July 18, 2012 – Pizza w/Chicken, Olives, and Summer Squash

Apparently I have a death wish and it’s to roast myself alive in my kitchen.  Today I rediscovered that if I don’t eat a protein at lunch, then I will double snack attack in the afternoon.  Then come home, where it is sweltering, and proceed to nourish myself on freeze pops before deciding that I should really work on using the cookbooks I own, and make a meal from a real recipe once a month.  Then I decided to bake chicken and make a pizza.

Pizza – from my brain and the Better Homes and Gardens Cook book

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup diced summer squash – check
• ¼ cup olives from can and brine – check
• 1 cup grated smoked cheddar (preferably from the Amish who are really good at cheese and fudge) – check 
• 1 ½ cups Flour – check
• 1 tbs Olive oil – check
• 1/4 tsp Salt – check
• ½ cup Warm water – check
• 1 1/8 Yeast – check
• 1 Baked chicken thigh, cubed – check
• ½ cup Pasta sauce from a can – check
• Oregano – check
• Red pepper flakes – check

Step 0: Put the chicken in the oven to bake at 400F.

Step 1: Make the dough following the recipe in Better Homes and Garden’s Cook Book…it involves basically mixing the flour, olive oil, salt, yeast, and water until you have a dough.  Do this.  Set aside to rise in a cool place (if you can find one in the inferno you live in).

Step 2: Dice the summer squash and put into a bowl, add the olives and brine, put in the fridge. 

Step 3: Put the sauce in a bowl, mix with as much oregano as you so desire.  Put in the fridge. Wait calmly as every Italian you know becomes disgusted with your cooking abilities.  Remind yourself that economizing is good and resolve to make your own pasta sauce someday. 

Step 4: Grate the cheddar, all of the cheddar.  It is Cow Appreciation Day after all. Put in the fridge.

Step 5: Take the chicken out of the oven.  Allow to cool then slice into chunks of awesome.

Step 6: Get your dough and roll it out on your pizza stone. Top the dough with sauce, then cheese, then the veggies, then the chicken, followed by sprinkling the red pepper flakes to your heart’s content, then top it off with the cheese. Bake at 425F for 25-30min.  Allow to cool 5 min before serving.

My first impression as I took this out of the oven was…that cheese looks awful crispy. I maybe let it cook too long being distracted by the unknown.  Boy was I wrong.  I’m not sure which particular ingredient made this pizza so awesome. It might have been the pizza part.  Mostly I think it was the cheese part.  All in all, even though I have never had olives on a pizza before, or summer squash, it tasted like something I can’t wait to eat again for lunch tomorrow.

This foodsperiment gets a +7 for taste, +5 for relative health value, +5 for Cow Appreciation Day, +5 for not completely melting, +5 for an easy cleanup, +5 for lunch tomorrow! Happy Sperimenting!

Chicken, Olive, and Summer Squash Pizza - pizza may be more delicious than it appears