almost! a pizza tragedy

So, I may not be quite the ‘gourmet’ chef Andrew makes me out to be ALL the time…

…if you think THAT’S bad, you should have seen the other guy! (a.k.a. the hunk of ORGANIC beef roast I bought for Pioneer Woman’s Carnitas Pizza.

(Actually, upon further inspection of the meat itself, it had only formed a nice ‘crust’ on the outside and was still quite edible on the inside–thankfully! Otherwise, Andrew might have killed me. In fact, I moistened the shredded meat with a little apple juice I had stashed in the freezer since our HOTEL STAY last year… Side note: I am my father (the pack rat)’s daughter.)

Apparently, leaving a roast in the oven while out of the house is too much for me to handle; not 10 minutes after we left for church I had a panic attack and tried to make Andrew turn around. I suppose I could have done the math on the cooking time a bit better, and certainly should have added some more liquid to the pot before departing…

Anyway, her carnitas pizza (the recipe for which must not be online), piqued my interest from the moment I saw it in the book. It’s a regular pizza crust–I used one I found in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (best one yet!)–with green tomatillo salsa, fresh mozzarella slices, sauteed red pepper and onion, then baked and topped with the warm meat and sliced green onions.

Let’s just say Andrew was on his 5th piece before either of us knew what was happening, but I suspect that had more to do with the crust than the toppings, unfortunately. Or fortunately, I suppose. I’m on the hunt for a go-to pizza crust recipe…could it be that the search is over?

I enjoyed the last two pieces for lunch today–YUM. While I may not make the exact recipe again, PW does have a bunch of neat pizza recipes on her website and in her newest cookbook, and we seem to be on a pizza kick lately! It’s the “best crust” hunt, I tell ya. My favorite pizza, you ask? HAWAIIAN, all the way.

And, just in case you were wondering about that pot….

…GOOD AS NEW! Nothing a little elbow grease and a brillo pad couldn’t handle.

a breakfast Pioneer Woman would be proud of

Or dinner, rather.

(And yes, I know I shouldn’t end a ‘sentence’ with ‘of,’ but it’s not really a sentence, and it just wouldn’t sound the same any other way.)

ANYWAY….

This is what ‘cooking’ (a.k.a. piling things on top of one another) looks like in my house right now. Can I just say that Pioneer Woman has a dream house AND a re-done ‘lodge’ with a potentially nicer kitchen than her own? Seriously jealous. Not that I ever want two houses to clean. EVER.

So, I decided tonight would be ‘breakfast for dinner’ night since it was supposed to be sometime last week when we had no food in the house (does anyone else revert to pancakes for dinner when you have nothing else??), but it never happened. I’ve been dying to make PW’s Lemon Blueberry Pancakes since they appeared on her blog awhile back, and when they were included in the new cookbook, I put them in the rotation ASAP.

Note the plate of pancakes ON TOP OF the yogurt maker. (I also made bread and hummus today, in addition to yogurt–AND I had a class, AND swimming, and two dog walks, and two loads of laundry, and vacuuming–whoever wonders what I do to fill up my time, well folks, that’s where it goes. Unemployed Holly doesn’t know how employed Holly ever made it.)

I can’t tell you how sick I am of the yellow light in our dining room…. And the tiny kitchen. And the carpet…I’ll stop before I a) bore you, or b) start sounding like a whiny brat. CAN. NOT. WAIT. UNTIL. DREAM. KITCHEN. WITH. NATURAL. LIGHT.

The reason I say P-Dub would be proud is because I also made canadian bacon and eggs with salsa. Well, I eat eggs with salsa, Andrew doesn’t. But since he didn’t even start eating eggs until we went on a backpacking trip in the Boundary Waters a couple years ago, I’ll take it.

I hate to admit it (I really do), but they were a bit anticlimactic. Good, definitely, but not so amazing that I can’t wait to have them again. Andrew said they tasted like a blueberry muffin and that the blueberry flavor overpowered the lemon. I told him he didn’t know what he was talking about since he a) doesn’t even really like muffins (according to him), and b) doesn’t eat blueberry pancakes. EVER. He’s a bit of a purist; plain pancakes, vanilla ice cream, strawberry yogurt, no mayo or mustard… Whatever he is, it’s BORING. (But I love him…)

All in all, they were pretty good and I’m glad I have another serving in the freezer, just waiting for me to drizzle a bit of my ginger maple syrup on them… Because ginger goes so well with both lemons and blueberries!

And, in case you were wondering if we had any more counter space to spare…

Nope, not so much. Dishes done compliments of Andrew, who has become dishwasher extraordinaire. Seriously, he does them in the morning before work as I’m packing up his breakfast and lunch, then he does them immediately after walking in the door after the gym as he dumps his lunch stuff into the sink and I’m in the kitchen making dinner, and then (if I haven’t gotten to them yet), he picks up after we eat where he left off while I was prepping dinner! Whew! WHO IS THIS MAN?

If you like lemon and you like blueberry, make the pancakes. If not, make Foster’s Market’s Panama Pancakes…you won’t regret it!

cuban bread

The other day, while we were at the Nyes’ house visiting, I (randomly) mentioned I’d been craving a cuban sandwich–you know, the kind with ham and swiss and a pickle? No idea why I was even thinking about one at the time, but you know, that’s to be expected from someone like me.

Well, without a moment’s delay, Mr. Nye was in the cookbook cabinet and out came this baby:

The well-worn pages show it’s been loved and used for years (I saw a note by a recipe from 1998). Mr. Nye explained that the recipe for the authentic cuban sandwich bread was in here, somewhere. The traditional bread for the cuban sandwich is the ‘Pan Suave’ (which means ‘smooth bread’ in spanish–and, apparently, Cuban), as opposed to the Pan Cubano, which is made with lard. The Pan Suave are also called ‘Cuban Sweet Rolls.’

I found it and decided to whip up some rolls this past weekend. I even bought the ingredients for an ‘authentic’ cuban sandwich, which is ham, roast pork (which I found pre-cut surprisingly easily in the deli at Wegmans) and swiss cheese, as well as a mayo-dijon combo I could make at home.

I was having a terrible time getting it to come together in my mixer and think I added a bit too much flour in the process. I should have just kneaded by hand.

Aren’t they amazing?!?!?! Despite adding more flour than probably necessary and not rising as much as I thought they might, they plumped right up in the oven. Before baking, I brushed them with an egg wash and sprinkled them with sesame seeds.

I packed both Andrew and myself a pre-sliced roll for our lunches, put what I thought we could eat in the next couple days in the bread box and bagged the remaining rolls for the freezer.

Here’s my lunch at school:

One roll and the ham, pork, swiss and pickle packed separately, along with a little mayo-dijon. (Because no one likes a soggy sandwich…)

Assembled sandwich! The bread was a bit dense (perhaps too much flour?), but it was chewy and sweet, almost cake-like. I can’t get over how ‘pretty’ they look. I mean, that’s all that counts, right? (No, not really, but it’s still nice when it looks like the picture. Except that this didn’t have a picture…but I digress.)

This sandwich was great–filled me right up! I love pickles on sandwiches–must do that more often. Not sure I would make this recipe again–I’ll have to return the cookbook, I don’t make cubans all that often, etc…–but it was a fun project.

Wish I had a scanner to photocopy the recipe…