Friday Night Pizza

Friday night is Pizza Night in our household. We normally order a pizza, however, I've recently been unimpressed with the consistency of the pizza from various pizza shops in our area. Good one week, not good the next, overcooked, undercooked, cold, veggies not cooked just thrown on the pizza. You get the idea, I'm sure you find the same thing where you live.


This past Friday, I decided to make my own pizza. Don't get me wrong, I have tried in the past. The taste was excellent, however, I have stayed away from making pizza at home for a couple of reasons.

Number One: I have a hard time making dough. You are probably saying "What", she's crazy, it's the easiest thing to make. I agree, the recipes for making dough are easy, but I somehow mess it up. Some people have told me it's possible that the water I use to combine the yeast might be too hot. Some say that I may be kneading the dough wrong. Whatever the reason, I screw it up somehow.

Number Two: I can't stretch the dough to make it fit on my pizza pan. I've tried all size pizza pans. Sometimes I get big holes in the dough after trying to stretch it to make it fit. Sometimes I get it to fit perfectly, only for it to shrink on the pizza pan after baking.

So, you can understand now why I order pizza rather than make it at home. The taste is always great, it's just a struggle to get it to look right. Well, this past Friday I am proud to say, it was fantastic. Not to mention, if I must stay myself, it didn't look half bad. My husband commented, "Tell me again why we are buying pizza when the quality of yours is so much better and cheaper". Of course, that made me feel good.

Before I started I call and consulted with a couple of family members, who by the way make the best pizza. It's so good they really should open up a pizza shop. Their homemade dough the best ever. I guess I was the family member who missed the dough making gene when they were handed out. Anyway, back to my story...

I used dough purchased at the bakery and with a rolling pin, rolled out each side very slowly. I didn't pull the dough, I just kept pushing the rolling pin toward the outside edges of the dough. No holes yet. Things were looking good so far. Then I put some olive oil on my fingertips and gently pushed the dough along the outer rim of the pizza pan so that it would hold. I baked the dough without toppings for about 5 minutes in a 400 degree F oven. When I took the baked dough out of the oven, I put on all the toppings. I put the pizza back in the oven for another 10-12 minutes or until I saw it bubbling and edges were brown.


I was so proud of myself. My persistence paid off. Now I need to learn to make my own dough, but that's another blog.

Mexican Deep-Dish Pan Pizza

With Cinco de Mayo coming up this week, our office decided to have another pot-luck luncheon. I wanted to bring something different and usually try out the recipe on my family first, but because it was short notice, I decided to take my chances and make it anyway. I actually thought it was pretty good, however, didn't get the "oh wow" factor from all of my co-workers. I ended up combining two different recipes that I found on foodnetwork.com. I took a Rachael Ray recipe called "Mexican Meat-zza: Mexican Deep-Dish Pan Pizza", but I have to admit I did change it a little bit. I ended up cooking the peppers with the onions and I also made the cornbread from scratch using Tyler Florence's Cornbread recipe(Rachael's cornbread recipe can be found on www.foodnetwork.com). Hope you have a chance to try this recipe and let me know what you think.

Ingredients for Cornbread:

• 4 strips thick-cut bacon, chopped
  
• 2 cups stone-ground cornmeal, white or yellow
  
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 2 tablespoons sugar
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
  
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  
• 4 large eggs
  
• 2 cups milk
  
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
  

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Put the bacon into a cold 10-inch cast iron pan and cook over medium heat until the fat is rendered and the bacon bits are crisp. Do not let it burn. Remove the bacon to a paper towel lined plate. Keep the bacon fat in the pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the cormeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl beat the eggs with a whisk until foamy; whisk in the milk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Fold in the bacon bits and the chives. Pour the batter into the cast iron pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20-25minutes.

While the cornbread is baking, start on the pizza topping.

Ingredients for Topping:

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns on the pan
  
• 1 pound ground beef
  
• 1 small onion, sliced thinly
  
• 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced thinly
  
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
  
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  
• 2 teaspoons cayenne sauce (I used ground cayenne pepper)
  
• Salt to taste
  
• 2 1/2 cup shredded cheddar or jack cheese
  
• 1 small can, 2 1/4 ounce sliced chiles or jalapenos, drained
  
• 2 scallions, chopped
  
• 2 small vine ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced
  
• 2 tablespoons drained sliced green olives (salad olives)
  
• 1 to 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves, optional garnish
  
• Mild to medium taco sause to pass at the table
  

Pour oil in skillet and cook onion and peppers on medium. When veggies are tender, add the ground beef and as the beef is cooking, add the chili powder, cumin, cayenne and salt until cooked.

Add beef mixture to top of cooked cornbread and then start adding cheese, jalapenos, scallions, tomatoes, olives.

Once all the ingredients are on top of the cornbread, return skillet back to the oven on 400 degrees F for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

What is nice about this recipe is that you can make it your own. You can try it with italian sausage and beef combo or just sausage, you can add more cheese and other toppings that you and your family like.

References:
Cornbread, Tyler Florence, Television Food Network, copyright, 2006

Mexican Meat-zza: Mexican Deep Dish Pan Pizza, Rachael Ray, Television Food Network, copyright, 2006