Health(ier) Pizza

I love pizza, and if I had the time I would consider making pizza a much more regular part of my diet, particularly when it tastes like this.

For the crust:

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar 

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.  In the mean time, combine the flour, olive oil, salt, and sugar.  When the yeast and water are good and frothy, add them to the flour mixture and stir well, until you have a nice stiff dough.  Let it rise in a lightly oiled bowl for about half an hour, until it's doubled in size.

I am a firm believer in par-baking pizza crusts (nobody likes a soggy crust).  So I preheat my oven to 350, then roll my dough out onto my baking stone and prick it a bunch of times with a fork.  Then I bake it for 12 minutes.

And it starts to get all puffy (but not TOO puffy!  That's what the pricking is for!) and golden brown.  Then I top it with lots of good stuff.

On this particular occasion, I went with store-bought pizza sauce, lots of spinach, mushrooms, and onions, followed by a little pepperoni and sausage and the mandatory mozzarella (I used a low-fat version).

Put the whole thing back in your 350 degree oven and bake it until it the cheese starts to bubble and the crust turns golden brown on the edges (cooking time will vary depending on toppings.  Since this pizza had many, many toppings it took about 20 minutes).  When I consider the expense of ordering pizza or making it myself, I really wonder why I ever call in an order.  This is just so easy!!!

Also easy is a great summer sandal, and I just received these last week.

Vince Camuto via Nordstrom

It is possible that I am, single-handedly, keeping my local Nordstrom in business.  But with shoes like this, how can I say no? 

Quickie Friday: Pizza Bread Redux

I have posted this dish before, when my blog was in its infancy and I really didn't know what I was doing.  Enter today, where I have revamped the recipe and am now using a nice camera, and I'm still making pizza bread once a week.

Here is the recipe, as it stands now:

For the bread (I make mine in my bread machine):
3/4 c. water plus 1/2 teaspoon
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon dried skim milk powder
1 and 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 and 1/4 cup flour
1 and 1/3 teaspoon bread machine yeast

I put that in the bread machine, in that order, and let the dough cycle run.  It takes about an hour and a half.  OR you can buy loaves of 1 lb. frozen white bread dough and let them defrost all damn day.  Your choice.

For the filling:
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 egg
1/4 cup parmesan cheese (or 1/3 cup, depending on the size of your eggs)
red pepper
oregano
pepperoni (or any other traditional pizza toppings that you prefer, although I don't recommend using a whole bunch or the bread won't bake up very nicely)
mozzarella cheese

Preheat your oven to 375.  Beat your egg with the minced garlic, then add parmesan cheese until the mixture resembles a paste.  Divide the dough in half, and roll out each half until it's the size of a small-ish pizza.  Spread the parmesan mixture equally onto each portion of dough, then sprinkle with red pepper and oregano.

Top the dough with pepperoni and mozzarella (or fillings of your choosing) then roll the dough, jelly roll style, tucking in the ends.

Bake the loaves at 375 for 20-25 minutes, until they are golden brown and, likely, oozing cheese.

Serve with a side of your favorite pizza sauce, for dipping, and enjoy.  While this post wasn't quick in the usual Friday sense, the recipe really is, so I recommend it for a Friday night (or every Friday night, as is the case in our house!).

Since this post wasn't quick in the traditional Friday sense, I thought I'd bend the rules on showcasing cheap(ish) shoes today, too:

via

I am absolutely in love with these pumps from Zara.  And because the heel is less than four inches, they'd be ideal for MY crazy Fridays (seriously).

Pizza Muffins

I feel like this week's posts are all about the F.  He claims that I only cook for the blog, but the peanut butter and pepperoni recipes beg to differ.

In the past, I've put pepperoni in all manner of things, from my pizza bread to pasta.  So when I saw this recipe for pizza muffins on pinterest, I figured I'd better add it to the repertoire.

(You can tell by the background that there was a LOT of cookin' go on the day I made these (which was the day of the Oscars).  These muffins were definitely keepers.  They were good on their own, and even more delicious dipped in pizza sauce.  A great, easy snack for weekends or whenever!  And I'd venture to guess that they'd freeze well, too.

I need your opinion, peeps:

Dolce Vita via Nordstrom

Do we think it would be difficult to walk in these beauties?  I love the neon pop against the neutrals.  I love the architectural feel.  But I'm not sure I'd love falling on my ass behind in front of coworkers.  Thoughts?

Garlic-Crusted Pepperoni and Onion Pizza

The BF and I are both huge fans of pizza and whether we order it or make it from scratch, it's a staple on the menu.  I used this recipe recently, for the dough, and was thrilled with the results.

While the dough was rising, I added some minced garlic to two tablespoons of olive oil.  After I rolled out the dough on my baking stone, I brushed the garlic olive oil on the crust, then pricked it (all over) with a fork and par-baked the crust for 12 minutes at 350 degrees.

After the par-baking was completed, I topped the crust with a thin layer of store-bought pizza sauce, thinly sliced white onions, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese.  The whole thing went back in the oven for 15 more minutes before we dug in!

I can't stop looking at all of the fall shoes, even though most of them are wildly inappropriate for Florida weather.  That goes for these, especially:

Fendi via Saks

Nothing about fur in Florida makes sense, especially on one's feet.  But I love these all the same.  If we ever move north (which is highly unlikely, if it's up to me) these will be first on my to-purchase list!