Crowned.

Some of you may be following me on Facebook and Twitter - if so, you know that I've been gearing up for a lil' family competition that took place on Labor Day.  My family (dad's side) held it's second cook-off, this time the theme was pizza.  There were 6 contestants, 5 savory pizzas and 1 dessert pizza.  The game was on!

Earlier this year, we held a lamb burger competition and sadly, I came in third place. I tried to take the blow with my head held high, but my culinary ego was slightly bruised. I vowed to make my comeback next time around when we planned our pizza cook-off.

The competition was tough this year, all the contestants amped up their game, we were all pretty serious about making delicious pizzas and the hard work all paid off. When I initially began putting together my game plan for pizza, I was heavily focused on the pizza dough (note I was the only contestant who made their pizza dough from scratch), so I relied on Jim Lahey's recipe in one his brilliant book called My Bread. There are tons of sources, but this recipe was simple, straight-to-the point and I trusted his skill set and bread making skills.

About a week and a half ago, The Cooking Channel (my latest telly addiction) featured a week's worth of shows dedicated to the art of pizza making.  Was it a sign from the man upstairs? I stumbled upon a show on pizzas that were creative, "out of the box", so to speak and was instantaneously inspired as a result.  I've praised the Argentinians here in my post all about chimichurri sauce - it was this that sparked my imagination when creating my winning pizza!

Chimichurri sauce is a fresh herb sauce - it's made with parsley, oregano, red wine vinegar, garlic, olive oil, salt and red chili pepper flakes. And it goes with everything! With chimichurri as my finishing sauce, I worked up the foundation on my pizza.  I made a simple tomato sauce with San Marzano tomatoes, pureed and simmered in some olive oil with garlic, salt and a teeny tiny bit of sugar. 

With a couple spoonfuls of the tomato sauce spread around my pizza dough, I then topped it with caramelized onions, fresh mozzarella, feta and skirt steak.  I actually the pizza with the skirt steak until the last 5 minutes or so.  This kept the structural integrity of the melt-in-your mouth skirt steak. After I removed it from the oven and let it sit for a few minutes, I drizzled the chimichurri sauce all over it.

As I mentioned before, the competition was certainly not lacking, what I loved about the competition was how different and unique all of the pizzas actually were, nothing fell into the same category. It actually blew me away. 

Samantha made a rustic pizza with garlic olive oil, grilled onions and tons of feta! She served it with a variety of dipping sauces - baba ganoush, olive tapenade, cucumber yogurt, jalapeno yogurt, red pepper and walnut. It was straight up divine! A perfect appetizer pizza for any party!

Dorothy made a pesto sauced pizza with roasted chicken, grilled red onions, sun dried tomatoes, mozzarella, pecorino romano and pine nuts. All of the ingredients were layered to perfection. The sun dried tomatoes were sweet and juicy, the pesto was fresh and floral. I could easily see this on a menu!

Clarissa was inspired by Thai cuisine - she made a peanut sauce pizza with Thai chicken meatballs, carrots, green onions, bean sprouts and cilantro. Savory and out of this world, it was a decadent pizza! 

Dad took a more traditional route, he's always made a fabulous chicken parmesan and he decided to turn it into a pizza! Tomato sauce, chicken parmesan, mozzarella and pecorino romano.

Harrison took on the challenge on dessert pizza.  He used nutella as a base, added coconut flakes, marshmallows and crushed graham cracker crust.  Then he took a blow torch and melted the marshmallows - a fancy Smores inspired treat!

It was such a fun day and we look forward to the next food competition! I hope your Labor Day was just as much fun!

Delancey Part Deux.

Weeks after opening in late summer of 2009, I made a pit stop at Delancey in Seattle. For a recap of my first meal there, please visit here. Nearly two years later, I had to go back and see how things were cookin' up while visiting my mom in the Seattle area. The joint is still hoppin' and there was a line of eager diners waiting for their doors to open on a Saturday night (they only take reservations for parties of 6 or more), so we knew we were in fine company. The specials were written on the blackboard, just like a teacher writing her name on the board or this week's homework assignment. Instantly, I was drawn to the special pizza - nettles pesto, bacon, onion and lots of grated grana padana.

The salad was mixed greens with roasted beets from the farmer's market in a creamy buttermilk dressing. Lightly tossed, it was a salad worth fighting for - come on, let's duke it out in the street. Okay maybe you're not the fighting type, but this salad was a dream starter. Yes, you already know I ordered the "special" pizza and my mom opted for the mushroom pizza. We could debate great pizza til we are blue in the face, but I've had a religious experience eating pizza recently. I like mine cooked to perfection in a hellish fire, with semi black spots on the crust and an even keeled crust. I prefer amazing ingredients thoughtfully placed onto my pizza. Pizza like this isn't something to scarf down because you're stoned or you're starving, it's pizza you should enjoy, mull over, let your eyes roll back in your head - it's that good. It's probably good that we don't have that one on tape. Having saved some room for dessert, we had the butterscotch pots au creme with banana infused whip cream and these lovely shortbread cookies. Light and sweet, but not overly doused with butterscotch or banana, this pot au cream was a pot au ecstasy.

Since opening Delancey, owners Molly and Brandon have recently opened a new project known as The Pantry. Think of it as a communal cooking space, a place to learn and be inspired.If you live in Seattle or are planning on visiting, look it up, there may be a cooking class or a family style dinner you'd like to sign up for!

Delancey.

I have often ranted and raved about one of my favorite foodie bloggers, Molly Wizenberg of Orangette. I spent last week visiting my mom and stepdad in Seattle (they live on Whidbey Island) and had the distinct pleasure of dining at Delancey with my mom.

When Molly's book, A Handmade Life, was released earlier this year, I eagerly awaited her appearance at a book signing in the midwest, but she didn't quite make it that far....and so I asked (begged and pleaded, sorta) my mom to attend a book signing in Seattle and have my book signed. Much to my mother's surprise, she had a splendid time at the event and read the book at a much needed getaway to Arch Cape, Oregon.

While planning our trip, I made it clear, WE MUST GO TO DELANCEY. And alas this past Thursday, after spending a lovely (and FREE) afternoon at the Seattle Art Museum, soaking in the rays of glorious modern art, we headed over to the Seattle suburb of Ballard to grab a seat at Delancey.


Luck would have it when we arrived, the wait for a table was 45-60 minutes but there were two seats at the bar, and so we dove for them. It really was a special treat to sit there, we got to watch Brandon, Molly and their crew, prepare pizzas, etc. The bar is literally where all the action is. In fact, had we not sat at the bar, we wouldn't have met our chatty diner, Matt (who has frequented Delancey two to three times a week since it has opened) and we wouldn't have had the chance to meet and chat with Molly.

To start we split a salad with grana padano, thinly sliced radishes and a red wine viniagrette. Simple and fresh. Matt convinced us to order the "Padron", a wood fired pizza topped with padron chiles, grana padano, aged and mozzarella. Honestly, it didn't take much convincing, both my mother and I are "spicy" indeed, and I'm not just talking about chiles! :) Watching Brandon monitor the wood fire oven's temperature constantly, you could tell he's serious about HEAT. The pizzas nearly take two to three minutes to bake. It's that HOT. And in my humble opinion, I would've waited half an hour for a pizza that good. The crust was delicate and puffy pockets of air filled special crevices that melted in your mouth. Heaven, we were in heaven.........which leads to us to dessert.

Two choices, we had to indulge with both - Molly's famous chocolate chip cookies with grey salt and an organic blackberry yogurt popsicle. Every adult and child's favorites, cookies and ice cream. All that was missing was a chilled glass of 2% milk to accompany them both. The cookie was delicious, chewy and crunchy all at the same time. The grey salt brought out the chocolate chips, made them sing, in fact. The blackberry popsicle was savory and sweet. There wasn't an ounce of guilt for eating such delicious treats.

Between our chatty conversations with other foodies and taking in the pleasures of simple food, prepared with heart and soul, it was meal to be remembered. Thank you Molly and Brandon, thank you.

my funny valentine.

Valentine's Day 2009 - all by myself...don't want to be all by myself....yes I'm singing Celine Dion as I type this post! In all seriousness, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I treated myself to a matinee of He's Just Not That Into You, it was rather entertaining. A post earlier in the week (on The Wednesday Chef) motivated me to try and make this "no-knead" pizza dough. I had some left over mozzarella and feta cheese. I made a simple tomato pizza sauce thanks to Tyler Florence's recipe on Food Network (Super simple, 1-2 garlic cloves, minced, 2 tbs. evoo, 1-28 ounce can tomato puree, 1 tsp. dried marjoram, 1 tsp. dried basil (Note I substituted Italian seasoning for both dried herbs) and simmer for at least 30 minutes once you bring it to a boil). I'm not the most adept at tossing the pizza dough, but the texture of it was magnificent! Now if I could only master....how thick or thin....without losing the air bubbles, which create lovely air pockets for the dough. The crust was super duper! Rustic indeed, but I think with a little practice, I could become good at this.