Episode 109 - Punctually Festive

I am a big giant Christmas keener.  I had originally intended to save the holiday decorating until after American Thanksgiving, but I had a few days off last week and I just couldn't wait anymore!  Dawson came home from work to a fully Christma-fied house!  Everything is red, gold and sparkly! Yes!

In any case, today's recipe is almost completely unrelated to Christmas, although when I asked Dawson how I could relate the two in some sort of quirky segue his response was "Well, the sauce was red and the crust was golden!".  Good one Daws!  Let's go with that!

Red and Gold Pizza Calzones
(serves 2)

2 personal-sized pizza doughs (we used this recipe)
1/2 cup of your favourite  pizza sauce (we used this recipe)
12 thin slices of spicy salami
1/2 cup spicy marinated eggplant
3/4 cup shredded mozarella cheese
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 F.  Roll out your pizza dough as if you were just making 2 mini pizzas.  Top the dough with sauce, salami, eggplant and cheese leaving about 1/2 inch ring of crust naked around the outside of each one.  Next, carefully stretch and fold your topped dough into a half moon shape.  Press the edges together, trying to keep as much of the filling inside the moon as possible.  Seal your edges together by squishing them down with a fork.  Don't skip this step - Dawson did and his calzone was more like a taco...a calzaco!  Ok, now transfer the half moons onto a greased baking sheet, brush the tops with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper.   Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, or until they're nice a golden.  Now eat!

While you eat your delicious pizza-like creation, check out this picture of my Christmas-y home!

Ooo glittery reindeer!

More Christmas-y photos to come...you know, in December when they're actually appropriate!

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Episode 75 - Hangry

Men are so funny.  Every now and then while cooking dinner, Dawson gets in this mood.  Its's kinda like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing.  Hyde-Dawson stomps around the kitchen, slams doors, and curses under his breath at inanimate objects.  Hyde-Dawson is basically angry at the kitchen.  Not at me, not at Roxie, but at the kitchen.  This isn't the funny part though.  The funny part is that he goes back to being Jekyll-Dawson as soon as he eats something.  Like...immediately.  The term I have coined for this odd behaviour is "hangry" - hungry + angry = hangry.  

Dawson was especially hangry last night while we were making this:

Look at the gooey cheese!  You want this in your belly.

Pizza Roll-up

1 prepared pizza dough (we use this one)  

1 cup shredded fresh mozzarella cheese

9 or 10 slices hot Genoa salami

1/2 green pepper, diced

5 or 6 kalamata olives, diced

1/2 cup fresh baby spinach

a sprinkling of spicy eggplant

1 tsp olive oil

salt and pepper

1 cup prepared pizza sauce (we use Dawson's)

First, preheat the oven to 425 and roll out your dough as you normally would to make a pizza.  Top with everything except the sauce.  Like this ------->

  

Now starting with the end closest to you, start rolling the dough kinda like sushi.  Don't worry about making it too tight.  Once you have something that looks like a delicious pizza-topping-filled log tuck the ends underneath.  Brush your log with the oil and season with the salt and pepper.  Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the outside gets nice and golden brown.

  To serve, slice into about 8 pieces (again, like giant sushi) with the sauce alongside for dipping!  I originally got the idea to make this kinda thing from watching Giada DeLaurentiis on the Food Network.  It's genius, no?

After getting some pizza log into his belly Dawson went back to being Jekyll-Dawson.  Yeah, men are so funny...

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Episode 38 - Pizza...but Summer-y!

Did you know that you can make pizza on the bar-b-q?  Because you can!  And it's pretty  much the mostincrediblethingever!  You have to say it like that too...all one word - mostincrediblethingever!  If you say it while bouncing up and down it's even more effective.

First, you need dough.  You have a few options here - either you can go to a local pizzeria and buy a dough ball (believe it or not they will sell you one of these) OR you can go all out and make your own.  I have tried a few dough recipes but my new most favourite one comes from the new Dietitians of Canada cookbook - "Cook!".  (ps.  you should probably buy it...because I'm in it...and I'm neat...ish).

Dough Recipe from "Cook!" - summarized by me.
*note that this make A LOT of dough - enough for 4 of these pizzas.  Split it up and freeze some!*

2 packages instant yeast
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water (I used the hottest tap water I could get!)
1/2 tsp olive oil

In a bowl, combine yeast, flours, salt and sugar.  Gradually add the water and mix with your hands until you get a nice soft dough.  Knead for about 10 minutes until its nice and elastic-y.  Oil the walls of a bowl and put the dough ball in it.  Cover with plastic wrap.  Let rest in a warm place until doubled in size.  The book says 2 hours...I waited 20 minutes and my dough ball was massive...I think this may be a typo.  I dunno.  If your dough is huge, you're good to go!  Punch your dough, split it into 4.  Each dough ball will make one personal sized bbq pizza.

For the sauce, I recommend Dawson's, which I already posted here.

Now for the important part - you really really need to have your topping ready to go.  This cooks super fast.  If you're dilly-dallying around shredding cheese while your dough sits on the grill you're gonna burn it.  Burnt pizza - yuck.

So, preheat your bbq to medium-low, and roll out your dough into a roughly circular shape.  When the grill is hot, put the dough on and close the lid.  Cook for 5 minutes or until lightly browned then flip.  Now comes the speedy part - top your pizzas as fast as you can!  We used hot capicola, spicy picked eggplant and fresh mozzarella   Once topped, close the lid and let the cheese get gooey and delicious (about 2-3 minutes).  Done.

Try this.  You can thank me later :)

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Episode 19 - Mediteranean Flatbread Pizza

a.k.a. what I just threw together for lunch.

Mmmm...tasty! This took a grand total of 8 minutes to make...and at least 2 minutes of that was me deciding what toppings I wanted and doing a ridiculous dance around the kitchen...so yeah, it's quick!

1 piece greek-style flat bread
1 tbsp roasted garlic hummus
1 pouch of white tuna (or 1/2 a can drained)
5 olives, slices
1 tsp capers
6 strips spicy eggplant
1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese

Spread the hummus onto the flatbread then top with a sprinkling of everything else, ending with the cheese.  Put in the oven under the broiler for 3-5 minutes then enjoy!

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Episode 10 - Pizza is like medicine...right?!

Today I am sick.  And while I'm here crumpled on the couch in a pathetic pile, Dawson is in the kitchen making me a pizza.  By making me a pizza I don't mean dialing Domino's or shoving one of those frozen frisbee things from the grocery store into the oven.  I mean really making me a real pizza.  With the best sauce ever.  Ever.

Cold Curing, Perfect Every Time, Dawson-style Pizza Sauce

4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 pinch each salt and pepper
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried basil
1.5 tsp dried rosemary
1.5 tsp dried red pepper flakes (less if you're afraid of spice...in which case you suck)
1 big can crushed tomatoes (28 oz)
5-6 good shakes of Frank's Red Hot Sauce (again...spice warning)

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat and cook the garlic and onions until soft.  Add the all herbs and spices and stir for another minute. Add the tomatoes and Frank's and stir well.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.  Deeeeeelicious.

Put this on any pizza crust and it'll be good.  We usually use this one from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry because it's pretty foolproof:

Whole Wheat Crust

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 Tbsps flax meal or ground flax seeds
1 x envelopes (8 g or 21/4 tsp) Fleischmann's quick-rising yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup very warm water
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 teaspoons liquid honey
1 tbsp cornmeal
Olive oil cooking spray

1. Make crust: in a medium bowl, combine both flours, flax meal, yeast and salt. Mix well.
2. Measure warm water in measuring cup, then stir in olive oil and honey. Pour mixture over dry ingredients and mix using a wooden spoon to form a ball. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 2 minutes.
3. Spray another medium bowl with olive oil spray and place dough inside. Cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until double in size, about 20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, spray a 12-inch pizza pan with olive oil spray and dust with cornmeal. Preheat oven to 425ºF.
5. When dough has risen, turn out onto a lightly floured surface and, using a rolling pin, roll dough into a 12-inch circle. Transfer dough to prepared pizza pan.
6. Top and then bake for 20-25 mins.


Good Topping Ideas:

Proscuitto
Pickled Eggplant
Red/Green Peppers
Fresh Mozzarella
Spinach
Red Onion
Spicy Salami
Hot Peppers
Pinapple
Zucchini
Feta Cheese
Fresh Basil


...just maybe not all at once.  That's a little much.

Here is ours:

Hot Capicollo
Spicy Eggplant
Zucchini
4 cheeses: asiago, marble, monterey jack and 5-year aged cheddar

Just a note: anytime a boy makes a pizza it will automatically have lots of cheese.  It's just biology. 

P.S. Dawson insists that I tell you that I am not completely pathetic/useless and that I did make the dough.  But still...I am incredibly spoiled.

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