Baked Potato Pizza

Well, it has begun.  School, that is.  Today was day 2 with the kids.  It hasn't been horrendous yet - I like my class - but there are all sorts of other insane things going on that make it rather exhausting and difficult.  However, that has not stopped me from cooking.

Weirdly and shockingly, my mom found a recipe in a magazine that she thought sounded great: baked potato pizza.  Would anyone on earth guess that my mom would eat and/or like baked potato pizza!?  Clearly it is obvious that I would love it, but MOM?  But she asked for it Monday night.  So last night, I made the doughs, and today I made the pizzas.

I have always used the same pizza dough recipe, but this pizza had its own dough recipe and I decided to give it a try.  Plus it's all Guy Fieri's, and that guy knows what he is talking about!  It needs to rise for a bit longer than the recipe I already used, but other than that it was easy enough.  The recipe makes two doughs, and I put them in the fridge last night.  Later I read on a blog that you should never put them in the fridge, only the freezer, but it worked out okay, luckily.

Is it ready yet!?

Today it was pizza day.  It did kind of take me a while, since I had to use a mandoline to slice potatoes and onions, I had to chop herbs, and I had to cook bacon (by the way, this was the first time that I did that in the oven instead of a skillet.  It was amazing and I am so cooking bacon this way every time.  400 degrees, 25 minutes, and a foil-lined baking sheet, and you have perfectly-cooked bacon and no messy cleanup!  Not to mention no painful spatters on your arms.  Genius.  Thank you, Pinterest).  But then it was pizza-making time.  Mark was my darling sous-chef; he rolled out the dough, I sprinkled the cheese, and then he laid out the potato/bacon/garlic etc. topping.  He was very exact about it so that each bite would have a little bit of everything.  Then he was extra good at shimmying the pizza off the cookie sheet and into the oven on the pizza stone.

We ended up making both pizzas, and then frantically sending Rach to the store for more dough, since we unexpectedly had 7 people for dinner!  They unfortunately were out of fresh dough, so she bought those Boboli already-cooked doughs, and we made two more pizzas with those.  I had plenty of toppings left to make 4 pizzas instead of the two that it claims to make, so it wouldn't hurt to double the dough recipe.

These pizzas were a huge hit!  Everyone loved them, from Mom to Rach to Mark to Alex to Jack to Luke - and of course, me!  The thinly sliced potatoes, the three types of cheese, the fresh chives and tomatoes, the bacon - oh my god.  Can there be more delicious ingredients on any pizza anywhere?  I think not.  This will a definite repeat pizza.  In fact, as I type this, Mom is saying, "that pizza was really great, Bridget."  As for the dough, I didn't notice a huge difference between this and the one I have always used (although Mom says she did.  Go figure.  She said it was the perfect taste and crispy/chewy combination).  They have both been great.  Bottom line: make your own pizza dough :)   I actually didn't try the Boboli pizzas since I got full by then, but Mom said it was surprisingly still good.  She said my dough tasted better, but this one cripsed up nicely and made up for its lack of flavor.  She still preferred mine though, luckily.

Now: bed time.  Yeah, at 9:00.  You try spending the day with 22 10-year olds!  They suck the energy right out of you!

Recipes:
baked potato pizza and pizza dough

both recipes from Better Homes and Gardens magazine, September 2012

pizza dough

ingredients:
1 tsp sugar
1 cup warm water (113 degrees... but I just go by feel)
1 tablespoon active yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more to grease bowl
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, dissolve the sugar in the warm water.  Sprinkle the yeast on top.  Let stand for 10 minutes or until foamy.

2.  Add olive oil and salt to the yeast mixture, then use the dough hook to mix in the flour.  Mix until dough comes together.  Add more flour as needed and allow machine to knead dough until smooth.

3.  Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead about 2 minutes more until dough is no longer sticky.  Place dough in an oiled bowl and turn to coat surface.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and let stand in a warm place for 1 hour until doubled in size.

4.  Turn out dough onto a floured surface.  Divide in half.  Form into smooth, tight balls.  Cover loosely with a floured kitchen towel and set in a warm place to rise again for 30-45 minutes.

5.  When ready to use, press dough with fingers to flatten as much as possible.  Drape dough over hands, stretching to desired size and thickness (to be honest though, Mark used a rolling pin). Place dough on a floured pizza peel (on my wish list.  I used a corn meal-ed baking sheet).  Top and bake.


baked potato pizza

ingredients:
1 recipe pizza dough, or one 1-lb. ball purchased dough (boooo!)
all-purpose flour for dusting
4 medium-sized Yukon gold potatoes, skin on (1  3/4 lbs.)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup very thinly sliced sweet onion
6 slices applewood-smoked bacon, crisp-cooked and crumbled
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves ( I ran out so I used fresh oregano, since it has taken over my garden anyway)
extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon flaked sea salt
freshly cracked black pepper
1/3 cup shredded sharp white cheddar cheese
1/3 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
TOPPINGS: sour cream (due to Mark and Rach hating sour cream, I just put this out alongside the pizza so people could serve themselves)
4 diced Roma tomatoes (I just used one big one from Heidi's garden!)
1/4 cup finely chopped chives

1.  Preheat oven with a pizza stone to 500 degrees.

2.  For pizza, thinly stretch or rolleach piece of dough, dusting with flour. 

3.  Fill a large bowl with cold water.  Using a mandoline, slice potatoes paper-thin.  Place slices in the cold water and swirl to remove excess starch and prevent potatoes from turning brown.  Drain off water; lightly pat potatoes dry with paper towels.  Add garlic, onion, bacon, and thyme to potatoes in bowl.  Drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.

4.  Combine monterey jack and cheddar cheeses.  Divide cheeses between pizza doughs, spreading evenly.  Divide potato mixture and spread evenly on pizzas.  Drizzle each pizza with olive oil.  Top with sea salt, pepper,  and sprinkle of Parmigiano-Reggiano. 

5.  Bake pizzas 8-10 minutes, until crust is golden brown, potato edges are lightly curled, and cheese is bubbly.

6.  To serve, cut pizzas into squares.  Top with a dollop of sour cream, diced tomatoes, and chopped chives.

And so it Begins!

Today was my first day of work.  No kids - more like painful meetings all day - but it still counts as work because I was up at 6:30 and had to be there till 3:30.  Ugh.  It was a stressful day for many reasons, including the "paper diet," my 700 IEPs, and the weirdness of oh so many people.  So when I got home, I needed to relax, and that means hours in the kitchen tonight!

Nick had made pulled pork today, which I really don't eat, so I knew I needed to make something to call a "side dish" (AKA my main course but everyone else's sides).  I scanned my favorite food blog, and found it quickly: stuffed tomatoes.  Well, the official name is "tomatoes stuffed with green rice," but the rice isn't green, and that sounds weird, so I am calling them stuffed tomatoes.  They were actually very easy to make; cook rice halfway, and mix it with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, basil, parsley, and the strained juice of the hollowed tomatoes.  Bake, and you're done!  And they were delicious!  Shockingly, they were delicious even though I actually forgot to add the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese!  I bet they would be even more amazing with the cheese than they already were, and they were great.  Mom even loved it!  And if that doesn't convince you that these were great, Alex ate one.  And Alex hates tomatoes!  That is quite the compliment.  The rice ends up tasting like garlicky herby rice with a hint of tomato, and the tomatoes themselves roast up into the softest, most delicious tomato imaginable.  If you have some tomatoes to use up that may be getting a bit soft, try this recipe.

Then it was time for dessert (really it was time for bed but I was still trying to relax).  I had pinned a recipe for brownies made with zucchini that made the claim that no one could tell they were healthy.  And I had a huge zucchini to use up.  So I figured I would try the recipe out.  I was nudged in that direction when Laura said she had tried them last night, and they were a big hit.  Besides the fact that I ran out of eggs in the middle of the recipe, they were actually really easy to make.  I made them without using my mixer, and, more interestingly, without butter!  They really are healthy, I wasn't kidding!  They call for applesauce instead of butter or oil.  They also call for whole wheat flour, but I just used regular flour since I was too lazy to run out again.  And of course it called for 2 cups of grated zucchini. There were a few minutes of confusion when I realized that I was not totally sure if I had to peel the zucchini first or not.  After Googling I found out it doesn't really matter, but the skin can have lots of vitamins and nutrients in it and is a good idea as long as it doesn't seem extra thick and tough, which it didn't.  So the skin stayed on. 

35 minute later, they came out of the oven - and they were delicious.  Mom claimed they were the best chocolate cake she ever had (they are brownies but that's beside the point!).  Rachael, Jack and Allie all ate two pieces, and even Nick had a piece (I may or may not have neglected to mention to him that they were healthy and made with zucchini).  A surprising amound of them were devoured tonight!  Even I liked them.  They are really cakey and fudgy, with a great chocolatey taste.  I love the chocolate chips in there; they melt and give the brownie pockets of extra chocolate flavor.    And the zucchini just keeps them extra moist.  Definitely make these brownies if you have a zucchini to use!

And now I should get to bed... 22 ten-year-olds - brand spanking new fifth graders - await me tomorrow morning : /

Recipes:
stuffed tomatoes
healthy zucchini brownies

Blueberry Lemon Glazed Doughnuts

Well this is it.  No more denial.  Today is really my last day of summer vacation.  Tomorrow I am going in to my classroom with Anne (god knows I need decoration help, and she very generously offered the assistance!), and Monday is our first day back.  Kids start Tuesday.  I wish I could say I was pumped for a new year... I feel like probably lots of really good teachers feel this way... but I am more devastated than pumped.

In an attempt to make myself feel better, I used my new doughnut pan today.  Mark and I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond recently and we stocked up on cool things like a silicone baking mat, a huge new cutting board, and a doughnut pan.  I had seen a few recipes for baked doughuts, and you really can't make them without the pan.  It's basically a muffin tin, but instead of a hole in the pan, it's a circle.  There are six of these circles, so each pan can make 6 doughnuts at a time.  Note: most recipes make ore than 6 doughnuts, so you might want to buy two pans unless you like washing and cooling them down in between batches!

Anyway, today I made blueberry lemon glazed doughnuts.  I pinned this recipe a long time ago, but, lacking the pan, had to wait.  Today was a good time for it. We still have lots of blueberries from our picking excursion, and weird amounts of ricotta in the fridge.  They were quick to mix together, and I could do it all in one bowl, which I like.  Like I said earlier, the only thing that took a while was the fact that I only had the one doughnut pan, so there was a lot of cleaning and cooling in between batches.  I think I made three full batches, and a half of another.  Sooo, 6 x 3 = 18 + 3 = 21 doughnuts all together (that was me attempting to get back into teacher mode).

Luckily they have been a hit so far.  Mom even ate two and called them "a real treat".  I needed her to like them after the fiasco of last night's ginger cookies (by the way, Susie and Kenzie are obsessed with the cookies and fought over them today!  Go figure).  They don't look exactly like doughnuts, since they aren't fried.  They're a little flat on the top, but that's okay.  They taste great!  The ricotta in the batter makes them really moist, and the pop of fresh blueberries in them is delicious.  Then there is the lemon glaze on top, which gives them a sweetly sour-y crunchy part. 

Shout-out to Tracy who has called me on more than one occasion for "cooking advice" :)  Makes me feel like a real blogger!

Recipe:
blueberry lemon glazed doughnuts

In Denial

As I continue to wildly cling to my denial about the end of summer, Mark and I escaped for a mini getaway (really a last hurrah) to Maine the past 2 nights.  Now that we are home, and he works for the next two days, it is starting to hit me that the next time I see him, it will be Monday morning... at school.  UGH.

To attempt to distract myself from this, I cooked and baked nearly nonstop since we got home this afternoon.  After a lovely trip to the Westminster Farmers' Market, I picked up some heirloom tomatoes and beets (Mark and I recently found out that we love beets.  Who knew?).  As for the tomatoes, I just sliced them up, salted and peppered them, and sprinkled on some parsley from my garden.  Yeah, usually it's basil, but my basil tastes awful  because I let it flower (note to self: do not let basil flower or it tastes bitter and inedible!!)  Then Mark, king of balsamic, did a tiny drizzle of that and some olive oil, and voilah: delicious tomato salad.  As for the beets, I just roasted them in my Dutch oven for a half hour and then peeled and chopped them.  Mark, Mom and I were happy to just salt and pepper them.  And maybe it's weird, but I was 100% happy to eat fresh corn on the cob (from the Farmers' Market!), tomato salad, and beets for dinner.

Then it was time to celebrate National Banana Split Day.  I bet you didn't know that there even was such a day, and neither did I, frankly, until I saw it on one of my favorite food blogs.  Skinny Taste always has great recipes that are low in fat and calories, and therefore amazing.  Who would have known that things like mac and cheese or cheesecake could be actually healthy!?  Gina at Skinny Taste, that's who.  And she posted a recipe for guiltless banana splits.  After Mark and I gorged ourselves on goat-cheese-covered-everything, French fries, and mashed potatoes all week, we both felt the need for some low fat dessert, so we stopped at the grocery store on the ride home.  I did add chopped walnuts to the recipe, mainly because I knew my mother would hate (and complain about) any sundae without nuts.  This is not so much a recipe as a list of the proper ingredients for a guiltless banana split, since I'm sure everyone knows the steps to make a good split.  It's more about what ingredients you are using - no-fat frozen yogurt instead of ice cream, and low-fat chocolate syrup, for instance -and portion size (2/3 cup of yogurt).  They were very quick to whip up (it helped that we bought monster bananas and I only used one for 4 sundaes!) and everyone loved them.  Quick, easy, healthy banana splits:you just can't beat it.  FYI, the recipe calls for them to be made "in a jar" and clearly I just used small dishes and ramekins, so I removed the jar part from the recipe name.

Then even though it was getting late, I was in the mood to bake (read that as "in the mood to not work on my class website, or print my door decorations, or write out my name tags, or plan my first week's lessons, etc.").  I gave my mom a few options to choose from, and then regretted doing so.  I bought a doughnut pan the other day and I am dying to try it out, but alas - Mom chose ginger cookies.  I had pinned a recipe from Ina Garten for "ultimate ginger cookies" and figured Mom would love them.  She gets obsessed with ginger cookies.  She even buys them from the grocery store.  And this recipe had all sorts of interesting things in it, like molasses and ground cloves and cinnamon and nutmeg and chopped crystalized ginger!  I thought they sounded cool and really flavorful, so I made them.  I had been a little nervous because I was out of parchment paper, but a good spray with Pam for Baking and nothing stuck.  Whew!  The cookies were easy enough to mix up.  They did have to be balled up, flattened, and rolled in sugar, but that didn't take me too long.  The recipe says it makes 16 cookies but I got 20 out of it.  13 minutes later, and my kitchen smelled like ginger and cloves, also knowsn as Christmas (not a great thing if you are very busy pretending it is late June). 

And the end result?  Kenzie and I ate 2, and Mark had one, and we all loved them.  As for Mom? Not so much.  She claimed to get a "huge" chunk of crystallized ginger and that it was "sooo hot" and spicy.   Sigh.  I should have made the damn doughnuts!  But anyway, she's tough to please, and claims to only like her ginger cookie recipe that has fresh ginger in it instead of the "candy."  However, please do consider making these cookies despite the lack of glowing recommendation from Mom.  They are very soft, fluffy, and delicious, with all sorts of great flavor mixing going on - not to mention those perfect cookie wrinkles.  And they are the Barefoot Contessa's recipe, for god's sake!  That woman can do no wrong! 

Speaking of Ina, I just noticed that on her website, you can buy her cookbooks autographed by her!  And they are only $35!!! Does anyone need any great ideas for a gift for me?  Perhaps you are getting your Christmas shopping done now?  Or birthday (it's only about 5 months early; no biggie).  Or perhaps you realize that no one actually remembered to celebrate me getting my Master's 2 years ago?  Or you appreciate my cooking and baking endeavors and just love me? Well just in case, here you go   ;)

Recipes:
guiltless banana splits
ultimate ginger cookies

Homemade Spaghettios

All right, so I admit that I am in total denial.  I go back to work Monday, and I am panicking.  There are things I haven't gotten around to doing!  Foods that I haven't made!  Places I haven't visited!  I am not ready to think about lessons and kids and schedules!  But, ready or not, it's coming, and it's coming fast.  Hence the lack of updates lately.  I am desperately trying to shove as much as I can into these last few days of freedom!

Today I made something that Kenz has been wanting for a while: homemade Spaghettios.  We both have an obsession for Spaghettios.  In fact, if I am to be honest, in high school, I used to bring cans at school, and I'd eat them cold.  Right out of the tin.  I know that's really gross, but there is just something about those little rings of pasta in that cheesy tomato-y sauce that makes me feel young and comfy and happy!  But, god knows what's in those cans.  So when I saw a recipe for homemade Spaghettios, I knew I had to give it a try.

I have to be honest: I changed a lot about the recipe.  I doubled parts and kept others the same.  Since I did so many weird things, I will just show you my measurements here.  For instance, I cut out a lot of butter, but doubled the amount of pasta so we could have leftovers.  The good news is that regardless of what I did, this was a quick lunch.  It was ready in about a half hour.  Slightly longer than the 3 minutes required to microwave the contents of a can of Spaghettios, but worth it!

And the end result?  Well, even Mom called it "a treat" after complaining that the recipe sounded bad because she hates Spaghettios.  Kenzie and I both ate a large bowl and were happy with it.  It doesn't taste exactly like the can - but I guess that is probably the point!  Mom said that is what made it better.  The sauce is a slightly sweet cheesy tomato sauce, and the ditallini, thought a slightly different shape, make it feel a little like pasta fagioli.  All in all, I am happy with my DIY Spaghettios!

Recipe:
homemade Spaghettios
adapted from Pennies on a Platter

Ingredients:

16 oz ditalini pasta

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

1 jar spaghetti sauce (I used Wegman's roasted garlic)

2 cups water

2 tablespoons tomato paste

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup milk

1  1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1) Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water, to al dente (about 10 minutes).

2) Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until just fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the tomato sauce, water, tomato paste, salt, pepper, sugar and butter. Heat, while stirring, until the butter is melted. Slowly stir in the milk, then turn the heat to low. Simmer at low heat for 10 minutes. Stir frequently.

3) Stir the shredded cheese into the soup until melted. Drain the pasta and transfer to a serving bowl. Pour tomato sauce on top of pasta; stir to combine.

Fall and Summer Desserts

Today I had the pleasure of making wedding shower favors with my bestest friend Caitlin.  She livesin Vermont and this is not okay with me, because I do not get to see her enough.  Luckily today she needed some assistance preparing the favors for her sister's shower tomorrow (congrats, Allie!) and she knew just who to call!  She had a recipe for little chocolates, but I thought we could add some pieces of my apple cider caramels.  After all, the wedding is in September at an apple farm, so these caramels could get people excited for the big day!  We worked on both recipes simultaneously.  The chocolates were called "fruity nutty chocolate valentines."  I am not sure why they are called valentines - I guess just because they are made of chocolate? But they were probably the easiest thing ever.  We melted chocolate (in a double boiler... the recipe doesn't say that but I know enough about chocolate to infer!).  Then we stirred in some trail mix, poured it into a pan, sprinkled on some more trail mix, let it harden in the fridge, and cut it into little pieces.  And, done!  Pretty easy and simple if you like fruity, nutty chocolate things.  Caitlin is going to put pieces of the chocolate into mini muffin wrappers.  We practiced with a few, and they look really cute!

The apple cider caramels took a bit longger than that. I made these last Christmas Eve for our family party and they were really popular.  My family raves about them.  And they are pretty great, but they take at least 2 hours.  And that's not like bread, where it might take 4 hours but you are sitting and letting it rise for half that.  No, you are standing there stirring for 2 hours.  But still, if you have time, and you like apple cider and caramels, then they are worth the wait.  My advice if you want to try these babies: use a good candy thermometer and be patient.  If it says to turn the heat on low and get the temp up to 324 degrees, then do it.  Don't get impatient and put the heat on medium, and watch that thermometer like a hawk; one tiny degree of difference can be catastrophic!  Now that you are sufficiently scared, just trust me that if you can follow directions, these are not hard, and they are delicious.  The cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg combine with the apple cider to make a very fall-y, amazing caramel.  I foresee another batch of these in my future, since Caitlin took all the candies back for the shower and now Mom is craving them!

Tonight I knew I did have to make something for my poor family after they watched me make 2 different candies and didn't get any!  I had pinned a recipe for cookies that look like sand dollars, and I knew immediately I had to make them.  The beach is a special place for me, and I still have a huge collection of sand dollars that I have kept since I was a little girl (by the way, fun sand dollar fact: you know how you can find some sand dollars that are brown and some that are white?  Well, the brown ones are still alive.  Don't take them or you are murdering them.  FYI :) )  Anyway, the cookies are cinnamon-sugar cookies with sliced almonds on top to make them look like sand dollars.  I fell in love with them when I saw the pictures.  I am bad at making pretty food, so when food is naturally pretty, then I like it.  The cookies did take a while; the dough has to be refrigerated for 2 hours, then rolled out and cookie cut (is that a verb) into circles.  Then each round of dough needs to be brushed with egg white, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, and decorated with 5 almond slices like a sand dollar.  Then once they go in the oven, after 3 minutes you have to pull them out again and press the almonds into the cookie.  Then they're back in for 7 minutes.  So yes, time consuming.  But worth it!  They are so gorgeous, so beachy, so tasty!  Mom and Rachael each ate 4 and Mom declared them the best cookies that I have made.  I am really happy I found a recipe that is both tasty and beautiful.  A perfect summery cookie for a chilly night that has me dreading the fall season :(







Recipes:
fruity nutty chocolate valentines
apple cider caramels
sand dollar cinnamon sugar cookies

French Onion Grilled Cheese

I love all soups.  In fact - and I may have shared this story before - on our first date, Mark brought me to a little soup and sandwich shop because he said he noticed that I seemed to mostly eat "mush."  That boy is accurate!  I do love mush.  Mashed potatoes, the insides of breads- and soups.  Now, it's about 900 degrees today (and muggy; just look at my hair) so soup is not something that I am craving.  So, when I saw a recipe for a sandwich that replicates the flavors of one of my top 10 soups, I was thrilled.  French onion grilled cheese: why haven't I thought of that!?

With the help of my adorable sous chef (see left), I made these sandwiches tonight for me, him, Kenzie, Mom, and Nick.  I have to admit that I was nervous about caramelizing the onions.  I don't think I have had much success with this before.  I can't exactly remember when I attempted this, but I have memories of burning them.  Luckily today they turned out perfectly.  The secret is not to rush things; keep the heat on low and let the onions take their time as they brown up in some salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar!  Interestingly, I am not a big onion fan; in fact, I hate them when they are raw.  But caramelize them - and I'm sold!  Once they're cooked, I added some fresh thyme from my herb garden, and put them on sliced baguettes with gouda and gruyere.  I toasted them up in the pan with some butter and rubbed the bread with a sliced garlic clove, and there you have it, folks: French onion soup, but as a sandwich.  The onions are delicious, and the fresh thymeis a great addition.  Add to that the creamy mix of those two amazing cheeses (I have previously mentioned my love for gruyere!) and the buttery bread... holy moly.  Kenzie was a huge fan, and surprisingly enough, so were Mom and Nick!  A successful - and pretty easy - dinner at last :)

Pardon the bad picture; they tasted great!

Recipe:
French onion grilled cheese