December 27, 2011 - Holiday Leftover Pizza

Holiday Leftover Pizza or A pizza hodgepodge of glaze, cheeses, turkey and mangoes

This holiday season has been a particularly lovely one!  I spent Christmas over at my very special Teta and Uncle's with them and my three cousins.  It was wonderful.  I can’t even continue to express how great it was, but it was completely great. However, aside from assisting with the mashed potatoes, and helping with the poticia, between Christmas and the leftovers from my ladies night holiday party, there hasn’t been a whole lot of cooking going on in my kitchen.  

There’s been a lot of thinking about cooking, like contemplating what to do with the leftover glaze, and how many different ways to make turkey interesting.  So I came to the conclusion that holiday leftover pizza was an absolute must.  I solidified that plan as I walked home from my physical therapy appointment and met the most adorable puppy in the world named Gus whose owner’s name I unfortunately did not catch (curses, foiled again).

I got a lot of cooking paraphernalia for Christmas, so I figured it was time to make use of those things.  I started out with a plan to make enough dough to use some for pizza dough and the rest for bread rolls for lunch. 

Holiday Leftovers Pizza – from my brain

Ingredients:

• One batch of pretzel recipe dough, plus some salt in the dough – check; note you can use whatever kind of pizza dough you prefer, even Boboli if you most desire.  I was just going with the flow...of my brain
• Cut up chunks of leftover turkey – check
• Spoonfuls of leftover glaze from the cider glazed turkey recipe – check
• Three cheeses – I know I used Gorgonzola (love), and I think the other two were Dubliner Cheddar and Gouda, but that could be wrong…since they were the Cheeses Bindy brought for last week’s party
• Mango pieces – this wasn’t technically leftover since my cousins got me mango themed body buttery things and an actual mango…that was perfectly ripe. So check anyway!

Step 1: Make the dough, set aside to rise as you prep the remainder of the ingredients; also preheat the oven to 400F.

Step 2: Put a little oil on the pizza stone your EXCELLENT Teta (a different one than who you spent Christmas day with) gave you for Christmas.  It’s also blue, which is my favorite kitchen color.

Step 3: Cut apart the dough into seven pieces to use to make rolls, and one big piece to use as pizza dough.  Roll the rolls into their baking sheet (or mini loaf pan if you are me and was good and Momma got you something nice for Christmas) and let to rise.  With the main pizza dough roll into a pizza looking roundness that will fit your pizza stone.  Then transfer to the pizza stone.

Step 4: Spoon the leftover cider glaze onto the dough, be careful that it doesn’t decide to totally roll everywhere off of your pizza, stone, and onto counters and stovetops...danger.

Step 5: Cut up the cheese and spread on the pizza…if you’re me that just meant literally cutting slivers of the Dubliner, then using your new grater (thanks Dad and Alison!) to grate the Gouda (which is not really meant to be grated it turns out) and then sprinkle on the crumbled Gorgonzola.  If you’re me next time it means switching the slivering and the grating so you grate the hard cheese (Dubliner) and sliver the soft cheese (Gouda). 

Step 6: Sprinkle on the Turkey and mangoes.

Step 7: Pop into the oven for 25min or roughly golden brownish crust and a little bit of browning is going on. Also the duration of writing thank you cards. Let cool for about five minutes (so you can finish your cards) and then cut right on the pizza stone and enjoy.

WOW.  So sometimes I think things might work in my head, and then when I put it into action...it totally DOES work.  Using the glaze as the “pizza sauce” made everything epic and slightly sweet, also I couldn’t use too much because it kept trying to fall off the stone.  But the combination of cheeses was exciting, since none of them were touching due to my mix up of grating vs. slicing, and the mangoes were amazing!  If I didn't have the turkey, I think it would have been fine but what is a leftovers holiday pizza without turkey, you know what I’m sayin?  This foodsperiment gets a +10 for flavor, +7 for ease, +5 for using up leftovers and creating tomorrow’s lunch, and +5 for using almost all of my new kitchen equipment.  I could so make a great Italian wife, if I was actually Italian.  Happy Sperimenting!

December 11, 2011 - Spicy Gorgonzola Chicken Bites

Since my Facebook photo postings appear to no longer be the best method of sharing my magical kitchen creations, I think it's about time to re-boot this blog.
Tonight is the culmination of a fabulous weekend spent with my best friend Mairin (or Mai, or Mai Mai or M-dawg, or any other number of nicknames we've given her over the years) we spent the weekend celebrating Christmas with some old traditions (The Year Without A Santa Clause, LU Christmas Vespers) and old friends (Heids, Steve, KP, Julie, Vani, etc) and some inspirational Philadelphia Christmas Traditions (Comcast's Light Show, The Christmas Village, and the light show at the Wanamaker Building in Macy's).  So I came home from Vespers to a lonely apartment full of Christmas Cheer.  And a kitchen filled with some dirty dishes.  So I did what any self respecting foodoligist would do in her time of hunger and need...made something that required almost no clean up.

Spicy Gorgonzola Chicken Bites
Ingredients:
- 1 Chicken Breast
- Bread Crumbs
- Red Pepper Flakes
- Gorgonzola

Step 1: Cut the chicken breast into reasonably bite-sized pieces (that's sort of your discretion)
Step 2: In a ziploc combine a liberal amount of bread crumbs (enough to coat your chicken bites) and red pepper flakes.  The amount of red pepper flakes is a direct correlation to how spicy you desire your meal to be, put more for more, less for not as much, it's not an exact science.  Add the gorgonzola...it would be best to use smaller crumbles that have a chance of sticking to the chicken.
Step 3: Put the bites in the bag and shake like it's shake and bake until all bites are coated.  Add more bread crumbs, red pepper flakes, or gorgonzola if needed.
NOTE: Most of the gorgonzola isn't going to stick to the chicken bites, this is totally ok.
Step 4: Place the coated chicken bites in a shallow pan (I use a 9x9 Pyrex), and crumble the remaining gorgonzola on top of the bites (again you can use as much or as little as you like, I used a moderate amount, enough so each bite had some gorgonzola kick to it).
Step 5: Put the bites into the oven at about 300 for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown (those are always the directions with breaded things and that usually works out best for everyone).

Well, the spicy gorgonzola chicken bites may not have made up for missing my bestie but they were just the ice cream on top of the weekend!
For this foodsperiment: +8 for taste, +5 for easy clean-up, and +5 for leftovers usable for lunch!

June 18, 2011 - Gorgonzola Chicken Thighs

I’d been planning tonight’s speriment for about a week, ever since I still had gorgonzola.  So even though I’d already baked bread this morning, I couldn’t pass up this recipe.  Gorgonzola Chicken Thighs from food.com.  I have to say as I re-read the recipe, it seemed a little complicated. 

Ingredients:

• Gorgonzola – check
• Breadcrumbs – check
• Ground Black Pepper – check
• Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs – check
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil – check
• Salt – check

So the whole ordeal began with cutting up some potatoes, which were fully NOT involved in this dish specifically, but I made mashed potatoes too (I’m an old hand at that one, pretty much my family you have to be).  So anyway, I cut the potatoes and then put them in a pot with water to boil slowly while I prepped the chicken.

The recipe is a little complicated…but ok, so breading things with gorgonzola and trying to make it stick is NOT EASY.  Trying to roll chicken thighs into a semblance of wonder also NOT EASY.  Long story short I put the chicken together and got them into the oven.  I’m sure you can check out the recipe on google if you’d like.  While the chicken cooked, I cleaned up and mashed the potatoes. 

The first time I took the chicken out, I realized it really needed to cook longer, so this teaches me that I need to be better at understanding what looks “done” coming out of an oven.  Finally they were finished.  I had also attempted some gravy for the potatoes but that ended in an epic fail so I won’t document that here.

My take on this recipe: +5 for taste, they were really good!  I’m glad I’ll have some extra dinner items for this week.  Even though you couldn’t really taste the gorgonzola at all, but I suppose I shouldn’t have expected any different, -3 for complicated set up and cooking, -2 for too much cleanup.  I definitely enjoyed the end result, but I think I wouldn’t make it again in a hurry due to my lack of desiring to get so messy, or maybe I’d do it if I hadn’t made bread in the morning. 

June 12, 2011 - Apple Gorgonzola Frittata

I forgot to mention that this summer, in addition to being the summer of food, fairies, and moving, it is ALSO the summer of the margarita.  I can’t believe I’ve forgotten this because let’s be honest I REALLY love margs, and margsing outside in the sunshine and heat is a delightful afternoon pastime.  Anyway, onto the meal at hand...

Last night we closed the show (The Savoy Companies production of G&S’s Iolanthe) I will be finding glitter in and around my person, house, car etc for the next several months/year/eons.  It was a bittersweet ending, mostly because we didn’t get to perform the second half, but I digress.  Earlier in the week I’d discussed with my bestie and partner in crime Mairin (or Mai) and as she was coming to the show and staying at my house we decided to make an Apple and Gorgonzola Frittata (mainly because I still had gorgonzola from the fruit and gorgonzola salad).  Frittata’s originate in Italy and are typically an egg dish with at least one ingredient (thanks Wikipedia!)

The recipe is from tasteofhome.com and was submitted by Harry Renniger.  The recipe calls for the following:

• 4 eggs – check
• Heavy whipping cream – check
• Salt and pepper – check check
• Tart apple – check, well we used a Macintosh (harhar) apple which is actually more sweet than tart but nbd.
• Lemon juice – check
• Onion – check
• Celery – check
• Olive oil – check
• Garlic clove – check
• Gorgonzola cheese – check

With the ingredients in hand and a spectacular sous chef we were ready to begin.  I had Mai do a lot of the fine chopping, which was sort of a cop-out since I’m not terribly spectacular at fine chopping but it got the job done and after a night of dancing we were hungry so the quicker the better.  Everything went smoothly, and it was easy with this recipe to clean as we cooked so it was nice that at the end there wasn’t a lot clean-up left to do.  Next time I would use a smaller pan (I used my largest and that did the job but I’d use a slightly smaller one.)  I’d also probably leave the eggs to “set” longer before putting them into the oven to broil and finish. 

No music while cooking today, since I had the company of one of my dearest friends, that girl is funny, smart, wonderful, talented, can I gush anymore?

End result was great!  I’d really prefer better produce than Acme can provide (sort of makes me long for Wegman’s, or Trader Joes, or Wholefoods) but in a month I won’t be going to that Acme anymore.  Anyway, the apple and the gorgonzola played off each other lovely.  I couldn’t really taste the onions and the celery but I think that was part of the point of the whole thing.  It was a filling bruchfest.  I will definitely be making this one again.

I’m going to give this a + 5 for a delightful morning meal. + 8 for the amazing company of my best friend. + 8 for simple clean-up! Overall it was great!  It’s crazy how quickly I am falling in love with the kitchen.  

June 8, 2011 - Fruit and Gorgonzola Salad with Proscuitto

Here we are in the summer of food, well the summer of a lot of things. The summer of fairies (The Savoy Company’s Iolanthe), the summer of moving (July), the summer of food…ok it’s the summer of THREE things.   Alright, the summer of food means in laymen’s terms that it’s the summer I start to really learn how to cook/enjoy food and understand more about the whole process than my usual pasta and scallops with random Asian sauces mixture (and garlic, and red pepper flakes).  I’ve decided to start to cook, to learn what is so compelling about the kitchen and to get it right.

After acquiring my ingredients and throwing out the recently broken beautiful cookie jar I got while on a girls weekend with my three best friends Sarah, Heidi, and Mairin (henceforth referenced as GTR) and putting away the groceries which do NOT belong in the recipe…I’m ready to start.

Today’s Recipe:  Fruit and Gorgonzola Salad with Prosciutto (from Food Network Magazine/Foodnetwork.com)

The recipe calls for:

• prosciutto – check
• extra virgin olive oil – check
• sherry vinegar – mother of pearls…thanks Acme I’ll substitute red wine vinegar and hope it works out ok
• Dijon mustard – grey poupon check
• kosher salt – check
• freshly ground pepper – mother of pearls guess I’ll use finely ground but not freshly
• 2 peaches – check
• 2 plums – m.o.p./thanks Acme I hope California apricots are a close second
• Red onion – check
• Mixed salad greens – check
• Crumbled gorgonzola – YUMM and check
• Bread – I decided not to use the bread since it’s just served alongside and it’s just lil’ ol’ me for dinner.

Of course as soon as I started to “pit and slice the peaches ½ inch” I realized there was no music. And as shown in every movie I’ve ever seen, everyone who enjoys their kitchen has music on. Right? Thanks steromood.com for having a cooking time playlist. Pitting…how thick is ½ inch?

Well I really like steromood’s tunes for this evenings endeavor, and I’m awful at estimating.  So far so good, maybe because I ate some prosciutto while prepping everything, but that’s half the fun right?

I thought that the prosciutto frying was a fail, but end result actually ended up being COMPLETELY DELISH! I think I figured out (too late, aka while eating) that the   ½ inch slice for the fruit was meant to be “bite size” so that I could just fork the fruit and eat it.  I admit that while making the meal I was a little worried, there was some sputtering from the pan and I thought I’d totally over crisped the prosciutto but man oh MAN was that delicious!  The gorgonzola really complemented the peaches and the prosciutto brought a tangy crunch that was triple mmmm.  I can see why the recipe called for plums, the apricots were a little more tart than plums would have been.  

Overall I’m going to give this recipe a +5 for taste (even modified due to grocery store constraints) and a +7 for using the same skillet for all parts of the cooking!  I’m also going to give my roommate Gretchen a +5 for giving me some of her bread from dinner (since I didn’t use the Italian bread suggestion). Good first dish!