Tag Archives: pizza

Pesto Pizza

Posted on by

6

Ahh – so a lovely rule of thumb when you go on vacation is clean out your fridge!! After all, nothing is more pleasant than returning from the trip of a lifetime to sour milk and rotten produce.

With a vacation looming for me – don’t worry, I’ll let you in on it soon enough! If you’ve been a blog reader for a while now, you might be able to guess based on past vacations – I’ve been doing my best to use up the most perishable of items in my fridge….

Greens are one of those lil’ items. Spinach goes bad in the blink of an eye – one moment, the bag is full of lush, beautiful leaves…the next a slimy mess.

In an effort to save the greens, I decided that a makeshift spinach pesto needed to be a part of my life!

Enter: 1 clove of garlic, a palmful of walnuts that have graced the bottom shelf of my fridge for a bit too long now, a dash of hot red pepper, and enough spinach for me. I didn’t make a huge batch. Oh, and I didn’t have parmesan so that didn’t make it in there – though it’d be wonderful!

Annihilate those ingredients prior to drizzling in just enough oil to bring it together.

Final Product: Garlicy. Green. Glorious.

I probably ended up with about 1/3 to a little less than a 1/2 cup of pesto.

Now came the question of what to do with it?!

The remnants of a wheel of Trader Joe’s goat cheese brie was calling to me from my fridge, and a ball of pizza whole wheat dough had been thawing in there, too.

Time for pesto pizza!!

Rolled the dough out as thin as I could get it, and docked it with a fork and then par-baked it to try and stave off sogginess.

I then smeared on a generous amount of the pesto, and dotted it with about an ounce of brie – yes, rind and all. I love it.

Then back into the oven it went.

Awesome.

Seriously.

A great combination of the crunchy crust, the melted brie, and the garlicy pesto.

Oh, I will make this again in a heartbeat…or once my fridge is restocked post-vacation. Until then, the remainder of this pesto is tucked away in my freezer…we’ll see how it does! :)

eat.blog.repeat.

Posted on by

16

Repeat…as in – repeat a meal.

You know – I was little disappointed in myself yesterday. I mean…the pictures of my pizza certainly didn’t do it justice, and I felt, for the first time in a while, that I blogged just for the sake of getting a post out there (bad, Jil!).

I mean, I loved that pizza – enough to quickly slap together a post about it – but you know what, it deserves more. It deserves a better post. (Yes, I’m essentially talking to a pizza, here…)  YOU deserve a better post.

Stay with me here…

So here we go…take 2! aaaaaaand action.

A long, long time ago (for some reason, this prompted Weird Al Yankovic’s play off “American Pie” – “The Saga Begins [Lyrical Adaptation of ‘American Pie’” – to run crazily through my brain – don’t ask, haha), I had an addiction to tortilla pizzas - specifically BBQ tortilla pizzas. I don’t know why, but I never graduated from tortillas to actual pizza dough…even though it was sitting in my freezer all this time.

Honestly, it’s really fun to play with your food!

Plus, pizza is always better when it’s awkwardly shaped, right? P.S. I really like this dough, I picked it up from Trader Joe’s, but it’s made by the Portland Pie, Co. – really easy to work with – major plus!

Regardless, this time around I sprinkled it with some garlic powder before shoving it into a 450 (yes, I got brave!) degree oven for a couple of minutes to just firm up – no toppings, nothin’.

Took the dough out (only sustaining a slightly burned finger in the process – don’t you hate when oven mitts don’t do they’re job!), and topped it with a good slathering of Dinosaur BBQ sauce – this stuff is magic – and a big ole heap of spinach…well, as much as I could get away with on the pizza.

Then layers of mozzarella and red onion were sprinkled.

450 degrees and 10 minutes later…. voila!

Oddly shaped…yes – I feel like this somewhat resembles a tribal mask or something.

Delicious – absolutely. Honestly, this pizza was infinitely better than last night’s…crispy and flavorful – it doesn’t get much better.

I mean seriously – thin crust at it’s best! …and out of my own, teeny, tiny oven! Who knew!!?

Now…to make the leap to making my own dough…I’ll wait on that one.

pizza.pizza.

Posted on by

3

Ahhh – who remembers this lil’ guy… “Pizza, pizza!”

 

click for source

 

Honestly, I can’t remember if I’ve even ever had Little Caesar’s pizza…but I definitely remember the commercials.

Annnyway, the other day I was rummaging through my freezer, and I came across some frozen pizza dough that I bought aaaaages ago. I really don’t remember when it was purchased. Regardless, I decided it was time to thaw this puppy out and make some mini-pizzas!

Frozen.solid. However, it thawed out really well, and I was able to portion it out easily.

I let it stand at room temp for a while, just so it would be easier to stretch out.

Nice and thin.

I’ve been craving a BBQ pizza like nobody’s business…so some Dinosaur BBQ (Original) went on, and then a pile of spinach, and cheese and red onion.

slightly blurred

I preheated my oven to 425 (I would’ve done 450/475, but honestly, heating my tiny, apartment gas stove that high scares me) and left it in there for about 12 minutes. It came out crisp, bubbly and smelling delicious!!

 

apologies for bad lighting.

I just love the combination of the sweet/tangy BBQ sauce and the onions – match made in heaven. I know there are two types of people in this world – onion-lovers and onion-haters: I am the former.

 

Doing this again…tonight? Bah, I get obsessed. haha

Snow Day

Posted on by

4

Considering this is the view (well, an early morning version) outside of my window – I thought I’d mentally get cozy with some reliving of dinner last night!

Last night,  I went out to dinner at Teatro, here in Boston, with two friends. Teatro is easily one of my favorite restaurants (that I’ve tried!) in the city. I love their small plates and the fact that the menu changes. I had a great time catching up with friends, laughing and indulging in amazing, amazing eats!

We shared 2 small plates and a side to begin with:

buffalo mozzarella, roasted peppers and oregano

This plate was incredible – I’ve never had mozzarella like this. It was so light and creamy, and the peppers had this sweet and sour thing going on that was delicious.

 

crispy calamari with lemon aioli

Always a winner. I can’t pass up calamari on a menu…so light and crispy - be careful of the fried hot peppers in there though..spicyy but so good!

 

 

3 words: parmesan.truffle.fries.

Addictive. These are so crispy, delicious and packed with flavor!

For my entree, I was torn between two pizzas – I ended up going with the pizza topped with duck confit, spicy sausage, and pumpkin – simply for the fact that it was a really unique option.

a lil' blurry, sorry

It was really fantastic – balancing the sweetness of the pumpkin, the savory, lux flavor of the duck, and the spiciness of the sauce  – I’m a freak for duck so this was naturally a hit with me; their pizzas are ultra-thin crust…I took a bit home…but only so I could save room for…dessert.

 

We shared two desserts between the 3 of us:

 

chocolate, vanilla and mint gelato with a pistachio biscotti

This was delicious – I can’t say I’ve ever had mint ice cream or gelato that was legitimately minty – real mint. It was so refreshing.

 

warm dark chocolate cake, vanilla gelato, raspberry sauce and a lace-cookie-type garnish (of some kind)

 

This was incredible – my absolute favorite. A moist, dense cake – the richness was cut by the tang of the raspberry and of course…add vanilla gelato and it’s just over the top amazing.

I know I’ve sung the praises of this restaurant before – but they really are fantastic. Food and service are amazing – the staff is so accommodating! -  and the atmosphere is cool and relaxed.

Now…to day dream of dark chocolate cake while watching the snow blow by…

Ice Cream Party

Posted on by

12

Hello, loves! I had planned to post last night – but my utter exhaustion caught up with me and after I stuffed my face I simply crashed. Exciting, I know. haha

Let’s start with Friday, k? K.

After class/lab the night before (and once again getting stuck in the middle of the Lakers’ police escort to the Garden – so happy the Celtics pulled off a win),  the 6 hours of sleep *maybe* that I got before heading to work was not enough.

Therefore, coffee was extremely necessary.

I dressed myself -for possibly the best day out of the next 4- and skipped breakfast in favor of fruit and a muffin during our morning meeting.

My day started off with seeing a dog get *technically* hit by a car at the corner of Dartmouth and Beacon. My heart literally leaped into my throat. Luckily, it was more of a “the dog ran into the drivers side door of the car” thing, and he was absolutely okay.

I felt so bad for his owner who was running after him screaming…the dog must have just made a break for it from the house. Luckily – the dog was absolutely fine. I felt  bad for the driver; I can’t imaging the horror of thinking you’d hurt/killed an animal.  He was so nice and stopped to make sure the dog was okay. Plus, the Boston police officers who were working up the street, and had seen the guy running after his dog, were nice enough to come down and check on everything, too.

The scare aside, the rest of my day was great. We had a long morning meeting, we got sweet mugs – you know I’m a sucker for a good mug- (see Greg, they are still utilizing your ideas!), and then in the afternoon we got a free ice cream sundae bar! haha Yes, I work at a bank.

I got cookie dough ice cream, with strawberry sauce, mini-Reeses Pieces, mini-Snow Caps, whipped cream and sprinkles. Whether you’re 20 or 60, a secretary or an executive – everyone is a kid when there’s free ice cream. You should have seen the line. haha

Oh, and yes – I did eat a real lunch, too. haha Herby turkey again.

After work, I went out for a few drinks with some of the people I work with. It was great to get to know everyone outside of work.

Once, I was home though exhaustion hit (I think I probably looked like a zombie) – and so did the carb cravings. Seriously, I think my body was like “You’ve run yourself ragged, you need carbs!” I happily obliged. Everything Pretzel Thins from TJ’s and a bbq chicken pizza!


I was tired. I slept for 12 hours. haha When I woke up a set to work cleaning the apartment which was a mess due to the fact that I’d had to empty the under the counter/sink cabinets for routine extermination checks (no rodents up in here! haha).

Also, a soft serve ice cream truck sat outside my building for an hour. I’d never seen a soft serve truck before…like real, legit ice cream… I resisted but it was cute seeing ALL of the little kids and their parents swarm it! haha If he comes back next Saturday I will definitely get some though.

I’ve just been grazing and enjoying the relaxed pace of today. I think I’m going out to dinner tonight – but we’ll see.

I hope you all are wonderful!!