Pizza Stone Happiness

I got a pizza stone! Ya know what that means... PIZZA IS COMING!

Just got a little excited and wanted to share.

Yippie!

Polenta and Ground Beef

I don't cook a lot of beef. Honestly, I don't cook beef at all. I've spent most of my life not eating beef. One day when I was 7 my dad just stopped eating it, so my mom stopped cooking it and as a result I stopped as well. Recently over the past few years, I've picked it up again. Beef is really delicious. I don't think I could eat it every day but once a week is good.

Last night, I cooked ground beef. Yep. I sure did. I cooked it all by myself. Yay! Not really that hard... but if you've never cooked it before, it's ok to pat yourself on the back once in awhile. *pat pat pat*

It was a very simple recipe - I had some polenta lying around that I had been iching to cook as well. I love polenta - it's so easy to cook! It comes in a wonder tube that you just slice open and cut up! Yum!

Polenta and Ground Beef Lasagna-Casserole-Thing! HA! I need a better name - suggestions welcome.

Here's there recipe - very simple, not too terrible for you either (always an added benefit.)

Ingredients:
1 Shallot - (or you could use a small onion)
5 Garlic cloves - diced
8 Baby carrots - diced (or 1 large carrot)
1/2 cup Peas
1 pound Lean-ground beef
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 18 oz tube of polenta - cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 cup cheese - shredded cheese

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. In a frying pan, on medium heat, plop a little olive oil and add in the shallots, peas, carros and garlic. 3. Let that get a little soft then add the meat.
4. Cook the meat till it's no longer pink and add in the Worcestershire sauce and tomatoes
5. Let that cook for about 10 minutes till the sauce reduces and thickens
6. In a pan - I used a 6 x 12ish pan? You could probably use a 8x8 as well - 9x13 may be a bit big... either way in a pan, put about half of the meat mixture on the bottom, a layer of polenta with a little cheese, then the rest of the meat and top with the rest of the polenta and cover that sucker with cheese!

7. I baked mine for about 25 minutes - I wanted the cheese to get a little crispy then I let it cook for about 10 - 15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Funny Man's Buffalo Chili Chicken Pizza

My other half Matt and I have different eating habits. Not a bad thing, but just different. I do a lot of experimenting with my cooking while he's got his tried and true recipes he sticks with. One of my favorites is the Pan-Seared Chili Chicken. He whipped up some for dinner the other night and we were left with a few extra pieces that we just couldn't stuff into your full bellies... leftovers!

PAN-SEARED CHILI CHICKEN
By Matt Coan

Ingredients: 
3 chicken breasts
1/2 stick of butter
2 tablespoons McCormick Chili Spice

Steps:
1. Get a large frying pan
2. Heat it up and melt a half stick of butter in it
3. Add two table spoons of McCormick Chili Spice to the works
4. Add 3 chicken breasts (preferably from Trader Joe's b/c they taste great)
5. Cook until Golden Brown
6. Serve over instant mashed potatoes

What to do with Chili Chicken - why not make Buffalo Chicken Pizza! Glorious. I'm not a huge buffalo-flavor fan but Matt does have an awesome recipe in his arsenal for that as well. Cooking together - how wonderfully romantic. HA! Ok here we go... this is by far the best pizza I've (and we've) ever made. Ever. Period.

BUFFALO CHICKEN PIZZA

Ingredients:
Leftover chili chicken - we used 2 pieces which was enough
Pizza dough (homemade or store bought)
Pepperoni - enough to cover the bottom of the pizza
1/2 package of Low-moisture Mozzarella
Salt and pepper to taste
Ranch Dressing - to dip (you could do blue cheese as well if you like)
Buffalo Sauce:
   - Franks Red Hot Sauce
   - Philadelphia cream cheese - 1/2 8oz package

Steps:

1. Prep your pizza dough - if it's store bought:

   - Snag a medium sized bowl and coat with olive oil - lightly

   - Remove from package and place into a bowl

   - Cover with damp cloth and place in warm place for about 15 minutes to let rise

2. Chop up your chicken into bit-sized bits

3. In a small sauce pan - heat up the philly cream cheese & the franks red hot till they are mixed together

4. Add the chicken and stir till covered

5. Snag your dough and stretch out onto cooking surface

6. Cover the with a light layer of cheese

7. Top with layer of pepperoni then the chicken mixture

8. Top with cheese, salt and pepper

9. Pop into the oven for about 20 minutes - we like ours a little crispier so we left it in for about 30

10. Let the pizza rest for about 5 minutes before you slice it up

We also liked to dip ours in Ranch Dressing. Who doesn't love Ranch Dressing?

PLUG TIME!!!
Matt has a blog too! Check it out - stand-up comedian and IT professional shares his thoughts on life... http://halfassedramblings.blogspot.com/

Chayote Stir-Fry

I was at Whole Foods earlier this week trying to hunt down some Rhubarb... Whole Foods does a fantastic job of setting up their shelves and providing the consumer with information on each of the products they are offering.

Because of this beautiful display (see below) I noticed a funny looking veggie called a Chayote. It looked like a green bum. I mean look at this thing! So funny looking I had to buy it.

I also had some vermicelli noodles that I was dying to cook as well... so why not make a little stir fry with my green Chayote. It tastes pretty neutral - the texture is similar to an asian apple-pear, fresh, watery and crisp but light. 

Chayote Stir-Fry

Serves 1 person

• 1 Chayote chopped up
• 1/4 cup peppers - chopped
• 1/4 cup peas
• 1/4 cup broccoli
• 3 cloves diced garlic
• General Tsao's sauce from Trader Joes
• Vermicelli noodles - how ever many you want to eat
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock

Steps:

1. Soak the noodles for either 10 minutes in cold water, or 2 minutes in hot water
2. Dice up and mix up your veggies and garlic, pop them into a frying pan and sautee those suckers for about 5 minutes
3. Add in your sauce and chicken stock, I like a lot of sauce so I added about half a jar
4. Sautee that all together for another 5 minutes
5. Add noodles, and cook for another 5 minutes or so
6. Plate and serve. Pretty simple yet tasty!

Strawberry Orange Tart and Pizza

My brother is an interesting character. Like myself, he loves to cook as well. Late in the date yesterday he pops me a note to say that a few of my cousins are headed into town wanted to know if I wanted to hang. Of course I do and ask my bro what they are doing... he replies with "Um, we're not sure yet..." So I offer to make everyone dinner and dessert if they come to my house.

He was game. He is also trying to master his pizza recipe as well and brought over some fixings and a pizza stone. I don't have the recipe for that yet but I'm thinking he may need to do a guest post once he finalizes it. Either way, the pizza stone is in my oven until he comes to get it again and I'm pretty happy about that. YAY!

While he was making pizza, I made a tart-thingy. I really wanted to make Strawberry Rhubarb pie but it's about a week too early for rhubarb to strawberry orange was the next best thing.

I'll warn you now - the taste is delightful but the recipe is a little soupy...

Ingredients:
2 packages of strawberries
1 orange
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
1/8 cup flour
1 pad butter
1 sheet of pastry dough (or you could use pie crust)

Steps:

• Take one package of strawberries and chop them up into bit-sized chunks. Not too small otherwise they get super mushy
• Cut off the rind and cut up the orange into bit-sized chunks. Save some of the rind so you can zest it - only about 1 tsp worth - you only are going to use about 1/2 to 3/4 of it. The orange brings out the flavor of the strawberries
• Add about 1/8 cup of water and 1/8 cup of suger to a sauce pan and heat that up to make a little simple syrup
• Add the cut-up strawberries, oranges and zest to the pan and cook it till it gets a little juicy - slowly - about 7 or 8 minutes
• Add in the pad of butter and the flour to thicken the sauce and let it cook again for another 5 to 8 minutes - just before the fruit gets too mushy
• Slice up the other package of strawberries so they are lengthwise - see the photo and lay them on top of the mushy fruit mixture - do one layer at a time then sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar then layer the next set of strawberries on top of that. 

• In the meantime, prep your pastry dough into a pan - I used a pie pan and trim the edges. We used the trimmings to make a little design on the top

• Pour the filling into the pan and bake the mixture for about 15 - 20 minutes till the pastry dough is cooke
• EAT! It's messy but so tasty - we topped it with a little cookie dough ice cream. Yum.

Pasta again...

You could say I'm obsessed with getting the homemade pasta recipe perfect...

I think I finally did it. Or at least - this recipe was awesome so neener neener. Ready? Think you can handle the awesome pasta action? Ok. Here we go.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup pasta flour - durham or 00. This really makes all the difference. 
• 1/4 cup All Purpose flour
• 1/2 cup potato flour - I had some on hand and i've been trying to figure out what to do with it, so why not throw it in there too!
• 3 LARGE pinches of salt
• 1 pinch of ground pepper
• 3 eggs

Steps:

• Dump all your flour together on the table top and make a little crater in the middle
• Drop the eggs into the middle and start mixing in the flour slowly from the middle of the crater till  you get it thick enough to mix with your hands.
• Mix the dough up and then let it rest for about 30 min covered with a damp cloth or paper towel. This allows the gluten to form and makes it easier to work with.
• Cut the dough into 4 small balls and start running them through your pasta maker
• Pop the finished pasta into a bowling pot of water - the water should have a little salt added to it
• After the pasta is in the pot - drizzle in a little bit of olive oil. This helps the pasta not stick together
• Cook that sucker to your taste and you're ready to enjoy!

Let me know how yours turns out.

Flavoring Vodka - Rosemary Lemon

Let's talk about Vodka.
Dictionary.com defines vodka as "an unaged, colorless, distilled spirit, originally made in russia." It's also my liquor of choice. So many things you can do with Vodka. Yum. With that said - I've been doing a lot of flavoring of Vodka - mango vodka, ginger pear vodka, apple cinnamon vodka, and the most recent and VERY successful Lemon Rosemary. Here's the skinny and the key to flavoring vodka - dark, dry, even temperature location.

Rosemary and Lemon Vodka
- 6-8 lemons
- 3/4 of a handle of cheap vodka - cheaper the better because there is a
   lot in the vodka to take on the flavor
- 2 packages of rosemary from Trader Joes

I sliced and quartered the lemons - leaving the rind on but next time I think i'm gonna take it off. The two different types of cuts are so more of the vodka is touching the lemon.

Fill the bottle to the top and store in a dry dark place for 1 week. We got large jugs from TJ Maxx to fill Worked out great! Make sure you fill the bottle to the top and there is no rosemary or lemon popping out otherwise it could affect the flavor by going bad.

Make sure to test after a few days - depending on the amount of vodka it may take less or more time to get a full flavor.