Potato Leek Pizza; Cinnamon Pizza; Barnum

   

     This week's menu was a carb-lover's dream.  Potatoes on pizza crust with a cinnamon un-"roll" for dessert?  I was loving the sound of that combination!

     I started working on the pizzas on Wednesday, because I was going to be in class all day on Thursday.  I figured if I could knock out the dough for both, make the frosting for the cinnamon pizza, roast the potatoes, and saute the leeks, I would be set for Thursday.

      The cinnamon pizza recipe called for one pound of frozen bread dough to make two pizzas.  I was sure that I had some in my freezer for ages gone by - I am sure I purchased a large package of them for another pizza at another time.  Amazingly, I found them right away.  They were relatively close to the front of the old freezer in the basement.  

     There were two loaves-worth left in the bag.  I only needed half a pound for the cinnamon pizza, which would have been half a "loaf".  I didn't want to try to cut the frozen dough in half, nor did I think I would want to refreeze the dough once it had thawed enough for me to cut it in half.  Interestingly enough, the potato leek recipe listed two pounds of purchased dough as one of the crust options.  I decided that 1½ pounds was going to be suitable, and I put the bag in the kitchen freezer and set a reminder for myself to put them out on the counter before I left for class in the morning.

     The potatoes were the next task on my list.  I hadn't done any research on "new potatoes", and I wasn't exactly sure what they were when I went to Cub earlier in the week.  I assumed that they were just small potatoes, but I wasn't completely sure.  Cub only had smallish red potatoes that were labeled " 'B'  Size Potatoes".  They were a little bigger than what I thought I should be looking for, and the recipe said it was better if there was a variety of color in the two pounds.  

     I bought the B potatoes and researched the term when I got home.  Apparently, the term "new potato" just refers to a regular potato (or any kind of potato, really) that was harvested early.  Therefore, it tends to be smaller.  "B" size potatoes are simply potatoes that fall into the size range of 1½ to 2½ inches, so usually, they are also "new".  I found an interesting fact along the way, too: Because they are younger potatoes, they haven't had the time to develop as much starch as a regular potato, so there are less carbs per gram in the new potatoes.

     My B potatoes weren't uniformly sized. There were some larger ones and some really small ones.  I decided to cut the larger ones in half, so that they could all roast together with relatively similar outcomes.  After the suggested thirty five minutes, the potatoes were just as the recipe said they would be - tender, but not falling apart.  A couple of them had browned a little, and the garlic that had fallen off of the potatoes had darkened significantly.  I sampled one of the potatoes to make sure that the almost-burnt garlic didn't impart a bitter flavor to them.  They were fine.
     While the potatoes were roasting (can you call it "roasting" if they don't get brown?), I worked on the leeks.  These are funny vegetables.  They look like giant scallions, but they are much more delicate in flavor.  A little history lesson for today:  In 640 AD, the Welsh wore leeks in their hats to distinguish themselves from the Saxons they were fighting.  I am sure that would be a strange sight to see.  I wonder if they won the battle because the Saxons were too busy trying to figure out what was on their heads to fight effectively.
     The one leek I purchased from Cub was enough to fulfill the 2 cups of slices for which the recipe called.  A long slice lengthwise after the root end was sliced off revealed all of the beautifully coiled layers of the onion-cousin and all of the sand and grit that resided in-between them.  I fanned the layers out under running water to wash away all of the sand and dirt.  Once they were clean, I sliced them up.  I sauteed them in a little olive oil with a couple of tablespoons of fresh thyme from my deck and set them aside to cool.  Once the potatoes and the leeks had sufficiently cooled, I bagged them up and tossed them in the fridge for the next day.

     I actually remembered to take the dough out of the freezer before I went to class Thursday morning.  Of course, the alarm I had set for myself helped, but it doesn't always.  When I came home from school, they were still a little cold.  I took them out of their package, cut the one dough ball in half for my cinnamon pizza and squished the other half into the remaining whole dough ball for the other pizza.
     Since I was substituting pre-made dough for the cracked pepper dough that the potato-leek recipe suggested, I decided to add some peppercorns to simulate the same flavors.  I coarsely ground enough pepper to fill one tablespoon.  Then, when the dough had warmed up to room temperature, I kneaded the pepper into the dough.  I kneaded it for about 15 minutes, trying to make sure that the pepper was evenly distributed.

     I let that rest while I worked on assembling the cinnamon pizza.

CINNAMON PIZZA

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin

1/2 lb frozen bread dough, thawed

2 tablespoons of flour, for rolling
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2½ tablespoons cinnamon
3/4 cups superfine sugar (or powdered sugar)
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Set dough in a warm place, covered, for about an hour or until doubled in size.  Preheat oven to 400º.   Roll or stretch into a 12 inch circle and placed in a lightly greased pan (I used a deep dish pizza stone).  Pour melted butter over dough and brush it around to cover the entire dough.  Combine the sugars and cinnamon in a bowl.  Sprinkle sugar-cinnamon mixture over the whole crust.  Bake for 15 to 18 minutes.  Whisk together the superfine sugar and heavy cream.  Drizzle mixture over slightly cooled pizza.

     I had a couple of issues with this recipe.  I rolled out my dough to 12 inches and placed it in the bottom of my stoneware deep dish pan, but it was awfully thin.  I went with it anyway.  What could I do at this point?  I suppose I could have made more dough, but that would have delayed the whole process, and we can't have people standing around waiting for food for too long.  I had weighed the dough before I set it to rising, so I knew it wasn't the amount of dough.  Had my dough been frozen for so long it wasn't rising?  The other portions of dough that I had for the potato pizza seemed just fine.

     Then, when I poured the melted butter over the dough, there was so much of it that it pooled over the top.  Now, this, to me, isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Butter makes everything taste better and more just makes it even better, but I was worried that the dough would come out deep fried instead of soft and fluffy like a cinnamon roll should be.  After brief consideration, I decided deep fried wouldn't be so bad either.

     The original recipe made two pizzas, and I was trying to cut everything in half to make just one.  Apparently, my calculations were a little off, because I came up with roughly 5 tablespoons of cinnamon for half of a 1/3 cup of cinnamon.  I think my line of thinking was to convert the amount into tablespoons and then divide it in half, but I failed to come through on the second part of the equation.  So, 5 tablespoons of cinnamon went into my sugar mixture.  I thought it was an excessive amount at the time, but I also thought that the amount of sugar was rather excessive too.
     The original recipe called for 2/3 cups of sugar for two pizzas, so I used 1/3 cup of each - that math seemed pretty straight forward.

     When I sprinkled the mixture onto the butter pool in my pan, I thought that maybe there was so much sugar because it needed to soak up the excess butter.  It seemed logical.

     I tried whisking my 2 tablespoons of cream (half of the original recipe's quarter cup) into the superfine sugar (1½ cups) , but it barely even wet the massive pile of sugar.  I rechecked the recipe.  Yep, it called for 3 cups of confectioners' sugar, and I was using 1½ cups for my half-recipe, but there wasn't any possible way to make that into a frosting of any kind.  I added another 2 tablespoons of cream to the mix and then was able to get it into some semblance of frosting.  I loaded this frosting into a squeeze bottle for easy application once my pizza was cooked.

     I wanted to put the cinnamon pizza in after we took out the potato leek pizza, so that it would be hot when we were ready to eat it.  Because of this, I set the cinnamon (or should I say sugar) pizza aside for the moment and concentrated on the potato leek pizza.  

POTATO-LEEK PIZZA

Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza

1½ tablespoons coarsely ground pepper, divided

1½ pounds frozen bread dough, thawed

2 pounds small new potatoes

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

8 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 tablespoon coarse salt

2 cups thinly sliced leeks (white and light green parts only)

1 tablespoon fresh thyme

3 cups freshly shredded aged Gouda cheese

Knead one tablespoon of pepper into the thawed bread dough until it is evenly disbursed throughout the dough.  Set aside in a lightly greased bowl, covered, in a warm, dry place for at least an hour or until doubled in size.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375º F.  Place potatoes in a bowl.  Cut down any larger potatoes to make all pieces roughly the same size.  Add the garlic, 4 tablespoons (¼ cup) of olive oil, 1 tablespoon coarse salt, and the remaining pepper.  Toss the potatoes to get an even coating of oil and spices on all of the pieces.  Roast, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender, about 35 minutes.  Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.  Once cooled, slice into ¼ inch circles.

Increase the oven temperature to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using.  

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan over medium heat.  Saute the leeks with the thyme until the leeks are soft, about 5 minutes.  Set aside.

Roll or stretch dough out on a floured or corn-meal dusted peel or board until it becomes a 15 inch circle.  Brush the surface with a tablespoon of olive oil.  Sprinkle 2½ cups of the Gouda evenly over the crust.  Distribute the potato slices over the cheese and the leeks over the potatoes.  Salt and pepper the pizza and drizzle another tablespoon of olive oil over the entire pizza.  Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Transfer the pizza into the oven and onto the pizza stone (if using).  Bake until the crust is browning around the edges and crisp, about 8 minutes.

     This one was much easier to assemble.  I rolled the dough out to about fifteen inches, and I had to stand back and admire it for a moment.  I had used really coarsely ground pepper in the dough, and I could see it flecked all through it.  I couldn't wait to try it - I could just eat the peppered crust.  I love that little snap between my teeth when I hit a spot of pepper and the sharp twinge of heat that only lasts for a second.

     My potatoes sliced easily after their respite in the refrigerator overnight.  It seemed like a large amount of potatoes, but Jennifer and Pam sampled a couple when they came in.  They were just making sure that the seasoning was adequate and that there weren't too many slices than would fit on the pizza.

     I put Jennifer in charge of assembling the pizza, so I could concentrate on getting something for us to drink.  She did a beautiful job.

BARNUM

2 measures gin

3/4 measure apricot brandy

1/2 measure lemon juice

3 dashes Angostura bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass.  Garnish with a slice of lemon.

     The drinks were lovely.  It was a perfect balance with the sharpness of the gin and bitters, the sweetness of the apricot, and the tang of the lemon.  The apricot was barely perceptible - just a mellowing sweetness beneath the other layers of flavor.

     The potato leek pizza came out of the oven shortly after our drinks were ready, and it was gorgeous!  The crust was a golden brown, the leeks still a bright green, and the creamy white potatoes with their red skins.

      The flavor was outstanding, as well.  The crust was crisp, the potatoes were soft and as creamy as they looked.  The leeks added texture and the barest of onion flavors to the mix.  I think that the cheese got sort of lost underneath the potatoes.  I had Jennifer put the entire amount of cheese down before the potatoes, and we all agreed that having all of it buried diminished it's presence (I have changed the instruction on the recipe above to save some of the cheese for the top, because of this).  I am sure that we would miss it if it were gone, but we couldn't distinguish it from the rest of the flavors in the pizza.

     We interrupted Grace's homework, so she could frost the cinnamon pizza for us.

     She wanted to know what kind of pattern she should put on it.  I told her it was completely up to her - it was her canvas.  She relished in the task.

        The cinnamon on the pizza was strong (this is when I realized my mathematical error), but not overly offensive.  The overall flavor was nice.  It was sweet and warm and buttery - all good things, but there was so much sugar on the pizza that it was a little gritty (I cut back the amount of sugars in the recipe above).  Also, if Gracie had used all of the frosting that the original recipe had made, there definitely would have been an overload or a diabetic coma or something.  She and Jonah were enjoying squeezing extra frosting on their pieces (and their fingers and into their mouths, etc.).  There seems to be no sugar overload when it comes to kids' taste buds.  I sent the extra pieces of cinnamon pizza and the frosting home with them and cut the amount of the frosting in half for the above recipe.

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Sun-Dried Tomato & Goat Cheese Pizza; Ice Cream Cookie Pizza; Banana Bliss

    I liked the idea of an ice cream pizza.  I especially liked the idea that I could make the entire thing ahead of time and put it in my freezer until we were ready to eat it.  I didn't like the fact that the recipe called for pre-made dough for sugar cookies.  I suppose that it would be nice if you wanted to whip up something different for a dessert after a day at work, but I had the time, and I wanted to make my own cookies.
     Not ever having purchased cookie dough in a roll (okay, yes, I had purchased a few in college just to eat right out of the package, but that was a long time ago...), I didn't know how much cookie dough to make to have the same amount as the two "tubes" the original recipe for which the original recipe called.  I tried looking up the products I knew about on Google, and I could not find a description of how many cookies were in a tube.   I sent a text to my friend, Karen, who works at General Mills and asked how many cookies a tube makes.  She replied that it depended upon how big I was making them and how thick.  It was a good point, but it didn't help me make any determination about how much cookie dough to make.  She then suggested that I look at how much a tube of dough weighed and make that much.  That would have been a good suggestion if I could have found any weight listings on line.  If I was able to see a tube in person, I would be able to see how many cookies (and see the suggested size and thickness) and make a recipe accordingly.

     It didn't matter, however, because I was out of eggs and had to go to the store for those.  While I was there, I looked at the weight, the number of cookies, and the thickness - both of the Pillsbury brand and the Cub brand.  They both were 16.5 ounces per tube.  Pillsbury made 12 half-inch thick cookies, and Cub made 24 quarter-inch cookies.  The ice cream pizza recipe called for two tubes.  I chose a recipe that claimed to make 36 cookies, but it didn't indicate how thick or what diameter.  Interestingly enough, though, I weighed the dough when I was done, and it was slightly over 33 ounces, so I thought it would be the perfect amount.
     What I didn't realize was that the original recipe made two 12 inch pizzas.  I only wanted to make one.  Once I had gotten my cookie dough together and weighed it, I spread half of the dough in each of two 12" deep dish pizza stones and baked them (as per the instructions).  I had it in my head that the pizza was going to be a type of sandwich - that one cookie was going to be on the bottom, and the other was going to be the lid.  I didn't realize that was not the instructions until I pulled both of my giant cookies out of the oven.  I suppose I could have still used one as a lid, but I wanted the contrast of the M&M's against the ice cream.

     I altered a couple other components of the recipe as well, because the ice cream portion of it was supposed to be strawberry.  Now, I know that a lot of strawberry ice creams do not actually contain any strawberry, and it is really only the seeds that Jeff is allergic to, but I wasn't willing to risk him rejecting the pizza based on strawberry flavoring.  I purchased chocolate.  It also called for mini M & M's, and I could only find those in the small, Halloween themed packages.  I wasn't going to buy a whole bunch of those just to make pizza.  I opted for the regular sized ones, and I switched them to dark chocolate.
    The other item was the white chocolate.  I really think that stores should sell white chocolate (and dark and milk, for that matter) curls - chocolate that has already been shaved into curls.  They sell chocolate chunks, they sell pre-made frosting flowers, they sell pre-made genache - why not sell pre-made curls.  I think that there is an untapped market here.  Anyway, I had "chocolate curls" on my shopping list, and didn't come up with any.  I had white chocolate at home that I had intended to shave into curls, even though I have never had any success doing that, but after I had gotten the ice cream in the pan and the M&M's sprinkled over the top, I had forgotten about the curls and rushed my creation to the freezer.

ICE CREAM COOKIE PIZZA

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin

2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup butter, softened

1-1/2 cups white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pint chocolate ice cream, slightly softened

1/2 cup dark chocolate M&M's

Preheat oven to 375º F.  In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder.  Set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until smooth.  Add egg and vanilla.  Gradually add the dry ingredients.  Divide dough in half (reserve one half for another use).  Spread one half in the bottom of a greased 12" pizza pan or stone.  Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden.  Let cool completely.  Spread the softened ice cream over the the cookie and sprinkle with the M&M's.  Freeze or serve immediately.

     While the cookies were baking, though, I started my dough for the goat cheese pizza.  This was a new recipe for me.  The pizza recipe had called for dough for a 10 inch pizza, but it didn't specify which kind.  The book offered two kinds - "rustic" and "thin and crispy".  I opted for rustic.  The instructions on that dough indicated that the recipe would make two 10 inch pizzas or one 14 inch pizza.  I am not much of a mathematician, but that didn't really compute for me.  Once the dough had come together, I decided that I was going to use the whole thing.  A ten inch pizza to me sounds like a personal pizza, and I was going to be serving a crowd.  Even though we were going to have other things to eat, I wanted to make sure that the pizza was big enough for everyone to try it.  I rolled the dough out into a 16 inch circle once it had risen for a while.

     Now that I had a larger pizza base, the ingredients didn't seem like enough.  I smeared about a tablespoon of the oil from the marinated sun-dried tomatoes over the crust.  When I put the four ounces of goat cheese over the top, it looked silly and anemic.

     Unfortunately, I had only purchased the four ounces the recipe listed.  I searched through my refrigerator to see what else I could add to cheese this up more.  I found left-over yogurt cheese from last week, and it was about four ounces as well.  I gave it a taste, and then I tasted the goat cheese to make sure that the two flavors wouldn't clash, but they tasted quite similar, so I went for it.

     The marinated, sun-dried tomatoes I had were pre-shredded.  The recipe called for two whole, marinated, sun-dried tomatoes.  I didn't know how many shreds would make a whole tomato, so I just kept sprinkling until it looked good.  I ended up using about a half cup of shredded tomatoes, and it was pretty.  The finishing touches were a sprinkle of fresh thyme and another drizzle of the sun-dried tomato oil, and it was ready for the oven.

SUN-DRIED TOMATO & GOAT CHEESE PIZZA    

Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner

2-1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/4 teaspoon sugar

3/4 cup lukewarm water

1-3/4 cups bread flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons oil from sun-dried tomatoes, divided

4 ounces goat cheese crumbles

4 ounces of yogurt cheese (see 9/13/12 for instructions on making yogurt cheese)

1/2 cup shredded & drained sun-dried tomatoes in oil

1 tablespoon fresh thyme

Freshly ground black pepper

In a small bowl, combine the yeast, sugar, and water.  Set aside for at least five minutes.  Stir the bread flour and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Add the yeast mixture and stir on low until dough comes together and forms a smooth ball around the dough hook.  Remove dough from mixing bowl and place in a greased bowl.  Brush the top of the dough with a little olive oil, cover with a towel, and place in a warm, dry spot for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven (with pizza stone inside) to 500º F.  Roll and/or stretch the dough into a 16" circle.  Brush the dough with 2 tablespoons of the sun-dried tomato oil.  Sprinkle the goat and yogurt cheeses over the top.  Scatter the tomatoes evenly over the cheese.  Distribute the thyme evenly over the tomatoes.  Grind a little black pepper over the top.  Drizzle the remaining tablespoon of tomato oil over everything.  Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

  

 It seemed like everyone showed up at once.  Pam was first and apologized for being late.

 I told her she was first, so she couldn't be late.  As she was coming in the door, Paul and Leslie and their two adorable little girls showed up.  Pam and I helped them carry in their stuff - the two unbaked pizzas that they had assembled before coming over, the diaper bags, the car seat, the kids, etc.

  Once they were all loaded into the house, Jennifer and Gracie arrived.  Jennifer brought a lovely vegetable platter made mostly with vegetables from her garden and some hummus for dipping.

     While I was waiting for guests to arrive, I had turned the oven on and set out the ingredients for our drink of the week.  I was a little skeptical about a drink with banana liqueur in it - I am not a huge fan of bananas or banana flavoring, and I was worried that it was going to be too sweet.  However, when everyone got inside, I mixed them up for me, Jennifer, and Leslie.  It was a pretty copper color.  I had one sip and declared it delicious!  The banana flavor was less than subtle, but it was a nice smoothing element to the cognac.  It wasn't too sweet at all, and it warmed my belly the instant it got in there.

BANANA BLISS

2 measures creme de bananes liqueur

2 measures cognac

2 dashes orange bitters

Pour ingredients into a shaker filled with ice.  Shake and strain into a chilled martini glass.  Garnish with a banana chunk.

     The Dahlen's sausage and mushroom pizza was the first one to come out of the oven.  The dough had risen beautifully in the oven.  There was a good distribution of both the sausage and mushrooms, and there was enough cheese to hold everything together and still be gooey.

  The second pizza they brought was a chicken broccoli alfredo pizza.  I grilled them a little bit on the process.  He said that they used a jarred alfredo sauce over the crust.  They blanched some broccoli and caramelized some onions and sprinkled that around the dough with some chicken that they had sauteed in a frying pan.  It, too, was beautiful and delicious.  I loved the bright green of the broccoli against all of those white and golden ingredients.

     The sun-dried tomato and goat cheese didn't change its looks a whole lot in the oven, but it still was good-looking.  I would say it was in the top four of the evening.  I was still worried about there not being enough cheese, but it was tasty.  It didn't have the stretchy, oozy cheese that I truly appreciate in a pizza, but the flavor was outstanding.  The tomatoes were a little bit sweet, and the cheese was bold and tangy.  The oil drizzle blended the two flavors together and added a little spice to the action.

     When I brought out the ice cream pizza for dessert, I received oohs and ahs from my guests.  unfortunately, though, even though the cookie had copious amounts of butter, it had stuck to the pan.  Getting a decent-looking piece out of there was not a possibility.

     Seeing me struggle to get under the cookie that so desperately wanted to become part of the stoneware, Paul stepped in and took over serving.  He did an excellent job.  He also had to struggle, but he was able to keep the triangle shapes we were looking for.

     I think that the reason the recipe had called for the mini M&M's was because the candy coating melted into the ice cream.  If you have little tiny candies, it probably didn't make as much of a mess, but I rather enjoyed the blue, green, orange, and yellow swirls that ended up in the ice cream.  I think Chelsea was just happy to have ice cream period!

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Summer Fruit Chutney Pizza; Spaghetti Pie; Bald Eagle Martini

 
     My mom, Pam, and I had watched an episode of "Chopped" on Food Network, and one of the judges berated one of the chefs for calling something a chutney, when she didn't feel it was a chutney.  She said, "you can't just throw some things on a plate and call it a chutney."  So, I needed to do some research on chutney, because I wasn't exactly sure what it was either.  Apparently, it is a reduction of fruit and spices, usually made with the addition of vinegar.
     At Cub, they only had Major Grey's chutney, which I already had but not in enough quantity to use in the chutney pizza recipe.  Also, I was looking for something different.  I gave up trying to buy it (I didn't want to go anywhere else that day), and did some on-line research to find recipes.  I found a peach-nectarine chutney that sounded interesting, so I went for it, even though it meant another trip to Cub to get peaches and nectarines.
     I started working on the chutney and the yogurt cheese on Wednesday, because Thursday was "Garage Sale Day".  My mom was coming in to town for the day, and she and Pam and Jennifer and I were meeting friends of Pam's, who plan a whole day of garage sales, including lunch.  They lead the pack, and the rest of us caravan behind them, and we invade the poor souls who dared to sell their cast offs on that day.

SUMMER FRUIT CHUTNEY PIZZA

adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza

40 ounces low fat yogurt (I used half fat-free Greek yogurt, and half low-fat plain yogurt)

½ cup cider vinegar

¼ cup + 1 teaspoon granulated sugar, divided

¼ cup packed brown sugar

4 whole cloves

1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick

¼ cup raisins

¼ cup dried cranberries

2 tablespoons minced ginger

¼ teaspoon yellow mustard seeds

½ cup crushed red pepper

1¼ pounds firm white nectarines, peeled, pitted, and chopped

1 pound firm ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, and chopped

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

3¼ cups bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons curry powder

¼ cup + 1 tablespoon olive oil, divided

Cornmeal

3 tablespoon minced fresh chives

Make yogurt cheese: Line a mesh strainer with several layers of cheesecloth.  Spoon the yogurt into the cheesecloth. Cover the top with plastic wrap.   Place strainer on top of a bowl.  Refrigerate, allowing the yogurt to drain, for at least 12 hours.

Make the fruit chutney:  combine vinegar, ¼ cup granulated sugar, and the brown sugar in a large saucepan.  Place cinnamon stick and cloves on top of a double layer of cheesecloth.  Tie the corners of the cheesecloth together to form a closed package.  Bring the vinegar mixture to a boil.  Add the cinnamon and clove package, raisins, cranberries, ginger, mustard seeds, and crushed red pepper.  Reduce heat and simmer for about eight minutes.  Add the chopped nectarines and peaches and increase heat again, bringing the mixture to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Discard cinnamon and cloves.  Cover and chill for at least two hours.

Make crust:  combine sugar, water, and yeast in a small bowl.  Set aside for at least five minutes.  Stir the flour, salt, and curry powder together in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook.  Add the yeast mixture and the olive oil and continue to stir at a low speed until the dough clings to the hook and is able to be formed into a smooth, round ball.   Place in a greased bowl.  Cover with a kitchen towel and set in a warm, dry place for at least an hour.

Assemble pizza:  Preheat oven (with pizza stone inside, if using) to 500º F.  Roll, stretch, and shape the dough into a 16 inch circle on a pizza peel or board dusted with cornmeal.  Prick all over with a fork.  Slide dough onto pizza stone in the oven (or place on an oiled pizza screen in the oven),  Bake for about 5 minutes or until dough just begins to brown.  Top crust with the yogurt cheese.  Spread the chutney over the cheese.  Return pizza to the oven for another five minutes - just enough to get the cheese warm.  Remove from oven and sprinkle the chives over the top of the pizza.  

     I had never made nor eaten yogurt cheese before now.  I was a little surprised at how little effort it was.  Really?  I just put the yogurt in some cheesecloth and tomorrow it will be cheese?  What else can I put in cheesecloth to transform it into cheese? 

     While the yogurt was hanging out in my fridge, transforming itself into cheese, I started in on the chutney.  It started with a search for cloves.  I knew that I had some.  I can only think of a couple of times where a recipe called for cloves.  I remember my mother used to punch a bunch of them into a ham before baking it, and I remember some winter drink recipes that called for them steeping for a while.

     After a long search, I finally found a bag of them in my axillary spice box.  I had no idea how old they were, but a sniff and a bite proved that they were still very strong.  It had a strong woodsy, almost licorice-like flavor to them.

     These are strange little items.  A little googling told me that they are the dried buds of flowers from a tree in Indonesia.  Wikipedia said that they look like irregular nails, but I think that they look like miniature brown golf balls on miniature brown tees.  They are supposedly effective in abating dental pain.  Although, I don't know how anyone would have figured that out, because if my teeth hurt, I certainly wouldn't want to put a hard brown twig-like thing in my mouth.

     It was nice that I didn't have to go searching for the cheesecloth - it was already out for the yogurt cheese, and there was just enough left on the roll to make a little satchel for my cloves and cinnamon stick.  Again, I was steeping the cloves in some fruity concoction. 

     It didn't take long for the vinegar and sugars to boil, and I threw in the packet of brown spices in with the raisins, cranberries, ginger, mustard seeds, and red pepper.  My house was really starting to smell good.  After a short simmer, the peaches and nectarines went into the mix.

     While that was simmering, I made the dough for the chutney pizza.  I thought that two tablespoons of curry powder was quite a lot, but I went for it anyway.  The moment I opened the jar of powder, I started salivating.  I love the warm, spicy smell of it.  It is made up of a few different spices.  My dad is always marveling about the fact that curry is a conglomeration of spices, where allspice, which sounds like it should be a mixture of spices, is only one berry.  Once my dough was together, I popped it into a zipper bag and threw it in the freezer, hoping I would remember to take it out of the freezer in the morning before the day's events got started.

     On Thursday, after I had gleaned all of the bargains I felt I was going to get for the day, I started back in on the preparations for the evening.  I had remembered to thaw my dough that morning, but it was still cold when I got home in the afternoon.  I let it sit while I contemplated the Spaghetti Pie recipe.

SPAGHETTI PIE

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin

10 ounces dried thin spaghetti noodles

4 eggs

½ cup half-and-half

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

3 tablespoons fresh herbs (I used a mixture of rosemary, oregano, basil, and Italian parsley)

1½ cups pizza or pasta sauce (I used leftover No Cook Pizza Sauce that was in my freezer)

8 ounces of mozzarella

3½ ounces sliced pepperoni

Cook the spaghetti according to the package directions.  Drain and allow to cool to room temperature.  Preheat the oven to 350º F.  Mix the eggs, half-and-half, salt, pepper, and herbs with the cooled noodles.  Pour into a greased 12" deep dish pizza pan.  Bake until set, about twenty minutes.  Spread the pizza sauce evenly over the top of the noodles.  Cover with the cheese and top it with the slices of pepperoni.

  The recipe had suggested a 12" quiche pan.  I didn't have one of those, so I settled for my deep dish pizza stone.

   My next quandary was that it called for 6 cups of cooked spaghetti.  I had no idea how much dried spaghetti was needed to make 6 cups cooked.  I eyed up my 16 ounce package of noodles and tried to picture them broken up and shoved into a one cup measure.   I decided that it looked like it was about three cups, and I was pretty sure that spaghetti didn't get bigger when you cooked it.  I was wrong.  I cooked up 32 ounces of dried spaghetti and come out with about 15 cups of cooked noodles!

      I put six cups of them into my pan and spread them out and up the sides of the pan.  I mixed together the eggs, half-and-half, salt, pepper, and herbs and poured it over the top.  All of the herbs stayed on top of the noodles.  I didn't want to just have bland eggs and noodles on the bottom of my pizza, so I grabbed a fork and tossed the noodles and liquids around until the herbs looked like they were properly distributed through the noodles.  Then I pressed them down again with the back of my fork.

     I thought that the eggs might puff up a little in the baking, but it didn't happen.  I wonder if that wasn't because the half-and-half was too heavy.  All that happened was that the noodles cemented together and the top got a little brown.

     The sauce spread nicely over this "crust".  It wasn't like the macaroni pizza, where most of the sauce got lost in the cracks and crevices between the noodles.  The sauce held its own and once the mozzarella and pepperoni was over the top of it, it looked just like a regular deep dish pepperoni pizza.

     At first, I had measured out the pepperoni into a one cup measure, as the original recipe called for, but I had only gotten a little more than half of the slices on before I would have to start overlapping them.  I decided against using the entire cup.

     By this time, my dough for the chutney pizza had warmed up and risen a little.  I rolled that out to about 16 inches.  That wonderful curry smell hit me again, and I could see little flecks of spices distributed through the dough.

     While that had its stint in the oven, I pulled out my yogurt "cheese."  I was a little disappointed that it wasn't firmer.  I wondered if more time draining would have made it so, or was this it?  It was a little like cottage cheese without the whey, but a little smoother.  It was tangy and a little sweet.

     The crust came out of the oven a nice golden color, and it smelled fantastic.

     I let it cool a little bit before spreading the yogurt over it.

     The chutney came next, it quickly went into the oven.

     Pam had arrived, and after she showed me the treasures she picked up after I bailed, I mixed her up a martini.

BALD EAGLE MARTINI

2 measures tequila

1 measure ruby grapefruit juice

½ measure cranberry juice

½ measure lime juice

½ measure lemon juice

Pour ingredients into a shaker filled with ice.  Shake and strain into a chilled martini glass.

    It was strong and delicious.  First taste was sweet, and then the tequila gave me little burn after I had swallowed.  And, it was my favorite color for a drink - PINK!

    The chutney pizza was beautiful.  It was colorful with the bright, glistening peaches, the green of the chives, and the smattering of raisins on top of the creamy white cheese and the golden crust.  We dug into it so quickly, I didn't get a chance to get a picture of it before pieces were missing.  

     The flavor was spectacular.  It was the clear winner of the evening.  The chutney was slightly sweet with a little underlying spicy heat to it.  The crust was soft and warm and also spicy.  The cheese was creamy and tangy and brought everything together and tamed the embers of the chutney and the crust.

     The spaghetti pie was good, too.  I think I may have made a mistake by not using all of the pepperoni.  We all decided that there shouldn't be more pepperoni on the top, but perhaps the extra 2½ ounces should be chopped and disbursed throughout the noodles.  The noodles were a little bland and detracted a little from the pepperoni and cheese.  Maybe there should be less noodles altogether.  This might require more research.  Gracie loved it just as it was, but she is our carb-queen.