Broccoli and Carrot Pizza

I am trying to branch out in my pizza making. I love cheese pizza so much that I usually just end up not putting anything else on it. But I was making this pizza as a side so I wanted to put some veggies on it. I got the idea from smitten kitchen, for her shaved asparagus pizza. But thanks to all of my not cooking last week, the asparagus went bad. So I used some broccoli instead. I have always liked steamed broccoli, so I've never really tried it any other way. I had thought about roasting broccoli before. But why mess with somethin that aint broke? After this pizza though, I think I will be trying some roasted broccoli. There was just a lot more flavor than steamed broccoli. I think that this pizza was a hit. The only problem that I had was that when I tried to put it in the oven a lot of the broccoli rolled off. I would definitely try to cut the pieces smaller next time.

Broccoli and Carrot Pizza

1 ball pizza dough
1-2 heads broccoli (crowns cut bite size, stalk peeled into strips)
1 carrot, shredded
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
2 Tbls olive oil
1 green onion
1 Tbls parsley
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Stretch out your pizza dough to a 12-in. round. In a bowl toss the broccoli and carrot with 1 Tbls olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread the rest of the olive oil over the pizza dough. (Make sure your dough isn't going to stick before you start topping it). Add parmesan, mozzarella, and veggies. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Sprinkle with green onion and parsley.

Served with Brats with smoked cheddar.

Mojitos

I haven't been forgetting to blog. I just actually haven't cooked anything in days, thanks to a plethora of leftovers I had built up and D's family taking us out for a couple dinners. And I still haven't cooked anything. I just made a drink. A pretty darn good drink though.

Having a half Cuban boyfriend, I pride myself on the fact that I was able to make a "prefect" mojito for him. I don't even like white rums, but I like this drink. Have I said before how I sound like a picky eater/drinker in this blog? I swear, I'm not. I'll eat anything, I just prefer some things over others. Anyways, I was tired of searching through the internet for a good mojito recipe. I used to work at a bar, and I knew I liked the mojitos there, so I tried my best to recreate that. I think it worked.


Mojitos

1/2 lime, sliced into wedges
2-3 sprigs mint
1 oz simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar, heat until dissolved)
2 oz white rum
splash club soda

Muddle the lime and mint leaves together in a shaker until the limes are all juiced. (You will be able to tell because juice will start splashing up. DO NOT get it in your eye. Trust me, it hurts. I had to make an extra drink just to make me feel better.) Add the simple syrup, white rum, and ice. Shake. Pour into glass, top with club soda.

Splash is pretty vague, I would guess it to be around 1/2 cup. But I'm not known for my judging abilities.

Drink Up!

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I made this recipe from the book Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur. I like his books cause if you've had the dishes at the restaurant then you know what they're going to taste like. And he does a really good job of replicating the recipes. At least the ones I have tried have been pretty dead on. This was the lettuce wrap recipe from P.F. Chang's. It made a lot more than I thought it would. The recipe only used 2 chicken breasts and said it would serve 2 to 3 people as an appetizer. I thought it would serve the two of us for dinner, but with no leftovers. However, there was still almost half of the filling left. I had 2 wraps and D had 3, and I think we'll be able to get another 3 wraps out of it. The sauce that you pour over the filling can be made to fit your heat level. Well, we made what was called "hot" in the book, and it was more what I would call medium. It was a good heat, but if you want it really spicy go for more than "hot".

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

2 chicken breasts
1 can water chestnuts, diced to pea size
2 green onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
(the recipe also called for mushrooms, but I left them out)
2 Tbls soy sauce
2 Tbls brown sugar
1/2 tsp rice vinegar
3 Tbls vegetable oil
Maifun rick sticks (enough to fill the plate, I think I used about 1/3 of the package)
lettuce cups

Fry the rick sticks according to package directions and lay on the serving plate. Heat 2 Tbls oil in a wok to medium-high heat and cook the chicken all the way through (5-8 minutes on each side). Stir together the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar. Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Add the last Tbls of oil to the wok and stir-fry the chicken, water chestnuts, green onions, and garlic for a few minutes. Add the sauce. Plate on top of the fried rice sticks. For the lettuce cups, chop the stem off of a head of iceburg lettuce. Peel each leaf off without ripping it. This is your wrapper.

Special Sauce (make ahead)

1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 Tbls soy sauce
2 Tbls rice vinegar
2 Tbls ketchup
1 Tbls lemon juice
1/8 tsp sesame oil
chili garlic sauce
chinese hot mustard

Dissolve the sugar in the water (I had to use a little heat). Whisk in the soy sauce, vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice, and sesame oil. For mild, add 1 tsp each chili garlic sauce and chinese hot mustard; for medium, use 2 tsp each; for hot, use 3 tsp each. Refrigerate until ready to eat. Spoon as much sauce as wanted into your lettuce cups.

Jerk and Hot Wings

Dang it! I did not remember to take pictures, again! Now that I think I've gotten into the swing of blogging, I'm steppin it up. Soon, I promise, pictures are coming soon. Not promising they will be good...

I usually don't like jerk sauces, and I'm not really sure what made me bookmark this page one day. Nothing really stood out about it. But then D said our goal for the summer should be to make something with a habanero. And what do you know? This recipe used a habanero! So I made it. And it...was...so...good! It was sweet, and spicy (with spices), not so hot--I know, I know. You're saying "not so hot?! There was a habanero in there!". Well, maybe this wasn't really a habanero (I blame the grocery stores for poor labeling), but I wasn't about to try some of it to find out. There was also a lot of sugar in this recipe. Maybe it just canceled out the heat. I also ended up having to strain the sauce cause my food processor didn't really puree it and more just left everything in big chunks. So the heat may have just not gotten into the sauce. Either way, I will add more next time.

Jerk Chicken Wings

1 habanero, seeded and chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
4 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup lime juice (I used 2 limes)
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbls sugar
2 t fennel seed
2 t cayenne pepper
2 t allspice
2 t dried thyme
3 slices fresh ginger
Chicken wings (I don't really know how many the sauce would really cover. I only used 8, but there was sauce left)

Put everything in a food processor except the ginger. Pour the sauce in a pot, add the ginger, and heat on medium heat about 10 minutes. Bake the wings (tossed in a little oil) at 425 degrees on a wire rack on a cookie sheet for 20 minutes. Flip the wings, bake another 20 minutes. Put the wings in a bowl and strain the sauce onto the wings.

Hot Wings

I really love good hot wings. Just plain buffalo wings. But I can't find a good recipe. The first one I tried used way too much butter and was just greasy with no heat. This one had too much vinegar in it. Without so much vinegar it might be good. I would be willing to give it another shot. It at least had some heat to it.

6 Tbls butter
6 Tbls hot sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Worcestershire
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 Tbls white wine vinegar

Heat over medium until the butter melts. Toss with the chicken wings.

Vegetable Tian

D and I were watching Iron Chef America one night, and Bobby Flay made a dish that looked so good I decided to try and make it. Ok, it's not that this was the only dish I have seen on Iron Chef that I thought was worth trying. It's the only one that I actually knew what was in the dish, and thought I could make it. I mean, have you seen some of the stuff they make? Sorry, I don't have an immersion circulator. Hell, I don't even have a potato masher!

I had tried to make this dish once before. It did not turn out so well. As in, my potatoes never cooked. Never! And, it was a little bland. So I had some new tactics for this time around! And you know what? It worked! The potatoes cooked and it was mmm mmm gooood.

I don't know where I got the proportions of vegetables that I used though. What I had written down (taken from my first attempt and other similar recipes found online) was 2 potatoes, 2 zucchini, and 2 tomatoes. Well I ended up with about 1 potato and 1 zucchini left, already sliced. So I just sliced the potatoes the other way to make little french fries and baked them with the tian. The zucchinis are going to be battered and fried tomorrow.

Vegetable Tian

1 potato, thinly sliced (1/8 in.)
1 zucchini, thinly sliced (1/8 in.)
2 tomatoes, sliced (1/4 in.)
2 Tbls olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced very thin
koser salt & black pepper
1 1/2 tsp thyme (1/2 tsp for each layer)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese (1/3 on each layer)
1/4 cup italian breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss the potato slices with the olive oil. Layer the potatoes on the bottom of an 8x8-in. casserole dish (overlapping a little). Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic, thyme, and parmesan cheese. Next layer the zucchini slices and sprinkle them the same. Then layer the tomato slices, sprinkle them the same, then add the breadcrumbs on top. Bake for 45-50 minutes.

Roast Beef Sandwiches

To make this, I followed a recipe I found for French Dip sandwiches. I was really excited about it. I'm not a huge roast beef fan, but when the cheese melts to the bread to make it chewy and then the rest of the bread soaks up the au jus, then I'm a roast beef fan! It turned out good, but it wasn't what I was expecting. Our sandwiches turned out to be more like pulled beef sandwiches. I couldn't slice the meat at all. As soon as I touched it, it all just fell apart. It was a task just to get the sucker out of the crock pot. Not that that's a bad thing, it just wasn't what I was expecting.

After last night's battle with the pierogies I was so ready to just throw stuff in the crock pot and let it go. D got the crock pot for Christmas (I think his mom was trying to make cooking as easy as possible for him, haha) but hadn't used it at all. So throughout the day it started to smell like burning rubber/plastic, I started to freak out but luckily we still had the instructions and it said it was normal. Just not appetizing. I thought there was no way I could screw anything up, but then I tried to toast our buns and cheese. I had never used the broiler before. IT IS VERY HOT!!! No joke, within 5 minutes the buns were completely burnt and (if we had fire alarms...) they would have been going off like crazy! It was no biggie since we had more bread and cheese, but D was so paranoid about it burning again he just turned the over on and kept setting the timer for 1 minute over and over and over again. Haha. So the buns ended up barely toasted and the cheese wasn't melted. I think next week our meal plan is just going to say salad, salad, salad. I feel like we have been eating a lot of heavy foods lately. I just never know what light, "summer food" is. Any suggestions?

Roast Beef Sandwiches

3.5 lb beef chuck roast
1 onion, quartered
2 cloves garlic
16 oz. beef broth
1/2 cup red wine
1 tsp garlic powder
1 bay leaf
Kosher salt and black pepper
Wheat rolls
Provolone cheese

Cut any excess fat from the chuck roast. Rub all over with salt and pepper. Pour beef broth and red wine into crock pot. Add garlic, garlic powder, and bay leaf. Now add the roast and place the onion pieces on the sides. Cook on low 6-8 hours (I cooked mine 6). Remove from crock pot and let rest under aluminum foil. Slice (ha!). Strain cooking liquid for au jus and salt it to taste. Place provolone on the rolls and toast them in the oven. Enjoy!

Served with vegetable tian.

Beer Brats & Pierogies

Every since we went to Cleveland last December and had pierogies there D has been dying for me to make them. There's no where around here, that I know of, that serves them. In fact, we had never even heard of them before. But he really loved them (of course he did, they had potatoes in them!) and since I really love him, I found a recipe online for them. They turned out...alright. I thought they were way more trouble than they were worth and am hoping I can manage to not ever make them again. Honestly, the filling was the best part. And I plan on eating the rest of it just as mashed potatoes. The recipe also called for boiling and pan frying the pierogies. Which just didn't make a lot of sense to me. I mean, the filling is already cooked, so all you have to do is cook the dough. Actually now that I think about it I would probably like them more if they were just baked.

The brats, on the other hand, were delicious. They were very moist and the casing was all crispy and oh...just amazing. But let me tell you, it was a hard thing to give up 6 (six!) beers and 2 sticks of butter to the cooking liquid. Luckily both the beer and brats were on sale, so it was still a pretty cheap meal. Especially since it made so much. We both agreed that we didn't really get the beer taste from the brats. So I'd be interested to see if I could just use water. I have just grilled brats before, but was always worried about them being done all the way through, and the boiling makes sure they're done and still moist.

Beer Brats

2 lbs bratwurst sausages
1 onion, sliced
2 sticks butter
6 beers (72 oz. total)

Put everything together in a big pot and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Then move the brats to the grill and brown on all sides. Easy!

Potato & Cheese Pierogies

For the dough:
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 stick butter, softened

For the filling:
5 large red potatoes
1 onion, diced, divided
2 Tbls butter
6 oz. cheddar cheese
salt & pepper to taste
extra butter for sauteing

Mix together the flour and salt. Add the egg, then add the sour cream and butter. Work until the dough loses most of its stickiness. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Quarter the potatoes and boil until easily pierced with a fork (15-20 minutes). Meanwhile, saute half of the onion with the 2 Tbls butter until they are very soft. Drain the potatoes and mash with the sauteed onion and cheese. Salt and pepper to taste.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface until 1/8-in. thick. Cut circles 2-3 in. in diameter. Place a small amount of filling in the middle of the dough. Fold the dough over and seal the edge with the tines of a fork (may need to use a little water too). Boil the pierogies a few at a time until they float to the top (8-10 minutes). Let dry, then sauté them with the other half of the onion and butter. Lots of butter.

Like I said, the filling was very good, but my problems with the dough were that it was very sticky to begin with. I probably should have added some more flour. By the time I rolled out the last bit of dough it had incorporated enough flour that it actually felt like a real dough (for the last 2 pierogies, go figure). I also didn't get the dough thin enough. Maybe without those issues it would be a good recipe.