Deep Dish Pizza Is YUMMY!

So, I was reading my favorite food blog, The Food In My Beard, when I came across a recipe for deep dish that supposedly was amazing. I couldn't help but be intrigued.  TFIMB got it from Macheesmo, which is where the actual recipe is. 
This recipe calls for a technique called "laminating" the dough, interesting and ended up with the best pizza dough I have ever had. It was soft, and not even close to being dense , and yummy layers within.  These are my pics of making the dough (as described in Macheesmo's directions).

 One of these is in my freezer, the other went into the fridge overnight.  Next day I rolled it out, pressed it into my Demarle and filled it up.  I put a cup of cheese on the bottom, then pepperoni, then half had sausage, and half had pepperoncini, roasted red peppers, and onions, then a cup of sauce, then another layer of cheese all around.  Below is a picture of the pre-baking pizza.

 Naturally, I forgot to take a picture when it was done cooking, but here is a picture of the last piece.  It was SO YUMMMMMY!!!!

Only thing I would do differently would be to make it without sauce, add some diced tomatoes instead. I loved loved loved it!
Hope you all try it out!

Leftovers Rock!

I love leftovers!  I love leftover pizza for breakfast the next morning (cold).  I love left over mashed potatoes, just add BBQ sauce and heat up for a fast easy breakfast, or lunch I suppose.  A little extra of any dinner makes a great next day lunch.  But occasionally I find I have only a little leftover of one piece of the dinner.  That is okay.  This is where soup, stoup come to play.
Just a little bit of leftover veggies?  Add them to a container in layers until you have enough to add to a soup, keep the container in the freezer.  You can also add the last little bit of broth in a can, or some leftover meat.  When you find soup making time, just through it in and add until it is just right.  My mom made some great soup growing up that was filling and yummy, and to be honest, cheap.  I made a little pot a few weeks ago with some potatoes that were growing on m counter.  I boiled the cubed potatoes, added ground turkey (I don't ever buy ground beef anymore), some badly freezer burned green beans, little tiny bit of corn (you know, the last bit of the package, leftover diced tomatoes, and a cube of chicken bullion.  This was so good, brought me back home to an easy fall Sunday dinner.
"Stoup", ever heard of it?  Rachel Ray describes stoups as "thicker than a soup but not quite a stew".  This is good if you have something chunky left over, large chopped onion, rough chopped tomatoes, or in my case some mango chutney.  I have been wanting to do something with this chutney, but haven't been quite sure what to do.  I had about a cup left.  Yesterday I cut up a chicken thigh, browned it in the pot, added the chutney and a half can of chicken broth, and let it simmer away.  I'm gonna gush again, the chutney is SO good.  This made a thick stoup that was flavorful and took 10 minutes.  If I was gonna do it again I might puree the chutney to make a creamier stoup, but it really didn't matter at all.
Easy, yummy, AND fast, gotta love it!

P.S. Gonna make some YUMMY deep dish pizza today and also will be posting my truffle making project tonight.

THE BEST MEAL I EVER COOKED (so far)

If I was someone else, and had made this for me, I would have fallen in love with me.  I am NOT kidding.  This was yummy, amazing, multi-faceted, in your face, subtle, sweet, spicy, warm, comforting, delicious food.  I made Indian spiced chicken with apple-mango chutney.  I was browsing my Betty Crocker IPod app (I love the recipes in this!), and found this recipe for Indian Spiced Chicken and Chutney.  I cut the recipe in half and threw together the marinade on Sunday night.  Of course, being Sunday and last minute, I made alterations to compensate for what I was missing.  First, I used plain Greek yogurt, next, no coriander (oh yeah, I forgot I was going to put it on my shopping list) I used turmeric, and I just omitted the cloves.  I was planning on making this Monday night, but I ended up changing plans and didn't make this til Tuesday.  I wonder if it was even more amazing because of the extra marinating time.  That yogurt sure makes the marinade.  I grilled this in my cast iron grill pan (which thanks to asking my Dad, instead of the internet, does not smoke and is now well seasoned).  The turmeric made the chicken a beautiful yellow (don't get it on your counters, it WILL stain).

You may note in the recipe it says to buy canned mango chutney.  I checked it out in the store, at least $5 for a smaller jar.  For about that much I can make my own and have the experience of making it!  Can I tell you how many recipes there are for mango chutney online?  I wasn't sure how to proceed?  So many recipes, so many spices I didn't have and was completely unfamiliar with!  I finally settled on a pretty basic one from Epicurious (on their app too).  I roughly halved this recipe.  I used two small apples, one large mango, half of everything else, some extra curry powder, dash of red pepper flakes and more cinnamon for the nutmeg.  Oh and regular raisins too.  The recipe directions are for canning the chutney.  I just simmered it covered for about 30 minutes, til it looked like a preserve.  It almost smells like Christmas while it is simmering away.  I thought it was a weird combo, wasn't even sure I would like it. 

Indian Spiced Chicken and Apple-Mango Chutney on Whole Wheat Noodles

I know I should have put it on rice, but I loved it on noodles.  The chicken was SO moist and flavorful.  The chutney was spicy and sweet at the same time.  The spicy didn't get hotter as you ate, it just... was.  Five minutes after eating it there was no spicy aftertaste.  I had the leftovers for lunch the next day, still awesome!
I have to say I was mightily impressed with myself.  I have some chutney in the fridge, it is sounding really good for lunch tomorrow. 
भारतीय भोजन स्वादिष्ट है

Crescent Puffs, One Recipe, Five Dishes

Buffalo Chicken Crescent Puffs

I know I haven't posted my food up here for a few weeks, but I'm back!
The inspiration for this appetizer dinner was a recipe found browsing on Pillsbury.com for Buffalo Chicken Crescent Puffs.  These delicious morsels are cream cheese, buffalo sauce, shredded chicken, and bleu cheese, stuffed in crescent dough, rolled in bread crumbs and baked.  Naturally I changed it a bit, didn't have any bleu cheese, so I used feta I had in the fridge, and did egg dip instead of butter.  These were so good!  Little crunch on the outside, perfectly spicy and creamy, only thing I would have changed would be more chicken, or bigger chunks.

So I got to thinking these would be a good delivery mode for a whole bunch of fillings.  Since it was conference weekend (yes, I know that was almost three weeks ago), I decided to have a crescent puff meal with "L".  I thought all of them turned out WONDERFUL!

Breakfast Puffs

For breakfast we did scrambled eggs, bacon, and cheese.  Rolled these in melted butter and baked til golden.

Chicken Ceasar Puffs

First lunch course was shredded (cooked) chicken, parmesan cheese, bacon, and ceasar dressing.  Rolled in butter and then parmesan cheese.  I think these would do better with a bread crumb coating for crunch.

Pizza Puffs

Second course, diced pepperoni and pizza cheese mix.  I think next time I will add a little sauce to the filling to round it out.  These got washed in butter and rolled in parm cheese too.

Apple Cinnamon Rounds

Finally, dessert!  Diced apple, brown sugar, and cinnamon made a great filling.  THen rolled in butter and cinnamon sugar.  We paired these with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  (Sticking up is my sugar art from the melted sugar on the silpat, which reminds me, if you are using a regular cookie sheet for any of these, line it with foil, they may leak a little.) 






We ran out of crescent dough before we could do the s'mores ones we had planned, fluff and a bit if chocolate inside and Nilla wafer crumbs outside... yummmm... I am looking forward to doing those soon!

Spicy Tomato Cream Sauce with Hot Sausage over Rigatoni (L's Idea)

My dear friend "L" came over tonight and we were trying to figure out what to make for dinner.  She mentioned she was craving something like the pasta she had last time we went to Callaway's, my favorite Italian place in Utah.  (I am picky about Italian food, probably my East coast upbringing, but I love their food.  A little pricey, but easy to share an entree or take some home for another meal.)  We had both tried new dishes, Gorgonzola sauce for me (YUM!), and spicy sausage for "L".  She was craving this creamy and spicy red sauce.  A few minutes on the internet brought up a recipe for us to modify to taste. (I even used their measurements for most of it!)
In a pan melt one tablespoon of butter, over medium heat add 1/4 cup of minced onion and 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (that little amount makes a big heat difference), cook for 5 minutes.  In the mean time start  1/2 pound of rigatoni and 1/2 pound of hot sausage cooking. (Obviously, the kind of sausage is easy changed to suit your tastes.) To the onions, add 1 1/2 to 2 cups of pasta sauce and 1/2 cup of petite diced tomatoes, drained, simmer for 7 to 10 minutes.  This time is dependent on how think you want your sauce, the longer you cook it the thicker it will be.  Add 1/3 cup of whipping cream and browned sausage, allow to boil for one minute. Ladle this creamy deliciousness over the pasta, makes 3 hearty portions, serve with cheesy garlic bread (which we bought from the store).
I loved this meal!  Definitely easy and fairly quick.  I am thinking that a combination of pasta sauce and Alfredo sauce would produce a similar creaminess with a cheesiness rather than spiciness. 
Thanks to "L" for bringing this wonderful meal to my menu!!!