Spinach Chiffonade and Bacon Pizza; Hot Shrimp Cocktail Pizza; and Butterscotch Daiquiri

     There was a last minute menu change this week.  A bacon and egg pizza was scheduled (I was going to make a portion of the pizza with scrambled eggs for Pam), but Paul called and said that he and Leslie and the girls were coming.  Now, I have mentioned that my sister, Pam, has partial ova phobia, but Leslie fully has it. To hear Paul tell it, she cannot even stand the smell of eggs cooking.  She finds everything about them repulsive.  I decided something a little less controversial might be warranted, especially since it is a rare Thursday that the Dahlens come to join us.
     After searching the next few recipes in line, I found one for which I already had the ingredients: spinach chiffonade and bacon.  What is chiffonade, you ask?  I'm glad you did.  It is a culinary term (originating in France, of course) for greens that are cut into strips by stacking them, rolling them, and slicing the roll.  There is a good  video on U-Tube, showing how to do just that.
   

Spinach Chiffonade and Bacon Pizza

Adapted from All the Best Pizzas by Joie Warner

1¼ teaspoon active dry yeast

¼ teaspoon sugar

½ cup warm water

1¼ cup flour

¼ teaspoon salt

3 slices thick cut bacon, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 ounces grated mozzarella

2 cups shredded spinach leaves

     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 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. 

     Preheat the oven to 500º F with pizza stone inside, if using.  Roll or stretch out dough into a 15 inch circle on a cornmeal or flour dusted pizza peel or board.  In a small skillet, cook bacon until just crisp and remove to a paper towel-lined plate. Brush the dough all over with olive oil.    Distribute the cheese evenly over the dough.  Sprinkle the spinach ribbons over the cheese.  Top with the bacon crumbles.  Bake for 5-10 minutes.

    This pizza was incredibly easy to make.  Just make the dough, put the cheese, spinach, and bacon on it, and it is oven-ready!

     The other selection of the evening, however, was a bit more putzy.  Make the dough, make the tomato sauce, make the horsey sauce, peel the shrimp, and then you are ready to start assembling.
   

Hot Shrimp Cocktail Pizza

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin

for the dough:

1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon warm water

1 teaspoon yeast

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil

1 1/2 cups bread flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

for the tomato sauce:
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 cup prepared pasta sauce
2 1/2 ounces diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon basil
pinch red pepper

for the horsey sauce:

1 teaspoon butter

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 teaspoons freshly grated horse radish

3 tablespoons heavy cream

3 tablespoons cream cheese

1 ounce Parmesan cheese

salt 

pepper

remaining ingredients:

3 ounces mozzarella cheese

3 ounces Monterey jack cheese

12 ounces medium-sized shrimp, cooked and peeled

1/4 cup minuted fresh oregano

     Make the dough:  Combine the yeast, half a cup of 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 stir on a low speed until the mixture forms a ball around the hook.  Add the additional tablespoon of water if dough doesn't come together easily.  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.

     Make the tomato sauce:  In a saucepan, combine olive oil and garlic.  Cook over medium heat, stirring for a couple of minutes.  Add the pasta sauce.  Puree the tomatoes in a blender until smooth.  Add to saucepan with the basil and red pepper.  Bring the sauce to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for twenty minutes.  Set aside.

     Make the horseradish sauce:  In a clean saucepan, melt butter.  Sauté garlic for a moment.  Add the grated horseradish, the cream, cream cheese, and Parmesan cheese, whisking as you do so.  Continue whisking until well-blended and the cheese has melted.  Cook for a few minutes longer until it is thick.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Let cool slightly.  Mix the tomato and horseradish sauces together.

     Preheat the oven to 500º F with pizza stone inside, if using.  Roll or stretch the dough into a fifteen inch circle on a flour or cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board.  Spread the sauce over the dough circle.  Combine the mozzarella and jack cheeses together and distribute over the sauce.  Place the shrimp on top of the cheese in an even layer.  Sprinkle the oregano over the shrimp.  Bake for 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

     I started with the speed scratch sauce, cursing myself all the while, because I only made enough last week for last week's pizza, just so I could get the right amounts down for one pizza's worth.  It would have been so easy to make double that and have enough for this week.  Hindsight is twenty-twenty, they say.  Although, I am glad that I was able to work the recipe into a one-pizza portion, so I guess there are trade-offs.
     After the speed scratch was done, out of my pan, and cooling in another container, I started on the horseradish sauce.  I still had some horseradish roots in my freezer (shocking, I know) from two summers ago, when we thought we had dug up our entire horseradish plant.  We were wrong, and we grow more and more horseradish every year but never harvest it.  I am wondering if one summer, we are going to look out our back door and see a sea of horseradish plants.  They are very prolific, and I had been warned that if you do not remove the entire plant, it will eventually take over all vegetation in the area.  We will see.
     It is a very ugly thing, horseradish.  At least the root part of it, which is what you need for horseradish sauce or anything like that.  That is the part of the plant that is used when people simply refer to "horseradish".  The leaves are edible, too, but they hardly ever are eaten (at least by me and my husband).  I suspect you need to pull the leaves when they are really young to get them while they are tender and not quite as bitter.  It is prepared somewhat like ginger.  The bark-like exterior gets peeled off and the interior is grated.  Before it is cut into, it doesn't have any smell, and I imagine that it doesn't have much of a taste.  Grating it releases enzymes that break down organic compounds within it and produce an organosulfur compound.  This is what gives horseradish its zing. If the grated root is left exposed for too long without being combined with vinegar, it will lose it's pungency and could become bitter.
     Once the horseradish sauce was done and cooled a little, I combined it with the tomato sauce, making a pretty salmon colored sauce to serve as a base for the shrimp pizza.

     I covered this with the cheeses and topped it with the shrimp.  I was a little worried about the shrimp.  What I had in the freezer was precooked shrimp.   I usually like to buy uncooked shrimp and barely cook them before putting them on a pizza, so when the pizza goes in the oven, the shrimp don't overcook and become rubbery.  However, I had used this brand (Cub's generic, believe it or not) before with good success, so I thought I would give it a try and not spend the extra money for a new bag of shrimp. 

     The original recipe called for 18 "large" shrimp.  Mine were what I would call medium.  There were 36 in my 12 ounce bag, and I was going to use the whole thing.  I couldn't see refreezing the extra shrimp, and I didn't want them sitting around my refrigerator either.  So I piled them on.  OK, maybe "piled" is the wrong word.  I was very careful not to overlap any of them.  I squeezed them into any open space on the top of the pizza.

     The Dahlens, the Liggetts, and Pam arrived.  Jeff came shortly thereafter, and the house was full.  We all oohed and aahed over the latest antics of the two little Dahlen girls.

     Allegra really enjoyed playing with Pele's mice while we mixed cocktails and put pizzas in the oven.  The Dahlens had brought a "cowboy" pizza from Papa Murphy's: mushroom, olive, sausage, and pepperoni.

Butterscotch Daiquiri

2 measures light rum

1 measure butterscotch schnapps

½ measure freshly squeezed lime juice

Pour all ingredients into an ice-filled shaker.  Shake and strain into a cocktail glass.  Drink.

     

     The daiquiri was incredible.  For me, the butterscotch was the perfect winter addition to the original daiquiri recipe.  It added an underlying richness and warmth to the flavor.  It mellowed out the lime, turning it from a fruity party drink to an elegant sipper.  There was a little extra sweetness from the butterscotch, but it was almost neutralized by the lime zing.  They played off each other wonderfully.

     The pizzas came out beautifully.  The fluff of the spinach (I had actually doubled the amount of spinach the original recipe had required) had cooked down somewhat.  The leaves were a little al dente, so there was a nice toothsomeness to it and none of the slickness that sometimes comes with (over)cooked spinach.  The bacon had a nice crunch to it, and the sparseness of it drew my attention to it and almost intensified its flavor.

     The shrimp did not get overcooked.  They were tender and moist with just the slightest bit of firmness to the bite.  The horseradish was a little more subtle than I had hoped (maybe I was too slow getting it into the sauce?), but it was creamy and rich and delicious.  The hint of tomato cut through some of the richness and added just a little sweet to the brininess of the shrimp.

     The cowboy pizza was great, too.  It was hearty and meaty with the nice tang of olives shining through.

     As we ate, Allegra entertained us with songs.  She knew all of the words, sang them all on key, and projected well.  She stood on a chair and delighted us all with her cute little voice.

     Our friend, Michelle showed up after the show and joined us for another daiquiri.  It was a great evening with great company, and there were no leftovers of anything!

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Return to the Spinach Chiffonade and Bacon Pizza recipe.

Return to the Hot Shrimp Cocktail Pizza recipe.

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Asparagus Egg Pizza and Bramble

     Asparagus is a weird vegetable. The stalks have always reminded me of the sleestacks from the Land of the Lost.  You have to admit that there is some resemblance....

     It is related to onions, garlic, and lilies.  When eaten raw, it tastes almost exactly like a fresh pea.  Speaking of pee, it contains some natural compounds that change the odor of urine.  After a little research, I found out that it affects most of the people that eat it, but only 22% of the population can detect it.  I must be one of the lucky ones that has the sniffer gene, because it is one of the more pungent aromas I have ever encountered.  I was also amazed at how many studies were done on this topic.
     On a good note, asparagus contains certain enzymes that are helpful in breaking down alcohol in a person's body.  This is good news, because if you have the bad drinking gene and suffer from hangovers, you can have an asparagus omelet in the morning and feel much better.  I wonder if eating it while drinking would prevent the hangovers from ever occurring in the first.  I would imagine so.  Perhaps instead of garnishing martinis with olives or lemons, we should garnish with a stalk of asparagus!
     This pizza had originally been scheduled for earlier in the month, but I couldn't find any asparagus at the time (OK, I didn't try really hard - they didn't have it at Cub, so I gave up).  I found some at Costco when I went with my sisters and Gracie last Friday.  However, the delicate spears were severely jostled on the ride home with so many other bulk items careening around in the back of Jennifer's SUV, that by the time Thursday rolled around, the asparagus was a little worse for wear.  Some of the tips had broken off, and some were bruised and starting to mush up.  These were problems on top of the fact that they were extremely fat and a little woody (actually, a lot woody - I ended up breaking off almost half of each piece to get to the good stuff).  I guess I can't complain when buying a vegetable out of season.

     Jeff and I had a private pizza night.  Both my sisters (and Roger) were out of town, and none of the usual additional personnel had called in a reservation.  Pam was probably relieved to find out she missed an egg pizza.  She has a weird form of ovaphobia, where she doesn't fear the whole egg itself, just the white part.  She will not eat the egg if she can see the whites.  Scrambled eggs are fine, because the whites are mixed with the yolk to make a yellow curd.  It is strange, but true.  It may not be a fear, per se, maybe just a texture/aesthetics issue, but her reactions to the whites are so strong that I would prefer to refer to it as a phobia.

Asparagus and Egg Pizza

Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza

1½ teaspoons active dry yeast

1 cup warm water 

1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

3¼ cups bread flour

¼ cup olive oil

6 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

6 ounces shredded cheddar cheese

6 eggs

12 asparagus tips

Make the dough:  Combine the yeast, water, and sugar in a bowl and set aside for at least five minutes.  Stir 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.  

Preheat the oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using.  Roll or stretch the dough out on a flour or cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board.  Make it into roughly a thirteen inch circle, keeping the outside edges thicker than the middle of the circle.  Prick the dough all over with a fork.  Slide docked dough onto pizza stone, if using, or onto a pizza pan and into the oven.  Bake for about 5 minutes until dough is a little puffy and begins to slightly brown.

Hollow out six evenly spaced divots into the dough, either with your fingertips or a spoon, making sure not to go all the way through the crust.  The indentation should be a couple inches in diameter.  Combine the cheeses together and sprinkle over the crust, leaving the hollows mostly uncovered.  Crack an egg into a bowl, making sure there are no egg shells in it.  Pour egg into one of the divots.  Repeat with the remaining give eggs.  Arrange asparagus in a spoke pattern between the eggs - two in between each egg.  Sprinkle the pizza with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.  Bake until eggs are just barely set - up to fifteen minutes, depending on how thick the egg is in your hollow.  Slice and serve immediately.

     Jeff was really excited about this pizza.  About 15 years ago, we had another egg pizza where the eggs were baked on top in their original form and looked and acted like a fried egg.  He loved it, never forgot it, and still talks about it on occasion.  I think I may have ruined this one for him, though.  I had a really hard time getting the eggs to set.  I was beginning to see the rationality behind Pam's ovaphobia.  Every time I pulled the oven rack out to get a better look at the pizza, the whites, some of which were barely white at this point, were extremely jiggly, and I feared that the yolks were going to solidify before the whites became a tolerable texture (and look).  I think the problem may have been that the "cups" I had made in the crust were a little too deep.  If they had been larger around, the egg would have been flatter and the whites may have cooked faster.

     When I finally pulled it out of the oven, a couple of the yolks were almost solid, three of them looked nice and runny, and the other one was somewhere in the middle.  The whites had lost all of their translucency (and their jiggle).  By the time I had finished cutting the pizza, though, the middle-of-the-road yolk had completely moved out of the liquid stage, and the two "good" ones were somewhere in between.  I guess I should have pulled it out before it looked done, since the eggs continued to "cook."  The flavor was good, but I think it would have been better if I could slather the rest of the piece and the asparagus with ooey gooey yolk.  It was a little like having a breakfast sandwich with asparagus on it.

     If I were to do it again, I would definitely make sure that there were six people ready to enjoy it, because this is definitely something you need to eat right away.  I really don't think that it would make good leftovers.

Bramble

2 measures gin

1½ measures freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ measure agave syrup

½ measure black raspberry liqueur

Combine first three ingredients together in an ice filled shaker.   Shake and strain into a low-ball glass half filled with crushed ice.  Drizzle liqueur over the the top.

     The drink of the week was a nice match for it, too.  It was breakfast with juice.  The bramble was sweet and tart and cut right through the richness of the cheese and yolk.  And, it was a gorgeous lavender color!

Bacon and Lobster Calzones; Scrabble Night Pizza "Casserole", Black Martini

     I had such high hopes for the bacon and lobster calzone recipe, and I was disappointed.  It has all of the makings for a great meal, but I think my ingredients were a bit off.  I fished out a lobster tail from the depths of my freezer.  Unfortunately, it wasn't labeled, so I wasn't sure how long it had been in there.  If I had to guess, though, I would say that it had been in there for more than six months (it's hard to justify buying lobster when I am unemployed).  It was a big one, too - creating much more than the two cups of lobster tail meat that the recipe required.  And, if 2 cups is good, 3 should be better, right?  However, after tasting the end result, I fear that it was just too old.

     I think I also may have cooked it too long.  Usually, when I am putting seafood in a pizza recipe, and the recipe indicates that it should be cooked before it gets cooked on the pizza, I only partially cook it.  Never having baked a lobster tail before, I seriously missed the mark.  It was completely cooked when I took it out of the oven, and recooking it inside the calzones didn't do it any favors.
     Two other problems with my particular rendition of this recipe:  the sauce was probably equally as old as the lobster, since it was also "fished" out of the bottom of my freezer and had no date on it; and the Asiago cheese never made it into the calzone, since the original recipe never gave instruction on when to add it.  It is completely the recipe author's fault on that one.  I refuse to take the blame there.
     I debated about whether I would even mention this failure at all, since all of our uneaten slices landed in the garbage can.  I decided that it should be talked about.  The recipe definitely has merit, and with fresh ingredients and a little more care in the preparation of the lobster, I still think it could be fabulous.  I will try it again after I have been gainfully employed for a bit.

Bacon & Lobster Calzones

Adapted from The everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin

2 tablespoon olive oil, divided

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 ounces onion

6 ounces tomato sauce

3 ounces diced tomatoes

2 ounces diced green pepper

1 ounce minced celery

2 cloves garlic

pinch of cayenne pepper

pinch of black pepper

1 teaspoon tabasco

2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

1 cup warm water (about 110º)

1/2 teaspoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 1/4 cup bread flour

1 16-ounce lobster tail (9 ounces of lobster meat after shelling and cooking)

3 tablespoons of melted butter

3 tablespoons of lemon juice

12 ounces ricotta cheese

1 1/2 ounces cooked crumbled bacon

4 green onions, minced
4 ounces shredded Asiago cheese
1 egg
1 teaspoon room temperature water

Make the sauce:  Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, until flour turns a rich brown color.  Add half of the chopped onions and stur until they begin to soften and brown.  Pour in tomato sauce, whisking as you do so.  Continue to stir until the flour mixture is completely dissolved.  Add the diced tomatoes, the remaining onion, celery, garlic, cayenne, black pepper, and tabasco.  Bring to a full boil.  Reduce heat to medium and simmer for two hours.  Sauce should be reduced to about one cup.

Make the dough:  Combine the yeast, one cup 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 one tablespoon of 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.  

Cook the lobster:  Preheat the oven to 450º F.  Flip the lobster tail upside down, so the pleopods (swimmerets or fin-type thingees) are facing you.  With a scissors, cut along through the membrane on the left side, underneath the pleopods, from the body end to the tail end.  Repeat on the right side.  Cut across the end of the tail, where the meat ends, and the tail fans out, removing the fans. Remove the center membrane piece.  Cut through the attachments on the inside of the shell, so that the lobster meat is still in the shell, but not attached (the shell will protect it somewhat from overcooking).  Whisk the butter and lemon juice together in a bowl.  Brush the lobster meat all over with the lemon butter mixture.  Wrap the tail in aluminum foil.  Bake at 450º F for about 15 minutes or until lobster meat is just starting to lose its translucency.  Check it after 10 minutes to make sure it isn't being overcooked.  Remove tail from oven and foil and let rest until it's cool enough to handle.  Remove lobster meat and roughly chop.

Assemble calzones:  Divide the dough into four pieces.  Roll each portion into a ball.  Stretch or roll out each piece into a 10 inch circle on a cornmeal or flour dusted board.  Brush each circle with about one-quarter cup of sauce, leaving the edges bare.  Dollup about 3 ounces of ricotta onto half of each circle.  Press down with the back of a spoon to spread out over half of the sauce.  Distribute a forth of the lobster over the ricotta on each of the four circles.  Sprinkle the bacon over the lobster pieces.  Top with the minced onion and Asiago cheese.  Fold the half without the toppings over onto the filled side, forming a half-moon, and pinching the edges together to seal.  Place calzones on a greased baking sheet (or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper).  Cover with a damp towel and let stand for about thirty minutes.  Preheat the oven to 400º F.  With a sharp knife, cut slits into the top of the calzones for venting.  Thoroughly whisk the egg and water together.  Brush the egg wash over the tops of the calzones.  Bake for 15 minutes or until crust is starting to become golden.  Let rest a few minutes before cutting.

     I had to research how to cook a lobster tail in the oven.  Jeff and I have had lobster tails at home in the past, but he has always cooked them for us.  He cuts down the back side of the tail, pulls the lobster meat up through the cut without cutting the membrane, so that the lobster meat is sitting up above the shell, and the shell protects the meat from the direct heat of the grill.  He continually bastes it with butter until he feels that the lobster is done.  It was cold outside, and I had no desire to pull out the grill and stand outside for any length of time.  I went with a technique (and cooking times) I found on the internet, and this may be where I went wrong.  It seemed like a reputable site, so I didn't even question that this delicate little piece of meat was going to be in a very hot oven for 35 minutes!  I have lowered the cooking time in the above recipe dramatically - if you make this recipe, I suggest you check it before the fifteen minutes are up to make sure you aren't overcooking it.
     The tail I had found in my freezer was pretty.  It had orange and black striping on its fin-things (which I have now discovered are called pleopods or swimminets).  When I started cutting through the membrane under the fins, the back of the tail shell shattered.  That may have been a clue that it was old - I'm not sure - but I forged on.

     Once I had gotten the meat disconnected from the shell, I stirred the lemon juice and the melted butter together.  I placed the tail, still in its shell, onto a piece of aluminum foil and started brushing the butter mixture all over the belly of the tail and inside underneath it, being careful not to dislodge the pieces of shell that had shattered in the process.  The tail was thawed, but it was still quite cold, as I had just brought it out of the refrigerator.  The butter started coagulating as soon as it came in contact with the lobster.  I decided that wasn't a problem, since it would keep the butter in place until it started cooking.  Then I closed up the foil around the tail and threw it in the oven.  A lesson in hindsight:  I should have put it on a rimmed baking sheet instead of directly on the oven rack, because some of the spinier pieces of shell had punctured the foil, and some of the butter melted out and onto my oven floor (and also all over my counter after I had removed it from the oven).

    While the lobster was in the oven, I started working on my dough for the calzones.  I know I have mentioned this before, but I really love the smell of the yeast proofing.  It smells like freshly baked bread, which is one of those foods I just cannot resist when it comes right out of the oven.  I am also fascinated by the foaming up of the yeast after it sits in the sugar water for a bit.

     The dough was waiting for its illustrious rise, and the timer had gone off on my lobster.  My little tinfoil package smelled wonderful - buttery and salty and warm.  After it had cooled a bit (and I had wiped up the butter pool on my counter), I opened it up and started slicing.  It still was pretty.  The back of the meat had turned that happy orange color seafood gets when it is cooked.  I was disappointed to see that there wasn't any opaque parts to it - it was thoroughly cooked, if not overly so, and I was getting ready to put it in the oven again.

      I spread the sauce over my dough circles.

       And dolluped the ricotta over the sauce.

     Next came my lobster chunks.

     Once I had the onions and bacon sprinkled over the lobster, I sealed up the calzones (not remembering until they were in the oven that there was also supposed to be Asiago in there somewhere).

     With those resting again, I was able to concentrate on the "Scrabble Night" pizza.  I am not sure why the author decided to call this a Scrabble Night Pizza Casserole (it didn't seem to have anything to do with Scrabble, and it was a pizza, not a casserole), but I was willing to go with it.  I brought out the Scrabble game that Jeff and I had purchased long ago and never played, and set it out on the table to see if I would get any takers when my people arrived.

Scrabble Night Pizza Casserole

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin

1 teaspoon + 1/4 cup olive oil, divided

1 1/2 ounces tomato paste

14 1/2 ounces of canned tomatoes

6 ounces chopped onion, divided

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon basil

1/2 teaspoon hot pepper flakes

2/3 cup water

pinch of thyme

2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

3 1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 pound ground beef, browned (10 ounces after cooking)

4 Italian sausage links, casing removed, and browned (6½ ounces after cooking)

1 1/2 ounces diced green pepper

8 ounces ricotta cheese

Make the sauce:  Heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil and the tomato paste in a small skillet over medium high heat.  Cook, stirring constantly, for about two minutes.  Put canned tomatoes, 2 ounces of onion, sugar, oregano, basil, hot pepper, water, and thyme into a blender and purée until smooth.  Add to the tomato paste mixture and stir to dissolve the paste into the sauce.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for about 45 minutes or until sauce  has thickened and reduced to about 2 cups.

Make the dough:  Combine the yeast and water 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 one quarter cup of 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.

Assemble pizza:  Preheat oven to 400º F.  Roll, stretch, or press dough into a 10x15 rimmed sheet pan.  Bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes or until crust starts to firm up.  Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.  Spread sauce over the dough.  Combine the beef, Italian sausage, 4 ounces of onion, and green pepper in a bowl.  Distribute over the sauce.  Drop spoonfuls of ricotta randomly over the meat mixture.  Combine the mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and distribute over the meat and ricotta.  Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is starting to brown.

     I started first with the sauce.  When I was making this sauce in large batches and freezing what I didn't use, it really did take a couple of hours to reduce it to the right consistency.  By making just a little at a time, and reducing the amount of water added in the beginning, I brought the time down to about 45 minutes, and I wasn't taking up any (now becoming precious) freezer space.

     The dough was soft and really pliable by the time I had gotten around to playing with it.  I was able to hand stretch it into the corners of my 10 x 15 bar pan quite easily.  It was a quite elastic, though, so it took a little manipulating to get it to stay in the place I had left it.  Eventually, I gave up worrying about getting it completely into the corners, figuring that it would fill them in when it started cooking.

     Looking back, I realized that, at this point, I should have prebaked the crust a bit.  It was really a gooey dough, and there were so many toppings on it, that the crust didn't get a chance to firm up.  However, I didn't prebake it, I just started putting the toppings on.

     I topped the pizza off with the cheese, and Pam arrived.  I put her to the task of making the espresso for our Black Martini.

Black Martini

1½ measures light white rum

1½ measures créme de cacao liqueur

1½ measures cold espresso coffee

She all ingredients with ice and strain into a martini glass.

     It wasn't a particularly attractive drink, but it was delicious and belly-warming, which is what I was hoping for now that winter had arrived.  I thought it's sweetness was perfectly balanced with the dark, bitter, coffee. Pam said she would have preferred hers a little sweeter.  Jennifer was in my camp.

     When Jennifer and the kids arrived, Pam and Gracie sat down for a game of Scrabble.  I think that Gracie would have won, had she not lost interest and ventured into the television room (or maybe Pam lost interest and that prompted Gracie to leave).

       

     The scrabble pizza looked fabulous!  It definitely appeared to be a casserole.  Everything on it was gooey and rich and salty and delicious.  The only downfall was the crust, which didn't cook up enough to allow us to eat this with our hands.  I am sure that the massive amount of toppings would have prevented it anyway, but that is beside the point.  There was no clear distinction between the toppings and the crust (if you could call it a crust, since it never left the dough-stage).  None-the-less, it got rave reviews from everyone, including Jeff and Gracie.  When I asked if it would be as good without the ricotta or with less meat, I was told it was perfect the way it was.

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Return to the Bacon and Lobster Calzone recipe.

Return to the Scrabble Night Pizza Casserole recipe.

Return to the Black Martini recipe.

Thanksgiving!

     I love Thanksgiving.  How could I not love a holiday that revolves around food?  It's not just the food for me, though (are you surprised?).  The food is secondary.  I like the whole idea of people, not just necessarily family, getting together and appreciating the good things in life, being thankful for them, and voicing it all out loud.
     I have been doing a little research on the American holiday, and it has been interesting.  There were a lot of "Thanksgiving" festivals in the early days of our country.  They weren't anything official, but one of the most famous festivals involved the crazy colonists that first came here and the Native Americans they met when they arrived.  The colonists had no idea how to take care of themselves, how to feed, clothe, and shelter their families, and the Wampanoag people taught them what and how to grow their food and helped them get settled in their new world.  Together, they celebrated the first successful harvest.  And, they did it with style - that Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days!
     Apparently, the turkey didn't make it to that celebration.  It was New England, and they ate what was available: venison, seafood (lobster!), geese, and, of course, the wonderful crops of corn and squash that the Natives had helped them grow.  Turkey didn't become a staple at Thanksgiving tables until after World War II.  The poultry industry had taken flight.  They had figured out a way to produce bigger and better turkeys, and they had the marketing to convince America that their big bird should be the centerpiece at every Thanksgiving table.
     We have Sara Josepha Hale to thank for making the holiday an officially recognized holiday.  This author of thousands of works, including "Mary Had a Little Lamb."  For almost, she wrote letter after letter to presidents, asking them to officially declare a Thanksgiving holiday.  She published editorials in The Ladies' Magazine, of which she was the editor, convincing readers to support her cause.  Individual states started having their own designated Thanksgiving holidays.  Finally, she convinced Abraham Lincoln in a letter, that even though a nationally recognized holiday of thanks wouldn't stop the civil war, it would bring the country together at least for the day.
     So, what am I thankful for?  I am thankful for a wonderful, supportive family.  I am thankful for a wonderful husband, who is my official taster and companion in my culinary adventures.  I am thankful for my parents, who taught me the most important lessons in life.  They taught me to keep my elbows off the table and that if "everyone" is pissing you off, maybe the problem is you.  I am thankful for my two gorgeous sisters, who are my great friends and favorite foodies.
     The actual food itself for the blessed day?  I think the food is all about comfort.  We have tried some of the crazy spins on all of the traditional foods - bacon wrapped turkey, apple cider marinaded turkey, pumpkin chiffon pie, garlic mashed potatoes - and while they were all good, some very good, in fact, but it left me feeling like I was missing something.  I long for a simple, juicy slice of turkey; plain mashed potatoes with a good, fatty gravy; light and fluffy, warm, dinner rolls, slathered with real dairy butter; a simple slice of pecan pie with fresh whipped cream.  I even crave the Campbell's green bean casserole.
     On Wednesday, Jeff started in on the preparations.  His job was to make "roll mops".  Our next door neighbors used to make these little items for many gatherings.  Mr. Swanson had called them "Roll 'm Ups" when I was a kid (when was that, exactly?), and I thought he was saying, "Roll Mops", so that name stuck.  They are thin slices of meat (originally, I think it was Carl Buddig roast beef) spread with cream cheese and wrapped around a green onion.  Our usual deli selection for this item is thin cut salami.  Jeff took it up a notch and added prosciutto to the mix.  I don't mean that he replaced the salami with prosciutto - he literally added a slice of prosciutto to the salami before rolling it up around the onion.  They were fantastic!
     This year (as I did for last year), I made Alton Brown's turkey recipe.  And, as last year, the turkey was done long before I expected it to be.  It just seems like a 30-pound should take longer.  I remember my parents talking about the days when they would have to get up at the crack of dawn (whoever she is) to get the turkey in the oven, so it would be ready by two.  Now, I have never done anything crazy like that - I like my sleep too much .

     No, we didn't buy a mutant turkey.  On one of Jeff's bargain-hunting trips to the grocery store a while back, he found some turkey legs on a temporary price reduction and had froze them.  We added them to the bird, because it seems that there is always a fight between the kids and Grandpa as to who gets the legs.
     I made a "Mix and Match" stuffing.  I had a loaf of sourdough bread that was more like a sourdough brick that I used for part of the bread cubes.  I used half a package of sage bread cubes from a stuffing mix  for the remainder of the bread in the recipe.
     For the veggies in the base of the stuffing, I used a combination of leeks and shallots for the two cups of onions to go with my two cups of celery.  They softened up nicely in the butter, and the aroma of the fresh sage and thyme wafting through the kitchen, set my stomach grumbling.
     For the mix-ins, I had a little over a pound of mushrooms I planned on using.  I had intended on using some breakfast sausage I had left over from earlier in the week for the meat in the stuffing, but there wasn't as much there as I had remembered.  However, there was bacon!  I cooked up the bacon and then sautéd the mushrooms in the bacon fat.  I mixed the bread, broth, bacon, mushrooms, eggs, and pecans together, covered it with aluminum foil and put it in the 375º oven for a thirty minute stint.
     At this point, my dad showed up for the pre-eating activities: whiskey and football.  He brought Jonah and Gracie with him to drop off the extra linen napkins I needed and to retrieve the cream Jennifer needed for her dishes.
     I didn't stray from my Foodnetwork.com theme, and grabbed a pecan pie recipe from there as well.  It certainly didn't sound fancy or anything, and it was extremely easy to put together - especially since I cheated and used a Pillsbury pie crust.
     My darling husband, who specifically requested sweet potatoes for the meal, jumped in and started working on those while I finished cleaning up the house and setting the table.  He cubed the sweet potatoes, added a stick of melted butter and dusted them with brown sugar and Harley's seasoning salt.  He baked them at 375º, too, alongside my stuffing.
     My last task was to start baking a brie.  I took a two pound brie wheel, sliced it in half horizontally (so I had two brie circles).  I placed one half in the middle of another Pillsbury pie crust.  A quarter cup of pesto went on top of the cheese.  The pesto got a sprinkling of toasted pecans (about a half cup), and then the other brie circle went on top.  I closed up the pie dough and baked it at 400º until it was golden brown.

     The table was set, the turkey was done, the stuffing and sweet potatoes were done.  It was time to call the troops.  Mom showed up with a corn casserole.  Jennifer made the mashed potatoes and brought croissants.  Pam brought cranberry-walnut pie and caramel apple pie.  She also brought a wonderful Caesar salad (with her own home-made dressing).
     It was a grand evening.  The food was wonderful, the company spectacular.  Jeff's fabulous hot turkey gravy hid the fact that the turkey was a little dry and a little cold.  There wasn't a single item I didn't like, and I wished that I had room for seconds.  It was either seconds or pie, but not both.  I chose pie.

     Oh yeah....  I am also thankful for pie.