Pear, Prosciutto and Goat Cheese

I loved this simple pictures are best pizza, although Alan felt it needed more cheese. Still, a successful integration of fruit and pizza!

Wine-soaked pears

Prosciutto, pears, green onion, goat feta....

Glory!

It's a Gouda Pizza!

About a month since our last post, and we're back with a seriously tasty pizza duo, both involving smoked gouda from Foxhill Cheese. Here's a couple of recipes so you can drool even more than you usually do when you visit this blog (NB: we use these more as inspiration than anything else):

Bacon and Smoked Gouda Pizza

Sweet Potato and Smoked Gouda Pizza

Interestingly enough, the dough tonight was possibly the stickiest, moistest dough I've ever made. Not sure if I put in too much liquid, or if the humidity from the tropical storm overhead was affecting it. Made for very spreadable crust, that's for sure!

Our glorious toppings.

I had a HAND in making this pizza.

We usually go for grated cheese. Discs of cheese work just as well!

Mere moments away from GETTIN' IN MA BELLY.

Not pictured: the wild mushroom and sage oil from Liquid Gold we put on this one. So effin' good!

Sweet Potato & Prosciutto with Roasted Garlic Spread

Tonight's pizza is brought to you by :

ROASTED GARLIC

In preparation, I roasted an enormous garlic bulb. I didn't think to get a picture of it before turning it into a spread however. You can kind of make it out in this picture :

Roasted garlic spread with sweet potato

I let the sweet potato slices sit in spicy olive oil while the garlic was roasting, hope that will give them a bit of a 'kick'.

And then some feta....

... and spinach...

Smoked prosciutto

Parmesan sprinkled liberally

Alan found this pizza a little dry, we'll add mozzarella next time! Still, very delicious flavours - not too garlic-y, nice spice to the potatoes, and smoked prosciutto is always a good choice :-)

BASIIIILLL!!!

Don't mention the war.

Tonight's exciting pizza experience included a staple herb of Italian cuisine... you guessed it, basil. We do have a basil plant furiously trying to grow into something substantial on our front porch, but until it does, we're using what we get in our Taproot share. Seems to work nicely enough!

Basil and garlic butter. Man, we could almost slap some cheese on here and call it a day.

But no, we like lots of stuff on our pizzas.

The onions were a last minute. I insisted. She relented. All was right with the world.

And voila! The finished product!

A thing of glory.

And a very successful pizza adventure it was, too. Very excited for the next one!

The pizza's afoot!

Spicy Sausage and Fennel Pizza

We don't normally follow a recipe for our pizzas, but we got a fennel bulb in our CSA from Taproot Farms and I thought I should see if we could use it in pizza.

The source for this recipe is Big Girls, Small Kitchen - I like their name, I like that they are entrepreneurs, and I like their recipes! Win-win-win!

First, we sliced and roasted the fennel bulb :

We didn't have any sausages on hand, and it's difficult to justify buying more meat when we get such excellent product in our CSA, so I decided to make my own spicy ground pork :

- 1 lb ground pork
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 4 crushed garlic cloves
- 3 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper
- 3 - 4 tsp paprika

I let it sit for a while before cooking it, to let the spices do their work, and then fried the meat.


Following the recipe, we used pizza sauce as a base, and topped it with feta (this was my idea, can't follow a recipe exactly after all!) and parmesan cheeses :

Out of the oven :

Nice flavour - spicy, but not too spicy. The fennel was good, and the saltiness of the feta set off the other flavours. I'm not personally a fan of tomato sauce, but Alan said it was excellent!

It's not easy being green....

We decided to take advantage of the fact that it was slightly cooler than 35˚C yesterday, and make some pizza. In our CSA box this week we received garlic scapes, fresh basil and cilantro, so I decided to turn all of it into a beautiful pesto... I am realizing that we might need to buy a food processor if I keep this up!

So very green!!

Topped with peppers, black olives, mushrooms, and Oktoberfest sausages from Longspell Point Farm.

Much more sparse in toppings than we generally do, but we didn't want any of the flavours to be overwhelming.

It smelled delicious while cooking, and looked glorious when it came out of the oven. 

YUM!

Good balance of flavours, and well-timed, as we're back to sweltering heat again today!

Banana Pancakes

Branching out a bit from dinner food, we have been indulging in some fairly spectacular brunches these days (I love being on vacation!)

The latest is Banana Pancakes. I got the recipe from Cassey Ho's blog.

Recipe :

1 mashed banana
2 eggs
2 Tbsp flour (optional)
1 tsp coconut oil, melted (optional)
cinnamon (optional)

Mush all together, and cook as you normally would cook pancakes - HOWEVER, they cake considerably less time to cook, so keep on eye on them!

We served ours with pecans that I had fried with some butter and pure maple sugar. Heavenly!

Smoked Salmon Salad

I know, I know. This is not pizza. However, it is delicious, and deserves to be shared with the world!

It's hot. Really hot. And so, I bring you : Smoked Salmon Pasta Salad with Avocado Dressing

Ingredients:
Brown Rice Pasta, cooked and cooled
Red & Green Peppers, diced
Garlic Scapes, finely chopped
Smoked Salmon, sliced

Dressing:
One ripe avocado
1 Tbsp sour cream
3 Tbsp olive oil

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

YUM YUM YUM!

Poached Eggs of Glory

So, it's vacation time, which means I have time to be creative in the kitchen. For brunch, I made this :

Spinach, coarsely chopped (although you could use any greens that you like)
Morsels of Smoked Salmon
Chunks of Avocado
Soft Poached Egg with Pepper
Multi-Grain Gluten Free Toast

Very, very delicious.

Greek Mutton Pizza

Our CSA from Taproot Farms is a constant source of new pizza ideas. Tonight, it was the ground mutton that caught my eye. Alan requested a Greek-style pizza, so here it goes!

I cooked the mutton and spiced it with ground cumin, cardamom and crushed red pepper, adding some frozen basil pesto and a bit of tomato sauce to give it some sticking power. 

Ground mutton base, drizzled with olive oil that I had let sit with crushed garlic and some chopped fresh mint. Next came red peppers, mushrooms, and a tiny bit of 4-cheese blend.

Feta, spinach, and the start of some grated mozzarella.

Just out of the oven...

Sliced and perfect!

Definitely one of our new favourites! 

The Almost Canada Day Pizza

It's almost Canada Day, pizza lovers! And what better way to celebrate Almost Canada Day than with a pizza featuring Meadowbrook Farms bacon and maple-caramelized onions? Plus olive tapenade and (of course) plenty of cheese, with a delightful red pepper maple leaf for decoration!

Mmmm, caramelized onions with maple syrup!

A delectation of ingredients: olive tapenade, bacon, criminis, green onion,
the onions pictured above, feta and CHUNKS of maple sugar. YUUUUUUM!

No, this is not a red Christmas tree. It's Almost Canada Day! ... so it's a maple leaf, ok?!

Cooked to splendour!

This is not pizza. Wasn't sure if you could tell there. Avocado and shrimp!
Again, I say YUUUUUUM!

Happy Almost Canada Day, everyone!

Iron (Man) Pizza

Tonight is movie night! And also pizza night! How do we have time for both, you ask?



No idea.




But here we go!

This pizza is slathered with olive oil that I steeped with crushed red peppers, parmesan and garlic for about 15 minutes before spreading it over the dough.

For toppings, we have:
- sweet potato
- leeks
- black olives
- spinach (get it? IRON pizza?? ahahahahaha!)
- bacon
- parmesan
- mozzarella

The veggies and bacon come from our share at Taproot Farms. The olives and cheeses.... do not.

Here it is going into the oven :

Iron Man 3 in t-minus 45 minutes. Pizza is delicious. Excellent combination of flavours.

GARLIC

Last night, we had pasta from The Noodle Guy. It was a beautiful gluten-free spaghetti with sautéed mushrooms, parmesan cheese and garlic. Lots of garlic. This pizza was inspired by that pasta!

In order to maximize the garlic content, I let some sit for about 15 minutes in the olive oil I used in the dough prior to mixing it in. Instead of a sauce, I used garlic-steeped olive oil. And then there were sautéed mushrooms, bacon, black olives, leeks and parmesan & mozzarella cheese. 

Here it is before going into the oven (and before the mozza) :

And here it is in all its cooked glory : 

Verdict : 

The Masque of the Red Pepper

Roasted red pepper, basil, and olive oil. Yes, you CAN blend it!

Once more unto the pizza, my friends, or shore up the wall with our... ok, that didn't go very far. But yes, the pizza blogging continues. This week, we whipped up a spicy red pepper sauce to go with some  roast chicken, plus spinach, shrooms, and the usually cheesy deliciousness.

The dough is, of course, our traditional recipe. Last time we made it (well, last time I made it, which is usually how it goes down) it was a little more spreadable, thanks to a little extra water added pre-knead. Problem with that is, it gets really sticky and goes all over your hands, and this man likes his hands... not with dough all over them.

I see you, dough, acting all saucy!

The roast chicken came from our Taproot Farms meat share. I don't think we've bought much in the way of meat from the grocery store since we started with them, which is great for hipster foodies like us who want to support local farmers.

The mushrooms (crimini and baby bellas) came from one of the lovely vendors at the Wolfville Farmer's Market, destination #1 for hipster foodies in the Valley. The only problem with the Market is that since everyone goes there, it's not really all that cool anymore. Too mainstream. Oh well.

A lovely bed of spinach... zzzzz

Some call it pizza... I call it ART.

ART. With chicken.

Less art, more CHEESE!

Ma belly. Get in it!

And yes, the title of this post IS an Edgar Allen Poe reference, thank you for noticing! :)