The Anti-Kallie Pizza

Last time we posted a pizza, it was an all-vegetarian affair. This week... is a little different.

Toppings :
pizza sauce
pesto
sundried tomato sausages
prosciutto
a whole lot of mushrooms
swiss chard

A pizza that Kallie would (not in a million years) love :-D

Vegging out with meatless pizza goodness

Alan, here! Once again, Friday night was pizza night, and last night's pizza was an more-or-less vegetarian affair, with not a bit of tasty cooked animal flesh to be seen. Thankfully there was enough cheesy goodness to help us get past that little hurdle!

First, I made the pizza dough, as I often do these days. I'm confident enough in my dough making skills to almost entirely avoid having Erin check my work, but I did end up having to double-check the amount of olive oil to put in! I have a memory like a sieve, what can I say? :p

Looks like it's rising pretty darn well, if you ask me! Next, Erin did up the last of the garlic scape pesto she made last year with a little butter. The smell was incredible!

We used that as the base for this pizza, along with a little store-bought pesto to spread it out a bit more.

Looking good so far! On top of that, we decided to put the rest of last week's swiss chard - it ended up being quite a pile, but much like spinach, it has a tendency to flatten under the heat. Feta cheese is always a nice addition, too.

Add a few manzanilla olives and chunks of sundried tomato...

Round it off with artichoke hearts...

Add some mozza on top to seal it all in and stick it in the oven!

MMMMMM!!!

If I was to do this again, ideally I'd swap out the swiss chard for spinach. We get so much good stuff from Taproot, though, it's nice to use it all up! It also goes without saying that bacon of some kind would also be involved, but that's just me standing on principle. Bacon, after all, makes everything better. :)

Pizza - You Can't Beet It!

Yes! Beets in our CSA box from Taproot Farms this week means beet pizza again! Hooray!

Here they are, attractively displayed by Alan :

He liked how one of the fronds was reaching up towards the camera...

We topped these beautiful pizzas with :

pesto
mushrooms
cherry tomatoes
sliced green olives stuffed with pimento
beets (surprise!)
crumbly feta cheese

And then with :

swiss chard

prosciutto

4-cheese blend

and mozza

Paired with a nice glass of Casillero del Diablo Merlot :

A highly successful evening!

Bruschetta Prosciutto

So. We moved. And then we made pizza! It was the first real meal we made in the new apartment, and it was a huge success.

First, pesto base :

Then we made a mixture of :
- cherry tomatoes
- green & black olives
- red onion
- feta cheese
- spicy olive oil

And spread it all around :

Alan chopped and placed green and orange bell peppers :

Then came the mushrooms :

And (what else?) 4-cheese blend :

Then prosciutto and slices of mozzarella :

First things ever to be cooked in this brand new oven!

I don't know if it was because we were so hungry and exhausted, but this pizza ranks among the top pizzas we have made. Absolutely delicious!

YUM.

Reunion Pizza!

Although we don't always blog about it, we make pizza EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. However, it has been over a month since we last made pizza together, as I went to England for three weeks, and then we both went to Choir Camp. This will be the last pizza we make in our current apartment, moving happens next week!

So, without further ado, I bring you this week's pizza :

First, we began with a pizza reunion!

Then we decided we should put something on the pizza ;-)

Throughout the process, we enjoyed some Getränke (beverages, for those who are not learning German with me on duolingo.com)

The Getränke :

This pizza has :
- pesto
- baby spinach
- kale (Taproot)
- green onion (Taproot)
- tomatoes Taproot)
- crimini mushrooms
- green, red & yellow bell peppers
- bacon (Meadowbrook Farm)
- mozzarella
- our go-to 4-cheese blend

The money/oven shot :

Spicy Greek Pizza

We had a gathering at our place on Thursday night, for which I made a delicious 7-layer dip. The dip included sliced black olives, and there were quite a few left over in the can. So we decided that this week should be a Greek-ish pizza.

I froze some of the garlic scape pesto I made last week, so we thawed some of that and heated it with some butter and diced onions to form our base. The first toppings to go on were calabrese salami (very spicy, as we discovered when we each grabbed a small piece from the cutting board!) and red peppers :

Next came sliced tomatoes (which I realize are not visible due to the mound of GREEN!), spinach and the infamous sliced black olives :

Finally, feta cheese and our standard 4-cheese blend :

Minus the calabrese salami, this would be a very delicious vegetarian pizza (we just really enjoy spicy meat!)

Garlic Scape Pesto with Mushrooms and Apple Wood Smoke Bacon

There have been a couple of pizzas in the past few weeks, but no time to write about them. However, today is officially my first day of summer vacation, and we made a special pizza to celebrate.

First, I made Garlic Scape Pesto

Ingredients

• 1 pound garlic scapes, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 1/4 cups grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• ground black pepper to taste
• 
  
• Directions

1. Blend the garlic scapes, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, lemon juice, and pepper together in a food processor until smooth.

I added our own homemade spicy olive oil as well. It took some doing (i.e. I started in the blender, then transfered to the hand-cranked food processor, and finished in the blender...) but the result is well worth it! Such a delectable smell!

Alan made our standard dough, and we topped it with :


- the pesto
- three types of mushroom (button, crimini and portabello) 
- thinly sliced radishes
- chopped bacon from Martock Glen Farm which came in our meat share from Taproot this week. 


Finished off with mozzarella and the 4-cheese blend we are so fond of (provolone, parmesan, asiago and fontina). 

Before cooking :

And after - YUM : 

As I said, we have made a couple of pretty spectacular pizzas over the past few weeks.... it seems a shame not to share them!

Pesto (store-bought basil), kale, green onion, prosciutto, feta cheese, 4-cheese blend and mozza :

Pizza sauce, red peppers, yellow peppers, asparagus, pepperoni and mozza : 

Stinging Nettles Are Good!

Last week in our share, we received Stinging Nettles, along with strict instructions not to touch them before cooking. I decided that using them as part of this week's pizza would be a good plan, as I wasn't sure what else to do with them. And then, while buying some delicious samosas at the Farmer's Market, it hit me - nettles IN THE CRUST!!

I made my regular pizza dough recipe, but instead of adding a full cup of warm water, I did 3/4 of a cup of water mixed with freshly steamed nettles. The result was a big hit :

Topped with :

- pizza sauce

- bacon

- fiddleheads

- red peppers

- mushrooms

- feta cheese

- mozza

YUM! I will definitely make this crust again!

Fiddleheads Are In Season

So, I've been feeling quite under the weather for the past week or so - sinus infections are no fun! But I'm on antibiotics, and hope to be feeling better soon. In the meantime, Alan took the lead on pizza making this week.

In our share from Taproot Farm last week, we received a baggie full of freshly picked fiddleheads and some lovely beet greens. We've also bought into their meat share this year, and got some delicious pork tenderloin chops. I cooked those up on the weekend, but we didn't end up eating them, so I cubed them and added them to the pizza ingredients.

For your viewing pleasure, we have the following components :
- pesto base
- beet greens sautéed with onions and garlic in homemade spicy olive oil
- green and red bell peppers
- steamed fiddleheads
- cubed pork tenderloin
- parmesan and mozzarella cheeses

Here it is before cooking :

And right after coming out of the oven :

Scrumptious!

Porterhouse Steak

We're back - this time without pizza (but with something equally delicious!)

This year, we are once again receiving a community shared agriculture box from the lovely people at Taproot Farms. We decided that we would buy into their meat share this year as well - and we're very glad we did! 

This week : Garlic and parmesan roasted fingerling potatoes, broiled porterhouse steak in a whiskey marinade, spinach salad with homemade dressing (and a glass of red wine)

Fingerling potatoes :

Wash.

Toss to coat in a mixture of olive oil, garlic powder, salt and parmesan cheese.

Place in a baking tray and bake at 400F for about 35 minutes (test with a fork). Shake the pan a few times to keep the potatoes coated in oil.

They should come out looking like this :

Spinach salad :

washed spinach

slice boiled egg

bacon

homemade vinaigrette (Alan makes excellent vinaigrettes and dressings - this one is olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard powder, salt and pepper)

Porterhouse steak in whiskey marinade :

1/2 c whiskey

1/3 c brown sugar

1/4 c soy sauce

salt

pepper

garlic powder

I wanted to do the steak on the BBQ, since it's beautiful outside, but the charcoal briquettes I have are from last summer, and they just wouldn't light. Next time! I cooked the steak under the broiler instead, and it came out very nicely.

Pair with Copper Moon's Shiraz. Yum!

        

Update : Oh. My. Goodness. Best. Steak. Of. Life.

Sometimes the best pizza is surprise pizza

This past weekend, there was no pizza night. I was away from Friday after school until Sunday night, in rehearsals for Xara's next big show "Wail". I did have some pizza, at the Heartwood Café in Halifax (which was really super delicious), but it wasn't quite the same.

On my way home this evening, thinking about what to have for supper since Alan was in a Vocal Ensemble rehearsal until 7pm, I decided to take the time to make pizza by myself. When Alan walked in and saw the pizzas ready to go in the oven, the look on his face was reward enough for having prepared the pizza solo this time around.

I made herbed dough this time, which was just my regular dough recipe plus some garlic powder and dried basil. Then I spread it with pesto and topped it with :

- red and green bell peppers
- portabello mushrooms
- bacon
- beets
- kale
- goats' cheese
- mozza

It is cooking right now, and smells divine. Hooray for mid-week pizza adventures!