Pizza

CIC: Pineapple & Sweet Potato

~ lk529 ~ 3 Comments

CIC-header

I’m {finally} back with another Crazy Ingredient Challenge!

This month’s mission: to combine pineapple and sweet potato. Two of my husband’s favorite ingredients.

At first I was thinking of some sort of savory/sweet empanada, which does still sound insanely delicious. But as things have their own way of developing, pizza became the final answer.

I made slow cooker pineapple barbecue pulled chicken on one of our 100 degree days when preheating the oven seemed like the worst idea on the planet. We served that chicken over rice. The leftovers had gone to work with my husband for 3 days. Firecracker and I loved it re-purposed as nachos, too.

As I sat there with still an insane amount of chicken in my fridge, the light bulb went off. (Not the one in my fridge.) I had half of the CIC challenge done! Now to incorporate the sweet potato. Ding! Pizza!

I made a gluten free pizza dough out of a white sweet potato. (Hello sneaky veggies!) Topped it with barbecue sauce, cheese, the leftover chicken, and some extra pineapple for good measure. The pizza dough was incredible easy to make and held up to the heavy toppings I layered on top. Maybe I’ll make it again using an orange sweet potato for Halloween!

sweet potato crust

This recipe makes 2 servings.

Pineapple Barbecue Chicken Pizza with Sweet Potato Crust

Ingredients:

  • 1 sweet potato
  • 2/3 C rolled oats
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2-1 tbsp olive oil
  • barbecue sauce
  • 2 C shredded mozzarella cheese
  • leftover slow cooker Hawaiian barbecue chicken, finely chopped
  • fresh pineapple, diced

Steps:

  1. Peel potato. Cube. Place in a pot covered with salted water. Boil 10-15 minutes, until potato is fork tender. Drain and allow to cool.
  2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  3. Place cooled potato in a food processor along with the rolled oats and the egg. Process until smooth.
  4. Using wet hands, transfer the pizza dough to the prepared baking sheet. Form into a circle, 1/4-1/2″ thick. Bake 25-30 minutes. Allow crust to cool. Flip the crust, peel off the parchment, and brush with olive oil. Bake another 5-10 minutes.
  5. Top pizza crust with barbecue sauce, cheese, chicken, and pineapple. Bake another 5-10 minutes until the cheese is melted and the toppings are warmed through.

*The crust recipe is modified from Lindsay at http://pinchofyum.com/sweet-potato-pizza-crust*

Pineapple Barbecue Chicken Pizza with Sweet Potato Crust for Crazy Ingredient Challenge from Sew You Think You Can Cook

To see the other bloggers who participated in this month’s Crazy Ingredient Challenge click on the link below.

Asian Pear and Smoked Sausage Pizza

~ lk529 ~ 4 Comments

13315681_10210002635681232_2402481382858059792_nLast year I had the ultimate pleasure of personally meeting some fellow bloggers in real life!

There’s a local food bloggers club that tries to meet monthly and I got to meet a couple of bloggers that I’ve “known” through Secret Recipe Club!

One of them, Karen, of Karen’s Kitchen Stories, is a phenomenal bread baker and I envy her passion for cooking with yeast and kneading dough.

She shared a no knead flatbread back in October and I was itching to try it.

Apparently I wasn’t itching hard enough to read the ingredient list thoroughly. I had the wrong kind of yeast! That beautiful airy flatbread crust will have to wait.

I resorted to my pizza dough recipe. Firecracker helped me create the dough, roll it out, and sprinkle on the cheese, and steal some sliced pears while he was at it.

As a sauceless pizza, the flavors were still incredible. I made two individual size pizzas that night and reserved the remaining ingredients. Lunch the next day was fantastic!

Sometimes food photography with two little boys can get a little out of control…

Asian Pear and Smoked Sausage Pizza

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 tbsp fresh thyme
  • 1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for brushing
  • 9 oz Fontina cheese, grated
  • 1 Asian pear, thinly sliced
  • 4 oz smoked sausage, sliced
  • 1 lb pizza dough (homemade or store bought)

Steps:

  1. Place a pizza stone in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
  2. In a small bowl, toss onion with thyme and 1 tbsp olive oil. Set aside.
  3. Roll out pizza dough (I did 4 individual sized pizzas instead of one large) to 1/4″ thickness. Prick with a fork. Brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt.
  4. Top pizza crust with cheese, onions, pear, and sausage. Bake 18 – 20 minutes.

*This recipe was inspired from Karen at http://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2016/10/asian-pear-and-smoked-sausage-flatbread.html*

Asian Pear and Smoked Sausage Pizza | Sew You Think You Can Cook | http://sewyouthinkyoucancook.com

#SundaySupper: National Pizza Month

~ lk529 ~ 20 Comments

Did you know that October is National Pizza Month? If you didn’t, don’t be too bummed that you’ve missed 3 weeks of pizza goodness because the Sunday Supper crew and I have over 50 pizza recipes to help you celebrate these last 8 days properly. Just scroll past my recipe to see an array of pizzas to get you through every meal. A big thank you to Coleen of The Red Headed Baker for hosting this massive event!

Being born in Chicago, I’m pretty sure pizza runs in my blood, so how could I not participate in today’s event?! Growing up we had pizza every Friday night, finding a Chicago style thin-crust pizza place in Florida where we soon became good friends with the owners thanks to our regular status. I even baby sat their kids once or twice!

Sticking to my Chicago roots I decided to recreate the classic deep dish pizza that everyone associates with the Windy City.

However, I can’t miss an opportunity to say that my two favorite pizza places are actually Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder for their pizza pot pies and Aurelio’s for their thin crust pizza cut into squares like all pizza should be!

Back to our deep dish recipe. I found a Copy Cat recipe for UNO’s pizza and set to work.

I don’t have a deep dish pizza pan so I opted for my spring form pan. Cooking experience number one brought to realization that the dough recipe created too much crust for my size pan, making our pizza very deep dish indeed! So, I made it again and used about half of the dough for a much more perfect ratio of ingredients. The other half of the dough is sitting in my freezer itching to be baked into more sausage pizza goodness.

Copy Cat: UNO's Pizza for #SundaySupper from Sew You Think You Can Cook

Copy Cat: UNO’s Pizza

Ingredients for crust:

  • 1 C warm water (105-110 deg F)
  • 2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast
  • 3 – 3 1/2 C flour
  • 1/2 C corn meal
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 C vegetable oil

Ingredients for pizza:

  • 1 lb sliced mozzarella cheese
  • 1 lb mild Italian sausage, casing removed, cooked
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes in tomato sauce
  • 5 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
  • 1/4 C shredded parmesan cheese

Steps:

  1. Bloom the yeast in the warm water for 10 minutes. Place in the bottom of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Add 1 C of the flour, corn meal, salt, and oil and mix until combined. Add the remaining flour 1/2 C at a time until the dough forms together around the hook. Transfer to a lightly greased bowl and cover. Allow dough to rise 45-60 minutes until doubled in size.
  2. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
  3. Press dough into a deep dish pizza pan, cast iron skillet, or spring form pan. Make sure the dough comes up the edges an inch or two. Cover and let rise another 15 minutes.
  4. Layer mozzarella cheese on top of the crust, top with cooked sausage and the garlic, spoon the tomatoes over the sausage (you don’t want all of the juices), sprinkle with basil and parmesan.
  5. Bake pizza for 15 minutes. Reduce oven to 400 degrees F and bake another 20-35 minutes until the crust is golden and reaches an internal temperature of 190 degrees F.
  6. Allow pizza to rest 10 minute before cutting so as not to find yourself under an avalanche of melty cheese.

*This recipe is adapted from grberk at http://www.food.com/recipe/pizzeria-uno-chicago-deep-dish-pizza-205279*

Copy Cat: UNO's Pizza for #SundaySupper from Sew You Think You Can Cook

Breakfast

Appetizers

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Sunday Supper MovementJoin the #SundaySupper conversation on twitter on Sunday! We tweet throughout the day and share recipes from all over the world. Our weekly chat starts at 7:00 pm ET. Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag and remember to include it in your tweets to join in the chat. To get more great Sunday Supper Recipes, visit our website or check out ourPinterest board.

Would you like to join the Sunday Supper Movement? It’s easy. You can sign up by clicking here: Sunday Supper Movement.

Biscuit Taco Pizza

~ lk529 ~ 2 Comments

Do you ever have those nights where you simply don’t want to make dinner? But you have all this food in the fridge from earlier in the week that you know you should eat but just don’t want to? I feel like those nights happen here quite a bit.

I’m not typically a simple reheat-the-leftovers type of person (with a few exceptions here and there). Often times leftovers get put into quesadillas, grilled cheese sandwiches, or omelets.

And sometimes they get turned into pizzas!

But what if you don’t have a pizza crust in the fridge or any yeast (or time to let the yeast do its thing)? Well, there’s Pinterest for that! I saved this No Yeast Pizza Crust that took only 15 minutes. I figured, “Why not? What have I got to lose?”

The crust that we got reminded us more of a biscuit than a pizza, hence my post title. You could also infer that leftover taco meat and toppings were used to top the biscuity crust.I used salsa as the sauce, topped it with cooked Mexican chorizo, and Mexican blend cheese. After coming out of the oven I added some fresh chopped lettuce, tomato, and scallions.

And the best part? Firecracker was willingly eating veggies! I guess if you put it on a pizza, kids will eat it.

Biscuit Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/4 C flour
  • 1 C milk
  • 1/2 stick room temperature butter
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • cornmeal, for pizza peel

Steps:

  1. Place pizza stone in oven. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
  2. Put all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. Mix until the dough forms a ball around the hook.
  3. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Roll out to desired thickness. Transfer dough to a pizza peel dusted with corn meal. Top dough with desired toppings.
  4. Shimmy pizza onto pizza stone. Bake 10-12 minutes.

*This recipe is adapted from Serene at http://houseofyumm.com/no-yeast-pizza-dough/*

Biscuit Taco Pizza in 30 minutes with this yeast free dough Sew You Think You Can Cook

#BundtBakers: Savory

~ lk529 ~ 12 Comments

4ae7b-bundtbakerspostI am pretty excited about this month’s #Bundtbakers theme. PJ of Seduce Your Tastebuds is hosting and selected the theme. #BundtBakers is a group of bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bundts with a common ingredient or theme. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme or ingredient.

I’ve always wanted to be a rebel and bake a savory bundt with this group, but haven’t actually been brave enough to do so. I’m really not a good rule breaker, or liar. That’s all probably a good thing. Today was my chance to take the savory route! I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be able to make the deadline with all the craziness that’s been happening around here. Between dropped naps and teething-related fussiness it’s been hard for me to get in the kitchen as much as I’d like.

I took a recipe for Cheesy Tomato Quick Bread and doubled it to fit a bundt pan. I didn’t have enough butter so I used a combination of butter and Greek yogurt. I debated adding some sausage to the bread, too, but figured I should try it as is first. I settled with serving sausages alongside the bread for dinner. The bread not only smelled like pizza, it tasted like pizza too. Next time I’ll definitely add some chopped cooked sausage or pepperoni to it. Maybe mix in some bonus veggies, too! I wouldn’t hesitate to serve the bread with some marinara dipping sauce to really drive home the pizza vibe, either.

pizza bundt 1_

This bundt was Treat’s first foray into the world of gluten, and he loved this bread. Cheese is definitely one of his favorite foods, so I can’t say I was surprised. I was, however, astounded at how much of the bread he shoveled in his little mouth. He also gnawed on the sausage as if he’d never eat again. This boy loves his food!

“Tastes Like Pizza” Bundt

Ingredients:

  • 4 C flour
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1/2 C plain Greek yogurt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 C buttermilk
  • 2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
  • 2 C shredded cheddar cheese
  • 4 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a bundt pan or two loaf pans.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and pepper.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and yogurt until smooth. Mix in the eggs and buttermilk.
  4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the stand mixer. Mix until just combined.
  5. Using a spoon, fold in the tomatoes. Fold in the cheese. Fold in the parsley.
  6. Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake 50-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out cleanly. Allow bread to cool slightly before unmolding.
  7. Bread can be served warm or at room temperature. Option to serve with marinara sauce.

*This recipe is adapted from Anita at http://www.hungrycouplenyc.com/2016/03/cheesy-tomato-quick-bread.html*

Tastes Like Pizza Bundt for #BundtBakers from Sew You Think You Can Cook

You can see all our of lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about #BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.

And don’t forget to take a peek at what other talented bakers have baked this month:

Bacon Cheddar Beer Bundt by The Queen of Scones

Blue Cheese and Pear Mini Bundt Cakes by Patty’s Cake

Breakfast Bundt Cake by Making Miracles

Dukkah, Herb & Cheese Monkey Bread by All That’s Left Are The Crumbs

Ham, Carrot & Beer Bundtlettes by I Love Bundt Cakes

Mexican Breakfast Bundt by A Day in the Life on the Farm

Mini Meatloaf Bundts and Sliders by Magnolia Days

Rosemary, Olive Oil & Polenta Bundt by The Cinnamon Scrolls

Sausage & Apple Cornbread Bundt Cake with a White Gravy Drizzle by The Freshman Cook

Savory Zucchini Cheesecake by Food Lust People Love

Southern Honey Drenched Jalapeño Cornbread by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice

Stromboli Bundt Cake by Palatable Pastime

BBQ-Ranch Pork Pizza

~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

Do you remember that Carolina BBQ Pulled Pork we enjoyed during the not-so-enjoyable Super Bowl? (It’s okay, Cam, I still heart you.) And do you remember how I said we had a LOT of pork? Seriously, we ate pork for a full week. As much as I love pork, we needed a good break from it after that.

One of the leftover ideas I had was to make pizza. Seriously, this pizza might be my favorite pizza I’ve made at home. I used a store bought crust to make life a little easier but made my own sauce using the Carolina BBQ as a base. It was fun!

An Original Recipe

BBQ-Ranch Pork Pizza

 Ingredients:

  • 3/8 C Carolina BBQ sauce
  • 1/8 C buttermilk ranch dressing
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tsp molasses
  • 1 (11 oz) refrigerated pizza crust
  • 1 C Carolina pulled pork
  • 8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1 tbsp diced red onion
  • 1 tsp fresh parsley (I used Gourmet Garden lightly dried herbs)
  • 1 scallion, green parts only

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place pizza dough on a baking sheet.
  2. Make sauce: In a small bowl whisk together BBQ sauce, ranch, tomato paste, and molasses.
  3. Spread sauce on pizza dough, leaving a 1″ crust. Top with cheese, pork, onion, and parsley.
  4. Bake 10 minutes. Allow pizza to cool 5 minutes. Garnish with chopped scallions.

BBQ-Ranch Pork Pizza Sew You Think You Can Cook

SRC: Stromboli

~ lk529 ~ 26 Comments

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 It’s Secret Recipe Club Reveal Day! In the Secret Recipe Club, each participating blogger is assigned a blog from another participating blogger and secretly searches their site for something to recreate. The accompanying blog post then goes live on reveal day! So while I was immersed in my assigned blog, someone else was picking through mine! I’m so excited to be part of this group, to see what on my blog peaks other’s interests and to stumble upon new blogs and new recipes.

This month I had the ultimate pleasure of being assigned Fantastical Sharing of Recipes. Fantastical Sharing is written by none other than the leader of the Secret Recipe Club, Sarah! Sarah is a busy mom of 3 who manage to find the time to not only keep up with her extensive blog, but to also keep all of the SRC members in line. I don’t know where she finds the time! I do know from her Instagram account that she is a list maker and planner organizer. She has inspired me to purchase washi tape and beautify my Erin Condren planner, too!

I struggled finding something to make from Sarah’s blog, not because there wasn’t anything that interested me, but because 90% of her recipes are the types of foods we eat in my house! A lot of things I already have recipes for on my blog. But when I spotted her Stromboli I knew I had to make it! My husband and I are avid Cutthroat Kitchen watchers and earlier last season there was a stromboli challenge, my husband didn’t know what stromboli was so I explained that it’s essentially a rolled pizza, and that I’d been wanting to try making one. Checking this item off my culinary bucket list is why I didn’t pick her homemade ranch dressing mix, chocolate chip cookie dough overnight oatmeal, mozzarella sticks, or even Butterbeer! (If you know me but at all you know how hard that last one was to pass up.)

The stromboli was exactly what I was imagining it’d be. I took a little help from the grocery store and used a store-bought refrigerated dough, conveniently already in the shape of a rectangle. I also swapped the ham for deli-sliced pepperoni (not the small pizza sized pepperoni). I ran out of Parmesan cheese the night before so sprinkled the top of the stromboli with kosher salt instead.

We demolished the stromboli watching Auburn football – a perfect game day meal or appetizer!

Stromboli

Ingredients:

  • 1 pizza crust (store bought or homemade)
  • 1/3 C marinara sauce (store bought or homemade), plus more for serving
  • shredded mozzarella cheese
  • hard salami
  • deli pepperoni
  • 1 egg, beaten (egg wash)
  • dried parsley

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
  2. Roll pizza dough into a rectangle, approximately 10×16″.
  3. Spread marinara sauce on the bottom two thirds of the dough.
  4. Top the sauce with shredded cheese, deli meats, and another layer of shredded cheese.
  5. Brush the uncovered portion of the dough with the egg wash. Fold the edges of the dough and brush with egg wash.
  6. Roll from the bottom up, like a jelly roll or roulade. Place seam-side down on a baking sheet. Brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle with kosher salt and parsley flakes.
  7. Bake 10-20 minutes, until dough is fully cooked. (The cook time will vary based on your dough recipe.) If the stromboli starts to burn, tent with aluminum foil. Allow stromboli to rest 5 minutes before slicing. Serve with additional marinara sauce if desired.

*This recipe is adapted from Sarah at http://www.fantasticalsharing.com/2013/08/stromboli.html*

Stromboli for Secret Recipe Club from Sew You Think You Can Cook

To see the other bloggers who participated in the Secret Recipe Club this month click here:

Roasted Garlic Spinach Pizza with Chicken

~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

I love pizza, of almost any variety. Red sauce, barbecue, white sauce, or buffalo are all good in my book. There are a couple of fun pizza places near us that do highly creative flavors using bean spreads in lieu of sauce, too. Still delicious!

The pizza I’m sharing with you today is a white sauce based pizza topped with spinach and chicken. Feel free to omit the chicken for a deliciously satisfying vegetarian option.

The ricotta mixture that creates the white sauce is flavored with freshly roasted garlic and has a little touch of sweetness from honey. If you’re feeding this to an under-one-year-old then feel free to substitute agave, sugar, or even omit it entirely. This mixture would be heavenly as a ravioli filling or even as an extra flavor booster to lasagna. Seriously, yum!IMG_5279 (2)

I was surprised that my then almost 13 month old scarfed down this pizza. If I put it in front of him today I don’t think it’d be met with the same enthusiasm. Apparently almost 15 months yields a picky-eating, food-refusal stage?

Roasted Garlic Spinach Pizza with Chicken

Ingredients:

  • 1 head garlic
  • olive oil
  • 1 pizza crust (I used a refrigerated whole wheat crust)
  • 1 C ricotta cheese
  • 2 tbsp fresh basil (I used Gourmet Garden stir-in basil paste)
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 box (9 oz) frozen spinach, thawed and drained
  • 1 chicken breast, cooked and chopped
  • 2 C shredded mozzarella cheese

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Cut off the top of the head of garlic, drizzle with olive oil and salt, wrap in foil and roast 30-40 minutes until tender and golden. Let cool.
  3. Mash the cooled garlic cloves and stir into the ricotta, basil, honey, and oregano. Season to taste with S+P.
  4. Follow the directions on the pizza dough (prebake if necessary); top pizza crust with ricotta mixture, spinach, chicken, and mozzarella. Bake according to package directions (for me, 17 minutes at 400degF).

*This recipe is adapted from Kare at http://www.kitchentreaty.com/roasted-garlic-spinach-white-pizza-with-optional-chicken/*

Roasted Garlic Spinach Pizza | Sew You Think You Can Cook

#WaffleWeek2015: Hummus Waffles with Sausage and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

~ lk529 ~ 18 Comments

#WaffleWeek2015 Hosted by Kim @ Feed Me, Seymour

Waffles are in my top five favorite foods, so when I found out there was a blogging event completely surrounding waffles I just had to join in! Thank you to Kim of Feed Me, Seymour for allowing me to barge in!

I have six different waffle recipes on this blog, all of which appeal to the first meal of the day (not that that stops us from having waffles for dinner once a month!). I thought it would be fun to take this festive occasion to share a waffle intended for dinner (or lunch).

These hummus waffles are studded with Italian sausage, sun-dried tomatoes, and fresh basil. I was tempted to rename these waffles “pizza waffles” because that’s exactly what the flavor profile reminded us of! I did feel that that title would be slightly misleading as there isn’t any cheese in these waffles. I do think adding in some shredded mozzarella would be welcome to really take the pizza concept to the next level – and provide marinara for dipping!

I wasn’t really sure how to eat these waffles, but we still topped this savory creation with maple syrup (no butter, though). We loved the savory sweet combination, so give it a try!

IMG_5329 (2)I was skeptical on how my son would handle these waffles. He, like his mother, loves all breakfast foods, but I wasn’t sure if the texture of the add-ins would throw him off. The answer was not even a little bit! He ate an entire waffle on his own.

Hummus Waffles with Sausage and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Ingredients:

  • 1 C flour
  • 1 C white whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1 C milk
  • 1/2 C hummus
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 sausage link, casings removed and fully cooked
  • 1/4 C chopped sun-dried tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil (I used Gourmet Garden lightly dried basil)

Steps:

  1. Preheat waffle iron and spray with cooking spray.
  2. In a large bowl whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk in the eggs and milk. Add in the hummus and olive oil, mixing until combined (it will be thick). Fold in the cooked sausage, sun-dried tomatoes, and basil.
  3. Drop 1/3 – 1/2 C of waffle batter onto the prepared waffle iron and cook until golden.

*This recipe is modified from Gina at http://www.runningtothekitchen.com/savory-hummus-waffles/*

Hummus Waffles with Sausage and Sun-Dried Tomatoes for #WaffleWeek2015 from Sew You Think You Can Cook

And keep that waffle iron hot for these other great recipes:

Appet-affles

Breakf-affles

Waffl-ides

Dessert Dish-affles

SRC: Candied Tomato Pizza

~ lk529 ~ 43 Comments

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Today is another Secret Recipe Club Reveal Day! In the secret recipe club, each participating blogger is assigned a blog from another participating blogger and secretly searches their site for something to recreate. The accompanying blog post then goes live on reveal day! So while I was immersed in my assigned blog, someone else was picking through mine! I’m so excited to be part of this group, to see what on my blog peaks other’s interests and to stumble upon new blogs and new recipes.

This month I was assigned Jaime’s blog Mom’s Test Kitchen. I know it sounds silly, but my favorite thing about her blog is her tagline “What the Fork’s for Dinner.” Her About Me section is very well written and makes me laugh in all the right places. Particularly the part about the unexpected arrival of Princess P. Being pregnant, it’s fun to feel connected to Jaime as she shares her loving frustrations with pregnancy. (But sorry, Jaime, I actually LOVE being pregnant! But it probably helps that I still have yet to be touched by complete strangers – 9 weeks to go!) After becoming a stay-at-home-mom, Jaime started her blog as a way to keep organized and reawaken her adult self. Since then her “corner of the blog world” has boomed into the very impressive blog that she currently runs; Jaime participates in multiple Link Parties and features guest posts!

Pregnancy cravings have had me wanting to run to the nearest Dunkin (thankfully that’s 20 miles away and the efficiency-lover in me prevails) so I am very impressed that I didn’t recreate her Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins for this blog post (there’s still a good possibility I’ll end up making them). Due to Lent no-meat Fridays I was drawn to this Easy Vegetable Pot Pie, but it turned out that I don’t think I ever ended up cooking on Fridays – strange. But then a recent post on April 3rd sealed the deal: Candied Tomato Margherita Pizza.

I made this pizza after church on Easter Sunday (so her Empty Tomb Buns were a big contender too; but I’ll save them for when my future child is old enough to understand). Because I made this on Easter Sunday, a day when grocery stores were closed, my shopping fail in forgetting to buy fresh basil couldn’t be remedied. So naturally, I substituted bacon.

I used my pizza dough recipe and made 3 personal pizzas for Stuart and me to share. (The fourth ball of dough is now living in my freezer for another day.) The first I topped with the candied tomatoes and some crispy bacon. But it really was needed that something. That something was the basil I didn’t have. At least one of us had a head on our shoulders and Stuart suggested using the dried basil out of the spice cabinet. Perfect! Being the meat eater that he his, Stuart enjoyed the bonus bacon but I don’t feel it really added anything to the pizza so one of our 3 pizzas didn’t have any on it.

If you’ve never candied tomatoes – I hadn’t before this – I urge you to make some now. Put them on this pizza, put them in a sandwich, or eat them plain, I don’t care. But I do insist that you add tomatoes and brown sugar to your grocery list.

IMG_8523 IMG_8526

Candied Tomato Pizza

Ingredients:

  • 4 firm roma tomatoes, thickly sliced
  • 1/2 – 1 C brown sugar
  • 3 strips bacon, chopped (optional)
  • 1 pizza crust, store bought or homemade
  • 3-4 tbsp olive oil
  • Kosher salt
  • 1 – 2 C shredded mozzarella cheese
  • basil, dried or fresh
  • cornmeal

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Starting with 1/2 C of brown sugar, coat both sides of the tomatoes with sugar. Use more sugar if needed. Place tomatoes in a single layer on the baking sheet.
  3. Bake for 30 minutes. Flip the tomatoes and bake another 15 minutes.
  4. Place pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees F (or follow instructions for your particular dough).
  5. Roll pizza dough out and place on pizza peal (or rimless cookie sheet) that has been sprinkled with cornmeal. Brush entire crust with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, top with cheese, basil, candied tomatoes, and bacon.
  6. Bake for 9 minutes (or follow instructions for your particular dough).

*This recipe is adapted from Jaime at http://momstestkitchen.com/2014/04/candied-margherita-pizza.html*

Candied Tomato Pizza

To see the other bloggers who participated in the Secret Recipe Club this month click here: