Grilled Pizza Friday

When I was at my parent's house last weekend SP experimented with grilled pizza. He said it went so well we decided to try it this weekend for Pizza Friday. We kept it simple with a basic mozzarella, tomato and basil pizza.


Since grilled pizza (especially on a charcoal grill) is a quick process, I got all the ingredients together before we started cooking:


I wanted slices of fresh tomato on my pizza and we used basil from the garden and fresh, milky mozzarella. I also made a quick tomato sauce using two jars of tomatoes my mom and I canned last summer. I also divided the dough into four pieces and rolled them out nice and thin.


We started by grilling the dough until it was partially cooked and starting to char, then removed each piece to a plate so we could build the pizzas:


I spread a thin layer of sauce over each piece of dough, then scattered some basil leaves and pieces of fresh mozzarella:


On one pizza I put the slices of tomato:


... and then we put the pizzas back on the grill and covered it to melt the cheese and finish cooking the dough.


Our grill is on the small side so we could only cook one pizza at a time. By the time the last pizza was cooked I'd run out of daylight to photograph with.


We loved the grilled flavor of the pizza. It's a totally different flavor then regular pizza.

Chicken Marsala

As you might have noticed by now SP loves mushrooms, so it's not surprising that one of his favorite meals is Chicken Marsala. He's been having a tough time lately so I wanted to make a nice meal for him. We had all the ingredients on hand and I was able to pick up some fresh green beans at the farmers market this afternoon.


It isn't often that I'm so enamored by a dish while it's still in the pan that I take a photo of it, but this just looked so gorgeous:


And it looked just as gorgeous on the plate, with that luscious sauce coating the chicken:


I knew this was going to be a tasty meal, but we were both blown away by the wonderful flavors. I always know a meal is a winner when SP keeps talking about it as we're cleaning up. Even now he keeps turning to me and saying how good it was.

Chicken Marsala
America's Test Kitchen

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup flour
salt and pepper
2 tablespoon oil
2 ½ oz. (about 3 slices) pancetta, cut into 1 by 1/8 in. pieces (I used bacon)
8 oz. white mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 ½ cups Marsala (I used equal parts sherry and madeira)
1 ½ tablespoon lemon juice
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Pat the chicken breasts dry. Place flour in a shallow baking dish or pie plate. Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper. Coat both side of each piece of chicken with flour. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Place the floured chicken in a single layer in the skillet and cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to a plate and return the skillet to low heat and add the pancetta. Sauté, stirring occasionally and scraping the pan bottom with a wooden spoon to loosen the browned bits, until the pancetta is browned and crisp, about 4 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer the pancetta to paper towels to drain.

Add the mushrooms to the pan and increase the heat to medium-high. Sauté, stirring occasionally and scraping pan bottom, until the mushrooms begin to brown, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic, tomato paste, and cooked pancetta and cook, stirring constantly, until the tomato paste begins to brown. Off the heat, add the Marsala.

Return the pan to high heat and simmer vigorously, scraping browned bits from the pan bottom, until the sauce is slightly syrupy and reduced, about 5 minutes. Off the heat, add the lemon juice. Whisk in the butter, one tablespoon at a time, until incorporated. Stir in the parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the chicken back to the pan and coat with the sauce.

South of the Border Casserole

I had most of the ingredients on hand for the South of the Border Casserole so it seemed like a good choice for Wednesday's dinner.


Unfortunately I think I just wasn't in the mood for it. For starters it took forever for the pasta to cook. I chose my new favorite pasta shape, cavatappi, since I had half a box open already and I kept having to reset my kitchen timer because every time I tested it for doneness it was still too al dente. The flavors were good, but this is more of a cool weather dish and it was in the 90s yesterday.

A Pioneer Woman Dinner

On Tuesday I decided to make two recipes I've had my eye on for awhile: Crispy Yogurt Chicken and Crash Hot Potatoes. Since we've been loving zucchini lately, I steamed some with a little garlic to round out the meal:


This was a great meal, but there were a few problems. For starters, I didn't read the recipes ahead of time so I was a little shocked when I saw that each needed to cook for about an hour. Not ideal for a weeknight meal. I used regular russet potatoes for the Crash Hot Potatoes and it worked just fine. Look at that gorgeous crispiness:


I used a combo of herbs from my garden, including rosemary, chives, thyme and parsley on the potatoes. They were fantastic and I love when the skin is crispy enough for me to actually eat.

As for the chicken, the flavor was great but it wasn't crispy at all:


... which is kind of a problem considering the name of the dish is Crispy Yogurt Chicken. In all fairness, I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts, so maybe this is something that requires whole chicken pieces, skin and all. I think the next time I make this I'll marinate the chicken in the yogurt mixture overnight because as the recipe stands now there wasn't enough flavor from the yogurt mixture.

All in all a great meal, but definitely something I'll reserve for a weekend.

Burger Bar and Onion Rings

When I made the Chicken Cobb Burger I got a comment from Dan recommending making small burgers so you can experiment with different toppings. The idea stuck with me and when we were trying to think of something for dinner tonight a Burger Bar sounded like a great idea.


We thought onion rings would be a good compliment to the burgers and we'd recently seen an episode of ATK where they made oven-fried onion rings. The recipe was pretty straight-forward and once I got everything together took hardly any time at all. Here are the rings ready to be put in the oven:


The toppings for the burger bar:


... including (from the top going clockwise) Swiss cheese, cooked mushrooms, American cheese, blue cheese, caramelized onions, sliced jalapenos, jalapeno cheese and bacon. The onion rings cooked for about 15 minutes in the oven and got nice and crispy and golden-brown:


We cooked the burgers on the grill with a nice, hot fire so they got a good sear. After topping them with the cheese to melt, I put on the rest of the toppings inside.


We had four different kinds of burgers, including my take on the Spicy Baconator from Wendy's with jalapeno cheese, sliced fresh jalapenos and slices of crispy bacon:



... blue cheese and caramelized onions:


... mushroom and Swiss:


... and a good, old-fashioned American cheeseburger:


Of the four kinds I tried a cheeseburger, adding a little mayo and ketchup:


... and one of the knockoff Spicy Baconators:


The burgers were amazingly good. I loved the different toppings and it was a lot of fun to try different flavor combinations. Unfortunately the onion rings got a tad cold while I took my photos. Next time I'll leave them in the oven until we're just about to eat so they're nice and crispy and hot.

Oven-Fried Onion Rings
ATK

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 large egg , at room temperature
1/2 cup buttermilk , at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Table salt and ground black pepper
30 Saltine crackers
4 cups kettle-cooked potato chips , crumbled into smaller pieces
2 large yellow onions , cut evenly into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
6 tablespoons vegetable oil

1. Adjust oven racks to lower-middle and upper-middle positions and heat oven to 450 degrees. Place 1/4 cup flour in shallow baking dish. Beat egg and buttermilk together in medium bowl. Whisk remaining 1/4 cup flour, cayenne, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper into buttermilk mixture. Pulse saltines and chips together in food processor until finely ground and place in separate shallow baking dish.

2. Pull apart the rings in each round, discarding any that are less than 2 inches in diameter. Working one at a time, dredge each onion ring in flour, shaking off excess. Dip in buttermilk mixture, allowing excess to drip back into bowl, then drop into crumb coating, turning ring to coat evenly. Transfer to large plate and repeat with remaining onion rings.

3. Pour 3 tablespoons oil onto each of two rimmed baking sheets. Place in oven and heat until just smoking, about 8 minutes. Carefully tilt heated sheets to coat evenly with oil, then arrange onion rings on sheets. Bake, flipping onion rings over and switching and rotating position of baking sheets halfway through baking, until golden brown on both sides, about 15 minutes. Transfer onion rings to plates lined with paper towels to drain briefly. Serve immediately.

MAKE AHEAD
Oven-Fried Onion Rings can be breaded in advance and refrigerated for up to an hour. Let them sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking; if baked straight from the fridge, the onions will not soften properly and will remain crunchy.

Sun Kitty

It's a beautiful, sunny day today and our cat is taking full advantage:


I love when he hides behind the curtain in the dining room:


He always keeps an eye on me, though. Can you see his little eyes watching me?

Pancakes

Today is Labor Day so we have the day off from work. SP and I slept in and then I made us some pancakes for breakfast before we went to the supermarket:


As usual, I had chocolate chip pancakes.

Sunday Dinner

On Sunday SP came over to my parent's house and we all had dinner. In keeping with our usual theme we had a smorgasbord of food, including a corn salad using the leftover corn from the night before:


... mixed with tomato, basil, lime juice, oil, salt and pepper. We also had sliced tomatoes and cucumber:


... along with more beet salad:


My stepdad has asked for potato wedges he could dip in ketchup, so I sliced a few baking potatoes into wedges, microwaved them so they'd soften a bit and finished them in a cast iron pan:


They didn't get as crispy as I would have liked, but they were still good. My stepdad also grilled some BBQ chicken, summer sausage and fresh pork roll:


... and we had tamales from the local farmer's market:


My plate:


... starting at the top and going clockwise - potato wedges and ketchup, beet salad, sliced tomato, BBQ chicken, a queso tamale and corn salad in the center. It was a delicious meal made even better by dessert:


We loved the peaches so much the last time that we had them again, tossed with orange juice and brown sugar, cooked in a pan with a little butter until the juice and sugar formed a syrup and served hot over vanilla ice cream. Fantastic!

Sunday Lunch (and more canning)

After a long day of canning I made myself a sandwich of ham, cheddar cheese, sliced tomato and mayo on toasted ciabatta bread:


It really hit the spot. Three trays of tomatoes later, we ended up with another 34 jars of tomatoes:


After setting aside 12 for my grandmother, that left 11 jars each for my mom and me. Overall a very productive weekend.

Sunday Breakfast

On Sunday my mom made breakfast:


I had two fried eggs, some potatoes and onion and rolled deli ham, along with a few slices of tomato:


I couldn't resist taking a photo of my parent's cat. She's very shy and rarely comes out of hiding, so seeing her perched on my mother's lap as she tried to read the comics was a hoot:


Just like our cat, she fights literacy every chance she gets.

Dinner at my Parent's

I spent Saturday and Sunday at my parent's house again so my mom and I could can more tomatoes. On Saturday night we started our dinner with shrimp in anchovy butter served with a slice of toasted ciabatta bread for sopping up all the yummy butter:


We also had a new favorite, beet, goat cheese and arugula salad:


... as well as some corn on the cob:


My stepdad grilled some mini burgers:


My plate:


... with half an ear of corn, a mini burger, some sliced tomato and beet salad.

Chinese Take Out

I've had a sore throat since last week and by Friday I was worn out. I came home early and slept for a few hours, so SP decided take out Chinese was the way to go for dinner. I got roast pork egg foo yung and chicken with broccoli:


... in addition to the wonton soup we shared:


SP wanted to try their Szechuan dumplings:


... which turned out to be steamed dumplings in a spicy peanut sauce. They were amazing, like the kind of sauce you wish all cold sesame noodles could have, just spicy enough to be interesting but with a rich peanut flavor. Definitely something we'll be ordering again.

Grilled Mexican Chicken and Stuffed Poblanos

When SP grilled the chicken for dinner on Wednesday he also grilled up some chicken for dinner on Thursday. I rubbed it with a Mexican spice rub I got during another gift exchange and we had it with stuffed poblanos:


Sometimes I have an idea that seems great in my mind, but doesn't work out so well in practice. I bought some poblano peppers at the farmer's market with the intention of making Spanish rice and stuffing the rice inside the pepper, topping the peppers with cheese and baking them for a Mexican version of stuffed peppers. The only problem was that I didn't realize I needed to cook the peppers before stuffing them, so they were pretty raw and crunchy. The sour cream and guacamole went a long way to cooling down our mouths from the spiciness, but the next day the peppers were pretty much inedible. At least the rice was good.

I also failed to take into account how spicy the peppers were when I was processing them. I removed the ribs and seeds with my bare hands, not really thinking it through, and after we ate I noticed the backs of my hands were on fire, kind of like what this guy is dealing with. I think when I washed my hands I redistributed the oil from the peppers to the backs of my hands since my palms and fingers were fine. Taking out my contacts was interesting (as was putting them back in the next morning) and no amount of soaking my hands in milk or baking soda water helped. Fortunately we had some aloe lotion that I slathered on my hands before I went to bed. It allowed me to sleep, thankfully, but I won't be making that mistake again.

Grilled Chicken, Orzo and Grilled Zucchini

On Wednesday SP grilled up some chicken for dinner:


... that we had along with grilled zucchini (a current favorite) and some orzo. I had some tomatoes from my garden that needed to be used, so I diced them and mixed them with some balsamic vinegar, chopped basil, salt and pepper. SP said he prefers the cheesy orzo to this version, but it was still decent. My only problem is the hot orzo caused the skin on the tomatoes to separate from the flesh. I hate that more then anything. I don't like loose skin on peppers or tomatoes. It always gets caught in my throat and I have to remove all of it from whatever I'm eating or I can't enjoy the meal.