Herbed Flat Bread with Roasted Garlic and Sun-Dried Tomato Cheese; Pizza Sandwich; Swizzle

     I was very excited when the herbed flat bread came up on the schedule.  As I have mentioned before, my herbs are booming, and I have more than I can keep up with, so anytime I can use them, I do and then some.  The sandwich pizza called for refrigerated bread dough, which I have not had good luck with.  It never seems to cook properly with ingredients on it, it never seems big enough, and it is just boring.  I decided to replace it with the same herb dough I was going to make for the appetizer.

HERBED PIZZA DOUGH

(makes two 16" pizzas)

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

2 cups warm water

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

6½ cups bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons fresh basil

1 tablespoon fresh sage

1 tablespoon fresh oregano

Mix the sugar, water, and yeast in a small bowl.  Set aside for at least five minutes.  Mix the bread flour and salt in a mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Add the olive oil and the yeast mixture and stir on a low speed until the dough just starts to come together.  Add the herbs and continue on a low speed until and well-combined and the dough clings to the hook.  Knead the dough a few times until it becomes smooth and elastic.  Place in a greased bowl, cover with a towel, and place in a warm spot to rise for an hour.  Punch dough down, divide and roll out as directed in the pizza recipe.

FOR THE FLAT BREAD:  Roll into a 16 inch circle, brush with olive oil, and sprinkle with course salt.  Bake on a preheated stone in a 500º oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden.

    

     While the dough was rising, I started working on roasting my garlic for the flat bread.  The garlic bulbs that I had gotten at Cub were a little puny, so I hoped that there would be enough for our purposes.

ROASTED GARLIC

¼ cup water

¼ teaspoon chicken bouillon

4 whole heads of garlic

2 tablespoons butter

Course Salt

¼ cup dry white wine

Preheat the oven to 350º.  Combine the water and the bouillon in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 30 seconds (just until boiling).  Stir to make sure all bouillon has dissolved.  Slice the garlic heads across the top to remove the very top portion of the cloves.  Peel a few layers of the paper from the entire bulb, leaving the bulbs in tact.  Place in a small baking dish.  Slather the butter over the tops of the garlic and sprinkle with a little course salt.  Pour the wine and chicken stock into the pan.  Either place lid on pan or cover with aluminum foil and bake until soft, about one hour.  Remove the lid (or foil) and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

     The directions called for adding ¼ cup of vegetable stock and ¼ cup of dry red wine to the bottom of the baking dish before roasting the garlic.  I didn't have any vegetable stock.  I could have made some, I suppose, but once again, my day had gotten away from me.  I had instant chicken stock on hand, and since it was only a small amount, I really couldn't see making stock or trekking out to the garage to get a frozen block of home-made chicken stock to thaw.  If I had been smart, like my sister Jennifer, when I made the chicken stock, I would have frozen it in ice cube trays first, so I could take out just one cube at a time. 

 Ah, but hindsight is 20/20.  I will be smarter next time.

     I placed a little instant stock in a measuring cup and filled it to a quarter cup and threw it in the microwave.  Unfortunately, I misread the ingredient list and used white wine instead of red.  I didn't realize that until much later.  I think I will have to roast some more later to see if it makes any difference. 

     Wednesday was my brother-in-law Roger's birthday, and he had to work out of town.  I offered to make a cake in case he was able to stop by on his way back home later tonight.  While the garlic was roasting and the dough rising, I started in on a rum fudge bundt cake. 
     This is the traditional Freese family birthday cake.  For years, I thought my mom had made this cake from scratch, slaving over it all day for us kids when it was our birthday.  When I moved away from home, I asked her to give me the recipe so I could make it for other people.  It turns out that it  was made with a cake mix. Who knew?  The up-side to this is that it is really easy to make, and it is still quite delicious.  I tweak her recipe a little bit, because I like more booze than water (see her recipe on my August 4th, 2011 entry), and I use whatever cake mix or pudding mix I have on hand.  Occasionally, I will make it with different liqueurs, depending on what I have on hand, or what I am in the mood for.  I just went with the regular rum, because I had it, and I wasn't sure how he would feel about any deviations I may make.

RUM FUDGE BUNDT CAKE

1 (1lb 2oz) chocolate cake mix

1 (4½ oz) instant chocolate pudding mix

3/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup light rum

1/4 cup water

4 eggs

1 (12oz) package chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350º.  Put the cake mix, pudding mix, oil, rum, and water in a large mixer bowl.  Mix at a low speed for one minute.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating at medium speed for eight minutes.  Fold in chocolate chunks.  Grease and flour a ten inch bundt pan (use cocoa instead of flour for better color).  Pour batter into pan and bake for about 55-60 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.  Cool in the pan.  Invert onto a serving plate.

     

    I put the cake in with the garlic, since they cooked at the same temperature, and then I was ready to roll out the dough for my two pizzas.  I started with the sandwich.  It called for rolling the dough into a 9x18 inch rectangle.  I have a hard enough time trying to get a circle, much less something with corners!  I did the best I could, stretching and pulling on the far points to try and square them off a bit.  I ended up with a rectangle-like shape that was approximately 12x18 after all of my tugging.
     This rectangle was supposed to be cut in half to make two 9x9 squares, which would then form the bread of the sandwich.  In other words, my sandwich was going to be a 12x9 rectangle instead of a 9x9 square.  More of it to love, though, right?

     

     I took the garlic out of the oven.  Apparently, I was supposed to be basting it with the wine/broth mixture that was added in, but it had all evaporated, but it still looked lovely.  It was all warm and squishy and brown... I was tempted to try it right then, but I held off. 

     I increased the oven temperature to 400º for my sandwich bread.  I put it in the oven for about ten minutes.  It fluffed up and puffed up.  Maybe I should have forked these rectangles before putting them in the oven.  Either way, they were going to make a hearty sandwich.  Once they were cool, I was ready for assembly.

SANDWICH PIZZA

½ recipe herbed pizza dough (see above)

Cooking spray

1 cup pizza sauce (I used leftover marinara sauce from last week)

3 ounces thinly sliced Canadian bacon

2 ounces thinly sliced pepper turkey

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

     Preheat oven to 400º.  Roll dough into a 12 inch by 18 inch rectangle.  Cut the rectangle in half, forming two 12 inch by 9 inch rectangles.  Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.  Place the two rectangles onto baking sheet side by side.  Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until crust is lightly browned.  Set aside to cool.

     Once dough has cooled enough to handle, spread pizza sauce on one of the rectangles.  Then, layer the Canadian bacon, turkey, mozzarella, and cheddar over the top of the sauce.  Place the other rectangle of crust on top of these toppings to form a sandwich.  Return sandwich to the oven for 8 minutes or until cheese has melted.  Let stand for two minutes, cut, and serve.

      I had substituted the ham in the original recipe for Canadian bacon, because there was a closeout on Canadian bacon at Cub this week.  I couldn't bring myself to buy regular, plain, old sliced turkey.  I find it bland, boring, and tasteless. I kicked it up a notch with an oven roasted turkey that was studded with coarsely ground pepper.  I was a little concerned that the pepper may get lost in the mix, but my aversion to bland tasteless meat was stronger.

     The other adjustment I made to the original recipe was the cheese.  It called for American cheese slices.  Again, I refused.  It's not that I mind the taste, but its texture would just be all wrong here.  While American cheese makes a nice grilled cheese sandwich, I find that when it is combined with other things, it takes on a plastic-like texture, it sticks to the roof of your mouth, and it just isn't worthy of my herb crust.  Sharp cheddar (which I already had on hand) was my chosen replacement.

     As I was placing the second rectangle on top of my "toppings" (or would they be "fillings"?), Pam arrived with a swanky new haircut.

    

       She got settled in with a glass of tea and a chair while I worked on the sun-dried tomato cheese.  I read through the instructions.  Oh yeah, I was going to make home-made yogurt cheese for this, as it called for, but it takes 12 hours or more, and I hadn't done it yet.  I was lamenting about this, when I remembered that I hedged my bet and also bought the alternate cheese listed in the ingredients - cream cheese - in case I didn't get around to the yogurt cheese. 

SUN-DRIED TOMATO CHEESE

1 cup sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil

6 ounces goat cheese crumbles

8 ounces neufchatel cheese

2 tablespoons oil from the sun-dried tomatoes

Salt

4 dashes of habenero sauce (or you can substitute Tabasco sauce or any other pepper sauce)

Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor fitted with a metal blade or a VitaMix or a blender.  Process until smooth.  Serve at room temperature.

     I threw all of the ingredients in my VitaMix, and this spread came together in no time flat. 
     Jennifer and Grace arrived (Jonah was at baseball practice) and asked if I had any wrapping paper they could borrow to wrap presents. I bartered with them.  I hadn't wrapped Roger's presents from us, either, so they could use my wrapping paper if they wrapped them for me.

    

     Since all of my eaters had arrived, I put the "sandwich" in the oven to melt the cheeses.  Once that was accomplished, I turned the oven up to 500º and baked the flat bread.  It didn't exactly turn out flat.  It was fluffy and soft and very fragrant.

     I squeezed the roasted garlic into a bowl and put the sun-dried tomato cheese in a bowl.  I was having difficulty with it, though.  It didn't want to stay together.  The oil kept leaching out of the mixture, giving the bulk of the spread a curd-like appearance.  It wasn't very appetizing, so I tried stirring it vigorously before placing it on the table.

   At this point, it was time to drink.

SWIZZLE

2 measures light rum (such as Bacardi Silver)

½ measure fresh lime juice

½ measure agave syrup

Pour ingredients into a glass filled with crushed ice.  Swizzle with a swizzle stick and serve with a straw.

     Again, I had chosen a refreshing summer sipper.  It was fruity and cold and easy to make.  It was also easy to drink, which made it a little dangerous.  It was a lot like a daiquiri on the rocks.
     The sun-dried tomato spread was delicious.  It was tangy, slightly sweet, with just a hint of the hot sauce.  The hint was just a flavor, no heat, but it was there.  It was clearly the hit of the two toppings for the "flat" bread.  The roasted garlic was all but abandoned once the cheese spread was tasted.

    As for the sandwiches, they were soft and comforting.  They were little pillows of dough with meat and cheese inside.  the tomato sauce gave it a little pizza feel, but it was a sandwich.  The melted cheese held the sandwiches together beautifully, and the cheddar with the Canadian bacon was a match made in heaven.  The turkey itself did get lost, but every few bites, I got a zing of a peppercorn, adding interest.

     Roger arrived around 8:30pm for cake and presents.  He declined a swizzle or any other food, but I think he enjoyed his presents.

Marinara Pizza; Chicken Nugget Pizza; Stork Club

     I have a love-hate relationship with anchovies.  I hate the thought of eating little canned, hairy fishes.  When they are plentiful in a recipe, I cannot stand their salty, mushy, overbearing flavor.  I do, however, recognize their beneficial contributions to recipes.  When administered in proper doses, they do impart a nice saltiness that enhances the brightness of a main ingredient or star of the recipe.  In the background, they add an almost pickle-like Mediterranean flair that can be quite nice.  I repeat, in the background.
     One of the recipes on deck for this week highlighted anchovies.  And so the internal debate begins.  Do I veer off course of the mission to which I had committed myself some 16 years ago when I started this crazy pizza night?  That would mean, we just make the next recipe, regardless of my distaste for any particular ingredient.  I have made certain exceptions before, but the point of the original plan was to force us to expand our horizons, try new things, try old things that once disgusted us and see if our minds could be changed.  It has been largely successful thus far.  There have only been a few pizzas we have made over the years that have ended up in the garbage disposal, but there have been far more ingredients that we (mostly I) have turned our noses up at that we now enjoy and use in other applications (asparagus, spinach, blue cheese, to name a few).  I decided to respect the order of things and forge ahead with the hairy fish.

     The other pizza on the menu, chicken nugget pizza, sounded fun and whimsical.  I wasn't quite sure how the nuggets would turn out in this venue, but I was willing to give it a try.  That and I was really looking forward to a new honey mustard I had bought at the Bloomington Farmers' Market on Saturday.
     The nugget pizza recipe called for a "ready to top" pizza crust.  Being low on funds, I decided to make my own.  I was going to have to make one for the marinara anyway, so I may as well double the recipe for that and par-bake one for the nuggets.  Actually, I ended up making a recipe that makes four crusts, and I packaged up half of into two balls that I froze for later.

CLASSIC CRUST

(makes four 12-inch pizzas)

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1-3/4 cups warm water

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt    

6-1/2 cups bread flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

Combine the yeast, water, and sugar in a bowl and set aside for at least five minutes.  Stir the salt and flour together in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Add the yeast mixture and the olive oil and stir on a low speed until the mixture forms a ball around the hook.  Continue mixing a little longer until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.  Let rest for an hour in a greased bowl in a warm, dry place.  Punch dough down, and divide into four pieces.  Roll and shape each piece as recipe indicates.

     Once I had the dough made, I sealed up two of the four portions in zipper bags, labeled them with the date, and placed them in my freezer.  The other two portions, I set aside to rise, while I made the sauce for the marinara pizza.

MARINARA SAUCE

3 large garlic cloves

28 ounces of canned diced tomatoes, drained

4 tablespoons tomato paste

½ teaspoon sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon fresh oregano

2 tablespoons fresh basil

½ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Peel the garlic cloves and place them,  the tomatoes, paste, sugar and salt into a blender (preferably the VitaMix Total Nutrition Center).  Puree (for the VitaMix, start on variable speed at its lowest setting; gradually increase the speed to its highest setting; then switch to high).  Mix in oregano, basil, hot pepper, and black pepper.  Makes 1½ cups.

     The original recipe called for dried oregano, but I couldn't bear to use that when I had all of these gorgeous herbs on my deck.  I also tripled the garlic it called for, because - why not?  1 clove just simply wasn't enough.  It is my favorite food, and you really can't have too much, even if I was putting sliced garlic on the pizza as well.  I cut the salt, because I thought the original amount the recipe requested was too much, considering we were using canned tomatoes (I can't wait for my tomatoes to ripen!).  I doubled both of the amounts of pepper to give it a little extra kick (okay, maybe I was trying to overpower the fishies, but there is nothing wrong with that, is there?).

     When the dough had sufficiently risen, I wanted to pre-bake the crust for the nugget pizza to simulate the "ready-to-top pizza crust" it had originally listed in the ingredient list.  I rolled it out to twelve inches and put it in the 400º on top of the pizza stone that I had also preheated.  I set the timer for eight minutes.

    The timer when off, and I checked my crust.  Apparently, I should have poked some holes in it before I placed it on the stone.  It had puffed up, almost touching the bottom of the rack above it.  It billowed up unevenly, too, so it looked like a big, fluffy baseball hat.

     Then, I poked holes in it and tried to smooth it down, hoping to force it back into one coherent piece.  I set it aside to cool while I assembled the marinara pizza.

MARINARA PIZZA

¼ recipe Classic Crust dough (see above)

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ cup marinara sauce (see above)

8 anchovy fillets, drained and rinsed thoroughly

5 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven (preferably with pizza stone inside) to 500º.  Hand stretch or roll out dough to a 12 inch circle on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel.  Brush the dough with olive oil to lightly coat.  Spread the marinara sauce over the olive oil, leaving a ¼ inch border around the edge of the dough.  Thoroughly rinse the anchovies and place in a spoke pattern around the circle.  Sprinkle the garlic slices all over the pizza and top with pepper.  Bake for 10 minutes or until crust is golden.

     I made sure to completely rinse the anchovies and pull out as many of the hairy little bones as possible.  I was hoping to make them seem less fuzzy, less fishy. 

     I went with sliced garlic instead of finely chopped, because I was hoping to shift the spotlight to them and not the anchovies.  Also, it gave me an excuse to use a really cool gadget Jennifer had given me - a garlic slicer.  It is like a small cup with a divider in the middle.  You place as many cloves as you can in the cup, put the lid on and twist.  Perfectly sliced garlic comes out the bottom.  It is genius, really, and there is no risk of slicing knuckles or finger tips or anything!

 

     If you put these gorgeous little slices on top of buttered bread and broil it, they become crispy and nutty and just delicious.  I was hoping for the same result here.  I was still trying to convince myself that I wasn't going to be eating an anchovy pizza, it was a garlic pizza.

     Jennifer had told me the day before that they weren't going to be able to get here until after 8:30, because Jonah had a baseball game until then.  I figured that she wouldn't make her kids wait until they got here to eat dinner, so I decided it was safe to use the jalapeno honey mustard for the sauce on the nugget pizza.  Of course, as soon as I spread the sauce over the crust, I found out that my friends Paul and Leslie were coming with their two kids.  I wondered if they would like anchovies...

     Actually, I wasn't worried that the children would starve at that point, because Paul and Leslie always bring two pizzas they have made themselves when they come on Thursdays.  There is usually at least one that is kid-friendly, and their girls are still so little that they really don't eat much.

     Today's selections from the Dahlens were a Canadian bacon pizza with pineapple and a pepperoni pizza with mushrooms.  Pam was already here when they arrived, my marinara pizza was assembled and ready for the oven, and I had just started working on the nuggets.  Allegra had fallen asleep on the way here and wasn't quite ready to wake up yet.  Paul brought in their pizzas and took Allegra outside to wake up and play.

CHICKEN NUGGET PIZZA

20 breaded chicken nuggets, cooked

¼ recipe classic crust (see above)

½ cup fire-roasted jalapeno honey mustard

1½ cup shredded Colby-jack cheese

½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook the chicken nuggets according to the package directions.  Preheat oven and pizza stone to 450º.  Roll the dough out to a 12 inch circle on top of a cornmeal dusted pizza peel.  Poke the dough all over with a fork.  Slide onto preheated pizza stone and bake for 8 minutes or until crust starts to firm up but hasn't browned yet.  Cool crust for at least five minutes.  Spread honey mustard over crust, leaving a quarter-inch border all the way around.  Top with the two cheeses.  Distribute the nuggets over the top of the cheese.

     I was a little confused by the original recipe.  It called for breaded chicken nuggets, cooked.  All of the chicken nuggets I have seen in the store are already cooked.  Should I cook them again from their frozen state or will cooking on the top of the pizza be okay?  I decided to cook them by themselves first, because I was afraid that they wouldn't get hot enough in their brief stint in the oven with the pizza, and I was really worried that they wouldn't crisp up.  Turns out they didn't crisp up anyway, but they were fairly tasty (we, of course, had to sample a couple before we placed them on the pizza).  I thought that by increasing the oven temperature from the original instruction of 400º to 450º would aid in the crisping of the nuggets, but they still weren't.  I imagine it would be difficult for them to get crispy on top of all that steamy cheese and sauce...  Maybe next time (if there is one), I would brush them with a little oil.

     I had both ovens going and put all four pizzas in at once.  Then, there was nothing to do but make drinks for me and Leslie.  She asked why it was called "Stork Club", and I told her it was guaranteed to make her pregnant.  She was skeptical but after tasting it, she admitted that she could see how it could result in pregnancy.

STORK CLUB

1 measure gin

1 measure cognac-based orange liqueur (like Harlequin's or Cointreau)

1 measure orange juice

½ measure freshly squeezed lime juice

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

     The first sip was bracing, but it gave way to a slightly sweet, slightly sour finish.  It was refreshing and fruity and absolutely delightful.  It was sure to cleanse the palate after any high flavor bite of pizza.

     With our drinks ready and the oven timers going off, Leslie went outside with Chelsea and sent Paul in to help with the carry out.  It was a beautiful evening, and we were going to take advantage of it by eating outside.

     The pizzas were gorgeous and smelled wonderful.  Pam had already brought out the plates and napkins and joined Leslie outside.  Paul grabbed two and headed down the stairs toward our back door.  As I was picking up the other two paddles, I heard irregular footfalls, a yell, and a splat.  I peeked down the stairs and saw Paul kneeling at the bottom with a perfectly in tact Hawaiian pizza still on its paddle, but I couldn't see his other hand from where I was standing.  After asking if he was okay, he said that the one of the pizzas slid onto the floor in his fall.  I told him to go ahead and slide it back onto the peel, I wouldn't tell anyone.  He said, "it's not that simple."

     The pizza had actually stayed on the peel, the toppings had slid off onto the floor.  After laughing for a little bit (and taking a picture).  I told him to put the toppings back on - no one will know.  He said he would know, and he wouldn't eat it.  We did end up putting the toppings back on the completely naked side of the pizza, but marking where the "safe" side of the pizza was.  I had a piece from each side and found the "floor" side to be the more delicious of the two.  There were significantly more toppings on that side, and I didn't find one single piece of grit or anything.  I am not sure if Paul ever tried that side, but there were more "safe" pieces left at the end of the night than the others.
     The Hawaiian was fabulous as always.  I don't know how he does it, but he makes the same crust recipe every time and it always turns out exactly the same.  It is light and fluffy with just the right amount of sturdiness.  Every time I repeat a crust recipe, it turns out different.  Of course, that could be the AADD in me that forgets ingredients, mis-measures ingredients, changes cooking temps and times, etc.
     Pam, Paul, and I declared the anchovy pizza "okay".  It didn't totally suck.  As Paul put it, it was something different and it had decent flavor, but it didn't wow us.  Jeff had several pieces, but he is a huge fan of anchovies.  I don't think Leslie tried it.  She granted me permission to skip pizzas on the list that had ingredients that I don't like.

          It was great to see the Dahlens, and I was glad that Pam was able to show up.  The evening was perfect - just about 78º and not nearly as humid and sweltering as most of the previous days this summer.  Not even anchovies could ruin it for me!

Garlic Cheese Pizza; Cracker Pizzas; Pineapple Mojito

     Ah, garlic.  What a lovely bulb it is.  It can be zingy, sharp, warm, nutty, sweet.  It is always delicious, and I can never get enough of it.  I frequently double it when a recipe calls for it, and if it doesn't call for it, I usually add it.  It is great in eggs, quiche, pasta, steak, pork  - everything.  It is said to lower cholesterol, help regulate blood sugar levels, and lower systolic blood pressure.  Cheese pizza is boring, but garlic cheese is lovely.
     Looking at the recipes for tonight, it seemed we were going to have appetizers for dinner.  I do enjoy that from time to time, and I was looking forward to it tonight (especially the garlic cheese).  Reading through the recipes, they seemed rather low-key as far as the amount of effort involved.  That was a good thing, because I had a horrible night's sleep, and I had a class until one o'clock.  When I got home from class I was rather unmotivated to do anything but nap.

     I knew I needed to make a crust at the very least before I crawled back in bed.  I started that going in my KitchenAid, and while it was kneading, I decided I could press some garlic.  I frequently use the minced garlic in a jar for many recipes, but I since garlic and cheese were the only toppings here, I thought I should use fresh.  Fresh garlic has a sharper flavor than the garlic in a jar.  The jarred version tends to cook down into nutty sweetness, where the fresh stuff retains a good deal of the bite.

     Unfortunately for me, my garlic was a little dated.  Peeling it was more of a chore than it should have been.  Usually, I just throw it in my garlic peeler - essentially a fat rubber tube - roll it around, and the garlic and its papers fall out separately.

     However, the papers weren't coming off nicely.  I dumped out the tube, and the garlic clove came out with the skin still attached, still wrapped around the clove, but not really touching the clove.  They were just too sticky.  I ended up finishing peeling half of them with my fingernails.  I should have just smashed them all with the flat side of a knife and saved myself the trouble.  I may have had the same problem there, too, though.

     Fresh garlic is sticky on its own, but not-quite-so-fresh garlic is even stickier.  I started loading my garlic press with the garlic, and it would stick to the press' screen.  It normally does that to a certain extent anyway, but this time it was starting to clog, and my garlic was shooting out the back side of the press.

    Several times I had to stop what I was doing and take a sharp knife across the flat surface of the screen to clear off the lovely little bits of garlic and allow more to get through on the next press.  The original recipe called for ¼ cup of pressed garlic.  That is what I ended up using, but it turned out to be the entire bulb.  Nothing wrong with that of course, but if my guests wanted to stay longer than dinner, I was going to have to make sure that everyone had this pizza or they wouldn't be able to stand those who had. 
     After my nap, I laid out the crackers.  The recipe was very non-specific about those.  It just said 12 large wheat crackers.  It didn't say how large, and "wheat crackers" encompasses a whole range of items.  We ended up with Wasa brand multi-grain crispbread.  Jeff said that was the cracker Steve Skjold always brought for the sardines they ate at their guy weekends.  That wasn't a ringing endorsement for me, and they actually reminded me of the hardtack we used to eat in the 80's to lose weight - dry, tasteless, and very crunchy. However, I was looking for something sturdy, because when we had our Whatsa Matzah pizzas, using Matzah crackers, they turned out soggy.  These babies looked like they could stand up to sauce, Canadian bacon juices, and gooey cheese.

     After my nap, I had laid out the crackers, but didn't add anything to them, because I was still fearing the sog-factor.  I mixed the pressed garlic, the mozzarella, and some olive oil together in a bowl.  Then, I rolled out the dough for the garlic pizza, brushed it with a little olive oil, and topped it with my cheese-garlic mixture.  A couple of ounces of Parmesan went over the top. 

Jennifer, Jonah, and Gracie weren't due to arrive until after 7:45pm, because Gracie had a softball game.  They showed up earlier than that, but these recipes were so easy, that it was mere minutes after they arrived that I had everything in the oven and baking. 

    

GARLIC CHEESE PIZZA

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

3¼ cups bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup olive oil

12 ounces shredded mozzarella

¼ cup pressed fresh garlic (about one bulb)

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

4 ounces freshly grated Parmesan cheese

     Combine the sugar, water, and yeast in a bowl and set it aside for about 5 minutes.  Stir the flour and salt together in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Add the yeast mixture and the olive oil and combine on a low speed until the dough comes together in a ball that clings to the hook.  Shape into a ball and place in a well-oiled bowl in a warm spot for an hour or until dough has doubled in size.

     Preheat the oven with a pizza stone on the center rack to 450º.  Combine the mozzarella, garlic, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a medium-sized bowl until well mixed.

     Roll out the dough into a 16" circle and brush with the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil.  Top with the cheese and garlic mixture.  Sprinkle two ounces of the Parmesan cheese over this.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cheese starts to brown around the edges.  Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan over the top, cut, and serve.



      I quartered the Canadian bacon for the crackers and laid out the ingredients for the mojitos.  At this point, I was way ahead of the game, so I thought I could afford to start in on the drink of the week.  Jennifer told me she was on a sugar fast, so she wouldn't be able to drink.  That being the case, I didn't think she would mind if I started without her.

    

PINEAPPLE MOJITO

                                                      12 fresh mint leaves

                                                       2 measures white rum

                                                       ½ measure Licor 43 (a sweet, vanilla-like liqueur)

                                                       ½ measure pineapple juice

                                                       ½ measure fresh squeezed lime juice

                                                       1 measure club soda

Muddle the mint leaves in the bottom of a collins glass.  Fill glass half way full with crushed ice.  Add the rum, Licor 43, pineapple juice, and lime juice.  Top off with club soda and stir.

     I made the first drink with a full measure of pineapple juice and a full measure of Licor 43 with no club soda, as the original recipe dictated.  The original recipe called for a full measure of lime, but I got tired of squeezing, and it seemed excessive, so I cut that in half right away.  It was very sweet, and the pineapple flavor was so strong that it masked the mint.  For the second one, I cut the pineapple juice in half as well and topped it with club soda.  It was better, but it still wasn't quite right, still too sweet.  I cut the Licor 43 down again and increased the club soda.  Either that was right on the money or I was just feeling good by this point and projected my feelings onto the drink.  I will have to start out with that combination first next time to make an educated determination.

     Just before I was about to make the third mixture of mojito, Jennifer and the kids arrived.  I handed her the pizza sauce I had thawed from the freezer and her go to work on the cracker pizzas.  I told her to be light-handed with the sauce, because we didn't want the crackers to get mushy.  She did a great job, and I laid the Canadian bacon over her handy-work.  I then topped them with cheese and put them in the oven with the garlic cheese bread.

CRACKER PIZZAS

18 multi-grain crispbread crackers (like Wasa brand)

1½ cups pizza sauce (I used frozen leftover sauce from recipe on June 7th)

6 ounces Canadian bacon, quartered

4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

4 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 450º.  Spread a scant amount of pizza sauce over each cracker (about 1 to 1½ tablespoons).  Top each cracker with two or three quarters of bacon.  Sprinkle the mozzarella and cheddar over the tops.  Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

     We could smell the garlic cooking almost immediately after closing the oven door.  It was a warm, homey aroma, and it whetted our appetites for what was about to come.  After ten minutes, we checked on them.  The garlic cheese pizza was still pale.  The mozzarella on the crackers had melted, but the cheddar hadn't quite yet.  After another couple of minutes, the cheddar fused together, but didn't really melt.  It had softened a little but the threads were still in tact, creating a web over the Canadian bacon.  We called them done and took them out of the oven. 

     Jennifer and Jeff and I started in on the crackers (the kids had already eaten before Gracie's softball game).  The crackers stayed nice and crispy.  I think the air pockets in them helped keep them that way, along with Jennifer's expert doling of the sauce.  The crackers lent each bite an earthy, almost sweet flavor.  The Canadian bacon moistened the palate and added a nice saltiness to contrast the sweetness of the crust.  The cheese held everything together nicely.  I realized later that the issue with the cheese was probably because it was reduced fat cheddar and there may not have been enough fat to facilitate even melting. 
     The original recipe for the garlic cheese pizza indicated that the crust would be crispy, and the pizza could be cut in such a way that they could be served as chips.  However, the crust was so thick and fluffy, that was not the case with our pizza.  I can't imagine, with all that cheese, that it would have become crispy even if the crust had been different.  After about fourteen minutes in the oven, it was beautifully golden.

     It was fantastic.  It was yet another reminder that sometimes simple is just perfect.  The cheese was thick and melty, the garlic sharp and slightly nutty.  After our first piece, I realized that I had forgotten to add the rest of the Parmesan after the pizza came out of the oven.  It didn't really need it,  but I had already grated it, and it was just sitting on the counter all lonely.  Onto the pizza it went.  We each had a second piece to determine the extra cheese's effect on it.  It was slightly saltier and a little messier, as the Parmesan didn't quite stick to the slick shellac of cheese that was already on the crust.

    

     These were both very easy and filling in their own right. I am going to have to remember the cracker recipe for future entertaining opportunities.  I would bet that it would be good with black olives and onions, too, or with whatever happened to be in the fridge at the time.  And, of course, the garlic cheese pizza is going to have to return to my table.