I had a look at the pizza personality survey Greg posted and when asked where I got my pizza they had no option for homemade. I guess not that many people make their own pizza and I have to wonder why, because homemade pizza puts the crap you buy at the chains to shame (exception noted for those of you who live in New York City...).

I make pizzas once a week, three at a time, three different kinds. Not only do you get dinner, but you've got snacks for days. Adolescents are always complaining that the pantry doesn't have Big Macs stacked up ready-to-eat, but pizza slices in the fridge are the next best thing, and a damn-sight healthier.

I've tried a variety of recipes for the crust and can recommend the following, which is more about technique than ingredients (all pizza dough is basically made of the same ingredients...).

Combine 3 tsp of yeast (or one packet), 1 tsp of sugar, a 1/4 c.hot tap water (about 110 degrees) in a bowl. If you have a good mixer (I own a Kitchenaid, the best mixer I've ever used...), combine these ingredients in the work bowl, stir well to dissolve and let sit 5-10 minutes to "proof".

When the mixture is foamy and the volume is about double, add a tbsp of olive oil 2 tsp salt and one cup of flour. The oil is largely functional, so it doesn't have to be a flavorful extra virgin, or even olive oil (Canola will do just fine). The flour is important, but all-purpose flour generally does the trick. The main thing is that you use a flour made from hard wheat with a high gluten content. Stir this until its a smooth paste.

Add more flour gradually until the mixture become dry enough to come off the sides of the bowl, usually 2 more cups (for 3 total). If the dough is still too wet, add another tbsp of flour.

You have to knead the dough to develop the gluten, and while you can do this by hand, I use the kneading hook with the Kitchenaid. I find ten minutes does the job.

Remove the dough and smooth into a ball. There is a specific method for doing this, but its hard to verbalize. It amounts to drawing the dough to a single spot on the underside to create a membrane. Its not terribly important, but helps for shaping the dough later. Place the dough in an oiled bowl and roll it around to coat it on all surfaces. Place a piece of plastic wrap over the dough ball so that it clings to the top half of the ball and then just press the edges to the sides of the bowl. This will prevent the dough from drying on the surface. Let the dough rise for 90 minutes or so.

When the dough has doubled in size, you can start making pizzas. The recipe is generally enough for three thin-crust pizzas, or two thick crust pizzas, according to your preference. Cut the dough in thirds or halves and roll into smaller dough balls. Place the balls you aren't using back into the oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap again to keep hydrated. Smash the ball with the palm of your hand to form a disk. At this point there are a number of ways to get a round flat bread. I just take the disk and start pulling and stretching along the perimeter, then lay it on the unfloured counter and pull the edge out a little and then "stick it" to the counter. When you are about half way, let the dough rest a bit to allow the elasticity to relax, then keep pulling the edge out until you are at the desired diameter. At this point, I transfer the dough to a edgeless cookie sheet (you can buy a "peel" for this, but they are pricey...) that has been sprayed with a little cooking spray and dusted with cornmeal.

Now that the dough is ready, time to build a pizza. The permutations are endless, but the classics are always good. I like to use Marinara sauce (I haven't been able to make one better than Newman's Own) and then layer pepperoni, red onion, Spanish olives, roasted sweet peppers slivers, mushrooms and mozzarella cheese.

Pizzas should be cooked at high heat. I have a dual oven where one of the ovens is rather shallow and perfect for making pizzas. Additionally, I use a ceramic sheet (a really big tile will do) as a crisper. It draws out the moisture from the bottom of the pizza giving it a nice crust. Preheat the oven as hot as it will go, usually 500 degrees. You can do this on a grill as well, which if you have a good one can get to 600-700 degrees quite easily. Place the cookie sheet right on top of the crisper and let cook for four minutes or so at which point the dough should have cooked enough to let you slide it off directly onto the crisping tile. Cook an additional 8 minutes or so.>/li>

Another one I like to make is a pesto pizza with shrimp. Pesto is easy to make, but you can buy it as well. Making it is better though because you are using fresh basil, or alternatively cilantro. Put a bunch of basil leaves into a food processor, add a handful of pine nuts, a quarter cup of shredded parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and some olive oil. Pulse a few times, adding olive oil until its a nice smooth paste. Grill about a half pound of uncooked shrimp, remove the shells and slice them lengthwise. Season with garlic salt, olive oil and lemon juice. Cover the pizza dough with the pesto and then distribute the shrimp evenly. Cook as described above.

Bon appetite.

It was my son's 18th birthday yesterday and we are celebrating today with some of his favorite foods. The lovely bunny woke up with a bit of an upset stomach, probably due to some questionable Mexican food she had for lunch yesterday. The upshot is that I was tasked with making my spouse's pasta salad specialty. Its so delicious that I am morally constrained to share it with you.

Lovely Bunny Mediterranean Pasta Salad

You'll need:

8 oz. rotini pasta (this is a spiral type of pasta with a lot of surface area to hold the marinade)

1 large sweet red pepper (Red is preferred because of the color, but orange or golden are fine as well. Green isn't sweet enough)

1 small can California black olives-sliced (perhaps half of a large can or to your preference)

1/2 c. red onion (chopped fine)

1 cucumber, peeled and chopped

1/4 c. fresh basil chopped or schippenade

4 oz. Feta cheese (may substitute Parmesan if unavailable)

Marinade ingredients:

1/2 c. olive oil

1/4 c. red wine vinegar

2 cloves garlic (pressed or finely chopped)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 fresh ground pepper

Boil the pasta in a 6 qt. dutch oven or other suitable vessel with a couple of tbsp of salt and a tbsp of vegetable oil (oil serves to keep the starch from foaming). Cook al dente, meaning that the pasta is tender but not too soft. The pasta should have a slight resistance when bitten through. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Place the pasta in a suitable large container with a sealable cover (Tupperware or equivilent)

Put the marinade together, mix vigorously and pour over the pasta. Close the cover on the container and do the rumba with it, thoroughly mixing the pasta and marinade. Set aside.

While the marinade and pasta are setting, chop finely the red onion (I slice the top off, and then score the face in a 1/8. in. checkerboard pattern about 3/8" in. deep and then slice--the cubes just fall away and no crying...). Chop the cucumber and red pepper in about 3/8 in. cubes. Slice the olives (or chop them if you prefer). Chop the Feta cheese to get a consistent crumble size. I recommend a schippenade for the fresh basil because I think it releases the leaf oils better. A schippenade is a technique where you stack basil leaves, roll them into a tube and slice thinly across the face, giving you very thing ribbons of basil leaf.

Open the container and dump everything in. Replace the cover and do the rumba again. Refrigerate an hour at least before serving. I find the seasoning is perfectly balanced as is, but you may want to add a little salt and pepper to taste before serving. The flavors and textures blend wonderfully and it stores well, so you can make a double batch and just keep it in the fridge for a ready-made antipasto or a simple lunch.

Enjoy.

Back in the eighties, it was bad to be a quiche-eater. Being secure in my manliness, I never paid much attention to the opprobrium heaped on consumers of egg pie. While in France during the late 1970s, I came to appreciate the essential yumminess of Quiche as well as the bewildering array of possible variations. We ate it a lot, and so did the French, because it was cheap and delicious.

Its not a lot of work to put one together, but you will need about 90 minutes to fully cook it. Its worth it though, because quiche can be put in the fridge and eaten the next day and the day after, warmed or cold--I make it on Sunday so I have a couple of meals during the week that I can simply go into the fridge and have something ready to eat

Quiche Lorraine isn't named after a housewife whose specialty it was, but the Lorraine region of France, which used to be the border area between France and Germany before the Alsace was awarded to France after the first world war. It features bacon or ham and Gruyère cheese. Gruyère is a Swiss cheese, not to be confused with "Swiss cheese" which is more properly called Emmental (the one with the big holes). Gruyère is a great cooking cheese that adds savory complexity to any dish. In the past, Its been difficult to find, but Costco seems to be carrying it with some regularity these days.

Its expensive, about 8-10 bucks for a block which will make two large 10" pies. Should you substitute something cheaper?

Nope.

In my view, if you can't use Gruyère, make something besides quiche because it just going to produce a disappointing result.

Pie Crust

1 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. butter flavored shortening
1/4 c. cold water

Mix the salt and flour and add shortening. Cut-in until you achieve a consistent texture, then add cold water all at once and stir a few strokes. Dump onto a floured surface and turn the dough over a couple of times until coated with flour. Roll out a little and continue flouring until the dough is large enough to cover a 10 in pie plate. Roll onto the pin and then onto the pie pan and adjust so it fills all the corners.

Poke the pie shell liberally with a fork and place in a preheated 450 degree oven for about five minutes or so to cook the shell so that it sets and browns very slightly.

Quiche Lorraine

1 - 10 in. pie shell, pre-cooked
4 strips of bacon fried by not crispy. Cut into lardons. Alternatively, about 4 oz chopped good quality ham (not water-added ham...)
4 eggs
2 c. half-and-half cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh-ground pepper
pinch nutmeg
4 oz finely shredded Gruyère cheese
4 oz sliced mushrooms (optional)

Over the bottom of the shell, distribute the bacon or ham evenly. Place mushrooms (if applicable) over the ham/bacon. Spread grated cheese evenly over the entire pie. Carefully pour in the egg mixture.

Place on cookie sheet to catch any spill, and put into a 375 degree oven for one hour, or until a knife inserted in the center of the pie comes out clean. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving.

UPDATE: Instapundit has an uncharacteristically long post on non-stick cookware. I really only use non-stick for omelets and other egg variations. Last year I bought an enameled cast-iron dutch oven made by Le Creuset in France and I find I use this pot for almost everything these days. I've seen some similar products for less money, but I can't vouch for their quality (and they don't come in the pretty orange color...)

Score one for big brother as the New York City board of health banned the use of trans fat in restaurants. The NYC health commissioner once referred to trans fats (margarine and shortening to us lay people), as “hazardous materials” that had no business in our food supply:

"We know trans fats increase the chance for heart attack, stroke and death, and they don't have to be there," Frieden said. The new rules are "going to make New Yorkers live longer and healthier lives."

Trans fats such as margarine were once thought to be healthier than butter, an animal fat, because the former contained no cholesterol. In fact the Mayo Clinic still says that’s usually the case. No word from New York about banning butter – yet.

Liberals will be the first to protest government intrusion in the bedroom but they have no problem with it in the kitchen.

I never had a fish taco until a few years ago, and I expect that's probably true for most Americans. What used to be a local delicacy in baja California has migrated throughout the southwest and now you can find it on the menu at even bastardized Mexican fast-food joints like Dell-Taco. Still, most Americans probably have never had a fish taco.

That reminds me of a guy I met in Europe back in the late 1970s. He was from Idaho and he had never had rice before. I think you can probably buy rice in Idaho, but if you were raised on spuds, and not culinarily adventurous, you might never bother.

OK, now you're laughing, but how are you any different if you don't try some fish tacos?

You can use just about any kind of fish, and its generally the type of fish that dictates the variations. Catfish is widely available thanks to aquaculture and refrigerated transport; and its a particularly good choice for fish tacos because of its firmer texture and mild taste. That means it takes a marinade or a spice rub very well.

I use a quick marinade of lime and jalapeño--good flavor but not too spicy. The comes the traditional elements of white corn tortillas, shredded cabbage a lime wedge for some extra zest. A lot of tacos I've had are garnished with a kind of kicked-up ranch dressing, which amounts to blending in a jalapeño into some Hidden Valley Ranch. I'm on a diet though--trying to reverse some weight-gain after an injury this past summer, so I use a pico de gallo garish which diet or not, is an improvement and a sight healthier.

Fish tacos are very quick, although I generally like to make the lime-jalapeño marinade a few hours before hand to let the flavors blend. I'd say 30 minutes in prep time, 45 minutes total.

I got tired of having to write-out recipes on a 4x5 index card everytime someone asked me for a recipe, so I have an Adobe In-Design template I've created, that I simply print or convert to pdf. Its also proving to be a good system for passing on "family recipes". You can download the pdf from here, print it and use a glue stick to affix it to a 4 x 6 card for your own recipe box.

Tara Reid "socializing". Well at least she's not driving...-->

Glenn Reynolds agrees with James Lileks on the following:

It’s the birthday of Rudy “Rudolph” Perpich, governor of Minnesota. Among his notable accomplishments: he sent the National Guard to calm down the bitter Spam Strike of 1986, and he signed the law that bumped the drinking age up to 21. It’s a cliché, yes, but it’s still a reasonable argument: if the state will trust you to herd strikers with a rifle when you’re 18, why won’t they trust you with a beer?

I never liked this old chestnut much. Unlike the two authors in question, I have children in this age range. All I can say is that the idiocy of adolescence does not magically disappear at 18, 21 or even 25 years of age.

18 year old soldiers aren't sent autonomously with their weapons to the picket line either--they are under the command of men generally in their thirties, when a little wisdom has finally penetrated the gray matter and the more impetuous impulses have moderated.

Having said that, I don't think the modern extended adolescence and all its attendant foolishness is uniquely a good reason to keep alcohol out of the hands of these morons (said affectionately kids...I was once a moron too...). The underlying problem is that Americans largely don't know how to drink. They don't appreciate the savor of good beer or wine, or even spirits. Small wonder really--most of them think corn dogs are a taste sensation.

No, the drinking culture is about getting drunk.

My European second cousins are in their early twenties and have been drinking moderately since they were twelve or so. Aside from drinking with friends to engender a little gemutlichkeit, alcohol is a compliment for good food. Their experience stands in stark contrast with what I witnessed as youth--my friends passed out in their own vomit or so gone that they only way you could enjoy their company is if you were similarly wasted.

Surprisingly to some, my experience made me a teetotaler, although I do cook with wine and enjoy a nice, non-alcoholic beer (which doesn't seem to exist in this country...). Why not just indulge moderately? Well, there just doesn't seem to be a moderate setting on North American drinking culture with rare exceptions. Twenty minutes into any social occasion, everyone is three sheets to the wind and there is an extraordinary temptation to follow along.

Something about inebriation just takes the social out of social drinking.

Increasingly, I'm meeting more and more people who share my views and don't have a religious proscription motivating their abstinence.

You mix this country's drinking culture with the immaturity of extended adolescence, and you get a volatile mix that produces DUIs and dead people. If you could change the drinking culture, you wouldn't need a legal drinking age, or at least not a very high one. Failing that, a legislator's responsibility would seem to leave little choice but to postpone the party until an adult sensibility has more fully set in.

Glenn Reynold's recent inquiry about the best kind of kitchen knives to buy brought him a flurry of replies and opinions. Cooking has as many gearheads as cycling or backpacking and many a kitchen that rarely sees anything more complicated than frozen waffles, nevertheless is equipped with premium appliances and kitchen tools.

My father was a fanatic about knives, having made many himself. I inherited from him the expectation that any knife in my kitchen would be razor sharp at all times. He taught me how to sharpen and hone--an apparently rare skill these days judging by how often I'm asked how I get my knives so sharp. Actually, these days I rare sharpen a knife at all since purchasing a diamond hone. This is actually a sharpening steel empregnated with find diamond dust. Sharpening steel is just supposed to dress the edge, but the diamonds take off a little metal, doing a little sharpening at the same time. I've been using one for several years now with excellent results, however it bears mentioning a caveat: you have to know how to hone a knife in the first place to get consistently good results.

A good knife is a sharp one obviously, but its also one that feels comfortable. This means that you can safely ignore the brand. In fact, my favorite knives were all quite inexpensive.

Recently, I purchased a set of three Santoku knives at Costco for the princely sum of fifty bucks. Its actually pretty easy to spend that for a single knife. The brand was NapaStyle, which is Michael Chiarello's company, and which means that the knives were made in China--not Germany or Switzerland.

A Santoku knife has a wide blade all the way to the point, which looks like whale nose. It often has scallops above and along the edge that reduce the surface area of the knife and make it easier for slices to cleave off the knife. Mine have rubberized handles that make for a secure and comfortable grip. The 10 in. unit is my favorite of all time. I've got other knifes, but other than my boning knife, its my go-to knife 99% of the time.

The boning knife was given to me twenty years ago and is in fact a knife sold to meat packers. It was given to me as a gift after I was seen to be admiring it. A boning knife is actually a far more complicated piece of knife technology as it has a relative thin blade that must be strong but yet retain some flexibility. I've never heard of the manufacturer and neither have you, which disabused me of the idea that only certain major manufacturers could produce a quality knife.

The way you determine the quality of a knife is its design. Good knives are almost always forged (as opposed to stamped) which you can generally tell by the fact that they are tapered all the way from the spine to the cutting edge and have a full "tang", which refers to the part of the knife that attached to the handle. Many manufacturers will expose the edge of the tang all the way around a handle which makes it easy to confirm you have a full tang knife. Ultimately though, these features contribute to the user experience, which is the final arbiter of whether its a good knife or not. A full tang and a fully beveled blade create balance, which makes the knife easier and safer to use. Since forging is a comparatively expensive process, its also good assurance that you have fine steel to work with--no one is going to go to the trouble of forging inexpensive steel.

Starting with a good knife is important, but it will only stay a good knife if you take care of it, which means washing by hand, keeping it clean and honing before every use. There is simply no reason that a good knife won't outlast you and possibly your grandchildren.

My Santoku knives came with blade sheaths which means I can keep them in the drawer without worrying about damaging the edges. I looked for a set recently as a prospective wedding present, but they were out. Hopefully they'll show up in the inventory again.

I have a modest reputation for cooking prowess among my family and friends and this time of year I predictably get a few phone calls asking me about possible gifts of kitchenware.

In my case, I bought my newly-married son and his wife a Kitchenaid Artisan mixer which I got for a steal on black Friday by getting up at 3:30 AM and traipsing down to the local Kohls. Its a no-brainer because there are really no serious alternatives when it comes to mixers. The thing is built to take abuse and has all sorts of useful attachments as well. I've had mine almost 20 years.

Dutch ovens are a bit trickier. You can spend a couple of hundred dollars on Le Creuset enameled cast iron, or fifty bucks for similar product from Lodge. Is Le Creuset worth the extra money? I have three dutch ovens of various sizes and three different manufacturers. Practically, you only need one, but I got the Le Creuset as a gift, bought a Chinese-made no-name three quart, and then a Lodge 5 quart to replace it.

The enamel of the Chinese kit started flaking after I uh, burned the pot on the gasgrill, which is a no-no for any make and so its probably a fine dutch oven otherwise. The Lodge is my favorite because its so big but in terms of performance, they have all been exactly the same.

An enameled, cast-iron dutch oven is great because of its very even heat distribution and the fact that you can move it from the stove top to the oven and back.

I conclude that you should save the money unless you absolutely have to have a tangerine-colored pot, or your neighbors will think less of you for not having brand name kitchenware. I prefer to focus on the food.

The NIH has release a study that compared the dietary habits of people with and without chronic kidney disease and discovered that drinking two or more colas daily, diet or regular, increases risk two-fold.

The authors of the study say more research is needed, but their findings support the long-held notion that something about cola — the phosphoric acid, for example, or the ability of cola to pull calcium from bones — seems to increase the risk of kidney stones, renal failure and other conditions affecting the kidneys.

I don't smoke, I don't drink, I eat red meat very seldom, I exercise, I brush, floss and see my dentist every six months, I get a colonoscopy every five years. I eat my vegetables.

I'm going to keep on drinking a couple of Coke Zeros every day and hope my kidneys can handle it.

Well, yeah, he's married to Mary Matalin so he's interesting that way, but he weighs in on the NY Times' artful you are what you eat story, (mentioning for the first time the issue of cost as well--OK, Mark Penn did but as he just got fired by Hillary I guess he's more sensitive to this now.):

Although he believes the cost of food is a fast-rising issue among voters, knowing what they eat doesn’t win elections.

“Suppose I found out people who drink cappuccinos are Democrats and black coffee drinkers are likely to vote Republican?” he asked. “So what? All kinds of other things are more predictive and less expensive to find out.”

Miracle fruit parties on the rooftops. It makes things sweet. NY Times, slightly tongue in cheek:

He believes that the best way to encounter the fruit is in a group. “You need other people to benchmark the experience,” he said. At his first party, a small gathering at his apartment in January, guests murmured with delight as they tasted citrus wedges and goat cheese. Then things got trippy.

“You kept hearing ‘oh, oh, oh,’ ” he said, and then the guests became “literally like wild animals, tearing apart everything on the table.”

“It was like no holds barred in terms of what people would try to eat, so they opened my fridge and started downing Tabasco and maple syrup,” he said.

Many of the guests last week found the party through a posting at www.tThrillist.com. Mr. Aliquo sent invitations to a list of contacts he has been gathering since he and a friend began organizing StreetWars, a popular urban assassination game using water guns.

One woman wanted to see Mr. Aliquo eat a berry before she tried one. “What, you don’t trust me?” he said.

She replied, “Well, I just met you.”

Another guest said, “But you met him on the Internet, so it’s safe.”