Friday, February 18, 2011

Me, blogging a recipe.. What?

I've recently discovered and fallen in love with pinterest (though I should warn you, it's inspiring and time consuming). I found several new recipes through it and they've been so good! So I thought I'd share.. (because if I can do it, anyone can do it..seriously :)

Pizza crust dough

mozzarella cheese, about 20 cubed pieces
sliced pepperoni

For topping:
olive oil
Italian seasoninggrated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Lightly grease a 9-inch pie plate or cake pan. Divide the pizza dough into roughly 20 equal sized pieces. Take one of the dough pieces and press in a cube of cheese and two slices of pepperoni. Pull the edges of the dough down around the filling and seal. Place in the pan, seam side down. Repeat with remaining dough. Each piece of dough should be touching each other in the pan. (It may seem crowded, but will be fine.)

Lightly brush the tops of the dough with olive oil. Sprinkle on Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temp

erature, with dipping sauce if desired.

(**note** instead of making my own pizza crust, I used a can of flaky biscuits. Each can has 8 biscuits, so I split them in half and made 16 pizza bites. PLENTY for two people, probably enough for 4 though. Also, I cooked them according to the biscuit's directions, spread out on a cookie sheet instead of close together in a pan. Easiest thing you'll ever make.)

Baked Potato Soup

Serves: 6-8 bowls

2/3 cup butter
2/3 cup flour
7 cups milk
4 large baking potatoes, baked, peeled and cubed (about 4 cups)
4 green onions, sliced (and then more for garnish)
12 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
1 1/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
3/4 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning
1/2 teaspoon pepper, plus more for seasoning
garlic salt, to taste

In a large soup kettle or Dutch oven, melt the butter. Stir in flour; heat and stir until smooth. Gradually add milk, stirring until thickened (about 10 minutes). Add potatoes and onions. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and stir until cheese is melted.

Season to taste with salt, pepper and garlic salt. Serve immediately.

(**note** This obviously isn't the healthiest recipe in the world, but it's worth it. I ended up using 2 cups heavy cream (I needed to get rid of it, okay?) 3 cups milk, and 1 cup water. I also didn't cube my potatoes, I wanted it extra thick so I cooked them long enough to be able to cut them in half, scoop out, and mash them a little before adding them to the soup. Pretty easy, super delicious.)