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!

how I spent my Thursday

…NOT studying, I can tell you that.

I baked instead.

Well, first I blogged at 4:30 in the morning, because that’s when the dog got me up.

And then I swam, followed by a marathon-shopping trip to Wegmans for a few essentials (we were almost out of milk already!) and goodies for Andrew’s Easter basket. I got myself a coffee and put my feet up at one of their cafe tables to chat on the phone before I even ventured into produce. Can you tell I’m on a break from school?

Well, as the clock neared 11 (I arrived just after 9 a.m.) I realized I’d better go going or I’d never get anything done. I raced home to whip up Steakhouse Side Macaroni and Cheese, a recipe that caught my eye in last month’s Cooking Light.

It’s just what the name says; it incorporates all the famous sides from a steakhouse (creamed spinach, sauteed mushrooms and an iceberg wedge with bacon and blue cheese) into one dish. It was good, but not fantastic. It was almost a little weird–if you’ve craving that traditional, orange-cheesey mac, this is NOT IT. But it was yummy and fun to put together. And (relatively) healthy.

And THEN I baked. And baked.

My desire to “send Abigail and Grandma home with some goodies” after the Easter weekend has turned into making goodie bags for all my nearest and dearest here.

Susy just gave me the Clinton St. Baking Company cookbook, so I tried their ‘brookie’ recipe. Easy and so good. I mean, what’s better than a cookie and a brownie mixed together? I’d also pulled out a recipe for some sort of mocha muffin awhile ago, making a mental note at the time to make them for Abigail when she was home from school, so I whipped up some mini-muffins to spread the wealth.

I even went all out and got Easter baggies and treat boxes. If only I could spend ALL my time doing stuff like this… I have a few more things to make this weekend before I’m finished: almond butter bars (recipe will be added here soon) for the goodie boxes, as well as some savory muffins and Pioneer Woman’s Tres Leches cake for Easter Sunday. Some lucky ducks are going to get some sweet surprises this weekend!

And then I did the dishes.

After fitting in some co-op work, a dog walk and–eventually–some studying for my Micro test, I headed back into the kitchen to make dinner. At 8 p.m. Because that’s when Andrew came home. Good grief.

I didn’t take a photo, but I made Pioneer Woman’s Sloppy Joe’s (I’m on a never-ending hunt for the best recipe from scratch) to see if they were better than our current favorite, Cooking Light’s version. They weren’t, but they were still very good. Very similar. Amazingly, Andrew professed a love for CL’s recipe, which is just fine with me, since it’s probably healthier.

Andrew’s off tomorrow, so I’m planning a workout, then brunch, then more baking/studying before meeting a friend for a mid-afternoon “snack/lunch” at Danny’s, a local favorite. Then, it’s pizza and wings and HOMEMADE APPLE PIE (it’s been in my freezer just waiting for the perfect occasion) at the Layer’s house with Abigail and Grandma 🙂