Current mood:	full
Entry tags:	baking, cooking, fall, food

Fall and food
I know it's not quite the equinox, but it really feels like autumn has come here.  It's been in the high 60s / low 70s for the past few days - breezy and crisp.  It's what I think of as perfect early fall weather - great for being outside (on bike or foot).  But it what is really has me wanting to do is cook, and bake in particular.  Part of it is that now that it's cooler, it's ok to use the oven again without making our tiny apartment into a furnace.  But part of it is that fall is the harvest, and there's so much beautiful food at the farmers market that's a few blocks away.
Yesterday and today I've been on a cooking frenzy - I have bread baking right now.  Yesterday I made coffee cake and biscuits and some amazing veggie pizza.  Here's the pizza (before I put cheese on top and baked it):

 

So the topping is onion, garlic, oregano, and basil sauteed with zucchini and green pepper from the farmers market.  And a yellow tomato, which I like better than red, and some mozzarella.  It's basically the same topping as the Polenta Pie from Mollie Katzen's Moosewood cookbook.  The crust is also Mollie Katzen's (Still Life with Menu), except I added some whole wheat flour and cornmeal.  The tomato made the pizza sort of juicy, but the crust cooked up well, and the pizza just tasted fantastic.  It's the best pizza I've ever made.  For real. 

In two weeks, I'm going apple picking with some friends.  I'm really looking forward to it, and to making pie/cake/crisp with all the apples I get.  Fall is good.