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The Loooonng Overdue Bride vs. Groom Pizza Challenge

 

Last month my fiancee and I had our pizza cook off, and today I have finally gotten around to posting about it. Epic fail, I know, but work and graduate school have eaten into my free time of late. Instead of walking through our strategies, I thought I would give some helpful tips to making pizza at home.

 

In case you were keeping score, the groom got his revenge and won with a prosciutto, peppers, and garlic pie.

 

 

 

 

The (Un)Official Rules to Homemade Pizza 





1. Buy a pizza stone. It is worth the cost. Cooking the pizza becomes much simpler and moving the pizza in and out of the oven is no longer a challenge.

 

 

2. Heat the  pizza stone in a 450 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes before you put your pizzas in.

 

3. Use small batches of dough. Each individual pie should only be 1/4 pound of dough. Any more and you'll get a chewy pizza not a crispy one. Roll the dough out thin and evenly to ensure you get the best crust possible.

4. Don't add too much sauce. You want the sauce to just about cover the the dough, not drown it. Just like with too much dough, too much sauce will give you a soggy instead of crispy pizza.

 

5. Mozzarella is not a requirement. Not every pizza needs to have a small village's annual cheese intake on every slice. My favorite pizza in NYC, at L&B Spumoni Garden, isn't even topped with mozzarella.

 

6. Let the pizza cook. You can tell by the crust when it is done. The crust should be a golden brown.

 

7. Enjoy it. If you are making more than one, enjoy the first one out before starting on the next otherwise you'll be more concerned about the one in the oven than the one in your plate.  My fiancee's veggie pie was great ... just not as good as mine. :)



Brussels Sprouts: A Sign of Growing Older

Brussels sprouts. I never heard of anyone who liked them as a kid. But as an adult, I love them and have my friends that love them as well. Just like when your frame of reference harks back to another millenium or when someone mentions a Total Recall or Judge Dredd you think of Arnold and Stallone instead of Colin Farrell and Karl Urban. Who can not think of Arnold and Stallone, to be fair! But right on cue, our frame of reference shifts and one day we wake up and like brussels sprouts. And why not? Healthy and loaded with flavor they are fantastic.

Most recipes call for the roasted brussels sprouts but after have the out of this world brussels sprouts bruschetta at Eataly's La Verdure, I decided to cook a warm brussels sprouts salad with sunflower seeds and roasted red tomatoes. Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 2):

12 brussels sprouts

1 small yellow onion

2 tbsp parmesan cheese

1 tbsp unsalted sunflower seeds

6 roasted grape tomatoes

1/2 lemon juiced

2 tbsp olive oil

sea salt & black pepper

1.  Halve the tomatoes and remove the seeds. Add to tin foil and season with salt. Roast for 30 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

2.  Trim the stem off your brussels srpouts and finely slice. Roughly chop the onion. Set aside.

3.  Heat a pan to medium heat and add a tsp of olive oil and the sunflower seeds. Cook for three to five minutes until browned. Remove from heat and leave pan over flame.

4.  Add to a mixing bowl and season with salt and pepper. Top with olive oil and mix thoroughly.

5. Add to hot pan and sautee for five minutes.

6. Remove from heat and add back to mixing bowl. Add the sunflower seeds, parmesan cheese, and lemon juice. Mix thoroughly.

7. Add to plate and top with roasted tomatoes. Serve. 

 



TRL Salad: Tomato, Ricotta, Lemon

For a great weeknight side that will go with virtual any meal, don't look beyond a simple tomato and ricotta salad. Fresh tomatoes, creamy ricotta cheese, and tangy lemon will liven up a Tuesday chicken dinner. Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 2):

3 cups medley tomatoes

2/3 cup ricotta cheese

1/4 red onion

1 tbsp. parsley

1/2 lemon juiced and zested
1 tsp. olive oil

sea salt and black pepper

1. Halve the tomatoes, slice the red onion, and zest the parsley. Bring the ricotta to room temperature.

2. Add the ricotta, tomatoes, red onion, parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, and olive oil to a mixing bowl and season with salt and pepper.

3. Mix thoroughly and serve.

A Lamb Recipe from Food & Wine

This recipe turned out fantastic. I made it earlier in the fall when my future mother-in-law came to town. It was simple to make and came out great. When I went shopping for ingredients, lamb rib chops were actually on sale for less than lamb shoulder. As lamb chops are much more tender, I did not let them stew in the sauce for as long as you would a tougher cut like shoulder. I added the sauce to the chops with about 10 minutes to go so the chops would not turn to mush in the pan. I sliced some premade polenta and grilled it with olive oil and sea salt.

Take a look at the full recipe here.