Margherita Pizza

I hate tomatoes. So why do I eat at least 2 tomatoes a day? I don't really know. I could drink tomato sauce and salsa. I constantly crave tomato mozzarella paninis from CM. All soups are better with tomato-based broths. And my pot roast wouldn't be complete without simmering in a can of whole tomatoes. But raw, eaten like a peach? No way. I'm embarrassed by my taste buds. I have this hatred toward fruits mixed with cream. Yuk. Or cooking fruits, like in a pie. It's so wrong. To me it makes perfect sense. But it sure limits my dessert options. Maybe that's why I overdo it on the chocolate.

Anyways, margherita pizzas are simple pizzas. Crust, tomato, cheese, basil. I made it last week as a follow-up dinner to seafood fest for Father's Day. When I went to CM, they were featuring home-grown Texas tomatoes. I honestly don't know why people love home-grown tomatoes, but my mom always made sure she told me when someone gave her some. And my dad would always make them disappear before I could see them. I decided to buy them for the pizza, along with this cheesy flat bread they make. It was awesome! So BJ asked me to make it again. This time I made my own crust. And I got another one of those crazy home-grown tomatoes. And that's it! So easy, it doesn't even need a recipe. But if you still need something to print out, follow this:

Pizza crust
tomatoes (I had one medium sized one)
Half a bunch of basil
FRESH mozzarella (mine was a little smaller than my fist)
Extra toppings: garlic, parsley, thyme, parmesan, feta, tomato sauce

Slice the tomatoes pretty thin, mine were about 1/8 to 1/4 inch. Place them spaced out on the crust. Slice the cheese in about the same size shapes as the tomatoes. This is optional, I think it just turns out prettier. Place them in between the tomatoes, and on top. I added some dried thyme (my favorite spice). Cook for recommended time at recommended temperature. Mine was set at 425 on an already-heated pizza stone. Since I had fresh dough, it took about 20 minutes. Take out from the oven and sprinkle on basil. No need to cook it, the oil from the cheese cooks it just enough.

My hands still smell like olive oil and basil. :)



I just love my dried thyme! And those are the extra slices of tomatoes I had. I try not to overload my thin crust pizzas.




After 5 minutes. Starting to melt beautifully. I tried not to hold the oven too long and melt your camera babe!




I like to rotate it halfway through because the back of my oven gets hotter than the front.




Fin!

Lemon meringue pie for Father's Day, a perfect ending to lobster

For my Christmas present BJ got me a cruise! I pulled a Joey (shed tears over a present) when I saw that Fun Pass. Those 7 days were filled with tons of activities, sun bathing, show watching, trivia games, bean bag tosses, unlimited ice cream cones, and never wondering what I was going to cook for dinner. I love cooking of course, but mostly so I can eat what I want. So having someone else cook gourmet food for me all week is great! But the thing I remember the most from my cruise trips with Shelley ♥ is standing if front of the refrigerator and not wanting to eat ANYTHING the first day back home. Spoiled I had become. It's taken me this long to get back in the grove of planning a good meal for us to eat each night ever since that amazing vacation. What has helped has been the weekly get-togethers with my family. Joey's birthday, June birthdays, Joey's graduation was a big one... And now... Father's Day! My dad is very easy to shop for. Just something good to eat, and he'll be a happy camper. Car washing stuff, tools, koozies, movies, or some sort of chair for him to nap in also works.

One of my favorite memories of Dad is when my mom and I would get him a lobster for his Father's Day present. We would bring it home and I would stand next to the wiggling bag while my mom prepare its pot of doom! Seasoned with lemon and Old Bay (a flavor I still don't get) of course. She would distract me by having me melt butter while she murdered that innocent creature of the sea for my dad's dinner. It's sick, I know. At least t-bones come dead already!! And then... one year I got to try it...

Heaven!!!!!!! Dipped in lemon butter. I was instantly hooked.

Sometimes Central Market or HEB will have lobster tails on sale. I can handle cooking that. Someone else kills it for me, just like that t-bone. So this year my mom got tails for us, excluding herself since she's the craziest person in the world for loving shell fish but not lobster. And I made my dad's favorite dessert, lemon meringue pie. It fits since it's lemon, and lemon is the best condiment for seafood.

Lemon meringue pie is probably the easiest pie to make. I hate the stuff, and any other pie with a gelatin fruit filling. But I've made lots of them, mostly for my dad. I usually have all the ingredients to make it in my pantry except for the crust. This is the recipe I follow:

1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups water
2 lemons, juiced and zested
2 tablespoons butter
4 egg yolks, beaten

1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked

4 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional)
6 tablespoons white sugar

Preheat oven to 350. To Make Lemon Filling: In a medium saucepan, whisk together 1 cup sugar, flour, cornstarch, and salt. Stir in water, lemon juice and lemon zest. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until mixture comes to a boil. Stir in butter. Place egg yolks in a small bowl and gradually whisk in 1/2 cup of hot sugar mixture. Whisk egg yolk mixture back into remaining sugar mixture. Bring to a boil and continue to cook while stirring constantly until thick. Remove from heat. Pour filling into baked pastry shell.

To Make Meringue: In a large glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy. Add sugar (and cream or tartar if using it, adds thickness) gradually, and continue to whip until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue over pie, sealing the edges at the crust. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, or until meringue is golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes, then refrigerate for 3 hours.

See our enjoyment!



Oooooo.... Awwww....

Just so you know, the meringue was about 3 times that high when I pulled it out of the oven. If it collapses, no big deal. It will still get eaten, at least by my dad.



Happy camper :)



Grandma was also there for an impromptu visit to bring Mom some onions from a neighbor's garden. But I think somehow she figured out we would have dessert. She's a sneaky one that Grandma. BJ can read right through her.



Mom liked it so much it distracted her from shying away from the camera! Good... Good...



Don't worry, babe. That box in front of you contains La Madeleine chocolate cake. I'm coming to help you eat it!

Cheesy twisted Cod with sauteed grean beans

I made that name up. :) In my RR days, I noticed she would make some really dumb names for her food. And I always remembered them!!!! Why is it that when something bothers you, it sticks with you? So one day when I open my restaurant (if I win the lottery) this is a contender for the menu. Don't steel it, please! I'll gladly make it for you when I open up.

BJ loves Goldfish. Not the chemically generated "pet" that you win at the carnival (mine died after a week, which may have been a world record), but the cracker you can buy at the grocery store. Week after week I buy the whole grain original Goldfish in the regular-sized bag. But he'll eat all of that in 3 days, so the last time I bought some I decided to get the economy-size container. It comes in a giant milk carton shaped container. You could pour a glass of Goldfish and it wouldn't look that silly. Needless to say, he only got through half the box before he thought they were getting stale.

I have a hard time wasting food, so I decided I would do what anyone would do. Crush some of them up and use it for breading on fish! Okay, maybe normal people would just throw away the box, but I'm definitely not normal. And love fried fish!! But I know eating fried stuff is bad, so I pan fried it and baked it through. Maybe it's not that much better, but it sure made me feel better, and that's what counts... right? I used cod because it's a meaty fish that isn't too fishy for me. I hate when you pan fry fish and the edges have been dried out because they are thinner then the middle. Plus, it reminds me of weekends at Baybrook eating Luby's for lunch. That's a little embarrassing. But I think 97% of my visits to Luby's I got the fried cod with mashed potatoes and a roll. Mmmmm..... One of my favorite meals. That's also embarrassing.

Recipe:

Cod (my piece was about .8 lb, and I sliced it into 4 smaller pieces)
Approximately 240 Goldfish, crushed :) (1 - 2 cups, I used more just because I had SO MANY!!)
1/2 cup of Parmesan
1/4 cup of flour
1 egg
2 tbsp of olive oil
salt, pepper, and chili powder for seasoning the flour

1/2 lb of fresh green beans, tips trimmed off
2 tbsp of chopped onions
1 tbsp of chopped garlic
1 tbsp of olive oil
salt to season water

Season a pot of water with salt for the green beans. Boil those on medium to high while preparing the fish.

Turn the oven on 375. Dry the fish with a paper towel. Have your 3 dipping stations ready for prep. I like to get 2 pieces of wax paper for the bread crumbs and flour, then beat the egg with a little water in a shallow bowl. The wax paper makes clean up easier. Mix the Goldfish crumbs with half the parmesan. Heat your pan with the olive oil. Dip each piece of fish in the flour, then dredge in the egg, then dip in the breadcrumbs. Make sure the crumbs cover the whole fish. Pan fry each side for 3 minutes to brown them. Finish them off in the oven for 10 minutes. At 5 minutes take them out and sprinkle the rest of the parmesan on.

During the last 5 minutes of the fish baking, prepare the beans. Drain the water, then put them back in the pan with the onions. Saute with the olive oil for a few minutes, or until the onions are to your liking. I like the onions almost clear, so it took about 3 minutes. Then add the chopped garlic, stir for another minute.



It's also a really pretty meal.

My fish and green beans were done at the same time. I served with a slice of lemon.

The ice cream smore... Gooey goodness that's not gooey at all!

When we were little, my friend Maegan and I would roast marshmallows and make smores. Just not outside, over the fire-top stove. It's pretty hot in Texas so there really isn't the need for a fire ever. It's such a quick, easy dessert. Especially for little kids. Maybe that's why adults love them so much, it reminds them of childhood. Or it could just be the chocolate. And the graham cracker. And of course the marshmallows.

Last year I found a recipe for Smores cookies. I have since made 14,000 batches!! Not really, but it feels like it. I love everything smores!!!! SO when I found this recipe I had to try it. It's so simple, I had everything I needed in my pantry already. Mostly because I'm always making smore cookies.

This is the link for the recipe

I changed it a little bit, here's what I did:

1/2 package of marshmallows
1 cup 2% milk
1.5 cup cream
10 single Dove milk chocolates
Handful of broken graham crackers
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Drizzle of hot fudge, but only lukewarm

Stir the milk, cream and marshmallows in a pot and heat on the stove. Stir a lot until the marshmallows are melted. I turned the fire off when I got down to the last few marshmallows. I don't like getting a ton of dishes dirty since BJ always washes them for me and I try to be courteous, but in this case I needed to get another bowl dirty. I transferred the mixture to large, metal bowl so it would cool faster. Stir the vanilla in, and keep stirring until it's cooler. Mine was still a little warm when I finally put it in the ice cream maker, but cool enough to touch.

Let it churn for 35 minutes. Since it's a warmer mixture it needs the extra time. I chopped up the chocolates while the ice cream maker was going since it was too loud to do anything else. When done, fold in the rest of the ingredients. Don't mix the fudge, just swirl it.

We had out first bowl after 3 hours (couldn't wait!), then the next night after it was really frozen. Each time was really good! It tastes like a very light, frozen, mushed smore. I think I'll have it again tomorrow night, and the next. Then it will be gone.

That's it down there. I didn't have the nice camera out, and didn't want to wait long to eat this. So BJ took a picture with the phone camera. See the chunks of chocolate and graham crackers?!?!



Yes, it's glowing. Because it's Heavenly... :)

I'm not a big fan of mixing the eggs into the ice cream mixture, so whenever I find a recipe that doesn't call for eggs, I go for it! I have to say I would use the marshmallow mixture for the base of other ice creams. Possible for ice cream cake. I think it would "stick" better to the cake. It's super creamy, but light at the same time. And really easy to make. Just try not to think about the number of marshmallows you're eating at once. It will blow your mind and make you want to throw it away. Almost. No, not really at all. Just split it with someone! I did. But I think I still ate most of it...

Chocolate hazelnut ice cream

About 5 years ago when I was working at UT, a nanophysicist-something-or-other moved in to an empty office right next to me while his new building was under construction. He was from Italy and had this intern with him that was really nice. One time he (the intern, can't remember his name for the life of me) asked me if I wanted a bagel. I never turn down a bagel and he was already spreading something on it for me. I tried it, and the spread was the most heavenly thing I had ever tried. It was called Nutella. A chocolaty, hazelnutty, creamy... did I say it was heavenly?

That was the last time I saw Nutella. All these years and not one spoonful. Sure, there have been other spreads in my life like peanut butter, tahini, cream cheese, horseradish, pesto, aioli... But something was missing. Until a few weeks ago. Central Market has this rice cake pop machine in the frozen food section. Those things smell and taste aweful BUT!!!!! Guess what they had to try it with?!?! NUTELLA! I made BJ try some and he agreed that it was spectacular.

So one day on my lunch break I went to CM and bought some. I took it back to work along with bite-sized real rice cakes to eat them with. It's my afternoon snack. Last week I told BJ that I got some and he got jealous so I brought it home. But its last day at work I shared some with my coworker Dave. We sat and enjoyed the snack. Dave asked me if Nutella was a brand, or if it belonged to a company. So I Googled it.

I know I've rambled on until now, but it was for a good reason. We learned that Nutella is made from the Ferrero company!!!! OF COURSE! The same company that makes Ferrero Rochers, those truffle-shaped hazelnut chocolates. My mom buys me a package of them every year for Christmas because they are my favorite. Well, one of my favorites. But ever since I tried it again at CM I thought it tasted like blended Ferrero Rochers. No, I don't have any idea how to pronounce it. But ever since then I have been thinking of ways to eat them together. That creamy goodness with those crunchy, chocolaty candies.

I decided on ice cream. Since I usually get a very large quantity of those candies for Christmas, I did have some still. I decided I would make Nutella ice cream with chopped Ferrero Rochers in it. Three of my favorite things (Nutella, Ferrero Rocher, and ice cream) meeting for the first time. Well, maybe not the first time, but the first time in my house. I'm so excited!

Here's the recipe I followed:

2/3 c Nutella
2/3 c sugar
1 c heavy cream
2 c milk (I used 2%)
6 chopped Ferrero Rochers



I started by awkwardly scooping out the Nutella. There's no good way to do it. With a plastic spoon and a dishwasher-safe measuring cup, because you'll definitely need to wash it good.



Then the sugar, cream, and milk. Whisk them together.



This is another awkward situation because the Nutella doesn't want to blend with the cold ingredients. But don't warm it up, it needs to be cold for the ice cream maker. Oh, I forgot to mention that the ice cream maker needs to sit in the freezer for at least 15 hours. That's if you're using the new cheater way of making ice cream like me. With my Kitchenaide mixer.


So after it's blended pour into the machine.

Churn for 20 minutes. While it's churning chop up the candies.



At 15 minutes pour in the candies. It might make the mixer sound like it's having a difficult time turning, but don't let it fool you. He's alright, just a little tired.



At this point the ice cream should look like a shake. Probably even a melted shake. It's okay. Just pour into a container and let it freeze.



I couldn't wait, so I ate the entire thing with my spatula!

(just kidding, but I did lick the bowl as clean as I could) I let it sit in some tupperware in the freezer for 4 hours.



It was really good. :)

Enjoy!

A really good cupcake and frosting for the Superbowl 2010

BJ loves his football. He may love it as much as Charlie, which is a lot! So when the Texans bailed on him, he decided to become a Saint's fan. And it worked out for him! His team is finally getting somewhere!

I'm not that into football, or the superbowl. But I do love food and Superbowl Sunday is the second biggest day for food (after Thanksgiving of course)!!! So I decided to make Saints cupcakes. They sound a lot more hip and complicated than they actually are. BJ vacuumed up the cat hair and I baked. In that order, so there wouldn't be any cat hair in the food.

I decided to make a box cake but home-make the frosting. Don't hate!!! The Duncan Hines Butter Recipes are awesome! All you add is eggs, butter and some water. The others use oil, this one taste closer to homemade.


Ever since I made this massive chocolate mousse cake for Christmas dinner I can't bring myself to make anything that requires me to beat egg whites to any sort of peak. The smell of those eggs still haunts me. So I make a basic butter/powdered sugar frosting. Then add whatever I want!



My buttercream frosting recipe:

1 stick unsalted butter
2-3 cups powdered sugar (start with 2 and add more to get it thicker)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2-3 tablespoons of milk or cream
8 Dove chocolates, individually wrapped (BJ's favorite chocolate)
And then more cream to melt with chocolate

Fluff the butter first, then add the sugar. I used half milk chocolate and half dark because I couldn't decide between the two. Then melted it with some cream in the microwave and poured it in the frosting after everything else was beaten. The result was this beautiful, fluffy, light, chocolaty, creamy goodness!

SAD CUPCAKES :(


HAPPY CUPCAKES :) :) :)


In their gold foil. They'll be even better with the Saints logo on them.

Sous-chef, get to work...
(Using his camera here, way better than my phone!)



And he took this picture. That's why it's the best one. He's the best photographer ever!


Okay, so we already ate one. I was going to wait until tomorrow, but couldn't.

Go Saints!

Feb 1, 2010 - Journey of a completely homemade pizza

So a few weeks ago I decided to make pizza dough for the first time. It was one of those fears I had to overcome. And really wanted to eat fresh pizza. One of things I learned from RR was it's not that hard to cook most things from scratch. But I don't have kids and a lot of time. I found this recipe but altered it a little:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/whole-wheat-and-honey-pizza-dough/Detail.aspx

Sounded easy enough. Yeast, water, flour. I found these portioned yeast packets at Kroger to use. But had to decide between Active and Instant yeast. I guessed and picked Active. Thank God it worked, or else I would have been really upset. I also came home and read that either yeast would have been okay. I also used half white/half wheat flour. I don't know what wheat germ is don't really need to know, so I decided to leave it out. I also added about a teaspoon of olive oil (EVOO as RR would say!).

The first pizza I made with this was really gross, I thought. I also burned the top of my hand really bad taking it out of the oven. It's really ugly. But BJ said he liked the pizza, so it made me feel better. I tried it again the next week while BJ was out of town. This time cut the dough ball in 2 and made a thin crust. Much better!!! I didn't have a rolling pin, so I used a wine bottle I had laying around to roll it out to where it was so thin it almost had holes in it.

BJ was really craving pizza about a week ago so we decided to make an epic journey to find the best pizza tools. After several hours of going back and forth to different stores we found the perfect pizza stone at Sur la Table. Super thin, heats up very easy. The trick is to heat the stone WITH the oven on broil. Then take the stone out, prepare the pizza on it (fast!!!), then put it back in the oven at 400 degrees.

Tonight I used the second half of the pizza dough from last batch to make dinner. I froze it, so I put it in the fridge yesterday to thaw. When I pulled it out it smelled like beer!!! I hate beer, so you can imagine my thought process (Papa Johns, $5.99 Monday Pick-up special). But I did some research online and realized that many people have this problem. It's totally okay! Has to do with yeast and fermenting and rising... Apparently it will disappear when it's cooked. BJ's favorite pizza is Barbeque, and that's what he wanted so we went with it! It goes like this: barbeque sauce (nothing but Sweet Baby Ray's in this house), sauteed onions, chopped leftover chicken, pickled jalepenos, and mix of mozzerela and extra sharp cheddar. I've also learned that a pizza takes about half the amount of toppings you think it needs.

End result: BJ made a Facebook posting about it, which means he really, really liked it. I did too. I had 3 pieces, no crust. BJ ate the rest, even my crust.

I gave myself a B+++.