Sloppy Joe French Bread Pizza

Sloppy Joe French Bread Pizza via Yellow Bliss Road
1 loaf French Bread, cut in half lengthwise
2 bell peppers (any color)
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 pound Ground Chuck or Sirloin Beef
1 15-ounce can Manwich Bold Sauce
2-3 cups shredded Cheddar and Jack Cheeses (combined)

Preheat oven to 350 .Line a sheet pan w foil and place bread halves side by side, cut side up.
In large saute pan, heat T EVOO. Add onion and cook 2 min, then add bell peppers and cook for 3 min, til veggies beginning to soften. Crumble in gr beef, season w salt and pepper. Cook. Drain. Stir in Manwich and heat through. Spread meat mix even on fr bread halves. Top w cheese. Bake 10 min, til cheese  melted. Cool for a few min before slice in 2" pieces.

Pizza Boats

Baked Potato Skins a la Pizza adapted from sea salt with food
 Skins
4 Medium Size Russet Potatoes, scrubbed and stabbed with a fork to vent
Olive Oil
Sea Salt

Filling
1 C Pizza Sauce (
2 C Shredded Mozzarella or Italian Blend Cheese
16 Slices of Pepperoni, quartered,
 plus more for garnish
Freshly Ground Black Pepper


Preheat the oven to 400˚F.  Place taters right on the oven rack.  Bake 40-50 min til fork tender.  Let sit until they are cool enough to handle.  Cut spud in 1/2 and scoop out flesh making sure you leave about 1/4" flesh around the actual skin so you have something to put your fillings in.  Brush with evoo and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake 8-10 min on each side until the "boats" are crisp.  Fill with 2 T sauce, as much cheese and pepperoni pieces as you like.  Top with full size pepperoni to make it look more pizza like.  Bake 15-16 min until cheese is melted.  Serve warm.

America's Test Kitchen Chicago Style Pizza

I saw this recipe for Chicago style deep dish pizza on a rerun of America's Test Kitchen a few months ago.  It took me a while to track the recipe down, but it was worth the extra effort.  America's Test Kitchen has yet to steer me wrong with a recipe.

I was a little skeptical about the "buttery crust" but the slight flakiness after being cooked really makes the pizza.

Even though I used less than top quality cheese, tomatoes and sausage, it was the BEST deep dish pizza I've had.  Yeah, even better than the one's I've had to wait over an hour for in Chicago. 

This recipe is for two deep dish pizzas.  I wasn't sure how many servings one pizza would yield so I cooked up both at the same time.  If you are trying to figure out how many people each pizza would serve.  We wound up getting about 5 decent size servings per pizza.  The slices are really filling too. 

The pizza was best reheated in the oven, covered in foil at 350F for 30 min.  It was almost as good as when it came out of the oven the first time.

I was surprised how much Blockette enjoyed this pizza.  The last time I made Chicago style pizza she turned her nose up at it.  Of course, she was much younger then and less open to trying new things.  I'm pretty sure she didn't like the pizza last time because the sauce, not the cheese was on top, and didn't I know I made it WRONG?  It's taken her a while, but she has learned that the weird stuff I make is really tasty...most of the time.

America's Test Kitchen Chicago Style Pizza via My Bizzy Kitchen and Brown Eyed Baker
3¼ c flour
½ c cornmeal
1 t salt (omit if using salted butter)
2 t sugar
2¼ t rapid rise yeast
1¼ c water, room temp
3 T butter, melted
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 t + 4 T EVOO, divided

For the Sauce:
2 T unsalted butter
¼ c grated onion
¼ t dried oregano
½ t salt (omit if using salted butter)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (28-oz) can crushed tomatoes
¼ t sugar
2 T coarsely chop fresh basil (I used 1T dried basil)
1 T olive oil
 black pepper

For the Toppings:
1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 4 cups)
(Pepperoni or sausage)
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese (I omitted)

Dough: Whisk flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, and yeast in lg bowl. Add water and melted butter and mix on low, using hook, 1-2 min, scraping sides and bottom of bowl occasionally. Increase to med and knead til dough glossy, smooth and pulls away from sides of bowl, 4-5 min. Coat lg bowl (ceramic works best for me) w 1 t evoo. Transfer dough to bowl, turning to coat dough in oil; cover w plastic wrap. Rise at room temp 45-60 min.

Sauce: While dough rises, heat butter in med span over med heat til melted. Add onion, oregano, and salt; cook,til liquid evap and onion gold br, 5 min. Add garlic and cook 30 sec. Add tomatoes and sugar, increase heat to high, and simmer. Lower heat to med-low and simmer til reduced to 2½ c, 25-30 min. Off heat, stir in fresh basil and olive oil, then season with salt and pepper. (As I used dried Basil I added it with the oregano at the beginning of the cooking process.  I also omitted the olive oil in the sauce.)

 Laminate Dough: Turn dough out onto dry work surface and roll into 15x12" rectangle. Using an offset spatula, spread soft butter over dough, leaving a ½" border along edges. Starting at short end, roll dough into tight cylinder. W seam side down, flatten cylinder into 18x4" rectangle. Cut rectangle in half crosswise. Working with one half, fold into thirds like a business letter; pinch seams together to form ball. Repeat with remaining half. Return balls to oiled bowl, cover tightly wi plastic wrap, and let rise in fridge til nearly doubled 40-50 min. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425 F. 

Bake: Coat two 9" round cake pans w 2 T olive oil each. (I used cake pans with tall sides to have a taller crust)  Transfer 1 dough ball to dry work surface and roll out into a 13" circle. Transfer dough to pan by rolling dough loosely around a rolling pin and unrolling into pan. Lightly press dough into pan, working into corners and up sides at least an inch. If dough resists stretching, let it rest for 5 min before trying again. Repeat with remaining dough.

For ea pizza, sprinkle 2 c (I used 1 1/2 c each) mozzarella evenly over surface of dough. (If you're using any meat or veggie toppings, add them on top of cheese.) Spread half tomato sauce over  cheese (or toppings) and sprinkle 2 T Parm over sauce. (I omitted) Bake til crust gold br, 20-30 min. Remove 'za from oven and let rest 10 min before slicing and serving.

St. Louis Style Pizza

I've never been to St. Louis to know if they have a different style pizza, but I thought this recipe from Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice looked really tasty AND easy.

What makes a St Louis style different from your average run of the mill pizza is the thin crust and the types of cheeses.  This type of pizza uses provolone, cheddar and Swiss instead of the traditional mozzarella. 

While I'm not the biggest fan of thin crust pizza I did enjoy this pizza.  It was probably the best thin crust pizza I've ever had. 

The dough was incredibly easy to roll out.  I usually have to fight with pizza dough crust so this is really saying something.  The crust also crisped up nicely.  Sometimes thin crust pizzas get super soggy from the sauce.  The center pieces weren't cracker crisp, but they weren't like wet cardboard either.

I made this on a friday over Lent so we just had a basic cheese pizza.  I think this style of pizza really benefits from that.  Without the distraction of the salty and spicy meats, like sausage and pepperoni, the flavor from the various cheeses really gets a chance to shine.  

This pizza was a big hit with the whole family.  I will definitely make it again.

St Louis Style Pizza from Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice
Crust
2 c bread flour
1T baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 T EVOO
1/2 c water

2/3c pasta sauce (I just eyeballed the sauce for each pizza)
1c shredded white cheddar (I used a 3 cheddar blend)
1/2 c shredded provolone (I had 4 round slices that I snipped with cooking sheers)
1/2 c shredded swiss
pizza seasoning (I used Penzeys Frozen Pizza Seasoning)
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425F.  Cover 2 large baking sheets with parchment or silpat.  Spray the parchment.

Mix the crust ingredients.  Separate into 2 round disks.  Cover them and let them rest 10 min.  This will make them much easier to work with.  Roll very thin (1/8") between 2 sheets of sprayed parchment paper. (I used the sheets I was going to bake the pizzas on.)  Top each pizza with sauce, seasoning and cheese.  Bake for 9-12 min until cheese is golden and melty.  Let sit 5 min before cutting.

Pizza Pot Pie...for Pi Day

I'm a little late posting this, but we did indeed celebrate Pi day last Thursday.  For dinner I made this Pizza Pot Pie from Eat At Home.

I got super fancy and slashed 3.14 into the dough.
 

Here's what it looks like when you serve it.  The cheese is on the bottom, so if you've sprayed your baking dish sufficiently as I did, when you flip it over the cheese will be on the top and the crust on the bottom.

Now over at Eat At Home, they call this a Chicago style pizza pot pie.  I'd say they should stick with calling it Deep dish pizza pot pie.  Chicago style pizza has cheese on the crust, then toppings, then sauce, which is usually chunky.  Of course if you made this dish like that, it wouldn't plate up nearly as neatly. 

I'm not a fan of Chicago style pizza.  I feel I can say that because I am not, by any stretch a native Chicagoan/Illinoisian. Although my husband seems to think so since I've lived in the Chicago burbs for 10+ years now.  Once a Minnesotan, always a Minnesotan.  This is probably why he's a Vikings fan, not a Bears or Packers fan. 

Anyhow, the pizza...I like my cheese on the top, non chunky style pizza...so this dish was awesome.

I did run into a problem with the crust though.  It wouldn't brown. I baked it for nearly 40 minutes and it was still quite pale.  As Blockette and I were starving, I just cranked up the broiler for 5 minutes and that did the trick.

I'd say there is something weird going on with my oven not getting hot enough as I had chocolate chip cookies that took extra time to bake, however, last weekend I made a turkey and it got done a full hour before the recipe said it should have.  Who knows what's going on with that.

Deep Dish Pizza Pot Pie from Eat At Home
Crust:
1 pkg. yeast (or 2 1/4 t.)
1 c warm water
1 t sugar
2 T. veg oil
2 1/2 c bread flour (you can use all-purpose, but bread flour makes a fluffier crust)
1 t salt

filling:
1 lb. Italian sausage
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced or crushed
2-3 c shredded mozzarella cheese
1 jar pizza sauce

For top of crust:
2 T. melted butter
dried oregano and basil

Make dough: Dissolve yeast in water. Mix in other ingredients until well blended. I used a stand mixer with a dough hook, but you can also mix by hand. Let dough rest while sausage cooks. Brown sausage with onion and garlic. Drain to remove fat. Heavily spray 9×13 dish. Layer: cheese, meat and then sauce.  Roll out dough to shape of your dish.  I just used my hands to press out a shape.  Carefully transfer the dough to the top of the dish. Roll any excess dough under to make a sturdier edge.  Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with oregano and basil, if desired. Bake  at 425F for 25-40  min. Flip pieces upside down to serve, so cheese on top.

DIY Pizza Lunchables

Last school year all Blockette could seem to talk about was Pizza Lunchables. How she loved pizza Lunchables. How pizza Lunchables were the best lunch on earth. And how come I never bought her pizza Lunchables? Didn't I love her? Didn't I know I was causing her excessive lunchroom trauma by not buying this wonderful meal in a box for her?

Yeah.

I explained to her that not only were they expensive for the amount of food you got, they weren't all that tasty.

She wasn't buying any of that.

I also tried to tell her that the pizza Lunchables probably wouldn't be a good idea because they are rather messy to eat. Oh, but didn't I know that Lunchables were magic?  They have the ability to transform the messiest eater into someone suitable for tea with the Queen.

I had no idea of those amazing properties?  Did you?

So I placated her by making a bargain. I found this recipe for diy pizza lunchables over at Mommys Kitchen.  I told her we'd test out how messy they would be while we were in the comfort of our own home, and if all went well, she could take some to school in the fall.

I let her assemble some mini pizzas just like she would if she was going to eat them in the school cafeteria.  

Guess what?

Not only were they messy, the cheese was NOT melted!  Maybe those Pizza  Lunchables weren't so stupendous after all. 

However, since we were at home, I popped those little guys under the broiler for a few minutes.

Now there was the awesome amazing life changing lunch Blockette was hoping for.  She was a bit bummed that she can't have them like this at school. (What do you mean no one will heat them up in the oven for me?)  I think she was satisfied to have them as a special at home lunch.

Homemade Pizza Lunchables from Mommy's Kitchen
1 - recipe no fail pizza crust or store bought pizza crust
1 - 14 oz jar pizza sauce - I like to add extra veggies (onions, roasted red peppers, shredded carrot, zucchini) to the sauce and freeze it for later
mozzarella and cheddar cheese
pepperoni

Prepare pizza dough according to recipe. Separate dough into 18-20 golf ball size pizza balls. Set aside and let the dough rest for about 10 min. Preheat oven to 400 F. On a floured surface roll out each pizza dough ball into a 5"circle.

Place place each pizza round on a pizza pan or baking stone. Bake for 8-10 min or until the bottoms are very lightly brown. Remove from oven and let cool before removing from pizza pan. When completely cool place in a gallon size freezer bag and store in the freezer until ready to use.

To assemble Lunchables for transport to school:
Add two pizza crusts to a plastic container with a lid. Add about 2-3 tablespoons pizza sauce to a snack size zip lock bag and seal. Add mozzarella, cheddar cheese and pepperoni if using to a second bag and seal (about 1/2 c cheese). Add everything to the plastic sandwich container and place a plastic spoon inside to spread the pizza sauce. Close or snap shut and add to your child's lunch box.

To make at home:
Defrost 2 - 4 crusts in the microwave on high for 20 seconds.  place on rimmed cookie sheet.  Top with sauce, cheese and pepperoni.  Broil for about 5 min until cheese melts.


No Fail Pizza Crust from Mommy's Kitchen
2 1/2 c flour
1 t salt
1 c warm water
1 T baking powder
4 T butter, softened
1 - 1/4 oz packet rapid rise yeast

Dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside. Mix flour, salt and baking powder . Add butter and cut into flour mix using a pastry blender or fork. Add yeast mix and stir. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface til well blended. Place dough in oiled bowl and turn dough to coat. Let rest for 20 min. Cover bowl with dish towel or plastic wrap while dough rests. Preheat the oven to 400F.

(For regular sized pizza) Spray pizza pan with non stick baking spray or brush with olive oil. You can also use a pizza stone. Press dough into pan. Pre bake crust 10 min. Remove from oven and spread with sauce and toppings. Bake until crust is golden browned and cheese melted, 10-15 min.

Pizza Casserole

We really like this pizza casserole from Mom Endeavors. I made it once for a potluck dinner at church and then this half recipe a few weeks later. 

What I like about this recipe is how easy and customizable the recipe is.  Toss in whatever you prefer on your pizza.  The photo below is a half recipe with pepperoni all over, and black and green olives on one side.

Here's what you need to make a full recipe of pizza casserole:
1 box of pasta (I've used penne and bowtie)
1-2 jars of pasta (I used just over 1 jar, mostly because I had an almost empty jar in the fridge)
3 cups of Italian blend shredded cheese
Toppings of your choice

Preheat oven to 350.  Cook your pasta to al dente, and drain.  Spray 9x13" pan with cooking spray.  Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan.  Spread out half the noodles over the sauce layer.  Then add half the pizza toppings in another layer.  Add slightly less than half the cheese.  Repeat the layers of sauce, noodles, toppings and cheese.  Bake 30-40 min until warmed all the way through.  If you are crazy and don't like browned cheese cover the dish with foil.  I like to let my dish sit for 15 min before slicing so it holds together a bit better, but it's not necessary.

No Boil Penne and Cheesey Bread

Are you one of those folks who doesn't boil their noodles when they make lasagna?  If you are, you is my kinda people, if you aren't why the frell not?!  The noodles totally get cooked in the oven.  Save yourself some time people!

Ahem.

But we're not talking about lasagna today. No sir. We are talking about it's cousin, no boil penne from Plain Chicken.  Yes.  You read that right.  NO BOIL.  It's a pasta revolution!

A time saving revolution.  Just dump everything into your casserole dish and wham...awesome!

Now I feel it is my duty to the world to explain a few things. First, your Penne dish will look like this when it comes out of the oven:

It will look very liquidy, and oh, the bubbles.  Mine came out a boiling cauldron of molten red lava.  Please wait 15-20 minutes before serving.  Your family and their non burnt tongues will thank you.

This is what the dish looks like after things have cooled off a bit:

Much better.

And since I can't serve Italian food without bread, (it's the law you know, ) I made some cheesey bread too.

I found two nearly identical recipes for cheesy bread.  One was pizza blanco from Everybody Likes Sandwiches and the other was cheesy breadsticks from Real Mom Kitchen.  The only real difference is one gets baked at 500 for 10 minutes, and the other at 400 for 20 minutes.

Before the oven!

And Post baking goodness:


The cheesy bread made the perfect side dish to the no boil penne. Blockette went totally gaga over both of them. Particularly the cheese bread. This is one of the things that makes me know she truly my child...her love of cheese. Girl cannot get herself enough cheese, especially Parmesan, but that's a whole 'nother story.

One more thing, the cheesy bread recipe makes enough for two crusts. I didn't want two whole pizza thingies. I guessed, and correctly, that the bread would be it's most awesome right out of the oven. So I took the unused half of bread dough and put it in a non airtight container in the fridge. It's important that your container is NOT airtight. You want the dough to be able to breathe a bit in there!

So I let my dough sit in the fridge for two days, when we were having the no boil penne leftovers. My intentions were to let the leftover dough sit out for an hour before making it. Nope. I totally spaced out. At 5:00 I yelped, "Oh no! I forgot to take the bread out." (This was particularly confusing to my friend who I was on the phone with at the time and it didn't quite make since with the flow of our conversation.)

Anyhow, I rolled that dough out, popped it in the oven and hoped for the best. Well wouldn't you know it, it was the best. Turned out every bit as yummy as it's fresh twin.


No Boil Baked Penne from Plain Chicken
1 jar pasta sauce (26oz)
1 1/2 cups water
15 oz ricotta (I used small curd cottage cheese)
2 cups shredded mozzarella, divided
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 lb sausage, cooked and crumbled
8 oz uncooked penne (This is half a box)

Preheat oven to 400 F. Lightly grease 9x13 pan; set aside. Combine sauce, water, ricotta 1 c mozzarella, sausage, parmesan and penne. Pour into 9x13 pan and cover with foil. Bake 55 min. Remove foil and top with remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake 5-10 min, til bubbly.  Let cook for 15-20 min.


Cheesy Garlic Breadsticks from Real Mom Kitchen
1/2 recipe Basic Pizza Dough (see below)
2 tablespoons softened butter
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
dried parsley, optional

Preheat oven to 500 F.  In small bowl, mix butter and garlic, set aside.  Roll dough out into a 12" circle on parchment paper. Spread butter and garlic mix over dough. Sprinkle with parmesan followed by mozzarella cheeses. Transfer parchment and dough to pizza stone or baking sheet. Bake 9-10 min.
Use a pizza cutter and cut into stick shapes. Sprinkle with a little dried parsley if desired.


Basic Pizza Dough from Real Mom Kitchen (makes two crusts)
1 cup warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey or sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive
2-3 cups bread flour

In bowl of stand mixer, add yeast, honey, and warm water. Give it a stir and let sit for 5-10 min til bubbly and foamy.  Add salt, oil and 1 1/2 c flour. Mix using dough hook.  Once combined, add additional flour 1/2 c at a time til slightly tacky, but doesn’t stick to hands.  Turn on medium to knead for 6 min. The side of bowl should be clean and dough should be smooth.  Remove dough from bowl. Spray bowl with Pam. Add dough back to bowl and turn once to get both sides coated with  spray.
Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hrs.  Divide dough in half. Roll each half out into a 12 inch circle on a piece of parchment paper. Top as desired.

P.S. This post was written on 3 hours of sleep. I hope you enjoyed your journey down the madness of my sleep deprived brain. Thanks for visiting!

Pepperoni Roll Ups

These were so good we ate the entire batch before I could snap a picture. These babies have taken the internet by storm.  If you've been under a rock, and have no idea what I'm talking about, head over to Dinner with the Donnels for a great picture of the pepperoni roll ups .

You really don't need a picture to figure out how to make them. These guys are easier than hot dog roll ups to assemble!

1.) Separate crescent roll dough into triangles.
2.) place 4-5 pepperoni slices on the side of the triangle opposite the point.
3.)Cut a stick of string cheese in half and place it on top of the pepperoni.
4.)Roll the dough up around the cheese and pepperoni.
5.)Bake for 12-15 minutes. 
6.)Serve with marinara (I just used sauce from a jar) or ranch dressing.

 Blockette told me she likes this even better than regular pizza!  Woah.  Is that even possible???? 

Beer Crust Pizza

I think we all had high hopes for this beer crust pizza from Plain Chicken.  I'm not exactly sure what happened, but the top part of the dough, under the sauce, didn't cook completely.  Maybe this was because we don't have a pizza stone?  That's the only thing I did differently.  I cooked the pizza on a cookie sheet instead.   

The crust was very thin so I just don't understand why it didn't cook up the way it was supposed to, even without the use of a pizza stone. 

We all ate the pizza because even "bad" pizza is good. It just didn't wow me like cooking with beer usually does.

My advice to someone who wants to try this this recipe, but isn't a fortunate enough to own a pizza stone, is to cook the dough for 15 min without any toppings. Once the crust is mostly cooked, then put your cheese, sauce, etc on and broil the whole thing until the cheese is sufficiently melted.

Beer Crust Pizza from Plain Chicken
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp cubed cold butter
1 cup beer

Place pizza stone in oven and preheat to 475°.  Pulse the flour and salt together in a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse in the cold butter until it's well distributed. Add the beer and pulse until smooth*. Roll out dough onto a piece of parchment paper.   Prick dough with fork and add sauce, cheese and toppings.  Transfer pizza to hot pizza stone.  Bake at 475° for  12-15 minutes, until cheese is bubbly.
 
*I found the food processor with the dough blade to be unnecessary.  It was easier for me to just combine all the ingredients by hand.

Bubble Up Pizza

We really love pizza in this house, but we hardly ever have it. Why? Cause I am mean. And lazy. And cheap.  Usually, I just buy the Tombstone brand when it goes on sale.  They have this garlic bread version that costs the same as the regular crust. The crust is thicker on the garlic bread version so we eat less of it.  A regular frozen pizza feeds us for one meal, but the garlic bread from Tombstone feeds the three of us with enough leftovers to feed one grown up and a kid the next day.

But sadly, there haven't been good pizza sales lately. So no pizza for us.  I've also been too lazy to make dough from scratch.  I don't know why...it's not like it's any harder than making any other type of bread.  Laaaay-zeeee.  That's me.

Then I saw this recipe for bubble up pizza over at the awesome blog, Plain Chicken.  And guess what?  Biscuits were so cheap at the store they were practically giving them away.  Well, we've overcome all the obstacles that were preventing us from having pizza. Cheap? Check.  Easier than scratch? Check.  Mom meanness eradicated? Well, not so much, but we'll just pretend that since I made pizza I'm not so much of a mean mommy.

I had Blockette help me make this meal, with a lot more complaining than I expected at first.  The original task I set before her was to  quarter the biscuits with a butter knife. For some reason she didn't want to actually touch the biscuits.  I mean they were slimy and doughy.  Amidst her whining I started rolling the quartered biscuits into balls.  Then Blockette wanted to do that.  She wanted to do that very badly.

This was confusing to me. Wouldn't rolling the biscuits into balls involve her touching the dough a whole lot more than when she was quartering them?  Apparently I fail at understanding the logic of a six year old because she LOVED rolling the dough into balls.  OK.  Whatever works right?

I used lots and lots of cheese on this pizza, probably 3 cups.   I just hate it when there is more sauce than cheese, don't you?  Viva la queso! I also used whole package (the small one that is around 3-4 oz) of pepperoni.  It was Blockette's job to put the pepperoni on the pizza.  We decided that it would be best to put half under the cheese and half over the cheese.  That way some of the pepperoni would be soft and some would be crispy.

There was just shy of 2 cups of spaghetti sauce that I had found earlier in the week in the back of the freezer, so I used that for the sauce.  It had onions, garlic, red peppers, carrots, mushrooms, sausage and zucchini in it.  I also sprinkled on some extra Italian seasoning at Blockette's request.  Since the pizza was absolutely loaded down with cheese and pepperoni, Blockette didn't catch that she was eating hidden veggies, namely mushrooms.  I love when a sneaky plan comes together.

This pizza probably cost slightly more than the frozen variety, but we got to customize our toppings.  If the Tombstone pizza had as much cheese and meat on it as the Bubble Up Pizza did,  they would have charged double at the grocery store.  This pizza served the 3 of us for 2 meals, so it stretched just a tiny bit more than it's frozen counterpart. 

Finally, there is no comparison when it comes to aroma.  Any pizza, frozen or fresh, smells awesome while it is baking. The fresh pizza, just smells so much better.  Our whole house was filled with the scent of pizza and you can't really put a price on that.  I'll definitely be making this recipe again.

Bubble Up Pizza from Plain Chicken
2 cans (12oz) golden layer buttermilk biscuits
1 jar (15oz) pizza sauce
2 cups mozzarella cheese
your favorite pizza toppings - cooked sausage, turkey pepperoni, peppers, mushrooms

Preheat oven to 375F. Cut biscuits into quarters and place in medium bowl. Toss biscuits with pizza sauce. Add pizza topping and half of the cheese. Toss until well blended. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Pour biscuit mixture into pan and top with remaining cheese. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes, or until biscuits are done.

Pepperoni Pasta Salad

The Pasta salad from Buns in my Oven was a fun salad to make. Pizza in salad form?  AW yeah!  Pizza flavors and I don't have to heat up the house?  Double yeah!

I saw the recipe, bookmarked it, and the next week they had bags of mini pepperoni on clearance for 50 cents!!! Why? I have no clue.  The expiration date was weeks away.  I'm just kicking myself that I didn't buy more than one bag and freeze them. The following week, they were no where to be seen.  Oh well.  Live and learn.

I did change the proportions of the ingredients from the original recipe to suit our tastes.  Here is how I made the salad.

*about 9-10 oz pasta, (slightly more than half a box) cooked and cooled (I used a mixture of gemelli and medium shells because it was what we had in the pantry.)
*half a jar of whole green olives with pimentos (I used the whole olives because I told Blockette she wouldn't have to eat any olives and I thought they would be easier to pick out.  I just dumped in olives until it looked like enough green throughout the salad.)
*A small can sliced black olives (I would have used whole olives, but I already had the sliced ones in the pantry.)
*About 1 c shredded sharp cheddar
*1/3 c zesty itallian dressing
*whole bag of mini pepperoni
*1/4 of a softball sized red onion, thinly chopped  (They only had the freaky mutant ones at the store.  Use whatever you can find.)

Dump all the ingredients into a bowl and combine.  Let the salad chill in the fridge for a few hours before serving if possible to let the flavors combine.

Thai Pizza

This is the pizza I made with my leftover dough from the Springform Chicago Pizza.  (To my best friend, try not to make gagging noises too loudly while you read this.  This post is about pizza with peanut sauce.)
Since this was an impromptu meal, I had to go with the ingredients I had on hand. I didn't have red onions, but I really wish I did. Red onions would have tasted awesome on the pizza. I also used Colby jack instead of mozzarella, since I used up all the mozzarella in my fridge to make the deep dish pizza. Also, I reduced the amount of red pepper flakes from 2 tsp to 1/2 tsp so it wouldn't be too spicy for Blockette.

I had some red peppers that had been roasted and stuck in the freezer. I thawed them out and used those too. Blockette said that she didn't like the roasted red pepper. At least that is what she said until I told her they were red worms, and red worms would make her fairy wings grow nice and strong. That did the trick. Whatever works right?

I liked this pizza a lot. Whenever we go to California Pizza Kitchen, I always get the Thai pizza. My only beef with this recipe was that the sauce was way too thin. I only added about 1/8 c water and the sauce was still too runny for my liking. Next time I think I'll leave the water out completely. In any case, I just reserved the extra sauce and used it for dipping. That did the trick nicely.

Head over to All Day I Dream About Food to get the recipe for Thai Pizza.

1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup hot water
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 garlic cloves, pressed
2 tsp minced fresh ginger
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tbsp olive oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, diced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1 cup shredded mozarella

4 8-inch low carb tortillas or wraps OR 1 lb pizza dough**

In a medium bowl, whisk together peanut butter, water, vinegar, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and pepper flakes until well combined. Set aside. In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add chicken and saute until cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove chicken with a slotted spoon to a plate or bowl. Add pepper and onion to hot skillet and saute until just tender, about 4 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425F. Spread each wrap with 1/4 of the peanut sauce. Top with chicken, red pepper and onion. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake on a pizza stone or cookie sheet on middle rack of oven until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 8 minutes.

**If you are making this with regular pizza dough, be sure to bake the crust first for 8 to 10 minute before adding the toppings and returning it to the oven.

Chicago Style Pizza

I'm always on the look out for new and exciting ways to use my springform pan. Especially considering that I have yet to make a cheesecake in it. I mean really. That's why I wanted the darn thing. Anyhow Springform Deep Dish Pizza from Confections of a Foodie Bride is a great recipe to utilize that springform pan for something savory. I made this pizza with leftover spaghetti sauce. This sauce was loaded with sausage, onions, zucchini, garlic, carrots and mushrooms. I also added a hearty layer of pepperoni slices in between the two layers of dough.

Blockette hated this because she likes a thin crust pizza, and this bad boy is about as far from a thin crust pizza as you can get. Mrblocko thought it could use more sauce and more cheese. I thought it was perfect. It was even scrumptious cold. But let's get real here, doesn't ALL pizza taste good cold?

There is one thing you need to be careful of with this recipe, your springform pan size. Mine is a 9 inch pan. The recipe calls for a 10 inch pan. If you use a 9 inch pan, you will have a LOT of leftover dough. When I say a lot, I mean I had enough dough to make a large thin crust pizza.

Since we had so much deep dish pizza, I kept the extra uncooked dough in the frige for 5 days before I made it into a thin crust pizza. The dough developed a monster bubble after the first day. So don't be alarmed if yours behaves the same way.

Deep Dish Pizza from Confessions of a Foodie Bride
For the dough:
1 3/4 cup warm water, divided
1 tsp sugar
1 envelope (2 1/4 tsp) instant yeast
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing bowl and springform pan
4 cups (22 oz) bread flour, plus more for dusting
1 1/2 tsp salt

For the pizza:
1 cup pizza sauce
2 cups shredded fresh mozzarella
Fillings of your choice (we used cooked italian sausage, pepperoni, and pineapple chunks)

Put 1/2 c warm water into bowl of stand mixer and stir in sugar til dissolved. Sprinkle yeast over  top and let stand til frothy, 5 min. Add remaining water and oil. Add flour and salt to stand mixer bowl fitted with hook. Mix on low til flour combined and then turn up speed and knead til dough is smooth and elastic, 5 min. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl (I remove the dough, oil the stand mixer bowl, and put the dough back in… one less dirty dish). Cover with plastic wrap til doubles in volume, 1 ½ to 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Divide dough into 2pieces, 2/3 and 1/3" size. Gently form into 2 balls, cover with damp cloth, and let dough relax 10 min. Assemble a 10" spring form pan and oil bottom and inside ring. Shape larger piece of dough into round and drape over springform pan. dough round needs to be large enough to cover bottom and slightly hang over  edges of pan. Use small pieces from other dough ball to patch any trouble spots.

Sprinkle 1/3 cheese over bottom of pan. Top with fillings and cover with half of remaining cheese. Shape remaining dough into a round and drape over springform pan. The dough round should also slightly hang over edge of pan. Taking a rolling and roll over top edge of springform pan to seal  pizza. Tuck crust edges around top of pizza. Using a pair of kitchen shears, cut a few steam holes in top crust. Spoon pizza sauce over top and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake 40-45 min til crust is golden and cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown. Remove pizza from oven and immediately remove ring from pan. Cut into wedges and serve.

Pizza Poppers

White Trash balls , what an appetizing name! The title fits, cause they are kind of a trashy appetizer. I happen to enjoy that, but I prefer to call these little tidbits Pizza Poppers.

I assembled and baked these at a friends house so there is no picture. Yeah shame on me for not bringing my camera everywhere I go. I you are curious about how they look, head on over to Craving Comfort. Dana (She was on Wife Swap!) has some great pictures on her blog.

I made a few slight modifications to Dana's recipe, just to make them a bit more pizza-ish. (That's a word right? Don't burst my bubble if it's not.) I added several handfuls of mozzarella cheese. I didn't measure how much. I just added it into the pepperoni/cream cheese mixture until I thought it looked sufficiently cheesy. Then I added the green part (sliced) from 5 small green onions. I mostly did this because I had them left over from another dish and if I didn't use them in this appetizer, they were just going to get tossed. I also added some Italian Seasoning. I just shook it on and mixed it up until I thought there were little green flecks from the spice blend throughout the mixture.

The assembly was a bit fussy, but worth the result. Only a few of the crescent roll bits came undone in the cooking process. I was especially happy that they didn't explode or get all oozy on the pan. Make sure you put foil on your baking sheet just in case. Save yourself some of the clean up drama.

I served these little guys with some red sauce. Nothing fancy. I used the Meijers generic three cheese pasta sauce in a jar. It's my new favorite pasta sauce and sometimes it is on sale for a dollar. A Dollar! (Doncha love it when the cheap stuff tastes the best?!)

Anyhow, these guys even taste good cold. I mean why wouldn't they? They're like pizza and pizza is scrumptious cold.

Back when I made these, Mrblocko was making puppy dog eyes when I was preparing the filling. I told Mrblocko I would make these at home for dinner one night, since he wasn't going to be around to have any. Guess I should make good on that promise sometime in the not too distant future.

Dana's White Trash Balls from Craving Comfort
1 (6 ounce) package sliced pepperoni
1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
2 (10 1/8 ounce) packages Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Roll dough

Take out the crescent rolls, and separate into the individual triangles. Flatten each triangle and slice it so that it becomes three small triangles. Dice pepperoni into very tiny pieces. (I use my food processor) Add the pepperoni into the cream cheese, mixing well. Take a very small spoonful of cream cheese/pepperoni mixture and put it in the middle of one of the crescent rolls triangles. Pinch up all of the sides around the filling, rolling into a ball. Repeat and place them all on a cookie sheet. Bake for the amount of time stated on the crescent rolls (usually 10-13 minutes at 375°F). Let cool for a few minutes before serving!

Tips:
Add some Italian seasoning and serve w/ pizza sauce for Pizza White Trash Pockets.
Add a little Mozzarella cheese for a gooier cheese center.
try adding some black olives, and green onions!

Grilled Pizza..On the Grill!!!

After Mrblocko got his swanky new grill, I went and checked out a whole mess of books on grilling from the Library. Most of the books contained recipes of 3 kinds: 1. recipes I already had; 2. recipes with ingredients that were too expensive (IE fresh seafood); or 3. things I knew the family would not like. Pizza on the Grill by Elizabeth Karmel and Bob Blumer was sort of the exception to this rule. Aside from the dough recipes, I didn't find any recipes out side of the 3 categories, but the instructions on how to grill a good pizza were invaluable.

Here are the instructions in a nutshell:
Preheat the grill, with the lid closed, for 10 minutes, setting all the burners to high. Then reduce the heat to medium. Ideally, you should sprinkle your work surface with grits or polenta. (I forgot to buy this at the store so I omitted it. The coarse cornmeal probably would have given the dough a bit more flavor. ) Gently stretch 1/2 the dough into a rustic 12 inch wonky shape. (We thought the dough would be too thin but it puffed up nicely on the grill.)

After some trial and error we discovered that the following technique worked best for us. Place a sheet of foil on a rimless baking sheet. Brush the foil with olive oil. Carefully stretch out the dough on the foil and then brush oil on the side that was facing up. This way, when you are ready to grill, you grab the foil, flip the whole thing onto the grill and peal away the foil. The directions originally say to grab the dough and flip that onto the grill. We tried that and the dough just got a big hole in it before we could even put it on the grill. (If this should happen to you just pinch the dough back together.)

(Above is a picture of our first pizza, not using the foil method. See how the crust is much smaller than the second pizza below? That is because when the dough tore we had to smoosh it back together. We also decided with the second pizza, the pepperoni should be on top of the cheese. It looks much prettier that way, doncha think?)


Once the dough is on the grill, close the grill lid and leave it alone for 3 min. The bottom should be brown with nice grill marks. Use tongs to transfer dough to rimless baking sheet cooked side up. At this point, you want all your ingredients cooked/chopped and ready to go. Spread your sauce, and toppings over the top and slide the pizza back on the grill over indirect heat. Grill with the lid down about 7-10 minutes until bottom of crust is browned and cheese is melted.

Here's the basic dough recipe I used. I wasn't completely enamored with this dough, but it was a good place to start. You can kneed in other herbs or things like olives or even chocolate (for a dessert pizza) to change up the flavor. Since I made this pizza, I've found a few other recipes for grilled pizza dough that sound very interesting. Once I give them a test drive, I'll post them and give them a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Artisinal baker dough from Pizza on the Grill
3 c bread or all purpose flour
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 1/4 c milk
1 T oil plus more for bowl

Whisk flour, yeast and salt in large bowl, then pour in milk and oil. Mix with a fork or hands, knead once or twice to form a ball. It is OK if it is sticky. Oil a bowl and set the dough in it. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then a dish towel. Allow the dough to rise at room temp, undisturbed for 24 hours. (I keep mine in the oven with the light on. The light provides a little bit of warmth and keeps the temp at relatively constant.) Turn the dough once about 3 hours before you want to use it. When ready to make pizza, divide dough in half on a lightly floured board.
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I decided to make my own pizza sauce for this meal. I mean if I'm making pizza from scratch, I figured I should go for broke and make the whole thing from scratch. The pizza sauce recipe I chose hailed from the blog Bit of Butter. The original recipe called for pured tomatoes, but I only had diced tomatoes in the pantry. I just emptied the diced tomatoes into the food processor and pureed the stuff myself.

The recipe also calls for fresh herbs. At some point this summer, my fresh oregano cross pollinated with the mint plant. Now the oregano tastes like mint, bleck. The 2 basil plants that survived the nasty summer were not large enough to harvest without stripping the plant. I used dried basil and oregano instead. I did use fresh parsley and thyme. (For some reason those herbs have loved the hot rainy summer. They have practically taken over half of my garden. )

Everyone agreed the sauce was very tasty. It would have tasted even better with fresh basil and oregano though. Next time, I'll add more garlic, crushed red pepper and some grated carrot for a bit of sweetness. This recipe made sauce for 2 pizzas with 2 cups of leftovers.

Both pizzas have pepperoni, caramelized onions and sauteed mushrooms. Normally, I would shred the cheese myself from a brick. Since I wasn't sure if the pizza would be a success, I thought it would be cheaper to buy the bagged stuff. I didn't want a bunch of cheeses I might not use again to go to waste. I settled on a bag of pre-shredded Italian cheese blend. I also had some leftover cheddar cheese I had shredded for another meal that I added to the mix. I used half a bag on each pizza, but we like an excessive amount of cheese on our pizzas. (Normal people will probably use much less cheese, and have happier arteries too!)

One word of caution, the directions say to not over load your pizza. Try to limit yourself to 2-3 toppings, otherwise the pizza can get too heavy. Also, if you have too many toppings, not all the flavors shine through. This was a tough sell for the hubby who wanted 12 kinds of meat on his pizza. I think we found a good compromise. We'll definitely be having grilled pizza a lot more next summer.