apple, Gorgonazola, and argula pizza

I saw this gorgeous plum and Gorgolzola pizza at Mango Tomato and was inspired to do something similar.

I bought whole wheat pizza dough at Trader Joe’s along with the other ingredients.

I cooked the pizza dough in a cast iron pan on the stove-it’s hot and I didn’t want to heat up my non-central air conditioned apartment. After I flipped the crust so it was done on both sides, I added a little olive oil, sliced apples, crumbled blue cheese, and arugla. I carefully placed the whole thing in the toaster oven and broiled it until the cheese began to melt and the arugla started to wilt.

apple, Gorgonzola, and arugula pizza

It wasn’t too pretty but it tasted great!

A nice feature of personal pizzas is that everyone can have their favorite toppings. I made Pat one with tomato sauce, pepperoni, mozarella, and roasted yellow and red bell peppers. (The toppings barelt fit!)

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Ramen Replacement

ramen alternative

So I despair of Pat’s love of ramen. We were out of it the other day so I offered to make him dinner with the udon noodles I had leftover and some chicken stock hoping to convince him he didn’t need to buy it.

I pulled a cup of chicken stock, broccoli, and spinach out of the freezer and began heating them with a little water. I threw in some red pepper flakes, a little soy sauce, and red chili paste, too.

After everything was brought to a boil, I added the noodles and let them cook for 4 min.

Pat said he liked this a lot but he still loved ramen…I didn’t quite succeed in replacing ramen with regular food but I am headed there.

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creative use of ramen

lemon broccoli and snap pea ramen

No matter how many delicious groceries I stock the kitchen with- produce from Farmer’s Market, Celtic sea salt, free-range chicken-Pat insists on buying chicken ramen. To me this is really salty college student food. I argue and make great meals but whenever I am not home for dinner Pat makes ramen.

If you can’t beat them, join them. So I raided Pat’s stash of ramen, took the noodle and threw out the flavor packet.

I made stir fry of broccoli and snap peas with chicken. I added chicken stock while the ramen noodles cooked for 2 minutes in boiling water. The noodles were drained and added to the stir fry pan with a little lemon zest and fresh parsley.

Pat even agreed with me that it was a better use for the noodles.

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another great pork loin

I know it seems like I am forever making pork loin…but this is really only the third one since November.

I was reading the Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics and, loving pork loin, a recipe for herb marinated loin of pork caught my eye. It seemed relatively simple except that it called for the pork to be grilled. Living in an apartment in Chicago, I do not own a grill and it’s still a little cold. Instead I planned to sear it on the stove top and then roast it in the oven. At the last minute I deglazed the pan with lemon juice and cooked it down with chicken stock and a little mustard until the sauce was syrupy.

Herb Marinated Loin of Pork

adapted from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics.

grated zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup of lemon juice
1/4 cup of olive oil
2 minced cloves of garlic
1 tsp dried rosemary
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 1/2 lb pork loin
salt and pepper

Combine first 6 ingredients to make marinade.

marinade

Cover pork in marinade and let sit in fridge overnight.

marinating pork loin

Preheat oven to 375F. Heat saute pan on medium to high heat. Sear pork loin on all sides. Transfer pork to oven safe pan and roast for about 45 min until pork is done.

herb marinated pork loin

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stress baking

I am a stress baker-when I get stressed out, I start making cookies, cake, bread, cupcakes…anything that involves baking from scratch.

Right now there is wedding planning going, car accidents (yes, plural, and yes everyone is ok), work is crazy, and so on. So what do I do? I make cake, caramel, and ganache from scratch. I also make triple chocolate cookies from Baked.

Except in Baked they are Black Forest Cookies. They mention leaving out dried cherries  and white chocolate (I don’t like dried fruit) and adding semi-sweet chocolate. I decidide to leave out the cherries, keep the white chocolate and add pecan pieces and semi-sweet chips. I feel better already.

Triple Chocolate Cookies

adapted from Baked
makes 20 cookies

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
8 oz chopped dark chocolate
5 tbsp butter
3 large eggs
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar lightly packed
1/2 tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

Melt chocolate and mix in butter.Allow to cool while beating together eggs and sugars for 5 min. Slowly add chocolate and butter mixture, mix. Add flour mixture and mix.

Fold in chips and pecans.

chocolate and pecans

Refrigerate over night-or a few hrs, I could only make it 3.

Preheat oven to 375F.

drop cookies pre-drop

Drop cookies onto baking sheet with tablespoon.

mmmm....stress cookies...

Bake for 10-15 min until the top begins to crack.

triple chocolate cookies

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