Air fryer pizza!
You may recall that among my many accomplishments, I once made pizza for a living. Specifically, Sicilian deep dish pizza. Now I have mastered the art of homemade za in the air fryer, using this ONE WEIRD TRICK.
Can’t be clickbait, you’re here already.
If you can get it where you are, buy a pound of raw white bread dough (don’t sell it here, so I do the pizza program on the breadmaker). That will make three 9″ pies, or two if you like a lot of crust. It freezes wonderfully.
Dough works better if it’s a little warm; I usually give it twenty seconds in the nuker. Roll it out with a rolling pin and then place it in the bottom of the food basket, with the grill removed, and press it around the sides. Unless you’re some kind of crazy cleanaholic, the basket is probably just oily enough that the dough will come out easily when it’s done.
Give it five minutes or so, until the dough holds its shape and has a little strength. Then – here’s the important thing I learned! – flip it over and give it about seven minutes upside down, until it’s just starting to brown. If you don’t do this, the pie will be gluey and underdone on the bottom.
Flip it back over and add sauce (I used storebought spaghetti sauce with a little added olive oil and cracked black pepper because I’m lazy like that). That poor little bent spoon is perfect for spreading the sauce around – and hooking under the edge of the dough to lift it out whenever necessary.
The pie I was taught to make has the ingredients under a solid layer of cheese, and that’s my preference. This one is bell pepper, onion, mushroom and pepperoni. I cook that part for a few minutes in its own before adding cheese. The house mixture was 50/50 cheddar and mozzarella.
Cook until desired doneness (I like the cheese a little browned), hook it out with your ickle spoon, and viola!
Since all food looks gross in black and white, here’s the final product in color.
Or you can buy a 9″ supermarket frozen pizza and give it ten minutes. That’s good, too.
November 16, 2022 — 5:01 pm
Comments: 9
My lunch had a good life
Oh, Waitrose. I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me. Did he have a winsome smile? A mellifluous squeal? Did he have a crush on the sow in the airy barn next door? At night, did he look up at the stars and…
Nah, screw it. There’s only so much I need to know about my lunch.
October 25, 2022 — 7:37 pm
Comments: 5
Success?
The question mark is because I ain’t so sure. It has a lovely flavor and a beautiful color, but I don’t think it’s going to set. Quinces have lots of pectin and usually don’t have any problem setting firm, but I think I cooked it in too much water. As I boiled it, it just didn’t thicken properly
The internet helpfully suggests I use it for sugar syrup. If I don’t want to boil it again. And I don’t.
Yes, you can see it in color.
October 5, 2022 — 6:52 pm
Comments: 5
Quinces!
One year, the quince tree at work was dropping so much fruit from on high, we seriously feared a quince would bean a visitor to death. We had it savagely cut back and it sulked for three years. This is the first year it’s fruited since.
Oddly enough, there was no low-hanging fruit *thinking face emoji*
I had to wait for some of the higher fruit to overripen and fall. That’s why it’s so spotty. I’ll cut out the worst buts and it’ll be fine for quince jelly.
I love quince jelly, but making it is such a pain in the ass, I go several years between batches.
Storm’s a-coming tonight, everyone. It is upon us. Logging off to hunker down. Have a good weekend!
September 30, 2022 — 6:01 pm
Comments: 11
Glut of tomatoes?
Homemade V8! Makes a kickass bloody mary.
Preboil celery and carrots in a little water until soft. Add the tomatoes and cook another 20 minutes with the lid off. Put in a blender or zizz with a mixer. You’re supposed to strain it through muslin then, but that makes it too thin for my taste. I just trawl trough it for chunks (celery is the usual culprit).
According to campbells.com, the proper article is tomato puree plus carrots, celery, beets, parsley, lettuce, watercress and spinach. But the as long as you have tomatoes and Tabasco, you’re good.
Sorry about yesterday. It was the database on my server. I didn’t even bother to file a ticket. I knew they were working on it and I wasn’t too fussed. I had bloody marys!
Any hardline computer geeks online?
I’m having a mystery problem with my fancy computer. It’s three years old and it’s the absolute highest spec I could afford.
While it was still fairly new, I noticed the USB ports in the front were a little flaky – sometimes cutting out briefly. I assumed that bank of ports wasn’t fully plugged into the motherboard.
Then the ones in the back got a little flaky. Then all of them got pretty flaky. Then all of them got intolerably flaky, stuttering in and out constantly.
So I broke down and bought a PCI card with four USB ports. Which worked a treat. For about a week.
What could make all my USB ports unreliable, even freshly added ones. Would that be (please no) a motherboard issue? Could it be the power supply?
September 22, 2022 — 5:19 pm
Comments: 15
Abundance
Oof! I’ve been in a Zoom meeting this evening, so please enjoy this photograph of muddy carrots.
Yes, it’s that time of year again – the end of the cottage garden when the last of the ragtag bunches of vegetables that come out of the ground. My remaining spring onions are now the size of golfballs.
I say ‘my’ spring onions – the garden is entirely the province of Uncle B. My only contribution is keeping the chickens off it (I don’t always succeed). Oh, and eating the vegetables. It is glut time.
My specialty is a little number I like to call Cream of Shit-from-the-garden Soup. Throw whatever I’ve got in a pot, boil it with chicken broth, zizz it with a hand mixer and add cream. It’s different every time, but always delicious.
I have been forbidden from fermenting vegetables since the Brussel Sprout Incident. Damn near asphyxiated everyone.
September 13, 2022 — 7:35 pm
Comments: 5
The Return of the Village Fete
The judgin’ o’ the veggies. Yes, they really do this and yes, they take it very seriously.
One particularly hilarious category was swiss rolls, where some judge or judges wrote detailed critiques on index cards for each entry, explaining why they voted the way they did, what issues that particular swiss roll had and how to make it better next year.
BTW, red ribbon is first place here and blue is second. Make brain hurt.
There was a point I was sure the village fete would never return. So many of them were teetering on the edge even before the lockdown, and I thought the lockdown might’ve broken some people forever.
I still think there are some permanently damaged people out there (they all seem to hang out in Twitterland), but we went to two village fetes this weekend alone, and they were *packed*.
No masks, no distancing, no elbow-bumping, no fear. It was absolutely, 100% the old normal. But busier.
These were the middle classes, they who listen to the BBC, trust the government and no doubt had every recommended shot at its appointed time. They weren’t being defiant. They weren’t even thinking about covid. They were just done.
I wonder if that’s how Klaus Schwab saw this going at this point in his project.
August 3, 2022 — 7:40 pm
Comments: 14
Elderflowers am in bloom
The drive is white with elderflower. I considered making elderflower gin, but then I thought it made more sense to make an elderflower cordial that I could add to gin (or anything else I fancied).
I like elderflower. I don’t remember anything flavored with it in the States, though. Do we even grow elder?
Anyway, it’s 20 elderflower heads and the zest of a lemon in a 1-liter jar, fill to the absolute top with vodka to exclude air. A good deal of smooshing is required.
Two to four weeks in a cool, dark place and then strain through muslin into a bowl. Take 100ml of boiling water and use it to dissolve 100gm of sugar. Add it to the mix bit by bit to taste. You can use it right away, but it’s better for aging a few months.
That jar is a wonderful 1-liter pickling jar Uncle B gave me that I am forbidden to use for its intended purpose after that time I pickled brussel sprouts and everything in the fridge tasted of fart for a week.
June 8, 2022 — 3:19 pm
Comments: 11
Adventure!
We went to MacDonald’s! I know that doesn’t sound much, but I haven’t had a Big Mac in, like, four years. There isn’t any fast food at all except in some of the bigger towns, and we’re not near a bigger town.
I had to have my eyes checked (they’re fine – my right eye has gotten better!) near to Mickey D’s, so I axed if we could go.
Gosh, it’s changed. It was all touch screens. I tried to order at the desk because Uncle B wants his Quarter Pounder just so, but the girl said the touch screens allowed all kinds of customization.
They did!
There seemed to be as many employees as ever, though. Maybe they were turning over a whole lot more food. While we were there, at least four men came in from food delivery outfits and picked up orders.
They all knew each other and they all were speaking Polish or Russian or some other gargly language (not a linguist, me). I reckon there’s some kind of Big Mac mafia.
One guy came in, ordered a Coke and drank it before leaving with his order. I reckon that was one frosty cold burger when it got where it was going.
June 7, 2022 — 5:26 pm
Comments: 8
Garbage
It’s recycling night! My neighbor asked if she could put some overflow in our bin.
That’s kind of weird, I thought. She lives alone and Uncle B and I together rarely fill more than a quarter of a bin.
She came over with a big bag of plastic and says, Oh, her daughter and family are staying with her.
And I say, Oh, I thought your daughter was a hippie type.
And she says, Oh, yes she is. You wouldn’t believe how much plastic all that organic food is wrapped in.
Ba-dum tiss.
May 25, 2022 — 7:45 pm
Comments: 3