girls weekend on Martha's Vineyard

It was quick, but it was wonderful. We gathered 'up island' at my friend Hannah's family house in Chilmark and settled in for a restorative weekend of beach walks, porch chats and delicious meals. Once upon a time in college (it really was like a fairy tale) we used to see each other all the time - in class and out of class - but now we only see each other sporadically, a few times a year and only ever for a weekend at most. It's always hard to gather the whole group, and we weren't even able to do it this time, but next summer we want to plan a week long getaway! These little scattered reunions are just holding us over until we start our commune, a dream that we've been thinking about ever since we had to part ways at graduation. We're not sure where the commune will be but we talk about it frequently and consider it advantageous to communal living that we are all pursuing different careers: there are two doctors (essential), one lawyer, one architect (me!), a professional chef, a lover of the land, and a few business-marketing-entreprenuerial experts who will be essential in helping us make the commune profitable. Now all we need is some land and agreeable spouses and we're ready to go! Until then, just wonderful weekend getaways to keep us together...Martha's Vineyard is an island, a fact that makes it nice to be there but frustrating to get too. Poor Hannah, our host, was supposed to leave on Friday afternoon, but her flight was cancelled due to rain and fog, stranding her in New York City until Saturday morning. The four of us who did make it on Friday traveled by ferry, a safer, but slower way to get there. I took the fast ferry from New York City with Kerry. By fast they mean five hours. I kept joking that we could have had the reunion in Iceland for the same amount of travel time. Thankfully Kerry packed dramamine for the ride since we certainly didn't want to contribute to the 'vomit comet' nickname of the ferry.

Before picking Hannah up at the airport Saturday (where we spotted Chelsea Clinton and her hubby) we had a peaceful morning and a delicious breakfast of chocolate chip sourdough bread with strawberries.
That's Rosie Marie, a shelter dog that Hannah's family adopted last summer. Isn't she cute? It's almost as if she's talking to you with her ears.

Farmer's markets and farm stands are scattered all over Chilmark, making it easy and enjoyable to eat local while on vacation. Some think of vacation as a time to get out of the kitchen and into restaurants, but there aren't many restaurants in Chilmark and the produce is so fresh that it's nicer to cook simple farm-to-table meals at home. Kerry bought a bunch of kale at the farmer's market and introduced us to her favorite summer snack - kale chips.

We bought sword fish at the local fish market. It's probably not local fish, but it still felt good to support a local market.

Aside from the beach walk, dinner was really the main event of the trip. It was fun to gather together in the kitchen and prep the meal and then gather on the porch for a cocktail while we waited for the swordfish to cook. True to fresh summer ingredients, the meal was quick and easy to prepare while we chatted about anything and everything. There was steamed squash, a leafy salad, caramelized onions from the grill, pasta with pesto, freshly baked bread and soy glazed swordfish. To top it all off we had a blueberry crumble. It was heaven, but even better than the meal was spending an evening with some of my favorite people. I'm often lonely in Zürich, but I never forget what amazing, wonderful friends I have. Now if I could only get them to move to Zürich...
In all honesty I would have been happy sitting on the porch all weekend. The view over the pond to the ocean is so peaceful and soothing and there are so many different little groups of chairs to sit in that I think I would have been content for a few days. Fortunately there was a push to go to the beach because it was incredibly pleasant and breezy there as well. The best part about going to the beach is the little canoe ride over the pond.
Here are the girls - Hannah, Katie, Kerry and Crem. Crem's a little fuzzy standing there in the background, but I still love the photo. It was such an amazing dinner, one of those dinners you just don't want to end. That is where the commune comes in...dinners that don't end, but are simply paused until the next night.

fig and caramelized onion pizza

Have you ever bought a fig? Not a dried one or one wrapped in a Newton, but a juicy, plump one? Yeah, I hadn't either, hadn't even considered it until last week when I was at the farmer's market buying peaches for the cobbler and came across a little plastic container full of figs. I had to have them. After all they were less than half the price of most other vendors. Those purple-green, teardrop shaped fruits desperately needed a home, but what on earth was I going to do with them?

Let's see...first I considered a honey-fig tart, but after all of those pies and cakes last week for the 4th of July I couldn't really justify it. I needed to try something new and unexpected. I thought about wrapping them in prosciutto and grilling them, but we don't have a grill quite yet. I also thought about stuffing them with goat cheese and baking them in sea of honey. That sounded good, but something was missing. I realized, perhaps in thinking about the Newton part of a Fig Newton, that what was missing was bread. Bread cures most things it seems.

I really wanted to layer the figs and bread with other delicious ingredients, including goat cheese, caramelized onions, honey, a bit of jam and some parmesan cheese, and a pizza was the perfect answer. Still there was something missing. I don't know how I thought of it, perhaps through association figs make me think of fig leaves which in turn make me think of modesty and mostly nude statues, but I realized that the pizza needed a topping of leafy arugula. After all, we don't want those figs just sitting there, unadorned and naked for the world to see! The result was a delicious sweet and savory pizza, perfect for a summer evening.

Before I dive into that sea of honey and it's accompanying summer evening I wanted to note that this is the second installment of Recipe of the Week on My Girlfriend's Guide to Zürich. I'm excited to be teaming up with Deja and Angelica and their every growing, activity-filled, site.

Two pizza posts, back to back - a bookend to a wonderful weekend on Martha's Vineyard.! I'd love to say that this pizza is as delectable as the Grimaldi's pies that we scarfed down on Thursday, but I have to admit that even the hausfrau could never imagine making a pie that good. There are some things we just need to let go of, and besides I'm happy with my sweet-savory, healthy, at home pizza. I'll leave the expected to Grimaldi's and I'll take over the eccentric pies and toppings.
Making your own pizza dough has to be one of the easier and more satisfying kitchen feats. I think yeast tends to scare people off, but if you follow the directions and have bubbles then you are good to go. The dough also freezes really well so there is no pressure to use all four doughs in one sitting.
I love when we are sitting at our table and we can see our neighbors across the street sitting and eating on their terraces. It's as though we've devised a new type of dinner party, one held among strangers, where you don't actually sit next to each other or talk, but are just there.

I used goat cheese on this pizza because it just felt right, but I really do think any cheese would work. Zach and I aren't stinky cheese fans, but I bet a blue cheese or gorgonzola would be good. A basic mozzarella with some shaved parmesan would also be wonderfully simple and delicious.

Dough recipe - enough for four 10" pizzas

- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

- 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

- 2 teaspoons kosher salt

- 1 2/3 cup lukewarm water

- 2 teaspoons of sugar

- 2 teaspoons of active dry yeast

- 2 teaspoons of olive oil.

Fig-caramelized pizza toppings

- 4-5 figs, sliced into 1/4"discs

- 6 medium yellow onions

- 6 tablespoons of olive oil

- 1 tablespoon of butter

- 3 tablespoons of honey

- 3 tablespoons of apricot or fig jam (not a must)

- goat cheese or cheese of choice

- 2 handfuls of arugula

- shaved parmesan - to taste.

Start making the dough 2 hours before you want to make your pizza. Mix the flours and salt together in the bowl of a standing mixer. In a smaller bowl add the lukewarm water, yeast and sugar and allow to sit for about 5 minutes or until little bubbles start to form on the top of the liquid. Once the bubbles/foam has formed, add the olive oil to the yeast-water mixture and stir. Fit your mixer with a dough hook (or mix by hand) turn on to low and slowly add the yeast mixture to the flour. Knead until the dough is firm and smooth and easily releases from the bottom of the bowl as it mixes. Divide the dough into 4 balls and lightly rub them with olive oil before placing them on a sheet of parchment paper. Cover them with saran wrap and let them sit for about 2 hours or until they have roughly doubled in size. After the rise, place the dough you won't be using the same day in a plastic bag and into the freezer, where it will keep until the next time you want to make pizza.

When the dough still has about 30 minutes to rise you can start on the caramelized onions. Cut 5-6 medium onions into fairly large rings. The onions will shrink immensely and burn if they are too small so be sure to err on the larger side. Add about 1 tablespoon of oil per onion to a hot skillet. Add 1 tablespoon of butter (in total, not for each onion) and the onions and cook over medium-low heat until the onions have softened, turned light brown and caramelized, about 20-30 minutes. To prevent burning, stir occasionally and cover the skillet half way with a top. Remove the onions from the pan and set aside in a small dish.

When you are ready to make the pizza, grab one of the dough balls, lightly flour your work surface and begin to stretch the dough out with your fingers. Once the dough has flattened you can use your rolling pin to roll it out until it's very thin - about 10" in diameter.

Preheat the oven to 500F (260C). Place the rolled out dough on a greased baking sheet. Begin to top the pizza by spreading the honey and jam onto the dough. Follow the honey with the goat cheese and then the sliced figs. A lot of pizza making is about personal taste, so go with amounts that you think look good. After the figs add your caramelized onions. Place the baking sheet in the heated oven, keeping an eye on it. It should be ready after about 10-13 minutes, or when the crust has lightly browned. Remove from the oven, top with the arugula and shaved parmesan and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cut and serve!

Don't you love these house that are covered in ivy? I thought these photos, long awaiting a blog debut, were the perfect pairing for this fig pizza that I topped with arugula.
The arugula and parmesan turn a sweet pizza into a sweet AND savory pizza. Mmmm.

Wow' it's hard to write about these meals when I haven't even had breakfast yet. Now I want to make a breakfast pizza. Just imagine it...eggs and sausage and cheddar cheese! And I think I'd add caramelized onions to that. If only I was in Zürich I'd whip out one of those dough balls from the freezer and make it.

I had a wonderful and restorative weekend on Martha's Vineyard with some of my dearest friends. We've decided that next time we need to go for a week because two nights and one full day is just simply not enough time. OKay off to look at pictures from the weekend over a sad bowl of yogurt and fruit. Hmph.

Happy Monday!

Grimaldi's pizza

I'm a traitor. I might never be allowed back in New Haven. Ever. For the last ten years, since I started my freshman year at Yale, the debate has always been Pepe's or Sally's. If you aren't a New Havenite or from New England then you might not know that this is a question, a serious one, about pizza. One of New Haven's claims to fame, aside from being the forth most dangerous city in the US (eek), is that pizza was invented there, right down in Wooster Square. Before Zach and I moved to Zürich we lived at 23 Court Street, right next to Wooster Square Park and right around the corner from both Pepe's and Sally's, which are only a block away from each other on Wooster Street. I think we got take out pizza, veggie special, from Pepe's at least twice a week, and probably three or four times in the summer. In truth, neither of us have been to Sally's. We picked our allegiance early and stuck with it. In my mind Pepe's is the best pizza on the planet. Or at least that is how I felt until last night, when I ate Grimaldi's pizza. It was not only the best pizza I've ever had, but probably the best thing I have ever eaten. I think it was all in the dough...or it could have been the sliced instead of shredded mozzarella cheese. Either way, it was heaven.

I went to Grimaldi's with some family...well they aren't really family, but Pete's best friend since forever, Mac is virtually family and we like to joke that our mom and mac's mom talk to each other so much that they probably talk to each other in their sleep. It's Mac's birthday on Saturday so he planned a little bday excursion across the Brooklyn Bridge. I'd never walked across the bridge before to Grimaldi's, it was a great summer activity. There was a long line, but Mac bought some drinks and it gave us some time to work up at serious appetite. We ordered four large pizzas for seven people and we ate all of them. Every single last bite.

We probably waited in the line for about an hour, which wasn't so bad in my mind. I've waited in the Pepe's line for just as long. This is pete giving directions. It might not seem funny, unless you know Pete. Let me spell it out for you - upper east side Pete is giving directions in Brooklyn. He was very proud of himself. He dressed as hipster as he could, which meant he left his blue blazer and loafers at home, untucked his starched white button down, pulled on his dark jeans and wore sneakers. Perhaps there is a little hipster buried in him somewhere, deep deep down, but I don't think he'll be calling Brooklyn home anytime time soon. Oh Pete, too funny.
We ordered four pizzas: 1 pepperoni, 1 ricotta - sun dried tomatoes-basil, 1 meat lovers and 1 plain cheese. I could only manage two slices, but somehow all four pizzas disappeared. Pete did a quick calculation of how many pieces he had eaten and it came out to one whole pie. Oh dear. He had a couple 'moments' on the walk back over the Brooklyn Bridge. The pepperoni was my favorite. Delicious! So yes if you haven't tried Grimaldi's yet, go on a week night when the weather is nice so you won't mind waiting in the line. Happy Bday Mac!

Speaking of celebrations...This Saturday is the 9th, which means we were married three months ago. I can't believe it.
This is Zach reading his vows. We each wrote our own and kept them a secret until the ceremony. It was a highlight of the entire weekend.

Okay time to sign off and get my stuff together so I can head to Martha's Vineyard. I'm meeting my friend Kerry at the fast ferry in 45minutes. It's a funny name for a ferry that takes 5 hours. Yes, 5!!!! I packed trashy mags and barf bags- wish me luck. Happy weekend.

a bagel a day

I went to the Swiss Consulate this morning. Let's not talk about it. Let's instead talk about the bagel with cream cheese (more like cream cheese with a side of bagel) that I got before I went to the consulate. Sound good? I made sure to google 'best bagel upper east side' before I made my way down to the consulate from 63rd street. Smack in the middle of my journey down 3rd Avenue was Ess-a-Bagel. I'd never heard of it, and you probably haven't either, but damn that bagel was good. Perhaps it's because I've been deprived for so long, but I really do thing there was something that separated my bagel from the pack. The outside was perfect crusty and the inside deliciously soft. I also think I liked it because I actually witnessed the guys making the bagels behind the counter, dipping the dough into boiling water before placing them on a baking sheet and into the oven. I don't think you'd see that at any old NYC bagel place.

And did I mention how delicious the iced coffee was? Heavenly really. I might have to get a few more as the day goes on. I actually stayed up for 26 hours yesterday - all in the name of fun and birthday celebrations! Thank goodness for 5hr Energy!

I'm going to continue drowning my consulate sorrows for the rest of the day. Next stop - manicure and pedicure, followed by a brief look around Bloomies and then on to sushi for lunch. But not at this place - good god.
I mean have you ever seen so much cream cheese on a bagel? E-gads. It was a bit ridiculous and wasteful really. I can't imagine anyone actually eats that much cream cheese. If you did you'd probably keel over right there on the corner of 51st and 3rd.

So you probably want to know about my trip to the consulate. Or maybe you don't, but I'll just spit out the basics. It will take roughly 8-10 weeks to get the visa even though my husband already has one. Since I originally applied from Switzerland, which is an apparent no-no, they have their eye on me. I cannot overstay my 90 day welcome in Swtizerland (not that I was going to) or I will be banned from Switzerland and Western Europe for 3 years! I also can't get a temporary permit. I just carefully counted the stamps in my passport and I only have 24 more days, so that means lots of time in the states twiddling my thumbs and waiting for the visa to come through. Twiddling my thumbs while eating bagels and sushi and getting pedicures, all at the same time.

It's always nice to twiddle and eat with friends so let me know if you are around these next few days/weeks/months. But be warned, I will limit your restaurant options to Sushi or Mexican.