Apple, Cheddar and Sage Pizza

After a few harrowing days of packing, we are settled here in Utah! Hooray!  Fox and I arrived the middle of last week, and were greeted with blue skies, a friendly dog and great weather, which was appreciated after the 90 degree days in Texas.  

We found ourselves a little park close to my in-law's house, and Fox quickly made himself at home by chucking pine cones off the playscape and crawling all over.

I have spent my downtime throwing a beach ball to Fox, playing the piano (also with Fox), making sure Fox doesn't fall down the stairs, and re-reading Harry Potter for the 15th time.  It has been great.  I am really looking forward to this summer!    

Speaking of summer, I think everyone needs a few fast dinners for warm summer nights.  This pizza is a breeze, especially if you make the crust ahead of time and freeze it.  Just pull it out of the freezer the morning you want to use it and leave it in the fridge to thaw.  You can pull it out of the fridge an hour or so before you want to use it, or just defrost it for a few seconds in the microwave when you are ready to pull it out.  

It is so fast, and super good!  Hope you are all enjoying your long weekend! 

Apple, Cheddar and Sage Pizza

1/4- 1/2  sweet apple (I like Pink Lady or Fuji), thinly sliced
1 - 1 1/2 cups freshly shredded cheddar cheese
2 tsp dried sage
1 pizza crust (I use this crust recipe and I love it!)

Roll out your pizza crust.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Evenly space apples across the surface.  Sprinkle sage evenly over the pizza.

Cook in an oven preheated to 475°F for 10 minutes.  Remove, let cool for just a minute, then serve hot!

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Two Potato Parmesan Pizza

Maybe you saw Monday's post, but I would REALLY LOVE if you went and voted for me every day on the Mrs. Meyer's Maker Semi-Finalist Website! All you have to do is click the heart next to my name (Landen M) and it records your vote!  Thanks in advance!  You are the best!

Now onto the actual post for today!  I have been thinking a lot about food lately.  This shouldn't surprise you, considering this is (mostly) cooking blog, but lately I have been thinking about the process of buying food.  A few years ago, I started an Etsy shop and sold reusable produce bags (I actually sold a bunch of different things, but I closed my Etsy shop down a few months ago, and transferred it to an Instagram account if you want to take a look.  I don't update it very often).

I always felt a little weird trying to explain what they were or how to use them, but I really believed in them then, and now.  After I made my own, I got a little lazy and would think, "how much difference will my 12 produce bags and 4 grocery totes a week make?" Then I would remind myself that I go to the store at least 52 times per year, which comes out to 832 plastic bags that I didn't bring home.  That is significant.

There are a lot of green living movements sweeping the nation right now, and I have gotten caught up in some of them, but I really feel like the ones that I have tried out have benefited my life.
Obviously the reducing waste movement is one of them, but the other one that I have been pretty fascinated by is the local food movement.

Does it ever strike you how weird it is to get oranges from half-way around the world when they are grown 30 miles away from you (well, maybe not you, but they're grown that close to me)?  I usually don't think much about it, but a few months ago, I checked out a book about purchasing local food and not spending a fortune doing it.  The author's words got me out to a farmer's market, and I kept having persistent little thoughts about what more I could do to go local.

Finally I bit the bullet and decided to do a CSA (a subscription box of veggies from local farm) a few weeks ago.  We did one a few years ago, but I always felt like it was tough to use all the vegetables, and some of the vegetables just didn't appeal to me.  On the other hand, there were a few veggies that I really came to love (red cabbage, kale, and colored carrots, to name a few).  I got to try out new things that I would never have picked up on my own and had to figure out how to use them (scary, but fun!).

I finally figured that I needed to put my money where my mouth was, even if it meant making some sacrifices (local fresh food will more than make up for the sacrifice!).  We have a small food budget, which meant some trimming in a few areas, because our CSA portion takes up a lot of it.  One of the main foods that we decided to cut out is meat.  We eat about 80% vegetarian anyway, but we decided that for the next 6 months, we will be eating vegetarian at home.  Meat is expensive.  And nice, organic, locally-raised meat is very expensive.  So you will be seeing lots more vegetarian dishes.

The one great thing about vegetarian dishes is that they are usually super easy to add meat to!  I will probably start suggesting what kind of meat to serve with a certain dish if you have meat lovers in your home.  I am going to try to start adding vegan, gluten free options as well.  Hopefully this will help anyone who has dietary restrictions!

Two Potato Parmesan Pizza
makes 1 medium pizza

1 pizza crust
3 Tbs olive oil
1 large sweet potato, thinly sliced
1 large red potato, thinly sliced
2 Tbs unsalted butter
1 Tbs white flour
1/6 cup whole milk
1/8 tsp garlic powder
sprinkle of salt and pepper (to taste)
2 Tbs shredded parmesan cheese
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
liberal sprinkling of rosemary
light sprinkle of coarse sea salt
Sprinkle of cornmeal for your parchment paper (optional)


Pour 1 Tbs of olive oil into a large frying pan.  Heat over medium for 20-30 seconds, then, pick up the frying pan, and tilt it to spread the oil around.  Add as many potato pieces to the pan as will fit and arrange them so that none of them are overlapping.  Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the potatoes begin to soften and begin to have brown spots.  Flip them over and cook for another 2 minutes.  Once they are soft, remove them from the heat and set aside.  Repeat with remaining potato and sweet potato until all are cooked.  Set aside.

Roll out your pizza dough on parchment paper or a silicone mat that has been lightly sprinkled with cornmeal.

In a frying pan, melt your butter. Slowly sprinkle the flour over and stir until it is completely mixed into the butter. Slowly add the whole milk, stirring constantly. Add the garlic powder, salt, pepper and parmesan, stirring to mix them in evenly. Heat through and remove from heat when the cheese is melted.  Spread this white sauce over the pizza dough in a thin, even layer.

Put cooked potatoes in a single layer on the crust alternating red potato and sweet potato, overlapping slightly.

Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese, rosemary and finish with sea salt.

Cook on a hot pizza stone in an oven preheated to 425°F for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are browning and the cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

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Thai Chicken Pizza With Amazing Peanut Sauce

Gosh, I love pizza.  I make it all the time, and often experiment with new recipes, but over the last month or two, every new pizza combination I have tried has been lousy. I tried things that I thought would taste great, and they didn't, and things that I didn't think would be exciting and they weren't.  Overall, my pizza making has been very sad. 

After all these frustrating experiments, I decided to make a Thai Chicken Pizza.  I have tried 2 or 3 different Thai pizza recipes over the years and they were all disappointing.  Most of them were missing the pop of flavor that I was looking for, or they were super dry. I had almost given up hope of being able to make a good one.

 I didn't have high hopes for this one, but it knocked my socks off with its incredible flavor and great toppings!  The toppings are pretty normal for this type of pizza, but the sauce is really what takes this pizza over the top.  It is spectacularly good, and this recipe is definitely worth pinning right now.  If you don't make it tonight, you should make it tomorrow.  It is that good.  I think we will probably make this once a month for the next 50 years or so, and I will look forward to it every. single. time. 

Thai Chicken Pizza with Amazing Peanut Sauce
Makes 1 medium sized pizza (feeds 3-4)

Pizza:  

2 chicken thighs, thinly sliced
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp white sugar
1 white crust (I make this recipe, use half the dough, and freeze the other half for later)
1/2 red pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 small carrot, halved and thinly sliced
2 cups Monterey Jack cheese, finely shredded
2 Tbs cilantro leaves
1/8 cup of peanut sauce (see recipe below)

First prepare your chicken thighs, by placing them in a small, foil-lined pan. Space them out evenly, so that no pieces are touching.  Mix your pepper, salt garlic and sugar in a small bowl, and evenly sprinkle them over the thighs.  Set your oven to a low broil, and cook for about 8 minutes on one side.  If there is any raw pink showing, cook for another minute or two, then flip the strips over, and let cook on the other side for another 2-3 minutes.

On a silpat mat or parchment paper, sprinkle cornmeal in a thin layer across the surface.  Roll your crust out on the mat, the final crust should be about just over 1/4 of an inch.

Top with sauce (see recipe below), then cover with shredded cheese.  Top the cheese with red pepper and carrot slices, and dot the top with cilantro leaves.

Bake on a hot pizza stone in an oven preheated to 425°F for 10-12 minutes.  Check after 10 minutes, and remove once the crust is starting to turn golden brown.  Let cool for 3-5 minutes, then enjoy!

Peanut Sauce:
adapted slightly from Gimme Some Oven
Makes enough to spread on the pizza and some left over for dipping the pizza in.

2 Tbs smooth natural peanut butter
1/4 can coconut milk
2 tsp soy sauce
3 Tbs yellow curry paste (I like this curry paste)
1 tsp vinegar
2 tsp water
heavy sprinkle of garlic powder

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat for about 3 minutes.  Stir constantly until it comes to a simmer, then remove from heat.

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BBQ Chicken Pizza with Bacon and Onions

School starts tomorrow for Adam.  Sadly, this means that our fabulous summer, spent as a family, is over.  After our trip to France, French cooking adventures at home, afternoons at the pool and lots of walks to the library this summer, Fox and I will now be alone during the days, missing Daddy.  

After Fox was born, Adam and I joked that we both wanted to be stay-at-home parents, because we love spending time as a family, and this summer that was pretty close to true!  Adam worked on the study abroad, but much of that included all three of us.  When we got back, he worked from home most days, and so we got to spend more time together. 

My family has always been the most important thing in my life, but with a family growing from two to three, the significance of being together and sharing moments has become more special to me. Parenthood is hard and somewhat different than I expected, but there is nothing that I love more than my little family.  I hope you're all squeezing your little ones tight as they start school again!  

Because of school starting, many of you might need another tasty, easy meal to whip together on those busy nights with homework and extra-curricular activities.  This isn't the fastest pizza I have ever made, but it is easy, and you could totally adapt it to be quicker (cook chicken and onions with BBQ sauce in the crockpot, and cook your bacon in the microwave).  And it is fantastic.  Lots of cheesy goodness with bacon and a slightly spicy BBQ sauce. It is sure to be a hit with your entire family!  A perfect way to start off the school year!  

BBQ Chicken Pizza with Bacon and Onions:
makes 1 medium-sized pizza

1 pizza crust (I make this recipe every time and freeze half the dough for the next time I make pizza.  If you are feeding a family, I suggest making the full dough and then doubling the toppings and making two pizzas.)
1/2 onion, diced
4 pieces of bacon
1 Tbs olive oil
1 large chicken breast, cut in half, then sliced
3/4 cup BBQ sauce, divided
1 cup finely shredded, sharp cheddar cheese
1 tsp cornmeal

Put your bacon in a frying pan and cook until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crispy.  Remove the crispy bacon and add the diced onion to the bacon fat.  Cook until the onions are soft and translucent.  Remove onions, set aside.  Once the bacon has cooled, rip it up into bite sized pieces.

Wipe the residual bacon grease out of the frying pan and add the chicken and about 1 Tbs olive oil.  Cook over medium heat until the chicken is just barely cooked through and then add 1/2 cup BBQ sauce right before you pull the chicken off the heat.  Stir until the chicken is coated evenly with BBQ sauce.

Now, sprinkle cornmeal on a silicone baking mat.  Roll out your pizza crust and take 1/4 cup of BBQ sauce and spoon it over the crust.  Spread out with the back of the spoon until it evenly coats the crust.  Begin placing chicken and onions evenly across the top of the crust.  Then sprinkle your cheese over the chicken. Top with bacon bits.

Cook in an oven preheated to 425°F for 8-10 minutes, or until the crust is golden around the edges and the cheese is melted.

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Pan-Fried Pizza

As we prepared to leave the US,  I kept thinking about the things that I would miss the most.  And topping the list were friends, peanut butter, and pizza.  I love pizza, and I was very sad to leave behind homemade pizza for seven weeks.  

Our first week in Lyon, I suggested to Adam that we try a pan-fried pizza.  I figured you make fry bread and tortillas on the stove, so why not pizza.  Be warned, it is definitely not the same as pizza from the oven, but will certainly do in a pinch and is quite tasty!

We made a few variations including a margarita type with tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella, a lardon (a cut of meat that is similar to bacon) and crème fraîche (sort of like sour cream) pizza, and a cheese and sun-dried tomato pizza.  Each had its merits, but after several trail runs, we found that on each one, a thicker sauce works best.

Pan-Fried Pizza:

Pizza dough
Sauce
Toppings
Cheese

Start by rolling out your pizza dough into a circle that is about 8 - 10" in diameter (depending on your frying pan size) heating a little oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.  Move the pan around until the oil coats the bottom of the pan.

Place the rolled dough in the pan and let it cook for about 2 minutes, or until it begins to brown on the bottom.

Flip the dough and add your toppings, starting with the sauce, adding the toppings, then finishing with the cheese.

Let it cook for about 3 more minutes until the crust begins to brown on the bottom and the cheese starts to melt.  Remove from pan and serve immediately.

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