Dirt Therapy

  These turned out to be pretty good. This is a recipe from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. I do not see the recipe on their website but I found it here . They were very easy to make with just a minimal chilling period (30 minutes!). I made them in place of dinner rolls and would do so again. The King Arthur book has another recipe, similar with the exception of chives and cream cheese. I'm going to try it next. Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

  We are having a string of warmer and dry days this week. Just in time for a new deck (more on that later). I did a walk-about yesterday and noticed several blooms - Arctostaphylos ' Sunset' (Manzanita) Galanthus nivalis (Snowdrops)   Hellebore 'Merlin' And something not so pleasing - I discovered a birdhouse that was just put up last fall now looks like this! - This has happened before so I wasn't completely surprised. I posted this photo to a local birding group and got a multitude of answers but most of them stated that it is likely a squirrel. That makes sense as we have a lot of them. Flickers and woodpeckers was also a common answer. That would be a possibility but I only see flickers and woodpeckers at our feeders periodically so I don't know. I was advised to attach a metal ring around the hole.   Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

  Another recipe - I'm not sure where this recipe came from but it has become one of our favorites. This is surprising because I don't really like pasta or tomatoes. However, we use angel hair pasta which doesn't bother me too much (I take small portions). As for tomatoes, roasting them is  my favorite way to eat them. This is a very satisfying meal with bread and a salad. A summer recipe no doubt, but really good in the middle of winter too. 2 lbs. grape or plum tomatoes, halved lenghtwise 1/2 cup olive oil 1 clove garlic, minced 1 TBS. Italian dressing 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper (or more if you like it spicy) 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper 8 oz. pasta (Angel hair or any kind you prefer) Parmesan cheese Preheat the oven to 400. Place the tomatoes, cut side up, on a foil-lined 15 x 10 x 1" pan sprayed with cooking spray or rubbed with olive oil. Whisk together the olive oil (reserving 2 tablespoons), garlic and seasonings. Spoon over the tomatoes.   Roast in the oven f...

  We've had a lot of rain lately which means I've been in the kitchen a lot. I've been experimenting with pizza recipes and we've found one that we really like. This is from America's Test Kitchen (they have a video on YouTube demonstrating how to do it).  It is compared to the Pizza Hut pan pizza. The first time I made it, I used a regular sized cast iron pan and it was thick and tasted good. We like our pizza thin, however, and found a larger sized pan that is actually called a pizza pan. In this pan, the pizza is thin and just the way we like it. It is delicous! Cast Iron Pizza 11 oz. bread flour 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. instant or rapid rise yeast 8 oz. water (105-100 degrees) Whisk together the flour, salt and yeast. Add the water and mix until the dough just comes together. Knead in the bowl for a minute and form a ball.  Place the dough in a pie pan (or similar) and spread it out into a 7 inch circle. Spray the top of the dough with oil spray. Cover with plastic w...