Food Friday - Veggies, Please!

from Tracey G.

This week the snow is finally starting to melt and I'm starting to want more fair weather foods - or at least things that remind me that summer and lovely weather isn't too far away! This salad is one of my favorites and it's so super simple it ought to be a crime! Not even sure anymore where I found the original recipe, but I do know that I have added and subtracted here and there to suit my taste. It's like a super quick refrigerator pickle in way, but very lightly pickled so that it's still a salad and not an actual pickle! Whenever I make anything with Buffalo Sauce (like my favorite chicken cutlets), this salad goes on the side, it tempers the spicy heat nicely!

I use English cucumbers because I love the little to no seed aspect, and you don't need to peel them, thus saving time. Not to mention, just a quick rinse is all that's needed, since they are usually individually wrapped in the grocery. 

This salad also comes together super quick, another thing I absolutely love about it, plus you could add things if you like - green or any kind of onion sliced thin would be nice, I think. Simple and yummy - what else could you ask for?

Cucumber Salad

(about 4-5 servings)

4 cups thinly sliced, quartered cucumber

2  tsp minced fresh parsley or 1 tsp dried parsley

Dressing:

1/4-1/2 cup sugar (depends on your taste, I use 1/2 usually)

4 tbsp water

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

4 tbsp lime juice

1/2 tsp salt

Combine dressing ingredients in serving bowl, whisk well until sugar is dissolved. Add cucumbers and parsley, toss to coat. Let stand for awhile or serve immediately. Serve with a slotted spoon. 

from Kris B.

Pizza  is often one of those dinner suggestions made at the end of a long day or week and it usually involves a phone call to the local pizza delivery shop, not a trip to the kitchen.  As much as I like someone else to do the cooking on such evenings, homemade pizza is so much better than that which is commercially made.  The problem with wanting homemade pizza at the last minute is the crust.  There is no getting around the fact that making pizza crust takes time.

The truth is that the recipe that I am sharing this week isn't really about the pizza crust, but about the toppings. Though if you are interested, I use the recipe from Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois's book Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day.  If, like me, you are a bread lover, their method is a great way to enjoy homemade bread every day without spending a great deal of time every day in its preparation.  If pizza dough making is not your thing, just buy a pre-made crust at the grocery store.  It will work just fine.  Like I said, this is about the toppings.

In addition to bread, I do like vegetables.  I just don't care for the mixture of veggies that are offered on commercially made veggie pizzas, especially olives.  There are lots of foods that I "don't care for," but will eat and there are a very few that I just can't eat under any circumstances.  Olives, black or green, fall into the latter group  By the time you remove the olives and then the mushrooms, which fall into the don't care for category but will eat in a pinch, most veggie pizzas are then left with only peppers and onions.  Those two alone don't really constitute a "veggie" pizza.  It is my quirky pizza veggie preferences that led me to experiment with other vegetables as pizza toppings.

This combination is one of my favorites - traditional white pizza with shaved asparagus.  Because my pizza stone is rectangular, so are my pizzas, more or less.  Lol! They usually end up being about 12'x14'.

INGREDIENTS
Pizza crust of your choice
Olive oil

For the white pizza sauce:
   2 cups ricotta cheese
   2-3 cloves garlic, minced
   1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
    salt and pepper to taste

Toppings
   red onion, thinly sliced (about half of a medium onion)
   shaved asparagus (8 stalks give or take)
   mozzarella cheese
   red pepper flakes, optional

Slice the onion.  For the shaved asparagus, wash and then trim the ends.  Using a vegetable peeler, "peel" the asparagus just like you would a carrot.  Peel from all sides of the stalk.

Heat oven to 500 degrees.  If you have a pizza stone, heat it in the oven as well.  If not, you can bake your pizza on a sheet pan.  Once your dough is ready to go, place it on an appropriately sized pan or a pizza peel generously covered with corn meal.  (This helps it to slide from the peel onto the oven stone.)  Brush the dough with a thin layer of olive oil.

Mix together the ricotta cheese, minced garlic, Parmesan cheese, and salt an pepper to create the white sauce.  Spread this evenly over your dough leaving about an inch of dough exposed around the edges.

Top the white sauce with a layer of mozzarella cheese then the asparagus, onions, and ref pepper flakes.  Finish with another layer of the mozzarella cheese.

Bake until the cheese is melted and is a bubbly golden brown.  Baking time will vary with ovens and the type of crust you use.

Make this your own pizza!  Amounts of all ingredients can most certainly be adjusted for personal preferences.  Add the mushrooms and olives if they make you happy!  Yes, we all need food to nourish our bodies, but what we eat and those with whom we eat our meals should also make us happy!  Take time to enjoy your food.