Pizza! With Spinach, Caramelized Onion and Bacon

I do heart pizza.  It doesn't even have to be gourmet, and I'll probably love it.  But, I do appreciate the fancy stuff too.  This particular pizza is one I would categorize as fancy.  The toppings include spinach, caramelized onion, and bacon.  I think I made it because I had a ton of spinach to use, and pizza just made sense. 

In this instance, I used a regular pizza sauce, but the recipe actually calls for a garlic cream sauce.  On another occasion I made the white sauce version, and honestly, whatever floats your boat is what you should use. 

Hope you enjoy!

Spinach, Caramelized, and Bacon Pizza
found on myrecipes.com

Ingredients

• Pizza dough

Topping:

• 4 bacon slices, chopped
• 1 (10-ounce) package fresh spinach (I used baby spinach)
• 2 cups (1/4-inch-thick) sliced onion 
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup 2% reduced-fat milk (I used whole milk)
• 1 tablespoon cornmeal (did not use cornmeal, used flour instead)
• 1 cup (4 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. To prepare topping, cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving 2 teaspoons drippings. Set bacon aside. Add spinach to drippings in pan; sauté 2 minutes or until wilted. Place spinach in a colander, pressing until barely moist. Add onion and 2 teaspoons sugar to pan; cook 12 minutes or until golden brown, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; cool.
2. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add 3 tablespoons flour and pepper, stirring with a whisk; cook 30 seconds. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly with a whisk. Cook 5 minutes or until thick and bubbly, stirring constantly with a whisk.
3. Preheat oven to 475º.  If you are using store-bought dough, follow the directions on the package.
4. Roll dough into a 12-inch circle on a floured surface. Place dough on a (12-inch) pizza pan or baking sheet coated with cooking spray and sprinkled with cornmeal. Crimp edges of dough with fingers to form a rim. Spread milk mixture evenly over dough; top with spinach and onion.
5. Bake at 475° for 20 minutes. Sprinkle evenly with bacon and cheese; bake an additional 5 minutes or until golden brown.

Spicy Margarita

 Apparently it's hip to add a little kick to your margarita.  After trying different versions at some local bars, I said I would make one at home.  So, I got out my favorite margarita recipe and added peppers.  The bad thing is that this recipe makes one drink at a time, and squeezing the limes is way more labor intensive than I would like.  That being said, the work is pretty worth it.


Spicy Margarita
adapted from Food Network Kitchens' Margarita recipe

Ingredients 

• Ice cubes
• 3 oz. tequila 
• 2 oz. freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 oz. simple syrup (see below for recipe)
• 1/2 to 1 t orange liqueur
• 1/2 Serrano pepper or 1 jalapeno pepper
• 1 T kosher salt

Directions 
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.  Slice pepper (do not de-seed or de-vein if you want it spicy) and muddle.  Add pepper, tequila, lime juice, orange liqueur, and simple syrup to shaker.  Cover and shake until mixed and chilled, about 30 seconds.  Place kosher salt on a plate.  Press the rim of a chilled glass into the salt to rim the edge.  Strain margarita into the glass.


Simple Syrup 

• 1 C sugar
• 1 C water

Put the sugar and water in a small saucepan.  Cook over low heat, stirring until the sugar dissovles.  Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to one month. Yields about 1 1/2 cups.

USC Blanket: Stacked and Layered

One of my favorite babies just turned one-year old recently, and so I made him a USC blanket.  The pattern comes from Super Simple Quilts #3 by Alex Anderson and Liz Aneloski.  It is called "Stacked and Layered" (hence the post title). 

Their pattern says to use five different fabrics for the top, but I went with four because I wanted USC to be the primary theme  

Putting together the quilt top was very easy and very quick.  Once everything was basted together, I quilted by hand...geez there are times I wish I would just pay someone to machine quilt for me.  But, that's okay, this time I did not have time to send this out to someone else.

Table Runners Turned Seat Covers

Does this look like a seat cover to you?  It doesn't to me, but that's what my sister uses it for in her car.  The monkey fabric is actually that waterproof stuff that you can find at craft stores.  It's a bit difficult to work with, and I found that I needed to put the regular material on the bottom while stitching with the sewing machine.  I machine quilted this time, instead of hand-quilting.  It's easy-peasy, so why did I take for-ev-er?

Um...yeah...no excuse for the tardiness.  Sorry Min.  Hope your Rav and you like the new "seat covers."

What a Bunch of Kale

My cooking experience with kale is pretty much non-existent.  So what was I to do with a bunch of kale that the B bought at the Farmer's Market but failed to use?  Luckily, the Food Network had a recipe for braised kale with toasted almonds.  It called for one bunch of kale, and the rest of the ingredients, I pretty much had on hand.  Other than stemming the kale, which is kind of slow, this is an easy recipe, and even better, it was yummy!  Plus I felt like I was being pretty healthy cooking up a bunch of kale, even if I used a lot of butter.


Braised Kale with Toasted Almonds
from the Food Network

• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 1 tablespoon butter*
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 cup minced onions
• 1 bunch kale, stemmed and sliced thin
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon*
• 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper

In a large saute pan over low heat, toast almonds for 3 to 4 minutes until lightly browned (the will brown more throughout cooking so don't worry if they aren't all that brown). Add butter and allow to brown. Add garlic and onions. Cook for 3 minutes until slightly caramelized. Add kale and toss lightly. Add broth, bouillon and pepper. Cook kale for 5 to 6 minutes until tender and liquid has evaporated. 

*One tablespoon of butter didn't seem like enough, so I added more; probably about two more tablespoons (yikes, I know).  I used chicken base because I didn't have bouillon, and I cut it down to 1/2 teaspoon of the base.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting (again)

These are some rich cupcakes.  They are a bit much for me, so I don't usually eat them; I just bake them for others.  Although, now that I think about it, I bet they go really well with a strong cup of black coffee. 


The cupcake recipe makes two dozen cupcakes, while the frosting makes about three cups.  I always forget that it's not quite enough frosting to do just one batch!  Or maybe I'm just heavy-handed with the frosting?  I can't help it,  it's good stuff!

Enjoy the recipe, it's an easy one, and I think the frosting is the best part!

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes 
from America's Test Kitchen

16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream

•  Microwave the butter, chocolate, and cocoa powder together, whisking often, until melted and smooth, about one to three minutes.  Let cool until just warm to the touch.
• Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line two muffin pans with cupcake liners.  Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl.
• Whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a large bowl.  Slowly whisk the sugar until combined.  Whisk in the chocolate mixture.
• Sift 1/3 of the flour mixture over the batter, then whisk.  Whisk in the sour cream.  Sift the remaining flour mixture over the batter and whisk completely.  The batter will be thick!
• fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full.  Bake about 18 to 22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs attached.  Rotate the pans halfway through baking.
• Let the cupcakes cool in the pans for five minutes.  Remove from the pans and let cool completely before frosting.

Peanut Butter Frosting
from America's Test Kitchen

2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter (do not use old-fashioned or natural peanut butter)

Stir the cream, vanilla, and salt together until the salt dissolves.  Beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium-high until smooth, about 30 to 60 seconds.  Reduce the speed to medium-low, slowly add the confectioner's sugar and beat until smooth, about two to five minutes.  Beat in the cream mixture.  Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, about four to eight minutes.  Beat one cup creamy peanut butter and sugar mixture.

To Finish Cupcakes
Frost cupcakes.  Cut Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Miniatures in half and top frosted cupcakes.

Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells

In April I finally broiled something correctly, so I took a picture and posted it on Facebook.  The dish happened to be Real Simple's Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells recipe, and I guess it looked good because some of my friend's wanted the recipe.  I add prosciutto to mine because I am such the meatatarian, but this is supposed to be a vegetarian dish.  Of course this means I always have way too much stuffing leftover, but I just make a bigger dish and have more cheesy-prosciutto goodness.

My only caution to anyone making this is to be careful with the broiler.  Usually I am so scared to burn things I don't get the nice browning effect, but this time I just kept watching through the oven door.  Plus, this oven can broil on different temperatures (I don't think all ovens do this, but I'm not sure), so I had it on a lower temperature.
 

Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells
adapted from Real Simple 

20 jumbo pasta shells 
1 24-ounce jar marinara sauce
2 15-ounce containers ricotta
2 cups baby spinach, chopped
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Kosher salt
Black pepper
1 cup grated mozzarella
4 ounces prosciutto (optional)

• Set an oven rack to the highest position and heat oven to 400 degrees.
• Cook the pasta according to the package, drain and run under cold water.
• Spread the marinara sauce in the bottom of a large broilerproof baking dish.
• In a bowl, combine the ricotta, spinach, Parmesan, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper (and prosciutto if you're going my route).  Spoon the mixture into the shells and place them on top of the sauce.  Sprinkle with the mozzarella and bake until the shells are heated through, 10 to 12 minutes.
• Increase the heat to broil.  Broil the shells until the cheese begins to brown, 2 to 5 minutes.