Tag Archives: pizza

Cookbook Cook Through – Week 6

Just finished the second recipe from this week’s cookbook cook through challenge of Everyday Paleo and Oh. EM. GEE!

This week, I made Apple Shallot Pork Chops and Breakfast Paleo Pizza.

The pork chops were good. There’s something about pork and apples, right?

I will admit I’m not a big fan of cinnamon and meat. But I did follow the recipe instructions on this one mostly because of the apples. It was good but not sure I’d make it again with the cinnamon.

The Paleo Breakfast Pizza was to die for! OMG! So good.

David helped me make this one. It would have taken a lot longer if he hadn’t. Doing the prep chopping took the most time. If I had to make it alone, I’d have all that done ahead of time. But it was fun to cook with him.

As he started putting the sausage on the eggs, it seemed like a lot. I looked at the other ingredients and told him I think we need cheese.

Okay, cheese is a gray area in the paleo world but we like it. We don’t eat it often and when we do, we enjoy every single bite. This recipe wouldn’t have been as good without it, in my opinion. Did I mention it was DE-LISH? Yum! We’ll definitely have this one again.

For next week, we’re going to try Rockin’ Moraccan Chicken and Sausage Stuffed Dates. 🙂

Making Pizza

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We now get to have the glambaby with us on Fridays since she’s been going to school on Wednesdays and Thursdays in the new year.

It’s always so much fun to have her here. We’re both amazed at how long she’ll sit and color or do crafty type things. She really likes them.

Since we had such a good outing when we baked cookies the first time, I thought we’d have her help make lunch today and start learning the family pizza recipe. I got the dough all ready so we just had to spread it out on the pizza stone. She wasn’t too keen on helping me spread the oil on the stone or sprinkle the cornmeal. But when I brought out the little pizza dough roller she was ready to play.

She did a great job helping to spread the tomato paste.

Then she gave the base a good dousing of Italian seasoning.

I’m not sure she liked the feel of the cheese. She sprinkled a little bit on but each of the two times she touched it, she inspected her hand after the cheese was out of it. Then we opened pineapple which she promptly started to eat. She put no pineapple on the pizza. I did that. Then I added sausage.

It looked and tasted great. And it was so much fun.

We’ve been holding off on buying furniture for the house since we moved in because we have some renovations we want to do first. Well, today I decided that I don’t ever want to buy furniture. It’s way too much fun to run, chase, hide, bounce balls, and generally act like we’re on the playground. Which is what we do the rest of the time she’s here. 🙂

They go together

Beer and pizza go together like rama lama lama ke ding a de dinga a dong. And just because you are in a tropical location doesn’t change that fact.

I’m going to put it all out here and say that my favorite restaurant in Suva, Fiji is The Bad Dog Cafe.

The food is great, service friendly and it won’t break the bank. This was the first place we went to eat on this trip. We’ll undoubtedly make many more visits before we head home.

In addition to water, Fiji produces beer. It’s pretty good, quite drinkable and goes great with the fabu pizzas at the Bad Dog.

This is a Campagnola pizza that we ordered on our second visit. It’s loaded with chicken, onions, black olives and fresh basil. Our first visit we ordered the Mexicali which has the usual suspects adorning it including my absolute favorite – cilantro! 🙂

Each pizza comes with a little dish of sauce in the middle of it. I have no idea what it is but it is AMAZING. It’s sweet and tart and although it’s cool in temperature, it has a latent heat that makes you need and extra beer when you are done. I love it.

The pizzas are not huge, maybe 10 inches, but they are the perfect size to leave you very satisfied and not overly full. We save overly full for the many Indian restaurants here.

We give four thumbs up to the Bad Dog Cafe. Can’t wait to visit again!

Pizza! Pizza!

I can’t remember when the tradition in our family of having pizza every Friday night began. I was gifted with The Joy of Cooking at my bridal shower (that I didn’t attend but that’s another post) and I sort of laughed because cooking wasn’t something I thought I would ever do.

After we had been married a couple of years, we re-enlisted to go to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Once we arrived we soon realized that going out for dinner several times a week wasn’t an option. There was one restaurant we could go to, Blue Caribe, but it was run by the Navy and the menu very much resembled the food we could get for free in the chow hall. The one difference is that it was brought to us by waiters as opposed to being collected on the tray as we passed through the line.

I learned how to cook.

I found the pizza dough recipe that we have used ever since in the Joy of Cooking and over the years, all of us has made the dough at one time or another. When the boys were in school and we were all busy, the first person home on Friday would be responsible for making the dough. This recipe is EASY and delicious and we are all pros at pizza dough making. We’ve changed this recipe a little over time and here it is:

PIZZA DOUGH

Two 12-inch crusts (or one fat one, our choice)

Combine in a large bowl or the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 package (2 1⁄4 teaspoons) active dry yeast

Heat:
1 1⁄3 cups warm (105° to 115°F) water – we do this in the microwave for 1 min 20 secs.

Add:
2 tablespoons olive oil

Knead for 8 minutes by hand or with the dough hook on low to medium speed until the dough is smooth and elastic. Transfer the dough to a bowl lightly coated with olive oil and turn it once to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean cloth and let rise in a warm place (75° to 85°F) until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1⁄2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease 1 large pizza stone and dust with cornmeal (Do this! The cornmeal totally adds to the end result).

Press the dough onto the prepared pizza stone.

Prepare the desired toppings. We usually take an 8 oz can of tomato sauce and spread it on the dough. Sprinkle with garlic powder, oregano and basil, top with cheese and your choice of toppings. David and I love Canadian Bacon and black olives. NOM!

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Enjoy!