Food Friday - Grab and Go

from Kris B.

My head is still wrapped around easy lunches and, if necessary on a busy evening, quick dinners.  I have always loved the idea of the commercial Hot Pockets and Lean Pockets, but tend to steer away from packaged foods.  It is the "hot" part of these sandwiches that appeals to me.me.  Though I do love my PB&Js, a hot sandwich seems more like "real" food.  I know.  I'm a little weird in my thinking.  Now that we have established that...

I am sharing here a process rather than an actual recipe.  This is my solution to a hot sandwich as well as na good choice when I can't decide what I actually want to eat.  These pizza pockets are a little bit sandwich, a little bit pizza, a little bit cheese and crackers, a little bit calzone, and a lot of tasty goodness!

Start with pizza dough.  I make my own dough using the recipe from Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes A Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.  Their process allows you to make the pizza dough and store it in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, using only as much as you need each time.  I can make one pizza a roll or I can make a dozen or more.  The dough is there for the using.  But, any pizza dough recipe will work.  Or, if you prefer, you can even use canned or frozen dough if you are really trying to keep things simple.  Roll the dough to 1/4" thick.  You will need a 4x4 square of dough for each pizza pocket.

Choose you filling.  For me, this is my favorite pizza toppings - Canadian bacon, spinach, bell pepper, and onion.  Anything you like will work.  Layer your toppings on the dough square leaving about an inch of dough all the way around.

Then place a mozzarella cheese stick in the center.  Carefully roll the dough around the cheese stick sealing the seam and both ends.  Place the pizza rolls on an uncreased cookie sheet.  Brush each one with melted butter.  Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top and, if desired, add a little garlic salt to the tops as well.

Bake at 400 degrees for 22 minutes.  **If you are using commercial pizza dough, your cooking time may differ.  Follow the manufacturers instructions.

Serve with pizza sauce for dipping.

These can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days or frozen and reheated as needed.  They are best if reheated in the oven or toaster oven, but in a pinch, the microwave will do.



from Tracey G

I am forever it seems looking for snack-type items that are fun and that Harry would like - especially for after school. There's that time between getting home from school and getting dinner on the table that I hear the never-ending, "but I'm starving!" from Harry. Lately he's been on a total corn dog kick, I have to keep them in the freezer constantly it seems. He absolutely loves them, so when I spotted this recipe on the Wilton site, I was intrigued! It's a little snack version of a corn dog! And looked super simple to make - which was better yet!

Well, let me say they did come together super easy, a total snap to make. It said that it made 4 dozen, and I got four dozen, plus some batter left over so I made a pan of just mini plain corn muffins. Now I should say here, that I, do not care for corn dogs. I like hot dogs and corn bread, but not put together - never have. BUT, I really liked these little things! Harry, on the other hand, was not too impressed. And the only reason for that is, because they aren't the commercial, deep-fried dogs on a stick. Heaven forbid we like homemade better! But, I like them quite a bit and Jeremy did too - they're even good cold out of the fridge in my opinion! But then again, I can eat just about anything cold out of the fridge, a proclivity I'm sure I inherited from my father - he was the same way, didn't matter what it was, it was good right out of the fridge, no need to reheat! LOL!!

I did tweak the recipe a bit by adding in an extra tablespoon of sugar, the batter just wasn't the right sweetness to my taste (yes, I had to taste the batter, raw eggs be darned!), so instead of 2 tablespoons, I used 3. And I made sure I used good all-beef hot dogs too, my personal favorites these days, the Nathan's Bun Length Hot Dogs - I think that those really added to the yum factor for me as well!! The recipe does include a dipping sauce that sounds really yummy, but I didn't make it because I knew it wasn't something that would appeal to Harry, but I know I'd like it!

As I said, I found this recipe on the Wilton site, so it can be found here:  Mini Corn Dog Bites

And here's the recipe, as written!

Mini Corn Dog Bites

Courtesy of Wilton.com

Makes 48 mini muffins (4 dozen)

1 package (15 ounces) all-beef bun-length hot dogs

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (melted and cooled slightly)

1 cup milk

1/4 cup sour cream (additional 2/3 cup for dipping sauce)

2 Eggs

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons honey

1) Preheat oven to 375°F. Prepare Mega Mini Muffin Pan with vegetable pan spray.

2) Cut each hot dog into 6 pieces.

3) In large bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. In medium bowl, whisk together melted butter, milk, sour cream and eggs. Stir butter mixture into flour mixture until just combined. Divide batter evenly among prepared pan cavities, filling each about half full. Place one hot dog piece in the center of each cavity.

4) Bake 14-16 minutes or until muffins are golden brown around edges. Cool in pan on cooling grid 5 minutes. Remove from pan.

6) In small bowl, stir together sour cream, mustard and honey. Serve alongside warm Mini Corn Dog Bites.

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.