February 26, 2013

Spinach Artichoke Pizza

I love my cheesy artichoke dip and I love pizza. So I naturally wondered what would happened if I combined the two? HEAVEN.

I found a new pizza crust recipe too - one that I LOVE and the gives fabulous instructions (click here or you can follow mine below) and this pizza was AMAZING!
 


Pizza Dough: Will make 2
1/2 cup warm water
2¼ tsp. instant yeast - For those that buy the packets,vthis should be 1 packet
4 cups (22 oz.) bread flour, plus more for dusting - Yes, you must use bread flour. Yes, weigh it out.
1½ tsp. salt - I do 2 tsp salt
1¼ cup water, at room temperature
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Directions for Dough:


Measure 1/2 cup warm water into a 2 cup measuring cup. Add the yeast it and stir just a smidge.
In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, combine the bread flour and salt. Mix briefly to blend.
Measure the 1 1/4 water into the 1/2 cup water/yeast mixture. With the mixer on low, pour in the water-yeast mixture. Pour in the olive oil. Mix until the dough is formed. Switch from the paddle attachment to the dough hook. Knead on low speed until smooth or roughly 5 minutes.
 
Put some oil on a paper towel and wipe the inside of the bowl. Move the dough around to oil the whole bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 2 hours. To make sure dough is risen, take a floured finger and poke a whole in the dough. If it the indentation stays, you're good.

After its risen

Pizza Sauce:
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion salt

Directions
Mix all ingriedents in a bowl until combined. Place in the fridge.

Pizza Toppings:
Mushrooms
Artichokes in a jar
Spinach
Mozzarella cheese
Roasted red peppers in a jar

Directions:
Drain artichokes under running water and chop. Chop spinach and slice mushrooms and red peppers. Add artichokes, spinach, mushrooms and red peppers to a bowl and set aside. Grate cheese. Place in fridge until dough is ready.

I forgot the red peppers


Two hours is up:

Punch down the dough to deflate it. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and form into a ball. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and form each into a smooth round ball.  If your going to freeze one ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and then put in a quart freezer bag. Preheat the oven and pizza stone to 450/500˚ F for at least 30 minutes.  For the other ball, cover with the plastic wrap from earlier and let the dough relax for at least 10 minutes but no longer than 30 minutes.
 
Roll out a piece of wax paper the length/width of your baking stone. Sprinkle that with flour and cornmeal. Transfer the dough to wax paper and shape the dough with lightly floured hands by just stretching the dough into a circle. If the dough keeps shrinking back when you stretch it, walk away. Let it rest for 5-10 min and try again. Sometimes I've had to do this and other times not - its weird but it works.
 
The wax paper is under there...

 
 
Top with sauce from earlier. Add some cheese. Add the mushrooms, spinach, artichoke and red peppers mix. Add the rest of the cheese. Move the wax paper onto the baking stone. Bake until cheese is golden brown and bubbly 8-15 minutes depending on our oven.
 

 
 
So yummy and so worth it!!!

February 25, 2013

Fun in Fall

I love Fall - love, love, love it! This past fall we took Taye to an apple orchard and to pick out some pumpkins for Halloween. We couldn't have picked a colder/damp weekend! We took a little hayride around the orchard, picked out pumpkins and bough some apple cider.





Then, all of a sudden it was Halloween. Taye is obessed with super heros - Batman, Spiderman, Hulk (HULK SMASH is what he yells as he jumps from the ottoman to the couch), Captian America, Ironman - you name it! We may not know our ABC's but damn it we know our superheros!

This year he was Batman and we taught him out to say "I'm Batman" in a deep husky voice - think Christina Bale as Batman. It's pretty stickin' cute. We went to Uncle Trabby's (Travis) house who goes all out for Halloween. We thought Taye might be a bit scared this year but not at all. He thought all the stuff was great and he made quite a haul too with the candy.




February 24, 2013

Is thing on?

I love this blog and love reading other blogs but have such a hard time making time to update. I'd rather hang with Taye or Joe or just watch trashy tv!

However, I'm going to make more of an effort to post and keep things fresh. The last thing I posted was about Taye's birthday and turning 2. Lots have happened since then.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to catch everyone up (and by everyone I mean all 5 of you that read this thing) and also post some great recipes I've been trying since its winter and all I do is cook because I live in a frozen tundra (no, not Lambeau Field - MN has been much colder).