Artisan pizza with peppers and onions

Hello there -
I think I've found myself a new habit i'd like to work on: making artisan pizzas every week. I tried to figure out what "artisan" means in the context of pizza making, and I'm pretty sure it just means that there wasn't a "delivery charge" associated with it. So congratulations, if you have ever made a home-made pizza, you are a culinary artisan!
On a more practical note - this is a cheap (mine took less than $4 for the entire pizza), fun, and healthy way to have your favorite pie.
This particular recipe has SWEET notes from the caramelized onions and the roast red peppers. I added some Irish whiskey cheddar that I had left over to it, and that added a nice punch of flavor. But it's really up to you which cheese you want to stick with, just not American. ; )

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup luke warm water
1 package yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 1/2 cup bread flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 cup cheese (I used 1/2 cup mozarella, 1/2 cup irish whiskey cheddar)
2 onions - chopped and carmelized
1 red pepper
tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste

1. preheat oven to 450 (oh it's hot hot hot!)
2. in a large bowl, mix together your water, yeast and sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes, or until foamy on top.
3. Add in to your yeast mixture the flour, oil and salt. Knead with your hands until the flour is evenly distributed. Let sit 5 minutes.
4. In the mean time, caramelize your onions, chop your peppers, and shred your cheese.
5. After a 5 minute break, roll out your dough until all areas are about 1/2 inch thick. You can then pinch the perimeter of the dough to add a thickness to the crust.
6. Spread on the sauce, then toppings, then cheese
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes,or until the pizza has reached your desired amount of crunchy wonderful-ness.

White Chocolate Gingerbread Blondies

Oh hello Christmas, you snuck up on me this time around! Time for some festive foods. I adapted this recipe from Tracey, where you can find the recipe. The only change I made was that I didn't use cloves (only because I forgot to purchase some...) and I used 12 oz of white chocolate chips instead of 10 oz. Who doesn't like a little extra chocolate? Hmm?

Enjoy!

Independence day delights

It has been a whopping 3 months since the last post - gasp! No excuses, just a lack of creativity in my cooking. However, with today being a holiday I decided to go all out. This 4th of July's foods are brought to you by none other than my favorite Martha. Both of these recipes were taken from Martha's website, and (per usual) they didn't fail me!

First we have some barbecued baby back ribs. These were fall of the bone amazing. Enough said. You can find the recipe HERE

For dessert, Noah darling requested strawberry shortcake, but while perusing the interwebs, I discovered THIS fabulous recipe. I like strawberries better than raspberries, so I replaced the raspberry ingredients (ie fresh raspberries, jam) with it's straw counterparts. The fun part was making homemade whip cream! It was very easy, just whipping some heavy cream and a little sugar. The result was a much creamier, less sugary version of the store bought whip cream. For the pound cake, I just chose an original pound cake recipe out of my handy dandy BH&G Cookbook.

Overall this was a fabulous summery meal, celebrating Independence Day! What did you all eat today, anything good?

ENJOY

Summer Salad Duo

Oh, hello there 70 degrees and sunny! Warm weather means away with the soups and in with the salads. I've never been too fond of chicken salads, as I'm not a mayonnaise aficionado. So, here I've created a creamy, satisfying chicken salad for those relaxing summer lunches (hopefully you can have at least one of those in the next few months) without all the mayonnaise. I've paired it with a vinegar tomato and cucumber salad. I love the creaminess of the chicken salad and the punchy bite of the other. Both of these are light on fat, but heavy on satisfaction.

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

Mayonnaise-free Chicken Salad (makes 4 servings)
16 oz poached chicken breasts, cooled and diced
1/2 cut plain yogurt (you can use Greek if you're feeling adventurous)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 diced sweet onion
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp tobasco (gives it a punch!)
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

While cooking your chicken, mix together the remaining ingredients. When the chicken is cooled, dice and toss with the yogurt mixture.

Tomato and Cucumber Vinegar Salad
2 vine tomatoes
1 cucumber
1/4 cup salad vinegar (if you have other vinegars on hand, feel free to try it out)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tbsp lemon juice

Dice the tomatoes and cucumber. In a bowl, mix the remaining ingredients until the sugar and salt granules have disintegrated. Toss over cucumber and tomatoes and let marinate in the fridge for 1/2 hour.

Reese's Cup-cakes

So, I cheated. I used boxed cake. Do you judge me? It's ok, you'll get over it when you taste one of these. My one suggestion would be to use the no-sugar peanut butter for the frosting. I sadly didn't have any available, and the icing was a little too sweet for me, but I'll know for next time!

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:
for the cake -
1 boxed mix (gasp!) of devils food cake
3 lg eggs
1 1/3 cup veg oil
1 cup water
1/4 cup peanut butter

1. Pre-heat to 350
2. Prepare ingredients as directed, per the boxed instructions, and add in the peanut butter. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean

for the fun stuff -

3/4 cup butter (1.5 sticks)
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 Reese's Cups, cut into fourths

Mix together the butter, sugar, and peanut butter until smooth. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and add the reeses cups on top as decorum. Eat and repeat.