Mac-and-Cheese Pizza; Salad Pizza; Bajito

     Macaroni and Cheese is one of Jeff's go-to comfort foods.  He likes to put it on everything.  He will even make a sandwich with it, so I thought he would really enjoy this week's recipe.  I originally thought, just by looking at the title, that it was going to be a regular pizza crust, with macaroni and cheese spread over the top of it.  It intrigued me that the noodle dish was actually going to form the crust of the pizza.  I had never heard of, nor thought of, doing something like that.  This sounded to me like a heart attack special: macaroni and cheese, made stickier by adding cheese, spreading tomato sauce over it, and covering it in more cheese, topped with Canadian bacon.  It was a good thing the other pizza was a salad (more or less).

     I started my preparations for the salad pizza by making the dough.  I thought about using one that I had on hand in the freezer, but my herbs have gotten so out of hand that they were choking themselves out in their pots.  I figured I should use them while it is still summer, and they are still available.  The recipe called for an herb crust or a whole wheat crust, and I decided to combine the two options.

WHOLE WHEAT HERB DOUGH

Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup warm water

2¼ cup bread flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup olive oil

1 tablespoon chopped sage leaves

1 tablespoon chopped tarragon leaves

2 tablespoons chopped oregano leaves

Combine the yeast, sugar, and water in a small bowl.  Set aside for at least five minutes.  Stir the two types of flour and the salt together in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Add the olive oil and the yeast mixture and stir until well combined.   Add the herbs and continue to mix on a low speed until dough becomes smooth and elastic and all of the herbs are incorporated (you may have to knead a little bit by hand to get all of the herbs to combine with the dough).  Place dough ball in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a towel, and place in a warm place for at least an hour or until dough doubles in size.  Punch down and roll out as directed in the pizza recipe.

    

   I concentrated on the oregano for the herb crust this time.  Most of what I had was flowering, and it seemed to be the most prolific herb out on my deck.  I snipped a bunch of that, a bunch of rosemary, and a little sage. While the dough was coming together, I was chopping my herbs.  By the time I had gotten them into the bowl, the dough was almost done.  It took a little effort and a little hand-kneading on my part to incorporate all of the herbs into the dough.

     Once I had gotten all of the herbs into the dough, I started on the balsamic vinaigrette for the salad that was going to go on my herb crust.  The recipe called for a "fruity" olive oil, and I had just the thing. When I visited my parents in Palm Springs over the winter, I bought some citrus olive oil.  I kept forgetting that I had it, and a salad dressing seemed like the perfect use for it.  I combined the olive oil and other ingredients for the dressing and set it aside. It didn't seem like a lot of dressing for four cups of salad.

     I looked over the macaroni and cheese recipe.  I had thought that I might be able to make a batch of macaroni and cheese and eat some of it for lunch, but the recipe called for 4 cups of macaroni and cheese, and my Members Mark brand box of macaroni and cheese only made three cups, according to the package.  I thought about making two boxes of it, so I would have enough for the pizza and enough for lunch, but I thought better of it.  I didn't want to spoil my appetite for the classic kid-food before I even started assembling the pizza.

     I followed the directions on the box, which I normally don't do when making boxed macaroni and cheese.  I usually just guess at the measurements, and I use whatever milk products I may have on hand, and sometimes I just increase the butter to compensate for the fact that I don't have any milk products.  I actually measured the milk out this time, though.  I used the same measuring cup that I measured the olive oil in. Unfortunately, I realized my error as soon as I finished combining all of the ingredients.  Actually, it was shortly thereafter, during the sampling part of the the project.  I dipped a spoon in the neon orange concoction and had a little taste of it.  The citrus from the olive oil was extremely prevalent.  It was almost as if I had squeezed a lemon over the noodles.  I thought about starting over with a new batch, but I didn't.  I couldn't bring myself to throw it away.  I bet on the odds that once there was American cheese mixed in, tomato sauce on top of it, more cheese on top of that, and a sprinkling of Canadian bacon, the only one that would be able to pick out the underlying citrus was me, because I knew it was there.

     I quickly mixed in my two pieces of American cheese.  I learned a little something when we were shopping for this.  I thought that there was American cheese and that was it.  However, it turns out that there are subcategories of American cheese.  There is Regular American Cheese, Sharp Cheddar American Cheese, and Hot Pepper American Cheese.  This may be something that Kraft has just made up - highly likely, since apparently Kraft invented what we now call American Cheese.  I opted for the "Sharp Cheddar" variety.

     After my dough had risen for a couple of hours, I rolled it out into two small circles.  I was a little frustrated with the recipe, because it didn't indicate how large these circles should be.  I made an executive decision, based on the fact that it suggested each half of the pizza was one serving.  I decided that they were going to be about ten inches. 

      The recipe had called for one cup of grated Parmesan and indicated that it should be about 4 ounces.  I measured out my Parmesan, and one cup came to 2 ounces of cheese.  My cup was packed pretty well, too.  I didn't cram the cheese in there or anything, but I did apply a little pressure to get more into the cup. I had grated the cheese using a Microplane grater with small holes.  Maybe because my shreds were so fine and fluffy they took up more space.  I don't know.  Whatever the reason was, I decided that two ounces was plenty (especially with 12 ounces of mozzarella) and went with it.

     With everything measured out, and Pam and Jeff on their way here, I was ready to start assembling and baking.

SALAD PIZZA 

Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza

Whole wheat herbed pizza dough (see above)

7 tablespoons olive oil, divided

2 tablespoons minced garlic

12 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

2 ounces Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

6 ounces mixed salad greens

2 ounces thinly sliced shallots

Preheat oven to 500º F.  Cut dough in half and roll out into two 10 inch circles on cornmeal dusted boards or pizza peels.  Brush 1½ teaspoons of olive oil over each of the two circles.  Sprinkle one tablespoon of garlic over each of the two circles.  Cover each with half of the mozzarella and half of the Parmesan.  Drizzle one tablespoon of olive oil over each pizza.  Transfer to the preheated oven and bake for about 10 minutes.  While the crusts are baking, make the vinaigrette.  Combine the vinegar, mustard, sugar, salt, pepper, and ¼ cup (4 tablespoons) of olive oil in a small bowl.  Whisk well to blend.  Toss well with the salad greens.  Remove the pizzas from the oven and mound half of the dressed salad greens over each one.

There really was a lot of cheese on the salad pizza base.  I had a hard time piling it all on there.  I just kept piling it and piling it until it was all gone.  There must have been about an inch of cheese on top of that crust. I suspected that this should have been called cheese pizza with salad.  Once Pam had arrived, I slid the two rounds into my preheated oven.

     I quickly assembled the macaroni and cheese pizza, too.  With the back of a spoon, I spread the tomato sauce over the layer of noodles.  I sprinkled the mozzarella on top and studded the top with squares pieces of Canadian Bacon.

MAC-AND-CHEESE PIZZA

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin

2 slices of American Cheese (I used the sharp cheddar version)

3 cups just prepared macaroni and cheese (still hot)

1 cup pizza sauce (I used leftover "no cook" sauce from last week that I had frozen)

8 ounces mozzarella cheese

3 ounces Canadian Bacon

Preheat oven to 350ºF.  Rip up the American Cheese and stir the pieces into the hot macaroni and cheese, allowing it to melt.  Pour into a lightly buttered deep dish pie pan.  Spread along the bottom of the pan and up the sides, creating a "crust".  Spread pizza sauce over the macaroni and cheese.  Top with mozzarella and sprinkle the Canadian Bacon over all.  Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cheese is just starting to brown. Place under a hot broiler for a minute or two, if need be, to get the top to brown.  Let stand a few minutes before serving.

___________

     With all three items in their prospective ovens, we started in on the drink of the week.  I had just picked the next drink in the book that I had all of the ingredients for, since I didn't really want to spend any money. The first one I had everything for was the Bajito, which was perfect.  I had an overabundance of mint and basil, so a drink that used both of those things was awesome.  I already had a large supply of rum, and there were a few bottles of soda hanging around my basement.

BAJITO

Adapted from Diffordsguide Cocktails #6

6 fresh basil leaves

6 fresh mint leaves

½ teaspoon sugar in the raw

2 measures of light rum

1 measure freshly squeezed lime juice

¼ measure simple syrup

Soda

Muddle the mint and basil with the sugar in a tall glass.  Add rum, lime juice, and syrup and stir vigorously to combine.  Fill glass halfway with crushed ice.  Add soda to fill glass.  Stir.  Enjoy.

    I handed Pam her glass.  She took a sip, and her eyes lit up.  "This is really good!" she exclaimed.  I took a sip.  It was good.  It was even better than a mojito.  The basil seemed to even out the sharpness of the mint and it added a little savoriness to the drink.

     When I told her what was in it and what it was called, she laughed out loud.  I think she thought I made it up.

     Despite the fact that the cheese pizzas were put in at the same time, into the same oven (which was set on convect bake), for the same amount of time, one of them got considerably more done than the other.

     The author of the recipe had instructed that the pizzas should be covered with the salad, cut in half (for one serving), and the eater should fold the half in half on itself and eat it like a sandwich (sounds more like a taco to me).  Pam and I decided that was entirely too much food to start off with, so we opted for the traditional triangular slices and a fork.

     The citrus flavor from the olive oil was quite powerful.  I second guessed using it in the vinaigrette.  Pam thought it was lovely and cut nicely through all of the cheese.  Jeff simply said it was great.  I think if I were to do it again, I would use an olive oil that wasn't quite so fruity.  Pam said she wouldn't change a thing.

     The M&C pizza took a lot longer to bake than the recipe said.  I had it in the 350º oven for almost twenty minutes before I switched it to broil and put it in for one more minute.  The center still didn't brown, but I was worried that the noodles around the outside edge were getting too crunchy under all of that heat.

     I neglected to follow the instruction to wait a couple minutes before  serving, and there was no cohesion whatsoever to my slices.  I may as well have been serving casserole instead of pizza.  Wait!  Wasn't I?  It was very cheesy, and I couldn't taste one bit of citrus in it.  The extra cheese and the tomato sauce had done a good job of masking that little snafu.  It was rich and cheesy and salty.  It was comforting and strange all at the same time.  And, Jeff got his mac-n-cheese fix for the week.

Breakfast Pizza; Proscuitto, Herb, and Cheese Calzone; Bacardi Cocktail

     I sometimes wonder if always striving for something better, something greater in food has tarnished my view of things.  We have made, eaten, sampled so many fabulous things that few things seem to impress me any more.  I think back to a few years ago when I was leaving work to go to dinner with my husband for my birthday.  My dear friend, Paul Dahlen, said to me before I left, "Don't be disappointed."
     I thought it was a strange thing to say, and I asked him what he meant.  He explained to me that I frequently build up my expectations so high (especially for an upcoming meal at a new restaurant) that the actual meal itself can never meet them.  He went on to say that whenever he asks me about a particular event I had talked up, I always answer, "It was okay, but...."
     This week's pizzas were okay, but... They didn't wow me.  The breakfast pizza - bacon, eggs, and cheese on a pizza biscuit - was good, but it was a little futsy for the flavor outcome.  I like the idea of having breakfast for dinner, and we occasionally do, but if it isn't going to be breakfast, there should be something extra special about it.  At the very least, it should be over the top cheesy, maybe a little garlicky (of course I added garlic, even though the recipe didn't call for it), and maybe even it should have had some pepperoni fried up like bacon instead of bacon itself.  Although, I think that would be a tough call, too.  I do love my bacon.  Maybe what it needed was an infusion of fresh herbs or fresh peppers.  I wish I had thought of that before completing the dish.
     I had been really looking forward to the calzone.  It had been a long time since I had eaten prosciutto.  I couldn't help but sample a piece of that silky, salty meat as soon as I opened the package.  It was soft and practically melted on my tongue.  Who knew that leaving a chunk of pork out to dry for nine months to two years could produce such a wonderful result?  God bless the Italians for coming up with the idea.
     I used a crust that I had in the freezer (Classic Crust), which may have contributed or been the cause of the problem I had with the calzone.  It was probably more crust than there should have been.  The ingredients just got a little lost in there.  Oh, we could taste them, and they tasted good, but they were muted.  They weren't "dynamic."
     I had an hour and a half before I had to attend a mandatory "reemployment" session at the Minnesota Workforce Center, so I started in.  I took the classic crust dough out of the freezer.  I cut some oregano and basil from the plants on my deck for the sauce.  I love this "no cook" sauce.  It is just so easy.  I just threw everything in my Vitamix 5200 Total Nutrition Center, turned it on, and it was done.

NO COOK SAUCE

Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained

4 tablespoons tomato paste

½ teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced

2 tablespoons fresh basil, minced

Place all of the ingredients into the Vitamix (or blender or food processor).  Start out on the variable speed setting and gradually increase the speed to 10 and switch to high (this should take about two minutes).  If using a blender, blend on the puree setting until smooth.  Add the herbs, stir, and use as directed in the recipe.

     When my sauce was done, I measured out what I would need for each of the two pizzas.  The breakfast pizza called for premade, thick, pasta sauce, and I figured this would fit the bill nicely.  Once I had my two quantities measured out, I put the rest in some Tupperware, dated and labeled it and threw it in the freezer for another time.

     I also fried up the bacon before I left.  It was dual purpose.  It was one less step I had to perform when I got home from my class, and I had a little snack before leaving the house!

     I had to stop at the store on the way back from the Workforce Center.  Jeff and I had gone grocery shopping for all of the ingredients earlier in the week, but when we were there, I picked up a bag of shredded mozzarella, and he made a face.  He was objecting to the price.  We normally buy several packages when it goes on sale, so we never have to pay full price for it.  However, I was pretty sure that we were out, and I needed it.  He was convinced that I just didn't look hard enough in the freezer for it.  Before I left the house today, I ripped the freezer apart.  I found one back of Monterrey Jack and three bags of Swiss.  No mozzarella.

     When I got home, my dough was still really cold and unworkable.  I started by grating and measuring all of the cheeses that were on the menu and chopping the prosciutto, which isn't an easy task.  The stuff I had purchased was sliced really thin and, because the meat was so soft, my blade wasn't going through it.  I ended up just tearing it into little pieces.

     Once my dough had gotten to room temperature, I rolled it out.  It was going to be much larger than the 10 inch dough the original recipe requested, but I forged ahead anyway.  I spread the scant quarter cup of sauce over the one side and started covering it with cheese.

     It seemed like a copious amount of ingredients while I was building it.  I had doubled the basil, and the prosciutto was about double the original quarter cup listed in the ingredients.  I thought more would be better, especially with the larger crust.  Also, I didn't want to have to package up the remaining prosciutto.

CALZONE WITH PROSCIUTTO, HERBS, AND THREE CHEESES

Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner

¼ recipe Classic Crust (see July 19, 2012)

¼ cup No-Cook Tomato Sauce (see above)

1½ ounces grated Fontina cheese

1½ ounces shredded mozzarella

1 ounce grated Parmesan cheese

3 ounces prosciutto, torn into pieces

3 cloves garlic, pressed

2 tablespoons minced fresh basil

Olive Oil

Preheat the oven to 500º F with pizza stone inside.  Roll or stretch out dough into a 15 inch circle.  Spread tomato sauce over one half of the circle, leaving a little bit of a border for sealing.  Top with cheeses, prosciutto, garlic, and basil.  Fold the untopped side over the other and press the edges together to seal into a half moon shape.  Brush the top with olive oil and cut three slits in the top for venting.  Bake for fifteen minutes or until crust is brown.

     Preparing for the Breakfast pizza presented a challenge.  These were going to be 6 individual pizzas, baked in 6" tart pans.  The crust was made out of biscuits from a can.  First of all, I couldn't find a can of biscuits that only contained six biscuits.  I briefly thought about making 8 individual pizzas, since there were 8 biscuits.  However, I didn't own even one 6" tart pan, let alone eight.  I decided to use some six inch au gratin dishes, because that was the closest thing I had to that size and shape - and I only had six of those.

     Because the au gratin dishes were oval, I had to force the biscuit dough to be an oval instead of a circle.  That was fine, I would have had to roll them out in any event to get them to six inches.  This way, I just had to pull a little harder in one direction than the other.  I couldn't quite get them to fill the bottom of the dish.  Every time I stretched the edge of the biscuit out to the edge of the dish, it sprung back.  I left them that way.  I figured they would puff up in baking (which they did), so I didn't need to be exact about it.
     After the sauce and cheese went over the top of them, they baked while I worked on the eggs.

     Pam had arrived as I was putting the biscuits in the oven.  She was a little disappointed that we were having egg pizza.  Eggs are not her favorite thing.  I am not sure why that is.  I think she doesn't like the whites.  Something about them weirds her out.  I assured her she would see no whites.

    It was just a basic scramble.  The original recipe had called for milk, but I didn't have any, so I used half-and-half.  I was hoping it would raise the bar a little bit - make them creamier, make them richer.  A dozen eggs is a lot of volume, especially with the jumbo eggs that Jeff always buys.  I wasn't thinking about that when I heated up my 10 inch skillet and poured them in.  It definitely filled the pan.  I was worried that the eggs wouldn't cook evenly or all the way through, so I kept diligently stirring.  Apparently that worked, because they were starting to curd up.  With a little moisture still hanging around the pan, I turned off the burner, moved the pan to a cool spot on the stove and covered the eggs.  The biscuits were taking longer than expected, and I wanted the eggs to stay hot.

BREAKFAST PIZZA

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook  by Belinda Hulin

6 ounces uncooked thick-cut bacon

6 uncooked biscuit rounds from a can

1 cup of No-Cook Tomato Sauce (see above)

5 ounces shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

3 ounces shredded sharp cheddar

12 eggs

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1/3 cup half-and-half

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Fry the bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until they just start to brown.  Remove from pan (they will continue to crisp up even after you take them out of the pan) and set aside.  Discard most of the grease from the pan, leaving a scant tablespoon in the pan for later.  When bacon has cooled, chop or crumble it into small pieces.

Preheat the oven to 350º F.  Stretch the biscuit rounds into six 6" tart pans or stretch them into ovals and line the bottoms of greased au gratin dishes (6").  Divide the tomato sauce evenly over the six biscuits.  Mix the cheeses together.  Distribute ½ of the cheese over the six biscuits.  Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the biscuits are starting to brown and the cheese has melted.

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, garlic, and half-and-half together in a large bowl.  Mix in salt and pepper.  Heat reserved skillet with the bacon grease over medium-high heat.  Once hot, pour eggs in.  Stir continuously with a rubber spatula until almost all of the liquid has set.  Leave them slightly more than moist, as they will continue to cook off of the burner.  Remove from heat and cover until biscuits are done.

Divide the eggs evenly over the six dishes.  Sprinkle the remaining cheese over them and top with the crumbled bacon.



     Pam worked on drinks for us.  I had chosen a drink called Bacardi cocktail.  It was a really boring name, and I think I should try to work on a fancier one for it, except that apparently Bacardi sued a bar in New York over this drink.  Apparently, the bar was calling the cocktail they were serving "Bacardi Cocktail" but they weren't using Bacardi brand rum.  The courts sided with Bacardi and require that the drink be made with Bacardi.  OK, maybe the name should stay... 

BACARDI COCKTAIL

2½ measures Bacardi light rum

1 measure freshly squeezed lime juice

½ measure grenadine
1 maraschino cherry

Pour all ingredients into an ice-filled shaker.  Shake and strain into a martini glass.  Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

     The drink was a beautiful pink color.  To me, there is just something innately fun about a pink drink.  It's celebratory, it's whimsical, it's feminine.  I like it.  This drink had a great balance of sweet and sour.  The grenadine was just enough to mellow the tang of the lime.  The unfortunate problem with this scenario, was that balance made them very easy to drink and two for each of us disappeared before dinner was on the table.

     Pam thought that the egg dish was wonderful.  At least, that is what she said, but she did end up adding hot sauce to it, as I did.  It was good, but it was lacking pizazz, oomph, flair.  It would be a nice comfort food first thing in the morning when waking up is not the immediate goal on the agenda.  However, the extra effort in the assembly might deter that option as well.  Jeff said that he liked it, and I was being too picky.

     The calzone was good, too.  Don't get me wrong, I liked it.  I just think I spent too much time anticipating it, and the end result didn't live up to the glory of its separate parts. 

     Our lifelong friend, Becky Swanson showed up just after dinner for a drink.  She was our neighbor when we were growing up (did we ever?), and we consider her part of the family, so it was great to see her again.  We got into some lively discussions about politics and religion (at which point, Jeff quickly vacated the area), and I tried to keep up with the mixing of the cocktails, and I forgot all about the fact the the meal didn't live up to my expectations.

    

Antipasti Flat Bread; Fruit Pizza Turnovers; Aviation

     This week's recipes gave me an appetizer (antipasti) and a dessert.  This left something out.  If it were just Jeff and I eating, we would be fine with that, but since we were having other people (the Liggetts), I felt like we should probably have a main course as well.  I called upon Jennifer to provide something in between. 

     They probably would have survived without an entree, too, but I didn't want to give anyone the opportunity to do the Midwest back bite.  This may be a middle class Anglo-Saxon affliction or maybe just Minnesotan (not being anything else myself, I am not sure if other cultures do this or not).  This is where the food is served, eaten, enjoyed, and maybe even praised, but when the car door shuts on the way back home, there is the question: "Can you believe she only served us snacks and pie?"     I don't know if they would have done this or not, but I didn't want to give them the opportunity. 

     Antipasti is apparently the plural of antipasto.  Translated, it means, before the meal.  It is traditionally various meats, cheeses, and vegetables that are placed on the table as an indication that the meal has begun.  There were no meats or cheeses on my antipasti platter.  It was all just fun vegetables that we don't normally just eat outside of salads and martinis.

     Cherry pie is one of my husband's greatest food-loves.  Couple that with the fact that Jennifer doesn't like cooked apples, the choice of apple or cherry pie filling for the dessert recipe this week, it was a no-brainer.  I personally prefer chocolate in a dessert, but this whole experiment is about expanding my horizons.

     The original recipe for the fruit turnover called for that dreaded refrigerator dough again.  I have made myself a solemn vow to never purchase that vile product again.  It is gooey and sticky, and it never seems to bake all the way through when you add toppings or fillings.  And what good is it if there are no toppings or fillings?

     I thought I would start out my preparations by doubling the flat bread recipe for the antipasti, but I forgot what I was doing and didn't double it. I had to make a separate preparation for the dessert dough.  I debated about adding something sweet to the dough to round out the whole dessert experience, but I was curious to see what it would be like without it.  It was probably a good thing that I had to make a separate batch of dough for the dessert, because the flat bread recipe had more salt in it than I would  care to use in a dessert.

FLAT BREAD

1 teaspoon sugar

1½ cups warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

3½ cups bread flour

2 teaspoons salt

olive oil

In a small bowl, dissolve the sugar in the warm water.  Add the yeast and set aside for at least 5 minutes.  Stir the flour and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Add the yeast mixture and stir until the dough clings to the hook in one cohesive mass.  Remove dough from bowl and knead a couple of times by hand on a floured board until dough is smooth and elastic, adding extra flour if necessary to keep the dough from sticking.  Set dough aside in a greased bowl.  Smooth a little olive oil over the top of the dough as well to keep it from drying out.  Place a towel over the bowl and put the bowl in a warm, dry place for about three hours.

Preheat the oven to 375º F.  Generously oil the bottom and sides of a 10x15 jelly roll pan with olive oil.  Roll and stretch the dough to fit in the prepared pan.  Brush the top with more olive oil.  Bake until golden brown, about 35 minutes.

I started out (mostly) following the recipe in the book, but I found that the dough was much too moist with the 3¼ cups of flour that it called for.  I ended up adding another quarter cup before I was able to pull it out of the mixer bowl and work it into a ball.

     Once I had that dough settled in its oiled bowl to rise, I started in on the dough for the fruit turnovers. That proved to be much easier, as it didn't have as much water and just came together so beautifully.  I can't recall another dough that cooperated so much.  Usually I am adding flour or water to get it just the right consistency, but this was perfect from the beginning.

BASIC PIZZA DOUGH
Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

3¼ cups bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup olive oil

Combine the sugar, water, and yeast together in a small bowl.  Set aside for at least five minutes.  Stir the flour and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Add the olive oil and the yeast mixture and stir until the dough clings to the hook in one cohesive mass.  Remove dough from bowl and knead a couple of times by hand on a floured board until dough is smooth and elastic, adding extra flour, if necessary, to keep the dough from sticking.  Set dough aside in a greased bowl.  Smooth a little olive oil over the top of the dough as well to keep it from drying out.  Place a towel over the bowl and put the bowl in a warm, dry place for at least an hour.  Shape and bake as directed in the pizza recipe.

______

ANTIPASTI

There is no one single way to make antipasti.  It is basically just whatever you want it to be.  There is no real formula for it, so exact measurements are pretty worthless, but here is the closest I could get to explaining what I did.

1 large ripe red tomato

½ of a large red onion

1 small purple bell pepper (or red, if that is what you can find)

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon garlic infused red wine vinegar

Coarsely ground sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Marinated artichoke hearts (see recipe below)

Mild pepperoncini peppers

"Italian-Style" olives

Hot dill pickle spears

     Slice the tomato, onion, and bell peppers as thinly as you can.  Lay one slice of tomato, a few rings of a slice of onion, and a slice of pepper decoratively on a platter.  Continue this pattern until you run out of tomatoes, onions, and purple peppers.  Drizzle the olive oil and vinegar over the top of them and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Arrange



     For the antipasti part of things, I was really hoping most of the vegetables could have come from my garden, but my garden was not cooperating with the plan.  The few tomatoes that have started to turn orange or slightly red have been pulled off of the plant, gnawed on, and thrown aside by some hideous creature.  I suspect squirrels or chipmunks, but it could be anything.  It might be time to get Pele out there to police the area.
     I lucked out at Cub this week, though.  In their produce section, there was a small crate of gorgeous, glossy red, luscious tomatoes.  There was a sign above them, telling me that they were just brought in that day from a local farm.  I wish I could remember the name of the farm, because they were spectacular in looks, texture, and taste.
     I had a couple of really tiny red peppers, but since my tomato was so big and beautiful, I decided to go with the one purple bell I harvested that morning.  I wanted the size and shape of my slices of pepper to match those of the tomato and the red onion.  They still fell short, but at least they were a closer match than the dinky red ones.

     I sliced everything as thin as I possibly could.  I wanted that magnificent tomato to go as far as it could.  I wanted to make sure that everyone got to try it.  The onion was very strong, so that had to be thin, too, and my one pepper had to keep up with the tomato.  I sliced everything up and alternated tomatoes, onions, and peppers on one half of my platter.  I drizzled it with olive oil and garlic-infused red wine vinegar and dusted them with salt and pepper.

     Marinated artichoke hearts turned out to be an issue for me.  I knew I had seen them at Cub before.  I knew I had even purchased them before.  And, I could even remember where I found them in the store.  However, the store had been rearranged since I had purchased any, and I wasn't sure where to find them now.  I checked in the "Ethnic" section, where the Italian items were, and I got a little sidetracked and never found them nor did I remember that I was looking for them.  I think it was when I saw the olives.

    I wasn't sure what Italian style olives were - I know the Greeks like Kalamatas, and Manzanilla olives come from Spain.  I know that Italians eat a lot of olives, but quite frankly, I didn't know that they had their own style of olives.  Lucky for me, Cub had a jar labeled Italian Olive Antipasto!  That must be what I needed.  It had green (Manzanilla) olives in it, but it also had garlic and peppers, and sun dried tomatoes, and some herbs.  It was all delicious.

     So, I didn't buy the marinated artichoke hearts.  I had some regular old canned artichoke hearts at home.  I decided to marinate those.  A little research on the Internet and a little tweaking of my own, and they were marinating.

MARINATED ARTICHOKE HEARTS

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard

1 14-ounce can artichoke hearts, drained

Combine all ingredients, except artichoke hearts in a small jar or container with a lid.  Whisk the ingredients together.  Add the artichokes and shake to coat.  Let stand for at least 30 minutes.

     For the peperoncini, I wanted to make sure that I got mild ones when I went to the grocery store.  It seems like there have been times when I have gotten really hot ones before.  I did some research on line and there seems to be quite a difference between what Italians call peperoncini (and another Italian pepper "peperoni") and what Americans call peperoncini.  It would also seem that in different parts of this great land of ours, they vary on the heat levels.  Usually when I buy them here in Minnesota, they are mild, but I didn't want to take the chance with the ones that weren't marked either way.

     The pickles were hot Kosher dills.  And these were HOT.  I like a little heat now and then, and I am no wimp when it comes to spicy, but these made me tear up a little.  I imagine that they are not going to be a big seller in our little corner of Suburbia.  I like them, don't get me wrong, and I will probably buy them again, but I cannot eat them in large doses, and I don't know many people that could. 

     My platter wasn't as beautiful as I had envisioned in my mind's eye, but I thought it was looking pretty good.  I probably should have gotten some Kalamatas (even though they were labeled Greek) or even some regular black olives (do those have a name?) to vary the color pattern a little, but the four different greens had some merit.

     With that assembles, I was ready to tend to my doughs.  The flat bread dough was just going to be baked naked with a coating of olive oil on it.  It had risen quite a bit and was trying to climb out of its bowl when I got to it.  There is something satisfying about being able to punch that marshmallow down and watch it collapse on itself.

     Deflated, it was ready to stretch into my oiled bar pan.  It took a bit of work to get it to come near the edges of the pan.  It was a little uneven in places and didn't necessarily come to the corner of the pan, but I liked it. 

     Once I had this in the oven for its thirty-five minute stint, I started on the cherry turnovers.

FRUIT PIZZA TURNOVERS

Adapted from the Everything Pizza Book by Belinda Hulin

1 recipe basic pizza dough (see above)

1 15-ounce container whole-milk ricotta cheese

½ cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 15-ounce can cherry pie filling

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350º F.  Divide dough in half and roll each piece out to a 12x12 square.  Mix the ricotta, sugar, and vanilla together in a medium bowl.  Spread the mixture over one half of each square, but on the diagonal, so the filling forms a triangle.  Pour fruit filling over the ricotta mixture and spread to cover the ricotta.  Fold the undressed half of the dough over the filling and pinch the edges together to seal.  You may have to brush with a little water to seal.  Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray and place the turnovers on it.  Bake for 12-14 minutes or until crust sounds slightly hollow when tapped.

     The Liggetts arrived just as I was assembling them.  I had two squares all lined up and had just finished mixing the ricotta, sugar, and vanilla when they walked in with two giant pizzas from Aldi's.  Apparently, there was a sale and apparently lack of bargain resistance runs in the family.

     I spread the cheese mixture over the dough, making sure to clean all of the creamy goodness out of the bowl before throwing it in the sink.  I handed the spoon to Gracie.  She gave me a concerned look like I might be trying to trick her into eating something gross.  I said, "try it, it's sweet".  She took a timid sweep of the tip of the spoon with her finger and hesitantly put it in her mouth.  Suddenly her eyes danced, and the corners of her mouth curled upward into a smile.  She greedily licked the rest of the spoon clean.

    Her eyes lit up again when I opened the can of cherry filling.  She leaned over me to peer into the can, reaching her finger and thumb forward like a crab claw to pluck a cherry right out of its nest of syrupy gel.  At this point, her brother walked in, saw what she was eating and said he wanted some, too.  I told him he could have the can when I was done.  Apparently, this was the wrong thing to say, because then Gracie thought he was getting more than she was, and an argument ensued.

     While I was sealing up the turnovers, Jennifer tried to start in on drink duty.  Unfortunately, we were missing a key ingredient to the drink I had originally chosen for the night.  It took me a little searching through the book to find a recipe for which we had everything or a facsimile thereof.  I finally settled on something called "Aviation".

AVIATION

2½ measures gin

½ measure maraschino liqueur

½ measure lemon juice

Shake ingredients well with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

     We each took a sip and smiled.  This was good.  Jennifer suggested that we had this drink previously.  It tasted similar to something, I wasn't sure what, but I was pretty sure we hadn't had this specific combination before.  I looked it up later, and it seems very close to the Beachcomber drink we had in July, but that was rum instead of gin and that had a hint of orange to it.  The gin in the Aviation gave it just a little more bite than the Beachcomber, and also kept it a little less sweet.  This was an equally refreshing and citrusy drink with less ingredients.  The lemon made it just a little brighter than the Beachcomber was.  Whatever the Aviation was, it was gone in a flash.  After we had gotten her two pizzas in the oven, we had to refill before sitting down with the crowd for the antipasti.

     The antipasti was a pleasant surprise.  That little bit of olive oil and vinegar on the tomatoes, onions, and peppers transformed them (or at least seemed to, maybe it was the Aviation talking).  Those three items stacked on the flat bread were fantastic.  We could have made a meal out of these.  Jennifer even enjoyed it, despite her aversion to tomatoes (I think she even had seconds or thirds).  We tried all kinds of different combinations on the flat bread: olive, artichoke, peperoncini; tomato, olive, pickle; everything all at once.

  It was messy and fun and delicious.

     Jennifer and Roger's $5 pizzas were truly a bargain, too.  They got a meat-lovers with sausage, pepperoni, and salami and an everything pizza with pepperoni, three different kinds of peppers, and mushrooms.  They were both great.  They had a thin, slightly crispy crust.  The sauce was just a hint on both, but enough to impart a nice tangy hint of tomato.  The pepperoni and salami were flavorful and had crisped up perfectly.
     The biggest hit of the evening, though, was the cherry turnover.  It didn't look pretty.  The crust was a little pasty looking - I should have given it a butter or egg wash or something - and I had forgotten to dust it with powdered sugar once it came out of the oven.  Of course, I didn't remember that until later...  It was heavenly, though.  I think I would have loved it even if it didn't have the cherry filling in it.  The sweetened ricotta with the vanilla was just fabulous all by itself.  Cooking the cheese had blended those three ingredients together so smoothly it seemed like they were destined to be combined.  It was rich and sweet and warm.  The cherries were a nice touch but just interfered with my enjoyment of the ricotta.  The kids (and Jeff) loved it and asked for seconds.  We polished off one entire turnover (even after we ate some Aldi cookies that were also on sale), and I sent the second one home with them.