Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I have to admit, I am not a huge fan of Valentine's Day.  To me, it's just a Hallmark holiday that makes single people feel bad.  While I haven't been "single" in 5 1/2 years, I still feel pressure about Valentine's Day.

This year, we didn't make plans.  At the last minute, Scott tried to make dinner reservations, but because of the required social convention of going out to dinner on Valentine's Day, the only time we could eat would be at either 5 or 9, neither of which was interesting to either of us.  So we quickly changed the plans and decided to have dinner at home.  

I made a very (stress very) simple dinner of Margherita Pizza, White Pizza, and Molten Lava Chocolate Cake.  Scott brought an amazing bottle of our favorite wine (Chianti Ruffino).  The pizza was delicious, and the Chocolate Lava Cake didn't have much Lava, but we thoroughly enjoyed our Valentine's Night in!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!  <3 <3 <3

Broccoli Pizza

I remember a long time ago, going with my Nonni and Pop to the Friday night Procession at St. Mary's in Cranston, followed by hanging out at their friends house, Mary and Pete.  That night, Pete's brother, Archie, had made a potato pizza and broccoli pizza.  It always stuck with me how much I loved the broccoli pizza.  And even though it's probably been about 20 years since that night, I've never made the broccoli pizza.  But always thought about it.

It was a very culinary-filled weekend for me, with the visit of my sister's mother in law, and making the lasagna.  On Sunday, my friend Connie came to my mom's house for a Mary Kay party.  She not only led the party, but also helped my sister design a look for her wedding!  I brought spinach pie and broccoli pizza.  The spinach pie will have to be blogged another time.  Today is all about Broccoli Pizza.

Here's what I did:

1) Spread the dough in the pan

       I used a cookie sheet and spread 1 1/2 lbs of dough into a greased pan (NOTE:  It's very important to use Crisco when greasing the pan, as oil will cause the dough to keep springing back.  Crisco will always keep the dough in place).  Another Note - cold dough spreads A LOT easier than room-temperature dough.

2) Cheese

       Normally, when I make pizza, I put the tomato (or broccoli) on first, and then the cheese on top.  For some reason, I decided to try it differently this time:  And it was a HUGE success.  I had a block of Supreme Brand mozzarella cheese in the fridge.  I grated it with a box grater and probably used about half.  Spread it all over the dough.

3) Broccoli Mixture

     I semi-defrosted 2 packages of Blue Bird brand chopped broccoli in the microwave.  While that was whirring, I sauteed about half a medium onion in some olive oil.  Add in the broccoli, salt (not too much because of the cheese, etc), pepper, and 2 cloves of pressed garlic.  Mix it up until the broccoli is warmed through (taste it to make sure it is seasoned well).  Spread all over the dough/cheese.

3) Grated Cheese

       I sprinkled some Peccorino Romano cheese on top of the pizza

4) Bake it, Baby!

       25 -30 minutes at 425* - make sure the bottom is browned, but not burnt!  

Make sure you let the pizza cool a bit before you start cutting it.  Now here's the key:  Because the cheese was on the bottom, it didn't burn when I baked the pizza.  It also served as the glue between the dough and the broccoli.  Normally, the cheese on TOP will keep the broccoli together, but it will all flop off the dough.  NOT this time!

Wahoo!!

MMMMM broccoli pizza!

Pizzaaaaaaaaaa!

We've been trying to get together with my brother Michael and his girlfriend Heather for weeks now.  Heather's birthday was in January, and Michael's in the beginning of February.  We haven't been able to get together with them because of all of our schedules.  In any case, they finally had a quiet Friday and came over tonight for dinner (we finally got to give them their birthday gifts and have some cake!)


Being the first Friday of Lent, I made a meat-free dinner consisting of Spaghetti Aglia Olio (Spaghetti with garlic and oil) with Broccoli, Spinach Pie and Pizza.  I have to admit, it was pretty good - my whole condo smells like garlic (but that's really not a bad thing, is it?).  The spinach pie was mostly bread with a little bit of spinach in it (I realized I only had 1 package of spinach and really should have used two), but the pizza was awesome and so was the spaghetti (which is so easy to make - brown 4-5 cloves of garlic and red hot pepper flakes in olive oil, add in as much or as little broccoli/cauliflower as you want, let it simmer for 15-20 minutes, covered.  Save a few cups of the boiling liquid and add into the garlic/oil/broccoli mixture with spaghetti.  Add more liquid if needed.  Serve with grated cheese!).


Here are a few pictures of the pizza process for your viewing pleasure!


The Process of the Pizza

About a pound and a half of pizza dough, spread into the baking pan (which was previoulsy greased with crisco - if you try to grease with oil, the dough will shrink - crisco helps it stay in place).  Let it sit for a while if you can before you fix it.

I use a full 28-ounce can of Pastene Peeled and Crushed Tomatoes spread onto the uncooked dough...You can use less if you don't like a lot of sauce...

The crucial pizza ingredients - salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano and crushed red pepper (and grated cheese, which isn't shown here!)

Don't forget to drizzle some Olive Oil over the pizza before putting it into the oven!

Ready for 25-30 minutes at 425* - at the end, shredded Mozzarella added to the top will be delicious, just stick it back in for a few more minutes to melt the cheese.

Pizza, anyone?

On my way home tonight, I had to stop at Citizen's Bank to make a deposit for my Condo Association.  Luckily for me, there is a Citizen's located in the Stop and Shop on Rte 44 in Raynham right near where I work.  I decided while I was in there that I was going to make pizza for dinner tonight.  We don't eat meat on Friday's during Lent, so pizza sounded like a great idea!

I decided while I was aimlessly walking around the market that I was going to make a traditional red pizza, but I was also going to try to make a Ricotta Cheese and Caramelized Onion pizza (I had this a few times from Bertucci's and it's just delicious).

My shopping receipt consisted of the following:
1 28-oz can of Pastene Pealed and Crushed Tomatoes (my family is obsessed with Pastene, so it's all I buy)
2 1-lb bags of Calisi Pizza Dough (I'm partial to making my own dough, but on a Friday afternoon, I'm all for store-bought dough)
1 16-oz container of Part Skim Ricotta Cheese
1 Almond Joy egg (deliciousness for the ride home!)

When I got home, I decided that instead of spreading the dough out in a cookie sheet like I usually do, I was going to use the pizza stone.  Now, when I moved into my condo, the previous owner left behind her pizza stone.  It had never been used, and I really didn't know how to use it but one of my employees at work explained to me what to do (heat it up first, then bake, etc). 

So I first decided that I would caramelize the onions so they could cool before putting them on the dough and I could fix the other pizza while I was waiting.  While they were cooking/cooling, I made the pizza sauce on the stove top, rather than just putting the sauce on the dough and all the seasonings on top.  I remember my dad's Auntie Mary doing this when I was young.  I always thought it was such a novel thing, since I had only ever seen my mom layer everything on the dough.  I have to admit, it was pretty delicious.

As for the second pizza, it was really tasty, I wasn't as happy about it as I was the red pizza.  I think buying part skim ricotta cheese was the first problem.  If I try to make this again, I think I'll go with the whole milk cheese.  Also, I only had about 2/3 of a massive onion, and after it was caramelized, I just don't think it was enough.  I'll have to play with it a bit next time.

With both pizzas, the dough got super thin in the middle.  So thin, that it actually was a bit soggy.  I'll definitely have to work on that.  I think even when they make pizza on TV, they keep the center thicker than the outsides.....I was thinking about that while I was spreading out the dough, but something between my brain and my hands got a little lost.  :o)

Here are a few pictures of the deliciousness!  With a glass of wine, dinner was pretty tasty tonight!