Homemade Frozen Pizzas

If there is one thing I'm ever good at, it's making a mess.  Fortunately for me, most cooking (besides that done live in front of a studio audience) is a sufficient task at which to accomplish mess making.  And this is why we're BFFs. In an attempt to properly destroy my kitchen, I decided to make some homemade mini frozen pizzas. Mmm. A relatively easy task, I decided to make the dough from scratch, although you could go with store bought.

 

Trouble shooting.  My dough was... loose. I just added flour until it turned back into a dough ball.  Let the machine roll on the dough setting until it's through.

 

Nice and fluffy! Sit it in an oiled bowl and let rise for an hour, or whatever your recipe calls for. I'll linked the recipes I've used at the bottom. Flour a clean surface and get out your rolling pin out for something other than threatening your spouse and children.

 

 

Roll out the dough into whatever size suits you. Mmmmm, pizza... Bake the crust until it's good and set. Mine fortunately had a pop up timer in the form of pizza crust throw pillow as seen above. If yours also does this, never fear. It goes back to normal as soon as it cools.

 

Sing a song about sauce and toppings (to the tune of Milk and Cereal... then watch every other internet video from over ten years ago in a wave of nostalgia, starting with The End of the World) and dress your Italian pies of glory however you like. I stuck to basics, as there were no mushrooms or jalapeños on hand. But I think you could go as complex as you'd like.

 Stick this tasty treat of the future on a baking sheet and into the freezer. Leave it there until it's good and frozen. Then wrap, label, and chunk a little more unceremoniously into the freezer. I used my Food Saver, and that worked nicely, but I've also done a layer of tinfoil and a layer or two of saran wrap.

 

Then when you're having a day that might otherwise lead to murder, pop one or two of these lovelies into the oven, and go drink wine instead while everyone else is chowing down. Feel good that it's not just a frozen pizza, it's a delectable meal made for your family with love, and reheated with exasperation.

 

Ps, here's my most frequently used dough recipe. I've also used (and had great success with) homemade pitas. Super tasty! Good luck with your endeavors, and enjoy!

Pinwheels!

Today I made something crazy delicious.  As in, my diet is NOT thanking me right now.

I'm also experimenting with pin-worthy picture edits.  Eh, Rome wasn't built in a day and all that.

'Healthy' is not a four letter word...

Swimsuit season is not only inevitable, it's up on us.  Time to think about eating some cardboard and suffering the days away.  Well unless...

Unless you make your granola at home.  I have to say, granola has never been something that makes my mouth water.  But in my search for healthy things to put on the table, I tried making some myself.  It's high in fiber and protein, but low in sugar and bad fats, none more so than when it's homemade.  No unappetizing preservatives, colorings, or chemicals. 

And if that's not enough, you can control all of the ingredients so that it tastes exactly to your liking.  Hate raisins?  Ditch 'em.  Prefer walnuts to pecans?  You should totes magotes swap them out.  Many many options and alternatives.  

Freeze-n-bake Cookies

Hubs loves chocolate chip cookies more than anything.  Well besides, you know, his loving wife that makes them from scratch for him.  And his adorable son.  And Jumbo.  But that's it, he loves chocolate chip cookies more than anything other than us.  (Sorry Poose.)

Mmmm, minty...

I love cookies, but I do feel the need to change them up every once in a while.  The clearance rack at the grocery store had some mint and chocolate nibs for $0.84 a bag after Christmas, so I nabbed a crap ton of them.  And I thought they'd be good with chocolate cookies.  So we gave it a whirl.

Taste of Summer

This WEATHER.  Ugh.  I'm not usually one to spend the entire Winter wishing for Summer, but even I have reached my breaking point.  I'm craving balmy nights, friends on the front porch, fresh vegetables and meals made on the grill.  Obviously I have no pull in the weather department, but I can control what I eat.  So last Wednesday night we had a summer inspired meal.  Pineapple bourbon burgers on homemade bacon rolls, tangy spinach salad and potato wedges.  And for dessert?

Grilled pineapple skewers with brown sugar-rum sauce!

Step 1- stab with pokey things.

Remix-ican

There's something about cleaning out the fridge that is really disheartening.  Disposing of all of that food that never got utilized makes me feel like I did something seriously wrong.  Sometimes I think maybe I should just go ahead and yank a 20 spot out of my pocket and toss it in the garbage instead.  But it happens.  You have a little bit of leftover this or that, three tortillas left from tacos the other night, maybe some chicken.  Two pieces of bacon.  Not enough of anything to really do much with.

Personally, this is when I find myself discovering new recipes.  Sometimes I change the world with said  discoveries.  Sometimes I burn my wallet in the front yard.  Try, try again, right?

As for the tupperware container of tuna casserole that got left in the back of the fridge and has turned into penicillin, I have no real solution for that.

However, recently I struck gold.  Not sure if I've mentioned that we are Mexican foodies, but there is a recurring supply of cilantro, tortillas, and avocados in our fridge.  One day I noticed that there was just a little bit of every thing, and I was just NOT going to the store.  So I decided to do an umpteen layer dip.  But healthier.  Kind of, anyway.

After we devoured half of it.

Easy Caramelized Onions

Caramelized onions are the best thing ever.  They're tasty, they're easy, they sound complex, and if made my way, they're really pretty good for you.  Also you can make a great big batch of them on a Sunday night and use them all week.  I toss mine in salads with gorgonzola, on top of chicken or steak, in scrambled eggs or omelets, even in baking or soups.

I may also occasionally fry up a skillet of them with some mushrooms and eat it as a meal.  Or I may not, who can say.

Secret Family Stuffing Recipe

Simple and delicious.  That is pretty much the only way to describe my Mother-in-law's famed stuffing recipe.  With only five ingredients (give or take), it has very basic flavors that meld perfectly into the epitome of holiday warmth and comfort.

Baaaaaaasically it is the best stuffing I've ever had.  (With the exception of my sister's mushroom walnut version, but they're on two different ends of the stuffing spectrum.)

And it's a rather simple recipe!  The only thing is that it isn't quite an exact science...  Eh, I'll show you.

Okay so you start out by chopping a head of celery and two large sweet onions.  Throw them in a skillet and add enough water to just cover them.  Simmer on medium low (covered).

4-Ingredient Apple Pie Galette

My mother-in-law is famous for her pie crusts.  Actually, the recipe she uses has been passed down from generation to generation.  She's been offering to teach me for months, and SOON I will get a chance to take her up on it!  In the mean time, I don't do a lot in the way of pie baking, which is kind of ironic because I would pass up cake any day of the week in lieu of pie.  Blueberry, cherry, peach, mmm.

Never been a huge fan of apple pie.  When I told my husband that, he nearly fell off his stool.  The thing is, I've never had good homemade apple pie before!

Well, ladies and gents, I'm NOT going to teach you how to make apple pie today.  Instead we're making a galette, which takes all of about 5 minutes to prep.  The good news is that apple galette is a pretty sufficient swap out for apple pie, and there's very few ingredients, very little fat.  In fact, the only really unhealthy thing in this recipe is the pie crust!  So if you find a way to make healthy pie crust, hit a lady up.

Easy Cheesy Leftover Bake

Got a mess of leftover stew or chili?  Make a cheesy bake!  It's simple and satisfying.  Especially on a cold day like the ones we've been having.

Hellish Habanero Blue Cheese

The other day I did something equal parts dangerous, delicious, and daring.  We had one puny, slightly wilted habanero pepper left over from the end of our summer harvest.  I was making blue cheese dressing when a lightbulb popped up over my head, cartoon style.  Only this lightbulb was on fire.

I've seen spicy ranch time and time again.  (And it has delighted me every single one of those times.)  But I have yet to see a spicy blue cheese dressing.  Which in my mind is a little odd, seeing as we all know how well blue cheese and spicy things go together.

So I concocted one.  And it is noooooo joke.

Spinach and Goat Cheese Scrambled Egg Bake

This is a delectable (and pretty healthy) breakfast.  I made two of these this morning, a quick version for Hubs to eat on the way to work, and a more time consuming version that I got to enjoy.  I'll go through the detailed one, and sum up the quick one at the end.

Marlboro's Red Pepper Paste

If you didn't know it, Marlboro makes cookbooks.  And if you were wondering, the recipes in the cookbooks are incredible.  The food is of a rustic nature:  sourdough biscuits, planked sirloins, beef jerky, chili, etc.  We've got three different books (Fifty From the Trail, Morning Fires and Evening Lights, and Cook Like a Man) and I have yet to find a recipe anything less than scrumptious.  I mean really.

Now as to how you would procure one, I have no idea.  Once upon a time one or both of the adults in our house may or may not have been mild to moderate occasional sometimes smokers.  Anyway, we used to be on Marlboro's mailing list and they would send us stuff occasionally.  That's how we ended up with these.

P.S.  I don't advocate smoking!  Quitting is a real bitch, but it's totally worth it.

Anyway I want to share a recipe with you.  I'm thinking that most of Marlboro's profits don't come from their recipes, so I doubt they'll mind too much if I share.  Here's hoping, anyway.

Unfortunately I have no photos of this!  I'll update this post the next time I make some.  This recipe is ideal for summertime, when bell peppers and jalapenos are plentiful.

Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing

In order to make my life easier, lately I've been focusing on buying basic ingredients and making from them whatever I can.  Salad dressings aren't really a huge imposition to buy, as they're not very expensive, but there are several advantages to making your own.  For one thing, unless you're buying the gourmet or organic brands, there's probably a laundry list of things you can't pronounce.  I'm pretty good with pronunciation, but that doesn't mean I have any clue what they are.  Also the flavor of bottled dressings is NOTHING compared to homemade!  Combined with the ability to make as much or as little as you need and the fact that it's all relatively quick and easy, you kind of have a no brainer.

Steak and Veggie Stew

Got a new delicious cold weather recipe for you!  I came up with this one last week.  Hubs and I are challenging ourselves to pack the most veggies that we can into our diet.  I had a big cut of beef (I'm not positive, I think it was either a round or rib roast) hanging out in the freezer and thought maybe I could make some vegetable beef soup in the slow cooker.  I don't particularly care for VB soup, as it generally isn't very well seasoned and just seems kind of bland to me, but I was determined to do it better.

This is also a great clean-out-the-fridge recipe, as you can throw just about any bits and pieces of leftover vegetables you may have in the mix.  As it were, I had quite a few leftovers that got consumed this way.

'A' is for Autumn and Apples!

Hubs and I took our yearly vacay to the mountains this past weekend.  We have friends there, and since both of us grew up near the beach, we like to change up the scenery every once in a while.  It was a beautiful weekend to go.  The evenings dipped into the 30's, but the days were bright and merely brisk.

On our way out of town we stopped into the farmer's mart and got some goodies.  Sold by the bushel, 'deer apples' are apples that hit the ground naturally before they can be picked off the tree.  They are somewhat bruised, but otherwise completely edible.  Hubs has been lusting over the thought of making apple cider, so he picked up a box with that purpose in mind.  We had also already grabbed a peck of hand picked Arkansas Black apples.  (We planted an AB the same day we planted all of our other trees, but this year it decided to go to tree heaven.  So we figured we'd have to buy them if we ever wanted to try any!)

We also got a quart of local honey with honey comb in tact (nom!), some very fresh heads of cabbage, and a cream soda.  For me.  Delish.  Oh, and when we were leaving home we came across a guy selling half bushels of sweet potatoes, so we bought two!  Think I'll have my work cut out for me soon enough...

Sushi Fake Out

So I'm horribly obsessed with sushi.  My sister introduced me to it when I was a junior or senior in high school.  She introduced me to it, I should include, by shoving a piece of octopus (suckers and all) into my mouth when I wasn't paying attention.  Such love.

Anyway I live in BFE North Carolina and the closest sushi restaurant is a little over an hour away.  I deeply deeply yearn for sushi in my life constantly, so I have been looking for ways to get my fix.  After I accidentally bought 3 pounds of smoked salmon the other week, I was desperately looking for ways to use it up.

Did you know it's possible to accidentally buy this much salmon?  It is.

Btw, I had never had smoked salmon before.  I ate a good third of the package.

Hubs liked the taste, but the texture was a little off for him.  I took to the internet to see if you can cook smoked salmon, but the results were dubious.  I made teriyaki salmon rolls with spicy mayo and it was the easiest thing everrrrrrrrrrr

I marinated the salmon pieces in teriyaki sauce for about 12 hours.  I rolled up the pieces and stuck a toothpick through to hold, and tossed them on the George Foreman.  They cooked super quickly!

Mix 1/4 C mayo and about 1 tbsp of Sriracha together and drizzle over the salmon rolls.  It's not sushi, but served with a side of white rice, it will at least give you a fix.  Enjoy!

Artichoke & Smoked Salmon Pizza

Yesterday was Monday in full force.  It was dreary, dull, and I was unmotivated and blue.  But at the end of the day I decided to treat myself to something delectable to make up for it.  I combined two recipes to make an artichoke, sun dried tomato, and smoked salmon pizza.

First of all, did you know how pretty artichokes are?  Now fyi, I totally winged what to do with said artichoke.  I mean I had a recipe on how to steam them, but as far as what to trim, and what to cut, I am a doofus.  I sliced mine in half and cut off the top inch or so.

Place them face down in a bowl with some lemon slices, thyme, and equal parts olive oil to white wine.  (The recipe called for 1/3 of a cup each for 2 artichokes, so I adjusted accordingly.)  Cover and microwave for 10 minutes per artichoke.  We nibbled at the leaves and I spooned out the center for my pizza.

Drizzle the liquid over the pizza crust, and place the smoked salmon, sun dried tomatoes, and artichokes around.  Sprinkle mozzarella sparingly and toast for 10-15 minutes at 350.  Then drink the rest of your bottle of white wine, watch some Mad Men, and go to bed.

Homemade Tomato Soup

I've never been a huge fan of tomato soup.  I mean, sure, throw some grilled cheese triangles next to it and I'll probably eat some.  But the canned stuff?  It's just not THAT great.  This, however, is an incredible alternative!  

Finely dice a couple carrots, an onion, some garlic, and saute for a while (10-20 min.) until mostly tender.  (Isn't it pretty?  Smelled great too!)

Texas Rockets 7 Ways

 Jalapenos.  Always a bountiful harvest.  But what to do with all of them?  Certainly you can use them as a garnishment, a condiment, a torture device, etc.  Personally we enjoy the time honored tradition of Texas Rockets.  Tonight I was feeling adventurous, so I decided to jam the suckers full of all kinds of things.  Here's what I did.  (Above) Slice them open and remove seeds/membranes.  Leave a few if you're feeling particularly brave.

Stuff them full of stuff.  Here I have some diced candied jalapenos...

...and cream cheese.  Cream cheese + jalapenos is pretty much always a winner.

I took some breakfast sausage and microwaved it for 20-30 seconds.  It doesn't have to be completely done, as it will continue cooking in the jalapeno.  You just want to get the pink off of it.  I mixed in some cheddar cheese and stirred it up.

Before and after.  We usually do them on the grill, but I was being lazy tonight.  These were in the toaster oven at 450 for about 15 minutes.  Flip 'em once.

Here's some of the ideas we tried.

NC Rocket- Stuffed with NC bbq and wrapped in bacon

Carnivore Rocket- Stuffed with sausage and cheese, wrapped in bacon

Rocket & Lox- Stuffed with cream cheese and smoked salmon or stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in salmon (we tried two ways and enjoyed both, though I think I liked the wrapped one better)

Death Rocket- Stuffed with cream cheese and candied jalapenos, wrapped in bacon

Queso Rocket- Stuffed with cream cheese and cheddar, wrapped in bacon

Traditional- Stuffed with cream cheese, chicken, salt, pepper, and wrapped in bacon

Lazy Rocket-  Just the cream cheese and bacon.  I didn't have any chicken.  Lazy.

Well, we really enjoyed all of them.  Hubs loved the lox, death rocket, and NC rocket especially.  Make a bunch though, we went through them with a quickness.

Also, please share if you have a different recipe you go by!  I'd love to hear them.