COVID19: We're Vaccinated!! Also: More Tasty Grub, Storage Container Follow-Up,

Jack and I got our first dose of the Moderna vaccine earlier this week (Tuesday), and even though we'll need a booster in 4 weeks then 2 more weeks of waiting for immunity to develop, we feel such relief that our every conversation circles back around to how good we feel to be underway with the vaccine series.

When I called Mom and Dad to tell them we'd gotten our shots, Mom answered and yelled, "HOORAY!" as soon as she heard.

We're all feeling relief about lots of things these days. Jack generally wakes up a bit before I do. He checks the news and gets caught up while I'm doing my yoga-sprawl and cat calisthenics, and it's wonderful to ask, "What's happening today?" and hear mostly things that make sense from the national headlines. 

Whew. Sigh. 

We've been thinking and talking a lot about the one year anniversary of the last time we did all kinds of different things, because those dates are hitting the calendar like bugs against the windshield on a foggy July evening. 

The last time we went to WalMart in person is a year ago this coming Saturday. The great hunkering-down was about to start. 

The last time I hugged Lucia and Beatrice was a year ago this past weekend, and that's a long time. Our visit, though, sustains me until we can again hug and waller-around slumber party style. 

I got fancy with a batch of pizza dough last weekend. Not really fancy. I added a tablespoon of olive oil to my typically lean (i.e. no fat) ingredients just to mix things up a little bit. We used to make pizza dough that way all the time - like, every single batch, but I switched to a no oil variety back in the spring after a conversation with my buddy, Matt, about different ways to make pizza. He uses a lean dough, and I gave it a whirl, we loved it, and that's where we've been for the last ten or so months. 

My most-used cookbook's recipe for pizza dough is very much like our old recipe with olive oil, and when we were jonesing for pizza over the weekend, I made that dough. It was fine and the pizza was delicious, but neither Jack nor I prefer it to pizzas with lean dough crust.  It baked-up crispy and beautiful, but the back-crust lacked the chewiness we normally have even with a thinner pie. It was delicious, a little bland - I didn't get enough salt in the dough - and something to make again for some other purpose.

After the first pizza - the recipe makes two pies - and our clear preference for lean dough pizza, I decided to use the other crust for pigs in blankets. 

We had four hot dogs on the verge of loitering in the deli drawer, so I wrapped them in half of the remaining dough. I stretched it into a rectangle then used the rolling pin to create a 4" x 12" strip of dough. Using a metal ruler as a straight-edge, I cut the dough into 4 1"-wide strips. Each strip was wrapped "tennis grip style" around a hot dog with the edges barely overlapping/touching. 

Once they were wrapped, I gave them a roll on the board to smooth the edges before moving them to a parchment-lined sheet tray to bake for 30 minutes at 450 degrees. Before sticking them into the oven, I brushed the tops of the blankets with egg yolk (1) and water (1 T) and sprinkled them with Maldon salt.

They were super-delicious and looked really cool, like little tennis racquet handles:

They were without a doubt the best-looking pigs in blankets we've ever had, and like I said, super-delicious, but the dogs, which plump when you cook'em, also shrink as they cool, so by the time we got into our second dog, we had to position a finger over the bottom hole to keep the pig inside the blanket.

Next WalMart order, I added Johnsonville Beef Brats, the pre-cooked ones that look like hot dogs, and they were exactly what we needed for the best pigs in blankets we've ever had. We'll be buying these again. We rarely eat hot dogs, but when we do, we want a good one, and this is our new favorite.

This one.

Question for the foodie philosophers: Is a pig in a blanket a pig in a blanket if it's actually a beef thing? I say, "Yes," but that's just me.

When I got our repeat pigs wrapped and rolled and ready to go, there was still a little wad of dough left, so I scratched around in the fridge and found a few brave spears of asparagus who volunteered for snack duty. A brushing of egg wash on the pastry dough, a sprinkle of Maldon on the pigs, a sprinkle of sesame seeds on the 'gus, and 35 minutes later, we had the cutest, tastiest little snack for supper. 

An egg yolk mixed with a splash of water makes them shiny and gold.

In follow-up to my storage dilemma, these airtight storage containers from Amazon are great. Mom got some back in the summer and has had nothing but good things to say about them, so I broke down and actually bought something new. I'd been using a combination of glass jars, and while there's lots to love about jars, they break. They don't stack. They're not as easy to clean. You can't scoop out of a jar. I fell immediately in love with the first set and have picked up another with different sizes containers. Find them here:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08LFWV8JW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

From the Fridge and Hissy Peas

I can't believe I'm showing a photo of the inside of our refrigerator, but here's the inside of our refrigerator. 

What better time to share than during the semi-quarantine of COVID19 to show how we're faring in our tiny kitchen with very limited trips to the grocery store and limited availability of some important things? 

Cold pasta in a big Ziploc bag is a great thing to have on-hand. A serving of that plus some pickled peas and onions with a serving of sesame peanut butter Asian dressing (in the jar with the red lid) is a delicious lunch.

Jack and I are both big fans of cold pickles, and we took advantage of dollar-a-pound asparagus and readily-available snap and snow peas to load up the fridge with enough "fresh" veggies to last for several weeks. 

The peas I do two ways - two quart jars of traditional cold pickles made with an easy brine of 2 cups water, 1 cup white vinegar, 2 tablespoons kosher or pickling salt, 2 teaspoons sugar, and 2 tablespoons spices - peppercorns, a bay leaf or two, a couple of dried Thai peppers, some dill seeds, some caraway seeds. The larger jar is a low-temp ferment and contains only peas, water, salt, and a handful of spices. They get tangy over time by the same process as a sauerkraut or kimchi ferment, just slowed way down in the refrigerator.

Over the weekend, Jack called to me from the kitchen to announce that my peas were "hissing."

They were. And they're delicious. If you've never eaten an effervescent sugar snap pea, you are missing out on something extra special. Here's a little video. Please pardon my narration. Next time I will leave it up to the professionals and keep my mouth shut. This is better than the video I am not letting you see in which I proclaim, "They're BUBBLIN'" 

I used the same brine recipe for the asparagus, because I'm not sure how well it would do with a ferment, and we love it so much pickled traditionally, there's no reason to start any funny business in the middle of this pandemic.