Food Inspired by Literature...

...well maybe not literature, exactly, but I do draw lots of culinary inspiration from what I read. Inspiration for Saturday night's dinner came from, of all places, Saturday's Wall Street Journal, which featured a very doable recipe for pizza margherita. Reading the WSJ reminded me of a homemade pizza dough recipe I've been wanting to try for a long time. (Given to me by a Wild Oats cooking instructor when I was writing a story about cooking classes for Columbus Monthly--the best journalistic assignment. Ever.) Thanks to a mini-food processor given to me long ago (which I never thought I'd use) we made the dough faster than you can say "Boboli," with a simple ingredient list that featured only flour, water, salt, yeast and olive oil. I'd definitely make my own dough again, even for a hurried weeknight dinner.

We tend to make a lot of homemade pizza around here, and I daresay we've perfected the Thai, barbecued chicken, spinach-and-fresh-tomato, and arugula (my companion's favorite) varieties, respectively.

My other weekend read, besides the book I'm reviewing, was the hysterical Julie and Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen. If it were warmer I'd classify it as a great beach read. The pace is breathless, the wit is sharp, it's not War and Peace, but d&*^%, that was a fun read. At some points I laughed so hard I was crying. It's so great to read something smart and fun written by someone from your own generation.