Cooking Experiment - Pizza

Thin crust Italian pizza with Parma ham, sun-dried tomatoes, roquette, artichokes, Parmesan, Mozzarella, and fresh basil.

I obviously need to work on rounding out the dough, but otherwise this was delicious. Time to make the second one!

Will post the second one to see if I did a better job and let you know about working the dough. It's been a real problem for me, so about to use another plan of attack.

On a sidenote, as much as I would love to own a pizza stone I don't. What I made this on is simply an insulated cookie sheet. It didn't brown up the crust as much as I would have liked, so I am going to see what maybe running a little olive oil might do. Just the teeny-tiniest bit because too much wouldn't be good either.

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Cookbooks

Yesterday at a second hand bookstore I came across an Italian cookbook by region. I was tempted to buy it, but I didn't. It seemed like a good coobook, but how can one tell? What makes a good cookbook and how can you tell just by looking at one?

I don't own many cookbooks. In fact I own three - Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volumes 1 & 2 and another cookbook I bought on Provencal regional cuisine. I bought the Julia Child cookbooks in an older edition second hand because they were 4,00 euros for both and I thought why not, but I've never cooked anything out of it. In fact I've never cooked anything out of my cookbooks because I seem to only own cookbooks for French cuisine, which understandably given my French grandmother was a chef I've never needed. My grandma made sure I memorised every recipe she deemed to teach me. I've never learned from a cookbook because I've either learned from someone while cooking with them or I've figured out the recipe myself (I reverse engineer dishes I love from restaurants for example) and knew what techniques the food was going to need.

I've been playing with the idea of making my own cookbook for a really long time, but it's hard work for someone who doesn't use cookbooks. Not only do I have to choose which recipes would make it into a cookbook of mine, but I need people to test the recipes and learn how to write recipes that are easy for other people to follow. Part of this blog was supposed to be about cooking and posting recipes that people might try and then comment on to give me feedback, so I'm going to focus a little bit on that once I'm back from my holidays.

The thing is, even when people compliment my food and tell me I should one day open a restaurant I don't take them seriously. The reason why is mostly because I don't see a particular amount of talent in what I do in the kitchen. In some ways I take my ability to cook for granted because I don't see cooking as particularly difficult. I think anyone could cook what I cook if they practice and like cooking. I'd love to find a way to put that same mentality into a finished cookbook in such a way that people who cooked with my recipes would feel the same way. I cook with passion for people I care about. That's perhaps the secret ingredient to my cooking. I just love watching people I love eat.

My neighbour, for whom I cooked Korean food for his birthday party is still raving about how pleased his guests were. They wanted to know if I gave cooking classes; they asked for recipes and my advice on this or that. And most of these people were French, so I feel a bit more pride at knowing that I got a bunch of French people to try something new (and spicy).

Now I stopped my post here - thanks to Blogger's draft feature - and went back and bought that Italian cookbook. Why? Because I found reviews about it on Amazon that said the author, Ada Boni was apparently a very famous Italian cookbook writer in the 50's and 60's and it had all 5 star reviews by people who obviously loved this book, thought the recipes were truly authentic (not that I don't love Italian-American cuisine because having lived in Boston for so long I really grew to appreciate the Italian-American cuisine found in the North End of Boston), and simple to follow or to find substitutions for certain ingredients (though now that I've looked through the book myself I'm wondering where I'm going to find fresh oregano and beef suet in France).

One reviewer stated that Marcella Hazan, the famed Italian chef that was a pet of the New York Times apparently learned how to cook from Ada Boni's books. This well-loved and well-respected by none other than Marcella Hazan cookbook was a major steal at 10 euros given it's out-of-print and what I like to call an "inadvertent discovery" (books I want for some reason but don't know why, then come home to research only to discover I've somehow wanted that book but just didn't know yet).

More research on Ada Boni turns up a wealth of information that just makes me want to buy more of her cookbooks. Ada Boni started a sort of lady's home journal called Preziosa and that she published a massive encyclopedic volume containing 2000 authentic recipes by region (beating out the former champion of Italian cookbooks Artusi - who deserves his own post - by 1400 recipes) known as the Talismano della Felicità, The Talisman of Happiness. (I found all this information on a wonderful Italian cooking blog you can find here called Memorie di Angelina.)

I'm now terribly impatient to cook something from this new cookbook. I don't know where to start, but I suppose I will start with Venice as I lived there for a year and my memories of Venetian cuisine are still very close to my heart though it's not my favourite overall. Now I love southern Italian cuisine, but in the winter months I crave the type of cuisine one can eat in the north. Osso bucco with saffron risotto is probably my favourite Italian meal. If the weather keeps it up, I might actually be able to justify making it!

Here's the cookbook I purchased which is as I said out of print. You can find copies via Amazon or ABEBooks. Here's a link on ABE which is the same as the one I bought that isn't too expensive.

What are you favourite cookbooks and if you've cooked from one of Ada Boni's books before, what did you think?

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Books, Tea, Time, and The Droste Effect in Amsterdam

Day two in Amsterdam was recovery day. I did a little grocery shopping at the Albert Heijn, made sandwiches, and did a lot of napping. I blogged about finding a copy of The Olympia Reader and the famous scandal surrounding Lolita. Day three however after enough rest this wicked girl was ready to hit the town a little bit.

So I headed to Centraal Bibliotheek. It's located between Centraal Station and the NEMO Science Center in front of the massive floating Chinese pagoda restaurant. You can't miss it. It is afterall the biggest library in Europe.

Inside I managed to discreetly snap photos for the purpose of this blog. See the world's best reading/writing chairs are inside the Amsterdam central library. I tried to find online who designed them and how to get my hands on one, but so far nothing has turned up. Here are some pictures, if you know who made them or where to buy them I would be most thankful for the tip.

I headed up another level to take a look at some of the books in the Centraal Bibliotheek's "Amsterdam" collection and ended up finding a book (in Dutch, English, German, and French no less) about the pews of the Oudekerk (The Old Church, Red Light District) and learned a new word in the process.

miserichord: (sometimes named mercy seat, like the Biblical object) is a small wooden shelf on the underside of a folding seat in a church, installed to provide a degree of comfort for a person who has to stand during long periods of prayer.

I also had a seat to enjoy the view, another reason besides books to visit the Centraal Bibliotheek.

One last snap of possibly Satanist magazines in the religious magazine section, and I was back out on the street.

I wandered around and fell upon this creepy, creepy thing I had made a note in my notebook to try and pass by again for the purposes of getting a photo for my blog. Isn't it horrible and yet quite amazing in it's own way? It's in the window of a Dutch restaurant on Zeedijk.

Another random Amsterdam window, this time instead of taxidermy there's a tiny world beyond the glass.

I had lunch again at Thaise Snackbar (Zeedijk) and it was as delicious yet again. I will eventually eat at another restaurant and possibly one day vacation in a different city. Until then, the pad thai was too good for words.

The plan was to first go to the Waterlooplein market to find an old Droste Dutch coccoa tin. I saw about seven the other day and could barely find one when I went back specifically to find the damn thing. I finally found one and a cute little milk jug and sugar bowl set. Total for everything was 5,00 euros.

I wandered back up towards Nieuwmarkt towards a secondhand bookstore called The Book Exchange because I wanted to browse for some books, but I found the passage of books again (on the same street at TBE, but before Ruusland street) and bought some there first. Then I went to The Book Exchange and bought some there too.

The new plan was to find an art store and buy the supplies necessary to make my Tardis themed notebook while having tea and Dutch brownies. I planned to make from scratch meatballs and spaghetti sauce for dinner. I found the supplies (less than 30,00 euros and will probably be enough materials to make several Tardis themed notebooks) and then it started to rain so I popped into The Bushdoctor Coffeeshop to have a smoke and wait it out.

Once home I did have tea and brownies and homemade spaghetti and meatballs with foccacia bread and I did watch Monty Python and The Holy Grail, but didn't get to the Tardis notebooks. Tonight I suppose will be leftovers and Tardis. Will have to watch some old episodes of my favourite Doctor (I guess it's probably David Tennant).

Enjoy some random A'dam photos:

Swans and bicycles on a bridge near Waterlooplein.

Near this bridge. (See above.)

Postcard I personalised for a friend.

My moleskin pages from yesterday with my spirograph.

Another postcard (Nirvana) to send to my neighbour's son.

This might be a bad translation, but "Bread has a point"? Please help if you speak Dutch!

From under my umbrella...

Yes Pizarro, what have you done??

Odd car.

Books bought. A few Tardis supplies.

Tea, books, Droste tin, tea set, Tardis supplies.

Yummy.

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