Casual Sunday Supper

Life can get pretty hectic and finding time for Mr. Ramon and I can be a struggle. With this lovely summer weather and late night sunsets I want to cook and eat outside every night. This Sunday we had the opportunity to cook and eat together at a reasonable hour of the day - a rare treat. 

Being excited about the new potatoes we harvested I immediately thought of a rustic potato pizza as the main course. I had eaten one at a local pizzeria that is forever burned in my mind. We built the rest of our simple meal around the idea of pizza. 

We needed something to munch on while we prepared and cooked. Mr. Ramon loves an appetizer. Fresh, warm, crispy baguette, double cream gouda and some spicy salumi. How does it get better than that? Wine - yup that makes it better! 

Mr. Ramon picked some lettuce from the garden and added some pretty cherry tomatoes for a simple salad dressed in champagne vinaigrette. 

I have to admit I cheat once in awhile when making pizza. Trader Joes makes a really great freash pizza dough. They even have a whole wheat version for those of you trying to make pizza actually healthy. I go for the original but today had to settle for the garlic and herb version. It makes putting a pizza together so easy. 

When it comes to kitchen gadgets and tools I have to really be sold on them. I try to have tools etc. that do more than one job. Earn their keep so to speak. One of the first wedding gifts we received was a pizza stone. We started making pizza every Sunday and that stone blew my mind. Not to fret if you don't have one. You can make pizza on a large cookie sheet if need be. 

Potato Pizza 

Makes 1 12 inch pizza

• 1 portion/recipe of fresh pizza dough. 
• 3 small thin skinned potatoes (2 cups sliced) - Yukon Gold are a good choice if you do not have your own potatoes
• 1/2 sweet onion sliced very thin
• olive oil
• 1/2 cup goat cheese crumbles
• 1 cup grated mozzarella
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
• salt/pepper

Prepare your potatoes the following way. 

• Rinse thoroughly
• Slice very thin - think kettle potato chip here using a knife or mandolin
• Place in a bowl of ice water and let soak for 10 minutes - change water twice rinsing potatoes between each soak. This will remove much of the starch and prevent them turning brown
• Drain in a colander and toss with 1 teaspoon of salt and let them continue to drain for 10 minutes 
• Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil over them and a healthy dose of black pepper and toss to coat. 

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees - place your pizza stone in the oven on the middle rack if using to preheat. 

Put a large piece of parchment onto a cutting board or a pizza peel if you are using a stone. If you are using a baking sheet place your parchment on it. Lightly flour the parchment. Place your dough in the center and start working it outwards to create uniform thickness and a shape that fits your stone or pan. We went for square. 

Sprinkle the mozzarella across the dough then layer the potatoes across the cheese evenly and overlapping a little if needed. Don't feel the need to use all the potatoes. If you have extra that is ok. Top with goat cheese, onions and rosemary. 

Slide onto pizza stone or place baking sheet in the oven. Bake until the edges are brown and crispy looking about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and  let sit for a few minutes then cut and serve. I also like potato pizza cool and leftovers for breakfast with a soft egg on top. 

1 Potato 2 Potato

Growing up in Oregon everyone had a garden. My best friend Marcia's family had a big garden that we took the liberty of playing in and eating from. I loved carrots fresh from the garden all warm and still a little dirty. They were so sweet and earthy. But one of my favorite things fresh from the garden is tiny potatoes. Thin skinned and crisp. I can just brush the dirt off them and eat them out of my hand. Of course I also can think of 100 other ways to prepare them. 

This year Mr. Ramon and I have our first garden together. I have not grown potatoes since I was a girl and I didn't do any of the planting - mostly the eating. So together we picked out two types to grow. A small white potato and a small red potato. We decided to go with the method that seemed the easiest - potato bags. 

Potato Bags are nylon pots that you plant your potatoes in then add dirt continually as they grow until the dirt is to the top. They have handy little openings on the sides so you can harvest potatoes when they are young. We did not know a lot about growing potatoes so the employee at Sky Nursery told us to just us regular soil and not to feed them. Sounds about right if you think about where potatoes flourish - Idaho and Ireland. Lots of dirt. We were excited to see them grow big and bushy. 

All of a sudden while Mr. Ramon was out of town one of our plants started to go yellow. I remembered that they were supposed to flower at some point and they had not yet. This could not be good. I was worried and scoured the internet for potato plant disease. I was sure we had failed in some capacity. To much rain, not enough sun......

Well Mr. Ramon came home and I showed him our plant. He quickly said "maybe we have some potatoes?" He shoved his hand into the side pocket, dug around a bit and pulled out a small white potato. 

I was so excited!! We have potatoes - we may not have many and I am still unsure of what happened to our plant but we harvested what we had.

We took this little guy inside and washed him off. I then sliced him and sprinkled him with salt. I was in heaven. Crunchy and starchy. So tasty. 

So now we put these new potatoes to use - smashed, roasted, potato salad. Looks like there will be potato recipes coming your way!