it will be exceptional. Right now it is all pretty ordinary. I think.
