Eating Dinner With My Family

I know I have been neglecting the blog.  Partly, I've lost momentum on new recipes, partly, it's because I have had a proper job for the last 8 months, and partly because I just don't want the extra fuss at dinner time.  If I do make a new recipe, I'll post it here, but I'm not shooting for more than one a week.  I also want to re do the look and organization of the blog. We will see how much I actually get done ;).  In the mean time we had this pizza tonight.  I think I liked it best, but everyone enjoyed it. Bacon-and-Egg Pizza   6 ounces thick-sliced bacon, cut crosswise into 1/3-inch lardons 4 large eggs 1 tablespoon heavy cream Kosher salt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter All-purpose flour, for dusting 1 pound pizza dough 1/3 cup crème fraîche 3 ounces Brie, thinly sliced (with rind, if desired) 2 ounces fresh mozzarella, shredded Snipped chives, for garnish 1. Set a pizza stone in the oven and preheat the oven to 50...

This pizza is one of my family's favorites.   Pizza is always easy, and fast, and popular with the kiddies. The pesto is nice and my son likes it on just regular cheese pizza too.  I use a potato masher to smush up the tomatoes a bit, that way there aren't the possibility of  little tomato explosions waiting to happen on your pizza.   It looks like I am giving another gift to the family, a lot of repeats :).  Maybe in the new year, we will have more that one a week.  Oh one more thing, I make this as one large pizza not a bunch of  small ones. Pizza with Charred Tomatoes and Pesto 3/4 lb cherry tomatoes 1/4 c  panko (Japanese bread crumbs) 2    garlic cloves,thinly sliced 1    shallot,thinly sliced 5    basil leaves,torn 2 T  extra-virgin olive oil Salt and freshly ground pepper 1 lb Pizza Dough 3/4 c  coarsely grated aged Gouda (3 ounces) 6 T...

I have improvised a white pizza before, but I thought I would follow an actual recipe this time for Meatless Monday.  It was pretty good!.  I think I would have liked some greens in there somewhere.  Adding cooked spinach to the white sauce, or finely shredding some for on top to just wilt with the heat of the pizza would make it more to my liking, but the boys liked it as is, and so to did the baby girl.  I didn't bother with making the dough, and I didn't go to the local NY style pizza place to get their dough, I went to the Publix bakery because it is the easiest for me.  If you are feeling like making the effort, please do make your dough from scratch! New York-Style White Pizza   1 New York-Style Pizza Dough ball 12 ounces (recipe follows, or buy one) Unbleached high-gluten or bread flour cornmeal, or semolina flour for dusting 1 1/2 Cup ricotta cheese 1/4 Tsp salt 1/4 Tsp dried or chopped fresh thyme 1/8 Tsp coarsely ground black pepper 1...

We have another first for me in my Front Porch Pickings basket, tatsoi.  I have had it mixed in to a variety of organic salad greens I have gotten from the store, but never all by its self.  So, I turned to my trusty Field to Feast book, and found this recipe for Potato and Tatsoi Pizza.  I didn't make the dough that was in the book, we were at a corn maze all day, but other than that, I followed the recipe exactly even though it cooked the pizza very differently than I do.  The result, the crust was a disaster, but the potato/tatsoi/ricotta combination was really great.  I think if I sliced the potatoes just a tad thinner on the mandoline, I could bake it for less time at 550 like I normally do and the potatoes will get done and crust would be better.  Then this would be really excellent!  We enjoyed dinner despite the uber crunchy bottom crust (the ends of the crust were hard like stale bread).  Also there was plenty of potatoes left....

I gave my husband a list of possible dinners for tonight and he chose this one.  I, for one was totally happy he did!  I couldn't find truffled pecorino cheese.  My local wine and cheese shop, The Ormond Wine Co. had one at one time, but they said they had been having trouble getting it in so, I did the next best thing.  I used truffle oil in place of the olive oil that got brushed on the dough as the "sauce" layer.  We only had one issue, and it was my fault.  It said season with salt and pepper, and I was thinking that as the leeks and lamb would be the only place with seasoning, I should season liberally.  I forgot to take into account that the pecorino is very salty, so the end product was a bit salty.  Even with the over seasoning, it was really great. I cooked the pizza a bit longer and only made one pizza rather than the small ones.  I also only used a pound of pizza dough, so I had some leftover toppings.  The toppings come off e...

I was making a slew of different pizzas for the family tonight.  And while most of them were made before, I did have one new one, this Alsatian Pizza.  I liked it much more than I thought I would.  I didn't make it exactly like the original recipe.  If you are interested in seeing that, follow the link, but I made it the way I typed it out here.  Alsatian Pizza   1 Lb pizza dough 1 Tbl plus 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil 1/2 Cup fromage blanc or fresh ricotta 1 Tbl all-purpose flour 1/2 Cup crème fraîche or sour cream Salt and freshly ground pepper 1/4 Lb thickly sliced smoky bacon cut crosswise into 1/4-inch strips 1 medium onion thinly sliced 1. Put a pizza stone in the oven and preheat it to 500 2. Roll out dough in to a large thin circle 3. In a food processor, pulse the fromage blanc until smooth. Add the flour, crme frache and the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and process until smooth.~ 4. In...

The war on food clutter was forgotten about until the fridge fired the first shot in our renewed conflict.  I am refusing to cook anything that isn't mostly using up stuff I have!  Not all have been great, but this one was!  I think you could use creamed spinach too, but the spinach from the eggs was amazing and as we only had 3 eating the recipe, we had some left.  I was worried when I took the pizza out that I had ruined it as the cream had returned to liquid, but it was great! White Spinach Pizza 1 lb pizza dough 1/2 cup of spinach and sauce from mollet eggs florentine 1/4 cup ricotta 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream 1/2 shallot thinly sliced Salt, pepper & garlic 3 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced thinly 4 oz Mozzarella, shredded  Put the pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 500 degrees. When the stone has been in the 500 degree oven about 15 minutes, start rolling out you dough to roughly a 18" circle (or to the size of your stone) Put the ric...

My husband wants to know what's up with this putting salad on pizza.  We have only done a few, and most of the time they are topped with arugula.  I don't really consider arugula a "salad".   I love arugula and it make my salad but it is more like spinach to me.  This pizza was very good!  I was afraid there wasn't enough of the garlic paste (and truth be told I would have liked a bit more) but it was really great.  The dough rolled that thin made it almost like a cracker, the garlic paste was heaven and I plan on figuring out other ways to use it so we can have it often, and every bite made me happy.  Even the boy loved it. (he ate 6 pieces!!) Roasted-Garlic Pizza With Bacon And Arugula   1 head of garlic separated into unpeeled cloves 3 Tbl extra-virgin olive oil 4 anchovy fillets 1 Tbl oregano leaves 1/4 Tsp crushed red pepper 3 ounces thickly sliced bacon cut into 1/4-inch dice All-purpose flour for dusting 1 Lb fresh or...

So, if you follow the link to the original recipe, you will see I changed it a bit.  Biggest change, was that I cooked it the way I cook pizza, and not for 20 minutes at a lower temperature.  Also I changed the  frisée to mixed salad greens.  (because I don't care much for it, it is pricey and they didn't have it at publix)  I also tweaked the amounts a bit.  I increased the dough by 1/4 lb and used less mustard than they recommended for the 3/4 lb pizza.  I also added a pinch of the mustard to the dressing but still had about 1.5 tsp. left that I didn't use. Oh and I used garden variety Swiss cheese instead of Jarlsberg.  My husband was looking at me like I was crazy while I was making this, but he had to admit that the smell of bacon cooking and then shallots was pretty wonderful.  I thought  the 1/4 cup mustard called for was a bit excessive, but I measured out that amount and then spread it on the dough from...

I have had a lot of fun blogging the past 18 months or so but  I enjoyed trying all these new recipe (and revisiting some oldies), but also I love that I have found a lot of cool people with cool food blogs. (although I am annoyed with my phone for making it impossible to comment on the blogs, and I rarely use the computer) I tried a recipe tonight from a blog I love, and suggest you check out: Happy Valley Chow .  I knew this recipe seemed made for my husband.  With the exception of blue cheese, every ingredient is one he loves, its PIZZA, he went to Penn State and he loves the Rolling Stones.  I am not a fan of sweet and savory (nor apples in particular) but I thought this might be something I would like too.  It was quite good.  My husband and son loved it; I liked it despite the fact it had apples on it.  I personally would have liked a tad more cheese, but I did go light on...

Ok, tonight's pizza was an improv and not resounding success I had hoped.  It tasted good, but while the picture at the top of the post is showing the pizza in its best possible light, the entire pizza was a bit of a monstrosity. (the pizza in all it's grotesque glory can be seen at the end of the post)  Why?  Well, let me start at the beginning.  My son has a friend over tonight as we have an early date with a ropes & zip line course.  I always try to not suffer the little children to eat what is not friendly to most kids palates, and this particular friend likes things plain to boot, so I was making the boys a plain cheese pizza.  For the second, adult, pie, I decided to try and clean up some of the stuff I had floating around the fridge.  I decided to use up the rest of the ricotta from a lasagna I made recently.  Also because it was the grown up version, I decided to try making it flat bread thin.  That began my jo...

Day 7 of the war on food clutter, and today's recipe doesn't even count as hit.  I decide to tackle the newly promoted fridge combatant, harissa, again.  Why isn't this really an effective attack?  Well, the harissa is like a hot sauce, and will keep in there a while, and we eat hot sauce on a lot of things and this is a tasty one.  So, I am not really getting rid of anything I am letting clutter up my kitchen as a useless ingredient.  I refuse to say it wasn't a clean up recipe, just not an effective one.  I like the pizza tonight, but I wasn't really wowed.  It might be that I am not the biggest fan of sausage.  The boys seemed to like it.  The BLT last night was so much better.  I like the topping of the pizza with the arugula.  It was nice.  I don't think this really qualifies as pizza.  There is no, cheese.  It looked like a pizza but it is really more of an open face sandwich.  I feel a little cruel....

I haven't had Thai Chicken Pizza in quite a while. I loved it then. I wasn't really a big fan of this recipe. It reminded me of that recipe I enjoyed so many years ago, but it just wasn't as good. It had a lot of the right flavors but not in the right proportions. The sauce was way too sweet, thick and rich. I even used much less than the recipe called for but it was too much. I cheated a bit and bought deli chicken tenders and the breading was good at absorbing and taming the sauce's overwhelming flavors.  I also discovered that for the first time in how long, I didn't have scallions, so I used thinly sliced onion.  It wasn't horrible, but I don't see us making this particular recipe in the future.  I have a different recipe for a Thai peanut sauce that I think would taste better.  My husband like it better than I did, so maybe I am being a little harsh. California Pizza Kitchen Thai Chicken Pizza Spicy peanut sauce   1/2 cup peanut butter 1/2...

Tonight's pizza is most definitely a favorite!  The  recipe was adapted from Alton Brown's grilled pizza three ways.   Our previous attempts at grilling pizza were a tad frustrating, so I played around with the recipe a bit and baked it in the oven.  I love Alton's recipes and he said this was his favorite pizza topping in the show I was watching, but I still was thinking about the sweet dates.  I keep saying I don't like sweet and savory, but it seems that that is really not true.  Everyone in the family adored this pizza. We would be eating and talking and all of a sudden someone would say man this really good or make the yummy sound!   Date and Prosciutto Pizza 1 lb pizza dough 7 ounces fresh mozzarella,cut  into 1/4-inch thick slices 1-2  teaspoons olive oil 1/2-ounce grated Parmesan 1 ounce prosciutto ham approximately 3 slices, coarsely chopped 4 whole dates,pitted and finely chopped 1t  fresh thyme leaves...

I have no idea where this came from and I'm sorry about that because the recipe leads me to believe it was from a blog.  If I ever find out, I will link to there, however I did change it a bit.  The idea was solid, but the amounts were somewhat vague, I had to wing it a bit.  The recipe below is what I copied from somewhere, and the stuff in parentheses is what I actually did.  I really liked it.  It was smoky, tasty and a bit different.  It is certainly economical and fast. Smoky Pizza 1  Pizza Dough,Unbaked    (1 LB) 1/4 c  Ricotta,Fluffy           (3/4 cup mixed with 3-4 dashed of liquid smoke) 3/4 c  Mozzarella,Smoked  (couldn't find smoked so used regular and added smoke to the ricotta) Ham                             ...

Ok attempt two at grilling pizza!  It was so much more successful this time.  We went to the opposite end of the spectrum as far as toppings.  These were minimal in the extreme, and this recipe didn't call for the flipping of the dough.  There were still some issues.  There were parts that were "extra" charred.  When that started to happen, we turned down the heat and closed the lid to make sure that the top part of the dough cooked and the cheese melted. I enjoyed the pizza, and my husband liked it much better than last nights.  I absolutely hate burnt anything, but the blackened spots were pretty good.  (they were spread out)  Only advice I can give is be extra attentive to how much salt you put on, its easy to over do it, and be mindful of how well you spread out the red pepper flakes.  I thought, that with a nice salad, this was a really great meal.   Grilled White Pizza  1    (8-ounce) ball prepared pizz...

It's Monday and we are trying to do Meatless Mondays.  While we have had at least one day a week in the past that has meatless dinners, we are making an effort to have the entire day be meatless. (for the kids when possible)  I decided I wanted to do something I have always wanted to try, grilling pizza.  My husband scoffed at the idea of grilling pizza. (He scoffed at the idea of grilled romaine too, but he loved it)  My husband was not as enamored with this pizza as he was with the grilled romaine.  I can attribute this to two reasons.  1) He has an aversion to the texture of raw tomatoes, and these were lightly cooked.  2) He did the actual grilling.  Its Florida and it's summer; it is hot sweaty work, which is why I happily took him up on his offer to do the grilling.  I prepped everything he needed and gave it to him as needed:)  There were some logistical issues with the grilling that really needed some familiarity with the process...

Pizza night again:)  Although I do feel calling this pizza is a bit of a stretch.  Not that it wasn't yummy, but the cheese was hidden among the dressing on the salad.  I loved poached eggs and they did make a lovely addition to the salad.  I think a bit more egg would have been nice.  I think next time I will poach an extra egg or two and cut them up in the salad.  That way, there is some of the lovely yolk in every  bite. Pizza With Pancetta, Poached Eggs And Arugula Salad 1 lb frozen pizza dough,thawed 3 T  extra-virgin olive oil 1/4 t  chopped rosemary 4    ounces thinly sliced  pancetta 2 T  fresh lemon juice 4    large eggs 2 T  freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese Salt and freshly ground pepper 2 bn of arugula (1/2 pound) thick stems discarded 1. Set a pizza stone on the bottom of the oven and preheat the oven to 500. 2. On a lightly floured work surface, stretch and roll...

No one was excited about these toppings but me.  I think I made some converts;).  One issue, the artichoke hearts.  I didn't squeeze them dry, and the layers of the artichoke hearts held some water.  I had to blot dry spots of the pizza.  Despite the excess of water, a really tasty combination of flavors.  We did NOT try to make it half calzone as stated in the recipe.  It was a geometrical conundrum that we said, fudge it and make it as a pizza only. I guess if we were making personal pizzas the part calzone would have made sense.  It was good with out it. Pizza Vesuvio With The Works 1/2 c  frozen artichoke hearts thawed, sliced  Extra-virgin olive oil Salt and freshly ground pepper 1/2 lb pizza dough,thawed if frozen  All-purpose flour,for dusting 1/2 c  fresh ricotta (4 ounces) 3/4 lb fresh mozzarella,cut into 1-inch cubes 2    ounces thinly sliced baked ham,cut into 1-inch  strips 2 ...