Tasty Taffy Tuesday

Hancock Knows Good Pizza

After a short (three month) hiatus, I feel that it's time for another Friday pizza post.  Yes, that's right - this is Foodie Friday.

Now in a head-to-head battle, Hancock deep dish is pitted against that claim to fame of Chicago.  We'll let the pictures do the telling.

We have a ham & green olive and a cheeeese pizza each with its gloriously golden crust and totally tomato top.

Chicago knows good pizza

Last Sunday, in between wooing Hazel with his mad accordian skills and making viral videos, Daniel requested deep dish pizza for lunch. I got ambitious and thought "Ha! What do all these established, time-honored pizza restaurants have that I don't? I'm going to make it myself!" Several cups of cheese later:

Even my cheesy smile can't detract from this deep dish pizza.

Temptingly cheesy

I was pretty happy with how it turned out. The tomato sauce was on the sweeter side which I really like, and it wasn't too hard to put together. Daniel rolled out the crusts (one larger one for the bottom and sides, and a smaller one that fit on top right under the sauce), and David chopped and placed all the ingredients. I've been trying to come up with any excuse I can to make this again...so right now would be a good time for a visit. :) 

Submersing Food in Hot Liquids/Semi-Solids

I realize this is a little unusual for a Butchers's blog post, because it's only partly about food, and the food pictures aren't all that great. A week ago I hosted a fondue party for some friends from my "long-ago" Milkweed days, and thought some of you might appreciate seeing the photos.

The table set, before we destroyed all the wonderful food.

It was my first time having fondue, and I have to recommend it for any of you who've never tried it. There was a lot of prep-work, but all that prep makes the dining part of the meal go quickly. We prepared a coq au vin broth for vegetables, a traditional cheese fondue, oil for meats, and chocolate for the final dessert round.

(from l to r): Kate, Dan, Jen, me, Maryhope, & Ethan.

And here's the happy crew, after we've decimated most of the food. Of the people here, my ex-Milkweed colleagues are Kate, Jen, and Ethan.

Chicken & waffles

It seems only fitting that we usher in 2012 with some chicken & waffles (with a gravy of heavy cream & Dijon). After last night's dinner of fried livers & gizzards, I think it's safe to say this will be a year of greasy eating.

I Can Can

This year we did a little more unusual canning than usual. We often make some jam or apple butter, but this year we were just trying to preserve the harvest without too much fuss.

While much of the harvest ended up in the freezer, a few things found their way into jars and hopped into the canner while we weren't watching.

Above, French Onion Soup. We used six pounds of yellow and white onions from our garden and simmered them in a homemade beef stock with some dried herbs vaguely resembling a bouquet garni.

Sideways sliced dill pickles from the last cucumbers of the year. These pickling cucumbers were a bit overgrown (think two pound torpedoes), but they sliced up fine.

The long-sliced dills are identical except for shape. In the past we've made bread and butter pickles but we really like dills. These are sort of a mix between the two. The kids love them and I think they're pretty good.

What canning blog post would be complete without dilly beans? Sorry, Ben - no hot pepper variety this time.







Beets made for beautiful canning creations. We topped the beets and sautéed some of the greens. I think I was the only fan of the greens - we'll see if the kids go for the beets.
































The Mehu Maija rests after steaming apples for juice and apple puree.

Name That Dish

See if you can come up with the most delicious name for this dish. You may want to spin it like you're trying to sell something in one of those gourmet holiday catalogs.


Have fun with it and when the comments are in, I'll let you know exactly what it is.