Chicago Style Deep Dish

I can't take credit for any piece of this recipe. It's all from Pennies On A Platter blogger which I found on Pinterest. Her directions are great and our pizza turned out delicious. The only thing I did was add some pepperoni between the cheese and the sauce. I took pictures of my dough because this is the first time I've ever made homemade dough using yeast. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.

Here's how it begins. Whisk the flour, salt, sugar, yeast, and corn meal together. Add the melted butter and water and mix well. I don't have a dough attachment so I used my hands to kneed the dough well. Add it to a bowl that's coated in olive oil and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let it rise until about double in size. Mine took 45 minutes. See my transformation above!

 Once it's risen, take it out and roll it to about an 8x6 rectangle. Smear the soft butter all over the top. Apparently, this is called laminating the dough. I had no idea but it's supposed to make the crust flaky and delicious (which it does!). Roll it tightly, seam side down roll it out to a 9x2 rectangle.

 

I think mine was more 9x4 but I don't think it matters. Fold it up again and and pinch the seams together to form a ball. Put it back in the bowl and cover with plastic. This time, let it rise in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes. Again, transformation below.

For the sauce. It calls for grated onion. I've never used that before and let me tell you, it burns my eyes worse than chopping! Saute the onion in butter, add the salt and oregano. Cook until the liquid is almost gone, it took me 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add a can of tomatoes, petite dice. I forgot about the petite part and it was ok. Bring to a boil and simmer about 15 minutes to reduce. Add the olive oil and basil.

 

Take the dough out of the fridge. Roll it out to about a 13" disk and put it in a 9" round cake pan that you've coated in . I think mine is actually a pie pan, which did pose a problem as the dough didn't want to stay up on the sides. Dump about 2 cups of mozzarella cheese, any toppings you'd like and cover with the sauce.  Put it in the oven at 425 for about 20 minutes or until the crust in golden brown. I also recommend letting it sit about 10 minutes when you take it out before cutting.

Cuban Sandwich

I hate packing. I'm leaving for ten days tomorrow and I haven't started. At all. Instead, I decided to try a new recipe out! Last January I was in Miami and had this AMAZING sandwich at the restaurant in the hotel where I was staying. I made a giant crock pot full of pulled pork Sunday and have been trying to come up with different ways to use the pork (because apparently BBQ is not acceptable every day of the week according to my husband.) I decided I would try to replicate my Miami experience tonight.

I started with onions. I sliced two onions and caramelized them. This was pretty much the longest process of what I made for supper tonight but man, it's always worth it.

Next I started on the sauce. I looked up the hotel restaurant and the sauce on that sandwich was Mojo sauce. It calls for sour orange juice. I've never heard of it. Didn't even know where to begin looking for it at the grocery store. Fortunately, fellow cooking fanatics never let me down and I found a substitute (though they always followed by saying it wasn't as good...) I minced about...7 cloves of garlic? I forgot to keep track. It was more than 5, for sure. In a skillet, saute the garlic in 1/3c of olive oil for about 2 minutes. Add 1/3c of orange juice, 1/3c of lemon juice, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, and 1/2 tsp ground cumin. Let it cook until it smells really citrusy- about 1-2 minutes- then remove to a bowl to cool.

Once the sauce has cooled, mix 1/4c of the sauce (making sure you stir well so you get the garlic) with 2 tbsp of mayo. I use Olive Oil mayo. This makes the sauce slightly thicker but thin enough to still be a sauce.

I took the pork, that had already been pulled, and warmed it on the stove. Nothing fancy was done to the pork roast while it cooked. I just added salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder and let it cook in water for the day. It's a good base seasoning that can then be used in multiple recipes (like BBQ pork sandwiches and pork tacos!)

Now to assemble the sandwich. I bought some fresh ciabatta bread from the store and sliced it up. We used pepper jack slices of cheese rather than Swiss. The Swiss is really good but we don't eat it enough in our house to buy it. The cheese went on one side of the bread. The other side got some of the sauce and caramelized onions. I loaded it with some of the pork and drizzled some more sauce on it. Close it up, cut it half, and wear something that you don't mind dripping on!

Asian Inspired Tilapia

As most of my friends, I am also addicted to Pinterest. I found this recipe for Garlic Chicken and decided I could adapt it for the Tilapia I had defrosting. I made just a few minor adjustments to the original recipe. Here's my version of what I'm calling Asian Inspired Tilapia.

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp olive oil

3 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp garlic powder

~ 1/4 c french onions

Preheat the oven to 500 F. I lined a 9x13 with foil and sprayed the foil with cooking spray. I laid three pieces of Tilapia on the foil and seasoned lightly with seasoned salt and pepper. In a small skillet, heat the oils until shimmering, then add the minced garlic. I sauteed about 3 minutes. Remove the skillet from heat and add the brown sugar and garlic powder (side note: I only added the garlic powder because I ran out of fresh garlic, if I had another clove I would leave it out). Mix it up and divide evenly over the fish. It's not a sauce. It will be crumbly. I used my fingers to make sure each piece had an even amount. Take the french onions and crunch them up over the fish. Stick it in the oven for 10 minutes and you're done! Really easy and quite good. I served it over some brown rice (I added some soy sauce to the water while it was cooking) and some stir fry vegetables that I sauteed in sesame oil and soy sauce. Great Sunday supper!

Southwestern Tilapia w/black bean & corn salsa

This year I have again declared that we are going to incorporate more fish in our meals. I said this last year too but I didn't follow through. Hoping to do better this year, I picked up some Tilapia at the grocery store last week. It's been sitting in the freezer ever since. My problem is mostly that I've convinced myself I don't like fish. Probably because my Mom doesn't so we never ate it growing up. And also because I cannot stand the way tuna smells. Gross. I digress. So, the other day I went to a restaurant and decided I'd try Santa Fe Tilapia. It was delicious. It was so good that I decided I'd also try my husbands Mesquite Grilled Salmon. Also delicious. I think the fish aversion may be over. This evening I decided I could recreate my meal on my own. Huge success. Yum.

First, I sprayed a pan with spray oil. I have never cooked fish before so this was all very new. I decided I'd season it like I would if I were using chicken for this instead. I sprinkled it with some Adobo seasoning, added some cilantro, and squeezed half a lime over it. It then went into the oven at 400 degrees for about 13 minutes.

While the fish was cooking, I mixed a can of Rotel (drained) with a can of Black beans (also drained.) I mixed those up and then added some frozen corn until it looked like an even mix. I added about a tablespoon of garlic salt and a handful of chopped cilantro. I put it in the microwave for about 2 minutes (so the corn would thaw.) Then I mixed about 1/4 a cup of ranch dressing with a teaspoon of Emeril's Essence (which is pretty much the best thing on earth, find it at the bottom of this Cajun Jambalaya recipe.)

When the tilapia was finished cooking, I added some dressing to the top.

Then I covered it with the black bean & corn salsa. 

It's wonderful and really easy. My plan is to pair it with a baked potato with salsa and sour cream on top!

Tomato + veggies = Good Pasta

I wasn't quite sure what to call this. I made it up with stuff we had on hand. Here's what we did.
First, saute an onion, green pepper, mushrooms and garlic in olive oil. I did this for about 5 minutes. Then I added some Balsamic vinegar. I don't know how much, I just kind of poured it in until the bottom of my skillet was covered. I continued to saute until most of the liquid was gone. Once that was complete I added a 28oz can of diced tomatoes. I also added thyme, oregano, marjoram, and basil. Mix it up well and let it simmer for a bit. Once it was hot I put it over some penne pasta. I didn't like it. Something was missing. So, I added a cup of tomato sauce and some garlic salt and let it cook another 20 minutes. That did it :-) Yum.

Avocado Tortilla Soup

Today at work we got a really fancy blender. If the thing wasn't so expensive (upwards of $400), I would buy one. Unfortunately, we don't get to use it on anything but corn. Boo. However, the fancy blender came with a cookbook. I was flipping through it and found this recipe. It looked so easy and delicious I had to come home and try it. I adapted it a little (since my blender isn't as hard core) but essentially it's the same.

1/2 avocado, peeled and pitted

1/2 lime, peeled

~ 1/3 bunch of cilantro, stemmed

1 garlic clove

28 oz can diced tomatoes

2 c chicken stock

1 can black beans

1 c corn

I threw everything except the chicken stock, corn and black beans in my blender and let it go until it looked semi smooth. I was actually surprised at how well it diced everything. I imagine a food processor would also work. Once it was done I transferred it to a big pot with the chicken stock, beans, and corn. I cooked it on medium heat for about 20 minutes (until it started to boil). Once done I smashed some tortilla chips and added them to the bowl. It was delicious. Next time I make it I will try adding chicken and cheese. And sour cream. Mmm. 

Breakfast Smoothie

I have finally discovered the very best way to eat oatmeal...in a smoothie!
I've tried to eat oatmeal but every way I fix it I just don't like it. I adapted this recipe from one I saw on Pinterest. I tried to find it again but I'm not having any luck. Here's what I used:

1/2 banana

1/2 c cooked oatmeal

~ 2 tbsp almonds

~ 1/2 c mixed frozen fruit

3 ice cubes

1/2 c unsweetened almond milk

I threw everything in the blender and let it go. I really like the taste of the almonds in the smoothie. I've varied it a couple times this week by using peanuts instead of almonds, peanut butter instead of any nuts, the one thing I do not recommend leaving out is the banana. For whatever reason, when the banana is in there you won't feel the oatmeal. I left it out one day and had to chew :-/. Otherwise, it's delicious and it really hold me over for lunch.