Paganocity

I am a pirate, and as such, I am cheating.  I haven't made this recipe yet, but it looks simple and wonderful, and should be grand.  This is step one in my Day of the Dead dish.  The second part I will not write up until after I have made it, because it is the part I am nervous about.  But for now, a nice, sweet corn bread recipe, that I will probably modify, but I'll report back on it.

One of the easiest, most useful, and tasty doughs to make: Pizza dough.  What makes it so great?  Well, that's easy, you use it to make pizza, which should more properly be considered a class of foods at this stage in its development, than viewed as a simple dish of its own.  There should be SOME kind of pizza that makes your tummy smile in a way few other foods can.

For example, I made basil feta pizza last night, and loved it.  Pizza dough covered with a quick home made pizza sauce, fresh basil, feta, and covered in mozzarella.

Here is the dough:

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups of flour (I used 3 cups unbleached all purpose, ran out and used rye flour for the rest)

1 1/3 cups water (warm but not boiling) 

2 tablespoons honey (or sugar of choice)

1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil (I used sesame, because of my slightly different choice of toppings.)

1 packet of yeast (approx. 2 3/4 teaspoons?)

Take your water and get it hot to touch, add honey and yeast.  Stir together, and leave to blend for 5 minutes.  Then add salt and oil.  Place the solution in an oiled mixing bowl.  Slowly add flour, until you go from batter to dough.  I just used a fork to stir the flour in.  The dough should be stick to the bottom of the bowl, but not necessarily to the sides of the bowl.  Gently alter water or flour proportions until you get the consistancy you desire.  Then knead it for a good ten minutes.  Then coat it in oil, cover it, and leave it at warm room temperature for an hour or two.  When you come back, it should have doubled or so in size.  Beat the heck out of it when you return.  This is acceptable domestic violence, so enjoy.  Knead it some more.  Let it sit for at least 15 more minutes.  Take this time to prepare your sauce and toppings for the pizza.  Get your baking sheet ready by coating with oil or corn meal (or both), and then start stretching your dough to cover your baking sheet.  I unfortunately do not know the fine art of dough tossing, so I cannot share it here.  I generally practice more of a dough stretching.  I flatten my dough, and gently lift and tug, stretching it thinner and larger.  Work with it until it is pizza shaped.  Push your fingers down, and forceably flatten the middle area for the topping, while leaving the edge relatively unabused.  Then coat the middle in a layer of oil, to keep the pizza sauce from soaking the baking bread and giving you a runny middle.  Add sauce and topping.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Pop in the pizza.  It should be ready in 10 to 25 minutes.  I generally find 15 to 20 will do it.

Ok, so I'm a little late in welcoming the Autumn season. And ok, I did have to look up a name for this cross-quarter holiday, its celebration not being common practice in my family.  This morning, I definitely noticed cooler air, a truly comfortable breeze, as I walked out to pick some fresh leaves from the Moringa tree that fell in the last storm.  It will have to be moved, but seeing as it's been thriving in its current horizontal position with half its roots unearthed, it will probably survive the transition.  In the meantime, I've found the horizontal tree is far easier to harvest from.  I believe I have Bill to thank, for giving me a reason to go outside and discover Autumn.  And truly, for bringing Autumn with him.  Finally, a tropical storm.

Perhaps you think that i get exicited about strange things.  Of course, a tropical storm is a destructive force of Nature.  A furious, swirling force that brings with it cooling rain, sometimes lightning and fire - all of the raw ingredients needed to bring forth Florida's subtropical growing season.  Hooray Lughnasadh!  Perhaps it is not loaf-mass to me, not the first-harvest.  I'll celebrate a seed-mass, the opening of a season of temperatures mild enough to raise the mild temperate plants I most enjoy eating.  The season in which my neighbors' chickens will be able to lay tasty eggs, instead of consuming all their calories languishing in the heat.  I read of a Lughnasadh ritual involving burning your regrets.  I will burn my summer doldrums, my regrets from hiding indoors while the Sun wheels its power directly overhead.  I will seek a new relationship with my land, in the way that I love best (by working the soil and eating the rewards!)  I wish you all a happy Autumn, whatever this season means to you.

Jujube