I know some people who say that pizza is one of those dishes that's always better when you dine out. I respectfully disagree however. While that might be true for topping-laden old-school American pizza, we've been successfully making some pretty wonderful Italian-style pizzas right here at home. Unfortunately, we lack a wood-burning pizza oven in the backyard (someday…), but we get some good results in a regular home oven with a little preparation.
Our latest home pizza night was inspired by the surplus of heirloom tomatoes from our vegetable garden. The tomato plants seem to be going full throttle now, and we have more tomatoes than we know what to do with. Pizza seemed a great way to help with the problem!
Pizza Dough
The refigerated pizza dough sold by Trader Joe's is actually very good, and we use it all the time, especially if we want to make pizza on the spur of the moment. Making your own pizza crust isn't all that challenging, though, so if you have the time, go for it! The results are usually quite good, and you can even freeze extra dough to use later.
A few weeks ago, we had a fabulous time at the first-ever Farm-to-Table Dinner at Novato's Farm Girl Nursery. The nursery, a labor of love by Novato resident Lisa Marvier, has really taken off as a local resource for fresh produce, seeds, plants, and food education. Our kids even attended one of the nursery's summer camps and had a blast.
The Farm-to-Table Dinner featured five amazing courses prepared by Marin chef Suzanne Griffin, as well as wonderful conversation with some really interesting people. Dinner guests chatted over wine before dinner and toured the beautiful Farm Girl Nursery property, where we even met some goats and horses. Later, we all sat down for dinner outdoors at a rustic table. As the name implies, all the courses, from the opening Caprese salad to the the closing berry tart with a date-and-nut crust, featured ingredients sourced from Farm Girl Nursery's gardens.
While everything was delicious, my favorite course was the green Farm Girl gazpacho served as the second course. It was so fresh and cooling (the dinner was on one of those rare really hot days this summer), and was a wonderful amalgam of different flavors. Chef Suzanne was gracious enough to share the recipe with me, and it follows below, so you too can amaze your dinner guests with something this good!
Marin Mommies presents this week's guest recipe from Nicole Cibellis, Marin mom and author of the blog A Family that Eats Together, where she shares meal plans and recipes that will please foodies and children alike. Nicole is also the creator of the new Little Froglet line of children's activewear.
Nicole's meal plan for this week Skirt Steak with Oregano Chimichurri and Corn-Cilantro Ragu; Corn Soup with Roasted Corn and Avocado Salsa; Spaghetti with Arugula, Ricotta Salata and a vine ripe roma tomato sauce; Quick and Easy Thai Beef Curry and Chicken and Apricots with a Cilantro-Peanut Sauce.
Ok, I admit this sounds complicated but it really isn’t. The key is a food processor. A blender would also work. This is a super quick and easy recipe with the WOW factor. My family couldn’t get enough of it and it tasted even better the next day.
Servings: 6
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients: for the skirt steak with oregano chimichurri sauce
In the late summer and fall we love to go apple picking at farms in Sonoma County. It's so much fun to choose and pick your own fruit, but sometimes you end up with more apples than you know what to do with. I've been trying to figure out different creative ways to use apples, since I hate to see any go to waste.
Fresh-baked apple walnut bread is delicious, easy to make and a great way to use up extra apples. It also makes the house smell amazing while it's baking. It's good as part of breakfast, as a snack, or even dessert. My kids love to get a slice in their lunchbox, too.
No matter how prepared for the school year you think you are, it can always be challenging to figure out what to pack for school lunches and snacks. Trying to balance healthy, nutritious food and things the kids will actually eat can be difficult, too.
Here are a few of my family's favorite lunchbox treats that are not only good for you, but delicious and fun to eat, too. The kids love to help make them—I find that they usually eat food they prepare themselves (even vegetables!), so I usually let them help out in the kitchen when I can, especially when we're making their school lunches.
Tortellini Skewers
My daughter absolutely loves cheese tortellini (and what kid doesn’t?) so we make these neat little skewers for a lunchtime treat.
You’ll need:
1 8-ounce package of fresh cheese-filled tortellini
1 8-ounce container small fresh mozzarella balls (ciliegine)
Marin Mommies presents this week's guest recipe from Nicole Cibellis, Marin mom and author of the blog A Family that Eats Together, where she shares meal plans and recipes that will please foodies and children alike. Nicole is also the creator of the new Little Froglet line of children's activewear.
Nicole's meal plan for this week features quick and easy shrimp and green bean stir fry, 3 cup chicken with garlic spinach, rocket pesto with linguni, chicken fried rice, and these flank steak pinwheels.
It seems like premade flank steak pinwheels are the rage at the grocery stores where I live. I have bought them and never really thought that they were all that good. In this recipe, I attempt to make them juicer and tastier than anything you buy pre-made. The result is a fantastic salty-sweet filling that my family gobbled up. My son especially loved the sauce to dip the steak in. I served it with Israeli couscous and an heirloom cherry tomato salad.
This puffed pancake or "Dutch baby" is a favorite breakfast treat in our house. During the summer we love to make this puffy, custardy pancake with fresh berries, like wild blackberries that we go out and pick ourselves. Blueberries and raspberries work great, too. We also make it with apples and other seasonal fruit at different times of year. The kids love to watch this pancake cook through the oven window, since the batter puffs up dramatically as it bakes.
It's actually quite easy to forget to put on your oven mitt when you're moving the hot pan in and out of the oven—I know this from painful experience—so always make sure you have one on you hand before you reach in to grab the skillet handle. Needless to say, this probably isn't a recipe for little ones to help with, but they can with measuring ingredients and mixing the batter.
Ingredients
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup fresh berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, or even a mix)
Today, August 10, is National S'mores Day. Honestly, I didn't even know this day existed, but what's there not to like about a day set aside to recognize the s'more, that sweet treat emblematic of summer cookouts and campfires. In case you don't know what a s'more is, it's a concoction consisting of a graham cracker topped with square of milk chocolate (Hershey's is traditional), then topped with a warm toasted marshmallow straight from the flames of the campfire, and then another graham cracker. "S'more" is a contraction of "some more," which is what everyone says after they finish their first one.
If you don't have a campfire or fire pit handy today, try making these amazingly delicious s'mores cookies. They incorporate all the ingredients of a s'more in an easy to make and eat cookie form, so you can enjoy the deliciousness of s'mores anytime without having to wait to go on a camping trip. My son said these were the best cookies he ever tasted, and I'm inclined to agree with him.
It's late summer, which means that delicious blackberries are now readily available at the farmer's market. Blackberries also grow wild throughout Marin, so they're free and plentiful if you know where to look (and don't mind the occasional jab from a blackberry thorn). The kids love to go pick blackberries at this time of year, which we usually end up eating out of hand. If we have enough left over, we try to make a blackberry dessert like this old-fashioned buttermilk skillet cake.
This cake is best made in an old-school cast iron skillet. If you don't have one, go get one—cast iron pans make everything you cook in them taste better, and they're virtually indestructable. You can cook with them at home, take them camping, and eventually pass them down to your grandkids! You'll find them at the hardware or sporting goods store for around $20 or so. They even come pre-seasoned, so you can use them right away.
I know some people who say that pizza is one of those dishes that's always better when you dine out. I respectfully disagree however. While that might be true for topping-laden old-school American pizza, we've been successfully making some pretty wonderful Italian-style pizzas right here at home. Unfortunately, we lack a wood-burning pizza oven in the backyard (someday…), but we get some good results in a regular home oven with a little preparation.
A few weeks ago, we had a fabulous time at the first-ever Farm-to-Table Dinner at Novato's 
Marin Mommies presents this week's guest recipe from Nicole Cibellis, Marin mom and author of the blog 
In the late summer and fall we love to go 
No matter how prepared for the school year you think you are, it can always be challenging to figure out what to pack for school lunches and snacks. Trying to balance healthy, nutritious food and things the kids will actually eat can be difficult, too.
Marin Mommies presents this week's guest recipe from Nicole Cibellis, Marin mom and author of the blog 
This puffed pancake or "Dutch baby" is a favorite breakfast treat in our house. During the summer we love to make this puffy, custardy pancake with fresh berries, like wild blackberries that we go out and pick ourselves. Blueberries and raspberries work great, too. We also make it with apples and other seasonal fruit at different times of year. The kids love to watch this pancake cook through the oven window, since the batter puffs up dramatically as it bakes.
Today, August 10, is National S'mores Day. Honestly, I didn't even know this day existed, but what's there not to like about a day set aside to recognize the s'more, that sweet treat emblematic of summer cookouts and campfires. In case you don't know what a s'more is, it's a concoction consisting of a graham cracker topped with square of milk chocolate (Hershey's is traditional), then topped with a warm toasted marshmallow straight from the flames of the campfire, and then another graham cracker. "S'more" is a contraction of "some more," which is what everyone says after they finish their first one.
It's late summer, which means that delicious blackberries are now readily available at the farmer's market. Blackberries also grow wild throughout Marin, so they're free and plentiful if you know where to look (and don't mind the occasional jab from a blackberry thorn). The kids love to go pick blackberries at this time of year, which we usually end up eating out of hand. If we have enough left over, we try to make a blackberry dessert like this old-fashioned buttermilk skillet cake.
