Pizza on Ciabatta

I loved everything about this recipe when  I saw it. I stole this from How Sweet It Is, like a lot of the recipes I have tried. But it's the highest form of flattery I believe=)

This pizza was soo good and really easy. I love how flexible the recipe is. You can honestly do anything with it. It's nice that you can skip the dough step of pizza making. And it's definitely a step up from frozen pizza.

I can't wait to try this again, but I'm definitely going to expand on it. New flavors and maybe try a spin on buffalo chicken dip?? I have a major obsession with buffalo chicken dip and I really don't show it enough on this blog.

Pizza on Ciabatta
Idea from How Sweet It Is

Your choice of baguette type bread (I used ciabatta)
Pizza sauce
Shredded cheese
Toppings of your choice

Method: Preheat oven to 350. Slice baguettes in half, lay on baking sheet, and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes so bread can get crispy. Remove bread, add toppings, and place back in the oven for 10 minutes. Broil for 1 minute to get cheese brown and bubbly.

Cauliflower Pizza

In trying to keep with making more home cooked dinners, my mom and I bought a head of cauliflower and told ourselves we'd make something with it. A cauliflower casserole pie thing was planning, but then laziness set in. The usual. But, after it sat in our fridge for a week, I did some major cleaning out of our fridge and managed to come up with something pretty neat!


I had a ton of leftover dough from when I made pretzels. I didn't nearly use the whole batch and I didn't plan on making anymore, if you can remember. So I had some dough to pitch, or find some use for. Then, I had a whole head of cauliflower and a block of Swiss cheese. Ok, at this point you can see where my mind went. PIZZA. When I told my mom I was interested in making cauliflower pizza see thought it was wacky but was definitely willing to try. I believe I've heard of cauliflower pizza before so I didn't think it was too crazy. And, since we were planning to not have a red sauce, my dad would actually eat it! Yay!


The first step was to wash and roast the cauliflower. I just did a simple drizzle of EVOO and some salt and pepper over top. Maybe for 15 mins at 350? It could vary. Whenever it looks slightly roasted and not burnt, take it out. Then, I spread my dough in a round cake pan. I have been wanting to try pan pizzas for a long time now, so this was my attempt=) I then spread garlic over the dough and added my cauliflower to it. Add tomatoes and cheeses, and you're done! This was so easy and extremely delish.


The taste was great. It made it even more satisfying knowing I did it myself. I loved the pan pizza effect. Fluffy, but tasty and still enough of a cooked outside and middle. The cauliflower acted like the meat of the pizza. It was a real star. And I love tomatoes so I was glad they made an appearance. The Swiss cheese as well was an interesting piece and it definitely added some fun taste to the pizza. This recipe is definitely a keeper in my family!


Cauliflower Pan Pizza
by: Me!

(The amounts for these components can all really vary. Just be creative and use your own judgment. Don't like tomatoes? Leave them out! Want more cauliflower? Go for it! Just have fun with it!)

Cauliflower pieces
Garlic
Swiss cheese
Parmesan cheese
Diced tomatoes
Pizza dough (or leftover bagel dough hehe)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Press pizza dough into the bottom of a round pan. Spread some garlic over the dough. Sprinkle and lightly press in the cauliflower. Sprinkle diced tomatoes over the cauliflower layer. Add Swiss and Parmesan to the top to your liking.

Cook for 18 minutes, or whenever it looks ready! Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes and enjoy!

Pioneer Woman Pizza

I had first had this pizza at a family party at my aunt's house. I scarfed it down immediately and was in love. She told me all about her pioneer woman cookbook and that she used her recipe. So it inspired me to do it myself; make homemade pizza!

I wasn't able to work in the olive as well as I hoped, but it didn't matter in the end.

This honestly was the best homemade pizza dough ever! So so so so so so easy! I don't even have a stand mixer. All this was done by hand. I am so excited about this new recipe and will be using it all the day. It was a huge hit!

I am now a huge Pioneer Woman Fan! Anyone try her cinnamon roll recipe? It looks incredible, especially the glaze with the coffee!!!

Pioneer Woman Pizza Dough
From The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ingredients:
4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon yeast
1/3 cup olive oil

TO MAKE THE CRUST:

Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water.
In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (with paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined.

Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until you need it. ***It’s best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better.


For my toppings:
I had store bought pesto and smothered it all over. Maybe a little too much because it leaked over the sides, but amazingly the dough didn't get all soggy! Then slices of mozzarella cheese and tomato slices. DELISH! Also, I probably could have cooked it another minute or so, but it was still good!

Getting Personal and... Creamy Pizza Dip

I feel like this blog is slipping from me. Have I seemed less personal compared to how I started? Looking back at my first post and up to now, I've lost the stories and little insights into my life. I apologize. I think I got more concerned with throwing a recipe up to show I made something, than really personalizing and giving love into this blog. But I'm hoping to change, I swear.

That's a picture of me on my first day of school. I'm in 11th grade and since it was about 6 in the morning I wasn't too awake. I'm a member of the volleyball team at my school and the hours we keep are insane. 6 days a week commitments. Game days I may not get home until 10 o' clock at night. And Saturdays you get on a bus at 7 am for a tournament and get home by 6 pm. This doesn't leave much time for baking, or school work or anything else. But, I've managed to keep my blog thriving even during these hectic times. Volleyball will be ending soon and I'll have much more time on my hands. (And that means more time blogging hehe)

Also, I've been growing my hair out for quite along time. Truely, the first thing people will say to me is, "Wow! You've got really long hair." I know. I've only been growing it for like ever! And so I've been contemplating cutting it for the longest time. When I ask for other people's opinions I always get a huge gasp and, "No! You can't! It's so nice!" But honestly, It's so unmanageable. It gets really annoying as well. Then one day I took the leap and got 6 inches cut! This was a huge step for me. My hair was my safety blanket and with it gone I thought I would be lost. Well, it's cut and I love my new look. Not too short but still different. I hope I don't sound too conceded talking about my hair, but it's just been such a big part of me, literally. Okay, enough about hair. Here's some pictures of before I cut it, and then we can give it a rest. =o)



Unfortunately I don't have an after photo yet. But I'll get around to it someday...

Now for a recipe of sorts:

I don't have a picture for this dip and I'm not even sure if it's the best recipe possible, but i was hungry and used what I had. I added ingredients as I went, just throwing in what felt right. I'm sure you could add some seasonings or pepperoni or whatever you like.

4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4- 1/2 cup pizza sauce, or just to taste
shredded cheeses: cheddar, mozzarella, romano, provolone...

Simple, right? I choose to eat it with butter crackers and to me this was a comforting dish. My fam and I gobbled it up.

Also, more personal tid bits to come in future posts!!!

Pizza Cravings

So it's Friday night and you're craving pizza. What do you do? Well, normally, you would call on the local pizza place and end up spending way more money than you thought it was when you ordered it. Then, after paying an inflated price, you have an inflated stomach. Neither are really good feelings, yet people just love pizza.

Well it was one of those nights and I was faced with this same dilemma. But, straying from the norm, I decided to make it my self. I mean, hard can it be? I found an easy recipe, with picture and video to boot, and I had all the ingredients at home. Although it seemed slightly time consuming (duh, the dough does have to rise...), I went for it. I had the house to myself (the perfect baking environment) and went to work. Using a basic pizza dough recipe I went through the steps. They were simple and easy to follow, just what I needed for my first time.

Here's a play-by-play of how I did it.




If you're expecting the fluffy, grease ridden kind of crust from most pizza places, then you're not going to like this recipe. This was a thin crispy kind of crust which was surprisingly tasty. Having a thinner crust meant you could have more... You know, that way you're not just eating all this processed and bleached flour, which in ratio to the toppings is almost 2x as much. But my pizza was good. Especially the toppings!!

First up, we had a half "margherita", half spinach and feta. My sister doesn't like a lot or any cheese on her pizza, so I made her a side with just sauce. The spinach and feta side was of course of my choosing,which my mom and dad couldn't complain with.

Spinach & feta pizza topping:
1 t. olive oil
1 sm. onion, chopped
1 t. minced garlic
10 oz. pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
feta cheese, crumbled
*a lot of these measurements were just "eye-balled"

In small skillet, heat oil over medium high heat; add onion and cook 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, spinach; heat through. Spread pizza crust with tomato sauce. Top with spinach mixture. Sprinkle with crumbled feta. Bake 20 - 25 minutes until crust is browned.



I did have a better picture but it was taken side ways and I don't know how to flip it=(. Trust me, this tasted amazing! The spinach and feta was so unbelievably good, and by far the best pizza I've ever eaten in my life. Some of the feta crumbles got brown on top and were gooey goodness when you bit into them! I didn't have the margherita side, that was all reserved for my sister, but she liked it.

The second we had was a half three cheese and half white pizza. For the cheese one I just put shredded mozzarella, some more delicious feta, and some cheddar for color, basically what was in my fridge. For the white pizza, it was garlic and olive oil mixed then spread over the dough. Then chopped tomato, shredded mozzarella and feta were added over it.


(On the left is the white and the three cheese is on the right)
I really liked this picture. I can almost taste it all over again... The white was pretty good, but I'm a huge fan of sauce so it was just "meh." for me. The three cheese was definitely a great classic choice that everyone was pleased with.

I honestly didn't have to cook them very long at all. The first one was in for maybe 20 mins and the second was 15, but it could have been shorter.

Sometime I'd like to make a stuffed crust with cheese in it and maybe some garlic bread sticks, too. That store bought pizza sauce was darn good and would be a grat dipping sauce.