Saturday Night Pizza Bar Party!

There is something fun about pizza. Everyone loves it, especially when they make their own. Make some dough, (or use prepared dough), put some toppings out and have a blast. I use Ina Garten's pizza dough recipe from her Parties cookbook and make it half whole wheat. It uses honey and olive oil, you can probably find her recipe online.

Toppings are endless, use what you like. Tonight's fixings for our party included baby spinach sauteed in a little olive oil and garlic, sauteed baby Bella mushrooms, thinly slice pepperoni, marinara sauce, shredded smoked mozzarella, buffalo mozzarella, parmaseano reggiano, and ricotta mixed with a little salt and pepper.

Divide dough into 4" balls and roll (or press) into a circle, about 5-7". We like them thin so ours were 7" diameter. Spread a little cornmeal on sheet pans (or use a pizza stone). Preheat oven to 460 degrees. When oven is ready, top each pizza as desired and bake for 15 minutes. We made 2 pizzas on each pan and baked 4 at a time. Oh, if I only had double ovens!

Let each pizza sit for 5 min before cutting into quarters.

How fun was that?

Please vote for me!

I am one of five finalists in the Williams Sonoma Contest for Easy Weeknight Meals contest. If you go to the site below, you can vote for me and my recipe (Lentil Sausage Stew) featured on my blog.  I have never won any cooking contests so this is very exciting for me!

You can vote more than once, voting until Jan 31st. Thank YOU!! ~Holly B.

http://apps.facebook.com/social-promotions/1001954426?entryviewer=true

Cowboy Spaghetti Topper

In our twentysomething days my husband and I frequented a place called The Spaghetti House. What a concept- ten kinds of sauce offered over ten kinds of pasta (or something like that). The sauces included Cowboy Sauce (artichokes, black and green olives and salami), Fruits de Mer, (shrimp, calamari and crab), Napolitan, (parmesean and romano), Aioli, and so on.

I don't know why they called my favorite sauce Cowboy, all I know is it was good and I have been thinking about that place lately. This is my tribute to their cowboy sauce, minus the salami, which I didn't have tonight.

Oh, and I decided to top off the pasta in sauce and not mix it in. That way everyone could take their pasta plain or with the topping.

Cowboy Pasta Topper

ingredients

1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 1lb dry pasta, I used the shape pictures, similar to cavatelli
1 red onion, chopped
1 jar artichokes, drained and chopped
1/1 cup black Italian olives, sliced
1/2 cup large green olives, sliced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chichi beans (chickpeas) drained
generous amount of grated parmesean cheese (I use the large shreds)

Boil pasta water, add generous amount of salt and cook according to directions for al dente pasta. Warm sauce in low. Then, saute the red onion, chichi beans, olives in the olive oil for 5 min. Drain pasta and top with sauce. Pour topping over and top with the shredded parmesean.

Friday Night Pilaf with Garlic/Lemon Shrimp and Broccoli

You know how it is- it's Friday night and you just can't look at another pizza. This dish will be ready quickly, I promise.

Ingredients
1 box Near East Rice Pilaf
1 lb shrimp, cooked
3 cloves garlic, minced
handful basil, chopped
1/2 lemon, juice and zest
 bunch broccoli, ends trimmed and rinsed
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
Handful toasted almonds

Fill large pot with water, add salt, bring to boil and add broccoli. Cook until fork tender and drain. Cook pilaf as directed and keep covered when done. In skillet, heat olive oil and butter and add garlic. Saute for 2 min. Add shrimp and toss to heat. Add drained broccoli and mix. Take off heat and add lemon juice, zest and basil, stir. Add pilaf to a big bowl and top with shrimp/broccoli. Add toasted almonds on top.

Crock Pot Meditteranean Pot Roast

Another Snow Day and my crock pot is getting a work out. Tonight's dinner is already cooking and I have time to play in the snow. This pot roast can be made with or without potatoes, if you prefer noodles or rice, just leave the potatoes out.

ingredients

1 chuck roast, 3-4 lbs
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into thick slices
1/2 large white onion, sliced thin
2 cloves of garlic, minced
5 carrots, peeled and cut on the diagonal
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 small can fire roasted tomatoes with juice
8 mushrooms, cut into quarters
1 sprig rosemary, chopped finely
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
few dashes hot sauce (I used Cholupa)
1/2 lemon, juiced
flour, for dredging
6 kalamata olives, pitted and sliced

Rinse roast and dredge in flour. Brown roast for 2 min each side in 1 tbsp olive oil, add onions, garlic and celery and saute for 2 min. Place in crock pot roast, then tomatoes, hot sauce, olives, oregano, parsley and mushrooms. Cook on high for 5 hours, add potatoes and carrots, stir and cook another hour until roast is tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Squeeze lemon juice into pot and continue cooking 1/2 hour.