I have a lot of low-brow food loves, and a particular soft spot for cheap frozen pizza. It’s so convenient and disgustingly delicious and you get to eat it straight out of the oven and it burns the roof of your mouth in that annoying way that is almost endearing…certainly nostalgic anyway (oh, college). When Cody and I were newlyweds I fed it to him so often that he got sick of it and made his mind up to never eat it again, which nearly broke my heart at the time. I’m almost thirty now, and I have to admit it’s probably for the best that I stay away from that particular section of the grocery store.

But cheap frozen pizza from the grocery store isn’t the same thing as pizza that happens to be frozen for later consumption. So with this loophole in Cody’s moratorium, frozen pizza is back in my life. I just have to make it myself. And I must admit, it tastes better than the store bought stuff. Plus I get to pick the toppings, I know where they come from, and I know the kitchen that prepared them isn’t infested with rodents or anything, so it’s a win-win-win.

Making frozen pizza is easy: just blister up some pizza dough in a pan on the stove or on the grill, let the cooked dough cool off, add your toppings, freeze the pizzas, and wrap them up. Then when you want pizza, you preheat your oven and ten minutes later you can be torching your mouth with a hot and crispy slice.

Homemade Frozen Pizza

Ingredients:
-pizza dough (use your favorite, store bought or homemade)
-your favorite pizza toppings

Method:
1. Roll out balls of pizza dough into rounds that will fit inside your cast iron pan, griddle, or on the grate of your outdoor grill.

2. Cook your pizza dough over medium to medium heat, flipping once, until both sides are lightly browned in spots and the dough is fully cooked (pan-cooked dough will be blistered like a tortilla in spots, but mostly white). Don’t try to brown your pizza too much during this step, because it’s going to be blasted in the oven again before you eat it. Get a few brown spots for flavor, but keep the overall color pretty pale and just barely cooked through.

3. Allow your cooked pizza crusts to cool to room temperature while you gather your toppings. If you are using raw meats, cook them first. Fresh veggies should be chopped and can be pre-cooked if you like, but it’s not totally necessary since the pizza will be baked again later.

4. Assemble your pizzas and put them on a baking sheet. Clear out a spot in your freezer where the pizzas can freeze, unwrapped, for at least 2-3 hours.

5. When the pizzas are frozen solid, wrap them with a few layers of plastic wrap and put them in a gallon-sized freezer bag (if they will fit, if not use a layer of foil).

6. When you are ready to eat pizza, preheat your oven to 450F and place a rack in the bottom third of your oven. Then unwrap your pizza and throw it straight on the lower rack with nothing underneath. Bake your pizza for 10-12 minutes until it’s crispy and brown and the cheese is bubbly. Eat it straight off the cutting board for nostalgia’s sake.

I shot this post at the very beginning of grill season, and I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself for publishing it while it’s still barely relevant. My blog is so now.

So pizza is one of those things that’s really hard to pull off when you are at home. I mostly don’t bother making it myself because my attempts are pathetic compared to what I can eat at a restaurant with proper pizza ovens that run at a thousand degrees or whatever. That said, I have been known to grill a pizza from time to time, and it’s actually delicious enough and unique enough from delivery, parlor, and fancy pizza joints to merit it’s own event in my opinion.

When you decide to grill pizza, there are some things you need to do to make it a pleasant experience. You need to get your toppings pre-cooked and laid out next to your grill. You definitely need to pre-roll your dough (once you start grilling there’s no time to wait for dough to be rolled) and you must absolutely keep the dough from sticking to anything, which is easier said than done. My favorite method requires non-stick aluminum foil and copious amounts of spritzed or brushed olive oil between each layer of foil. When counter space is at a premium, it’s really helpful to be able to roll out a pizza, add foil, and lay the next dough sheet right on top.

Make sure you have a layer of foil under each piece of dough, because it makes the perfect dough carrier and you can literally slap the entire thing down on the grill and peel the foil away once the dough is slightly set. Trying to get a flimsy dough sheet onto the grill without a foil sling is kind of treacherous really, so I recommend you don’t.

I’ve heard people say that the best way to make grilled pizza is with a super hot grill to mimic the inside of a pizza oven, but I have to disagree. I go for medium heat (according to my gas grill, which is probably 400 degrees but it doesn’t matter too much), grill one side, flip, and add toppings. Medium heat should be hot enough to get some blistering and char on the bottom, but not so hot that the pizza is burnt before you’ve finished assembling it. And good luck assembling a pizza with your fingers that close to the grill grate when it’s super hot. Ha. Again, medium heat.

This gas grill is old and was frankly on the fritz when I made this pizza. The heat was all uneven and sputtery, but the pizza still turned out tastier than anything you can make in your home oven. If you have your toppings ready and your dough isn’t sticking to everything, grilled pizza is hard to screw up.

Coming along nicely there, eh? And check that charred crust below.

Another piece of advice, when you grill pizza don’t make it a sit-down dinner affair. You can only do one or two pizzas at a time on the grill, so think of it as a grazing night, with some appetizers, maybe a salad, and permission for everyone to swipe a slice of freshly grilled pizza as soon as it hits your cutting board.

I’m not really a pizza dough expert, but I’ve used the exact same artisan bread dough (in 5 minutes a day) recipe for pizza and I liked it a lot, though the dough was a little tricky to roll out. Use your favorite dough recipe or even buy some if you want. The grilling is what’s important here.

Grilled Pizza

Gear:
-lots of non-stick aluminum foil
-a rolling pin
-a pastry brush or oil spritzer
-a grill

Ingredients:
-pizza dough (use the google)
-olive oil
-all the toppings your little heart desires (here I used spicy marinara, pancetta, caramelized onions, wilted spinach, garlic olive oil, ricotta, and mozzarella)

Method:

1. Start by prepping your toppings. If you want to use sausage or bacon or veggies, get them pre-cooked. Shred your cheese, put your sauces in bowls, and get them all lined up on a tray that you can take out to the grill when you’re ready.

2. Roll out your dough into foil sheet-sized 1-2 person portions (oblong, maybe 12-14 inches). I like to go as thin as possible, but I’m not very good at it so I usually end up with pillowy crusts anyway. Just keep in mind that dough fluffs up a lot when it bakes, so you probably need to go thinner than you think. Use flour while rolling to keep the dough from sticking to the work surface.

3. Make a resting place for your rolled-out pizza dough with one large sheet of non-stick foil on the bottom. Coat that piece of foil with olive oil and lay out your first piece of rolled-out dough. Coat the dough with olive oil and add another piece of foil on top. Continue like this, alternating foil and dough until all your dough is rolled out and stacked up.

4. Clean your grill and pre-heat it to medium-ish. Once the temperature is even, get your toppings set up near the grill.

5. Carry your first pizza to the grill by peeling the foil under it away from the dough beneath it. Slap the entire sheet of foil on the grill, dough-side down. If the foil lifts away immediately, great. If not, wait a minute for the dough to set up and peel the foil away.

6. When your dough is marked on one side, flip it over with tongs and start adding your toppings to the cooked side. Once it is topped, check the bottom crust for progress. Lower the lid if your cheese needs to melt further. When the crust is cooked to your liking (I like mine nice and brown with some blackish bits) use your tongs to slide the pizza to a plate.

7. Carry your hot pizza to a cutting board for dismantling and immediate consumption.

Something I realized while I was being a tourist in France is that certain places in Paris are preetty touristy.

I get the irony here, but as with most tourist spots in most large cities, things start to feel a bit…fake, like we visitors are being held at arm’s length.

Locals can’t take their beloved landmarks back from tourists, so naturally they capitalize, and we the encroaching species can sometimes sense that there’s something not entirely real about the Paris we experience. The strategically placed accordion players don’t just happen to play accordion, they play so we visitors can have a Parisian experience that aligns with the cheesy montage in our minds. The bistros surrounding the Eiffel Tower don’t serve food that Parisians necessarily want to eat, they serve food that tourists in Paris want to eat.

When you are a tourist like me, who has dreamed of traveling to Paris for years before you finally get to go, that incidental facade can be sort of frustrating.

It’s my fault for going to tourist spots in the first place, but as a visitor with no real local connections, trekking off the beaten path is easier said than done, especially when you don’t speak or understand the language well. At all.

There was, however, one afternoon in Paris when I didn’t feel like the bumbling, subtly resented tourist that I certainly was, and that was during a walking food tour of St. Germain that I booked with Paris By Mouth. They didn’t pay me to say that, they were just the absolute the high point of my trip and I feel I must share.

Our tour started on the curb in front of famed Poilâne bakery, where Cody and I met up with our tour guide and two other couples. Our guide was a native Californian named Sara who spoke beautiful French, had been living in Paris for several years, knew her food, and was objectively adorable.

During our tour we sampled apple tarts from Poilane, visited Patrick Roger  for chocolates, Henri La Roux for caramels, La Maison du Chou for cream puffs, the covered market for sausage and cheese, and finally a cozy wine shop where we were allowed to take over the back room to sit and taste our acquisitions. We moved from one shop to another in what felt like a casual little afternoon stroll where all the best shops just happened to be (the result of careful and skillful planning, I’m sure). All along the way Sara shared interesting information about each location, and the rapport she had with each vendor was apparent and lovely to see.

I think the best part about the tour, apart from Sara and her knowledge, was the fact that our tour group was so small. Because of our group’s size we were able to step inside the small shops and watch locals go about their regular errands without feeling too obtrusive.

Being in the company of a well-liked American transplant put me at ease in a way that I really didn’t feel at any other point of my stay. With Sara’s help I could ask questions of the vendors that went beyond “what does it cost?” and I think having her there put the locals at ease too, knowing they wouldn’t have to stretch their patience trying to communicate with us.

And the food. I ate a lot of good food in Paris, but everything truly special that I tasted was during this tour. Knowing what I was eating and where it came from, down to the first name of the cheesemaker and the location of his aging cave, just made things taste better.

This tour was hands down the best money I spent on my entire trip. If you like food and you go to Paris, take a few hours away from the tourist spots and see the city’s best on a tour with Paris By Mouth.

Apologies for the unintentional hiatus there. I moved! Just across town, but it sucked the life right out of me. I’ve cooked exactly twice since the move, and neither time was worth mentioning at all. There are still lots of boxes about, but I’m feeling more like myself again, so lets return to the regularly scheduled program, shall we?

This is a pretty dense informational post, so ogle the pretty photos and if you aren’t going to Geneva in the near future, this might be less fun for you. Saahrry.

Geneva isn’t the most popular vacation destination, but Cody wanted to see alps on our trip to France and I didn’t want to have to travel from Paris out to the alps and back again, so we decided to fly into Geneva, which is reasonably close to some good mountains. Researching what to do before our trip was tricky, simply because the info was a bit thin. I thought I’d share my experiences here in case any of you find yourselves there in the future.

First off, it’s small. We stayed right in the center of town, about a 2 minute walk from the big train station (there’s only one big one, Cornavin) and a 5 minute walk from the big bus station (Gare Routiere). I was obsessed with finding a place as close as possible to Cornavin, but I didn’t need to worry so much. Everything is in town is very easily walkable.

Everything in Geneva is expensive and the food is just ok. To put this into perspective, Switzerland uses Swiss francs and you get about .94 francs for every US dollar. Cody and I went to McDonalds for lunch once and two basic meals with sandwiches, fries, and sodas cost 30 francs.

For this reason, I recommend staying in an apartment so you can at least make your own breakfasts and save a little money. We used Airbnb and our experience was good, but book your place early because the pickings get slim about a month out. There are not a lot of supermarkets around Geneva, but if you’re near the Cornavin train station, there is a decent-sized shop inside called Migros that has a solid bakery section and all your basics.

The main food item that’s unique to Geneva is fondue, and theirs is particularly garlicky, which I like. Other than fondue you’ll find kebab shops, pub type places, and steak frites, plus McDonalds and Starbucks (of course).

My mom is always bugging me to put more pictures of me on this blog. There you go mom!

As far as sightseeing goes inside Geneva, the old town is the place to go. St. Pierre cathedral is right in the middle and it’s a really interesting mix of Roman and gothic architecture. They are currently doing an archaeological dig beneath the cathedral that has been set up for tours, which I absolutely loved.

The construction of the cathedral began in 1160, and buildings this old are hard to come by in the US, so I was pretty enthralled. I actually preferred my cathedral experience here to Notre Dame, because the crowds here were minimal and we had better access to the towers and ancient bits underground. If you like cathedrals or architecture at all, you must visit St. Pierre.

The other cool things about Geneva are it’s proximity to the UN (which we didn’t bother to visit) and CERN (which we did bother to visit).

To get a tour of CERN, you have to go to their website and request a spot EXACTLY two weeks before the day you want to tour. The tours book up fast, so you’ll need to get online as soon as the tour slots post at midnight and pounce right away.

Our tour was guided by a really cute, old physicist and he answered everyone’s questions as we went through the exhibits. Some of the exhibits were being revamped while we were there though, so our tour was a bit limited. We did get to see the lab that collects data from the huge particle collider though, and for a minute there I think I understood what all the scientists were attempting to do.

To get to CERN from the Cornavin, you take tram 18 to CERN (the last stop). It’s about a 4 franc, 20 minute tram ride followed by a very short walk to the visitor’s center (you can see it from the stop), where you will meet up with your tour group.

Without leaving Geneva, CERN and the UN and old town are preeety much it. Walk around, take in the lake views, snack on some fondue, and call it good. The best thing about Geneva is really it’s location: it’s a good home base for day tripping to a few interesting Swiss and French sites.

Day Trip Option 1: Montreux and Chateau de Chillon

It takes about an hour to get from Cornavin station in Geneva to Montreux by train. Tickets will run you around 70 Francs round trip per person (remember how everything is expensive in Switzerland?) but if you can swing it, it’s a fun trip.

From the Montreux train station, walk toward the lake and stroll south along the water. In about 3 minutes you’ll reach the ferry terminal where you can buy a ticket to Chillon for 10 francs.

Walking from Montreux to Chillon is very doable as well, just under two miles one way. The weather was great for us, so we took the ferry there and walked back while the sun was setting. It was dreamy. Once you get to Chillon, a ticket to go in and explore is 12 francs. It all adds up, but this castle is so fun to walk through and you get access to almost everything, so it’s a pretty unique experience in my opinion.

When you finish, walk back along the water toward the train station and maybe stop for a lakeview meal if you have time. Don’t miss the Freddy Mercury statue (you actually won’t be able to) because hello, it’s right there.

Day Trip Option 2: Chamonix and Mont Blanc

This was probably the coolest of the day trips we took from Geneva. 100% touristy but not too crowded, and so cool, and whatever, you’re a tourist. We booked the independent bus tour from Gare Routiere through Viator and were given the option to buy an all-access pass to the cable car at Mont Blanc and the cog train to the glacier cave during the bus drive up. I think it’s more expensive if you book those options in advance, so upgrade on the way if you want to save a few bucks.

The trip ended up totaling around $160 per person with the all access passes(again, Switzerland is expensive). Lunch in Chamonix was refreshingly cheap though because Chamonix is right across the French border and French prices are much more reasonable than Swiss prices.

The day we went was cloudy and snowy in Chamonix (though we left Geneva in 70 degree barely overcast weather) and even though the views were obscured by the fog, we enjoyed ourselves.

A word of caution though: this is a pretty physical trip with lots of stairs to climb at crazy high altitude. Our tour guide told us to expect to feel terrible when you get to the top of Mont Blanc (headache, dizziness) and try to rest for 20 minutes or so before traipsing about the peak. There are plenty of places to rest and have a snack or a drink though, and I saw people of all ages keep up without too much trouble.

The stairs to the glacier cave were the hardest, but the payoff was pretty great.

Day Trip Option 3: Gruyere

Yes, the town named for the cheese.

We liked the Chamonix tour so much we decided to book the Gruyere tour through the same company. We had been tempted by the prospect of visiting the Gruyere cheese factory and the Cailler Swiss chocolate factory in addition to the town of Gruyere, and you can’t really bounce around to all three places by train and we didn’t have a car, so bus tour it was.

The Cailler tour was cute, but more geared toward kids than adults. The “all you can taste” chocolate room at the end would have made it worth the trip, but it turns out Swiss chocolate isn’t really my favorite (very sweet and milky with lots of hazelnuts (nuttella isn’t my thing either)). Plus the tasting kind of happens in a line so you have about 20 seconds to eat each one, and there are at least 10 to try. Needless to say I did not buy any chocolate at the end of the tour (chocolate coma).

The Gruyere factory was kind of a let down. You walk around and look at posters explaining the cheesemaking process, view the room where the cheeses are made from a glassed-in hallway, and then get funneled into a gift shop.

They do give you a packet of Gruyere cheese at three different ages to taste and compare, but if you aren’t there while they are processing a batch of cheese the tour is a little dull and only about 15-20 minutes in length. I’m probably even more interested in cheese than the average tourist, so I’d say pass on the factory unless it’s very convenient for you.

The town of Gruyere, on the other hand, was fantastic. I got to try raclette at one of the little restaurants, which is a brick of cheese that’s melted with a tabletop broiler and scraped onto plates of bread and potatoes and pickles. Raclette is kind of the thing in Gruyere, along with a dessert of meringues topped with raspberries and drenched in local double cream. Go eat both, please. The scenery all around Gruyere is unbelievably charming, and there’s even a castle you can tour.

H.R. Giger, the artist responsible for the nightmarish creatures in the Alien movies, lived in Gruyere, so there’s a museum and a cafe right in town that both exhibit his work. It’s kind of jarring to see such extreme art juxtaposed with the cobblestone streets and farmland, but I loved it.

So my final verdict on the Gruyere tour: it’s probably worth it if you have kids to visit Cailler and the Gruyere factory, but if you are traveling with adults, I’d say skip the bus tour and hop on a train to head straight to the town of Gruyere.

That felt like it should have been three posts. But I made you wait a month for it, so there you go. Anyone been to Geneva? What did I miss?

So I’ve slowed down a bit with my posting over here. Things are going on. Cody has a new job, I took on some new freelance work, my grandparents remodeled their kitchen, and we just wrote our first offer on a house last night. I’ve been preoccupied.

On top of that, travel has a way of making you question your entire life when you get home, so that’s happening too. It’s all excuses to explain that I haven’t been doing a lot of cooking lately. I have a post about the logistics of visiting Geneva in the works, along with a grilled pizza thing that I diligently shot before we left, but food-wise things might be slow for a bit, until I can re-establish myself and hopefully set up my very own kitchen again (eeeeep!).

Bare with me, I’ll be back in full gear soon.

It should come as no surprise to you that my time in Paris was largely stomach-driven. I even made a twenty-something item list of foods I wanted to try while there. After finding and eating all but two of the things on my list, I have some notes, should you care to attempt a similarly food-centric trip. These are my picks for foods “not to be missed” in Paris.

1. A warm “tradition” baguette from a good boulangerie. Eric Kayser was in my neighborhood, so that’s where I went (and it was extremely amazing). I’d recommend downloading the Yelp app before you get to Paris and using that to determine where you can find the best baguette, closest to your hotel/apartment. I’ve also heard good things about Paul, which has several locations around Paris.

2. Some kind of butter pastry from a good patisserie. I mean a croissant, pain au chocolate, or kouign amann kind of thing: think puffy and flaky. If you can manage it, I’d recommend the apple tarts at Poilâne in Saint-Germain, which are baked fresh all day and elegantly manage that firm yet flaky crisp to which all good pastries aspire.

3. Cheese. The French are serious about cheese and regulate the quality extensively. Where in the US we have lots of rules about pasteurization and handling, in France they have rules about what can legally be called Roquefort (it has to be cheese from certain sheep, aged in specific caves in a particular area of France). The result of such thorough vetting for cheeses is some of the most delicately balanced and delicious cheese you’ll ever have, and maybe the stinkiest – but be brave! The stinkiest, moldiest, freakiest-looking cheeses often have a surprisingly mild flavor.

4. Weird meat. Appetizing phrasing there, no? Parisians are into spreadable meats (terrines, foie gras, paté), which will freak some of you out, but they are legitimately delicious and really hard to find in the US. I especially liked rillettes which is cooked pork or duck that’s shredded and blended with butter or it’s own fat and put in a jar, usually with a layer of (more) fat on top – organ meats aren’t typical in rillettes so the flavors aren’t challenging at all. Rich, yes, but so good spread on a crusty slice of baguette.

5. Escargot. You can definitely not get escargot very easily in the US, so when in Paris, I say give it a go. I don’t actually know if Parisians ever go out for escargot, but it’s just one of those things I think all travelers to Paris should try at least once. It might give you away as a tourist, but guess what: you are a tourist. And yes, it’s snails, but as it turns out snails taste kind of like mushrooms, and they are invariably drenched in garlic butter. Easy, as long as you don’t look too closely.

6. French onion soup. It’s a cliché, but it’s readily available on many menus and it’s just so much better with a blanket of real French cheese on top.

7. A crepe or galette (or both). I went for the galette “super complete”, which was a savory buckwheat crepe with lacy edges through which a large amount of cheese was allowed to melt and become crispy, topped with ham and mushrooms and an egg. Cody had a nutella crepe, which was crispy and nutella-y. (Can you tell which one I found more exciting?)

8. The hot chocolate from Angelina. It’s everything you heard and then some. We got ours at Versailles (there are a few locations around Paris) in paper cups and they gave us straws to keep our teeth from getting completely stained. You put the straw to your lips, begin to drink, and patiently wait for the chocolate to crawl it’s way up to your mouth. It’s essentially ganache in a cup.

9. Crème brûlée. So many of the menus in Paris offer fixed prices for three courses. One of the desserts you eat during one of your leisurely three-course meals should obviously be crème brûlée.

10. Chocolate mousse. This is the other prix-fixe dessert you should eat as often as possible, for obvious reasons.

11. Duck confit or cassoulet. Duck confit is basically a duck leg slow-poached in it’s own rendered fat. Cassoulet is a bean stew made with duck confit, pork, and sausage. Both dishes are pinnacles of rich, hearty French food. Maybe save them for a cooler day.

12. Croque-madame or monsieur. Croques are pretty basic: ham, cheese, béchamel sauce, and bread (plus an egg if it’s a madame) but in Paris it’s French bread with French ham, French cheese, and French eggs – so by default it’s better than most American ham sandwiches.

Also worthy of mention:

Blanquette de veau: This hearty veal stew served over rice was so, so good and just perfect for a rainy day in a cozy bistro.

All the salads: Olive oil vinaigrette is the standard, but add-ins like duck fat fried potatoes made for more interesting lunches.

Quenelles: These are giant dumplings covered in crayfish sauce. When I ordered, the waiter tried to talk me out of them (tourists won’t like it!), but I assured them that I knew what they were and they turned out to be delicious.

Steak tartare: It’s raw, chopped beef with mustard and hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce, usually served with fries. Try to find one that’s good and spicy or prepared table-side if you’re going to try it.

And the two perfectly cliché dishes I didn’t get to try: bouillabaisse and salad nicoise.

So how did I do? And what are your favorite things to eat in Paris?

So Europe happened. Switzerland and France to be more exact. And it was amazing. But it was also hard, and frustrating, sometimes disappointing, and uncomfortable, and challenging. It was an adventure, it was not a vacation.

There were multiple layovers (to save money) and a cancelled flight with a six-hour re-route. There were messed up sleep schedules and moments of panic when things didn’t go as planned and when we attempted our first words in French, followed by embarrassment when we were not understood. Unplanned expenses, insane crowds, altitude sickness (up in the alps), miles and miles of walking in the rain, and other various tests of our patience and adaptability.

While we were roaming around all keyed up and stressed out, I felt somehow more awake. I felt, acutely, the awkwardness of being the only American couple in a cramped restaurant and the skin-burning side-eyes of the locals as we broke rules of etiquette we didn’t know existed. I also felt incongruous happiness while walking along lake Geneva at sunset with a rapidly melting ice cream cone and so many flowers in bloom the whole town smelled like being eyelash deep in a bouquet.

Our particle physicist tour-guide at CERN wasn’t just the quintessential scientist, he was absolute heartache-inducing perfection with his rumpled seersucker blazer, shock of white hair, and thick French accent. The Parisian baguettes we ate weren’t just crispy and warm, they were an impossible balance of softness and crunch, with flavor enough to make butter unnecessary.

It’s embarrassing now, but the first time I saw Notre Dame, my vision blurred and my eyes got hot – I was utterly dwarfed and felt like I was choking on the beauty of it. I felt almost the same way when we met Serge Caillaud – a butcher in Saint-Germain with deep smile lines who is famous enough in Paris to not be working at his shop every day, but does.

I felt like I was losing my mind, alternately tearing up from frustration and joy, or just feeling exhausted or uncomfortable and then suddenly amazed. Irritated by the crushing, smelly crowds in the Louvre that refuse to look around themselves before stopping in the center of a walkway, and then quickly brought to awe by a brown clay pot several thousand years old.

Somewhere in the midst of our trip when I was tired to the bone I thought to myself “this is the last big travel I’ll be taking for a while” but it shook me up and made me feel humble and malleable in a way that I really needed. The fact that Europe was such a shock to my system makes me think now that I absolutely must keep having adventures, even if they aren’t always so far away.

Artichokes are kind of ridiculous. Hard to prep, hard to clean, and even hard to eat. I mean, they’re thistles, humans probably shouldn’t be eating them at all. Most of the year, I am content with eating artichoke hearts from jars or freezer bags or minced up in dip, but about once every spring I get itchy for the real thing.

So I go to the store, pick out a few deceptively pretty bulbs and inevitably stab myself in the process. Then I drop them into one of those flimsy produce bags because I forgot my reusable ones and one of the thorns almost rips the bag open as I’m twisting it shut. They go in the cart, gingerly.

At home, I stab myself again on the thorns as I’m trying to wrestle the tops off with my sharpest vegetable cleaver. I forget to prepare a bowl of lemon water until at least two of my artichokes are hopelessly brown. Peel the veiny bits from the stems, snip off the thorns that can’t be reasonably reached by the cleaver one by one, hack each choke in half, and scrape out the furry bits with a spoon. Every bit of this process is obnoxious, but I think it makes conquering them a bit more satisfying.

I like mine twice cooked, once with water either in a steamer basket or just the bottom of a microwavable bowl covered in wrap until they are tender, and once with a dab of oil and a hot grill pan for some extra flavor. Then it’s all about dismantling, with some kind of flavorful dip (garlic lemon aioli for me) and savoring that hard-won tender heart. Scratch the itch and I’m good for another year.

Grilled Artichokes with Lemon Aioli

Ingredients:
-artichokes, one per person
-olive oil
-about 1/2 cup of your favorite mayo (2 tablespoons per person)
-1 clove of garlic, grated or minced
-juice from 1 lemon, divided (half for lemon water to soak artichokes, half for aioli)
-kosher or sea salt and pepper, to taste

Method:
1. Start by prepping your artichokes. Get a large bowl of water ready with the juice of 1/2 lemon to stop the artichokes from browning once they are cut. Then trim the stems and peel away any fibrous stringy bits with a vegetable peeler. Using your sharpest knife, cut off the tops of the artichokes where most of the thorns are. Then use kitchen scissors to trim the thorns off of the leaves on the outside of each artichoke. Use your knife to cut each artichoke in half and use a spoon to scrape out all of the fuzz above the heart.

2. After scraping the fuzzy bits out of the artichoke halves, drop them in your prepared lemon water. Work your fingers between the leaves to clean out any dirt that may be hiding.

3. Steam your artichokes in a pot with a steamer basket for 30-45 minutes or in a large, microwave-safe bowl with a bit of water in the bottom for 10-15 minutes or until tender (test for tenderness with a small knife inserted at the base of the artichoke).

4. Remove artichokes from steamer bowl or pot, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. Grill cut-side down on a grill pan set over high heat or on an outdoor grill over medium heat until the artichokes are nicely marked.

5. Make your aioli by stirring together mayo, garlic, lemon, salt, and pepper. Adjust seasoning to taste and serve with the artichokes.

I’ve recently learned that dill is a polarizing herb. The circles I run in are upsettingly full of people who don’t care for dill one bit, which I don’t understand. Personally, I love the stuff, and I’ll work it into recipes where it probably doesn’t belong just because I can. Dill is just so fresh tasting and springy, which is why I decided this spring pea soup should have lots of it, though the addition of dill means Cody won’t be interested. So, more soup for me.

This is like a springtime appropriate nod to (deconstructed) split pea soup. It comes together ridiculously quickly (like 15 minutes tops) and it pairs perfectly with the smoky American prosciutto I found, draped over fluffy ricotta and barely drizzled with honey. You can use Italian prosciutto if you like here, but if you can find American smoked prosciutto, it’s really good. Another acceptable sub would just be smoked ham or crispy smoky bacon.

I say dill with it.

Lemon and Dill Pea Soup with Prosciutto and Ricotta Tartines

Ingredients:

-2 tablespoons butter
-1 onion, diced
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
-1 16-oz bag frozen peas
-1/3 cup heavy cream
-juice of about 1/2 lemon
-1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
-1/4 tsp white pepper
-salt, to taste
-crusty french bread, sliced
-whole milk ricotta cheese
-prosciutto (1-2 slices per person)
-tiny drizzle of honey

Method:

1. Sauté onion and garlic in butter in a pot over medium heat, until the onions are translucent, then add the broth and peas (straight from the freezer is fine).

2. Bring the soup to a simmer and then turn the heat to low. Using a hand blender, blend the soup until it’s as smooth as you like.

3. Add cream, lemon, dill, white pepper, and salt. Taste and add more salt as needed. If you want your soup to be thinner, add more broth or cream.

4. Keep your soup on low heat while you assemble your tartines. Start by toasting slices of your bread, then top with a few scoops of plain ricotta, a sprinkle of salt, a piece of prosciutto (torn into a few pieces so you can bite it without taking the entire sheet of prosciutto) and the tiniest drizzle of honey.

5. Serve the soup with extra dill, lemon, and/or cream and a tartine.

I am, right this minute, on the trip I’ve been waiting for my whole entire life. I’m in Europe! Finally! And while I would have been happy to go absolutely anywhere in Europe, I feel most especially privileged to visit the one place whose food I’ve fantasized about for (probably) decades: France. We’ll be starting in Geneva, actually, for some alps-y views and nerdy tours, not to mention a small pilgrimage to the town of Gruyere (for cheeeeeeese). And then, we will go to Paris, where we will do all of the obvious touristy things, wander aimlessly, and eat all the baguettes with all the butter.

And now that I can say I’ve been to the one place I’ve always wanted to go, I’m sure I’m moments away from an existential crisis – which I will drown in the best cheese and chocolate I can get my hands on. In the meantime I have a few recipe posts scheduled, and as soon as I get back home I’ll flood this blog with gratuitous food and architecture and cobblestone silliness. If you want to follow along in real time, check me on instagram.