Week 46: Caramelized Onion and Prosciutto Pizza

Another one of Pioneer Woman's great recipes.

We made a few adjustments. We substituted some Provel cheese for a little of the Mozzarella, and we used a premade pizza crust from the refrigerated section.

The flavors of this pizza were really yummy. The sweet caramelized onions with the salty cheese and prosciutto. My only complaint was that the toppings kept falling off of the pizza when I took a bite.

Year of Yum Rating: 4 STARS

INGREDIENTS
1 whole pizza crust
Olive oil, for drizzling
1 whole large red onion, halved and thinly sliced
¼ cups brown sugar
Kosher salt to taste
Parmesan cheese, grated
10 ounces, weight fresh Mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
8 slices Prosciutto (more to taste)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet. Add onions and brown sugar and toss/stir for several minutes, or until onions are brown and cooked. Set aside.

Roll out pizza dough to a rectangular shape. Drizzle on olive oil, sprinkle on a little salt, followed by a little Parmesan.

Lay slices of mozzarella evenly over the top of the crust. Arrange caramelized onions over the top of the mozzarella. Randomly lay slices of prosciutto over the onions.

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the lower half of the oven, or until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and cut into squares. Serve immediately.

Week 45: Macaroni Grill Copycats

This week we made two recipes that are "copycats" of those found at Romano's Macaroni Grill. My mom had made the Rosemary Bread before, and I love it, but I was nervous about it because of the pickiness of yeast. I was afraid I would end up with Rosemary Hockey Pucks. It was also the first time using my mixer with the dough hooks.

Romano's Macaroni Grill Rosemary Bread

Year of Yum Rating: 4 STARS

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons rosemary
2 tablespoons butter

DIRECTIONS

1. Place yeast, sugar and water in large bowl or food processor and allow mixture to become bubbly.

2. Mix in 1 T butter, salt, and 2 cups of flour.

3. Add one tablespoon of the fresh chopped rosemary.

4. Knead for about 10 minutes by hand or in food processor about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.

5. Add more flour if necessary.

6. Oil a bowl, put dough in it and cover with a towel.

7. Let dough rise in a warm place for one hour until doubled.

8. Punch down dough and divide in half.

9. Let dough rest about 5 minutes.

10. Spray baking pan or cookie sheet with cooking spray.

11. Shape the dough into 2 small rounded oval loaves.

12. Sprinkle remaining 1 Tablespoon of rosemary over the loaves and press lightly into the surface.

13. Let loaves rise again until doubled, about 45 minutes.

14. Preheat oven to 375°F.

15. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned.

16. Carefully remove from oven, brush with remaining butter (and salt if desired.)


Romano's Macaroni Grill Roasted Garlic Lemon Vinaigrette

Year of Yum Rating: 3 STARS

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 ounce roasted garlic
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon, juice of

DIRECTIONS

Place vinegar, honey, salt and roasted garlic in a food processor. Puree until the garlic is chopped very fine. With the food processor still running, add olive oil and lemon juice. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Week 45 (Part 2): Roasted Parmesan Parsnips

Abby and I have been trying new foods together lately (Meyer lemons, blood oranges, artichokes...). Tonight she helped us add parsnips to the list.

In case you are unfamiliar with parsnips, they are a root vegetable. They look similar to carrots, but are a little bigger, and they are white. They also smell like carrots, but they have a stronger flavor.



I enjoyed these, but am convinced that you can cover almost anything in cheese, make it crispy, and dip it in marinara, and I'll be a believer. Next, I should probably try these in a more natural state.

Year of Yum Rating: 4 STARS

INGREDIENTS
8 parsnips, cleaned and peeled
2 large egg whites
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
2 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 1/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Sea salt
Fresh ground pepper
Olive oil

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 425.

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil and either spray or give it a rub of butter.

2. Cut the parsnips into wedges or halves depending on the thickness. Try to get them as evenly sized as possible.

3. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites til frothy with 2 tsp dried oregano.

4. Working with about half of the parsnips at a time, toss in the egg white and then gently roll in the Parmesan cheese. Place each parsnip on the baking sheet, with space in between. Sprinkle the fresh rosemary and generous amounts of fresh pepper and salt. You may even want to give one more sprinkling of Parmesan, you want them pretty well doused.

5. Bake the wedges about 20-25 minutes until crispy and cooked through. Rotate and test them after 15 minutes baking as the size of parsnips will vary.

6. While baking, either prepare your own dipping sauce, or use your own favorite marinara

Week 45 (Part 1): PW's Salsa

Two things I enjoy:

Pioneer Woman

Salsa

What a great combination.

Luke thought it was funny that I made this recipe "just days after swearing off all salsa that wasn't Margarita's Hot Salsa." I can see the irony, but I have to say that this recipe is good competition.

Year of Yum Rating: 4 1/2 STARS

INGREDIENTS
1 can (28 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes With Juice
2 cans (10 Ounce) Rotel (diced Tomatoes And Green Chilies)
¼ cups Chopped Onion
1 clove Garlic, Minced
1 whole Jalapeno, Quartered And Sliced Thin
¼ teaspoons Sugar
¼ teaspoons Salt
¼ teaspoons Ground Cumin
½ cups Cilantro (more To Taste!)
½ whole Lime Juice

DIRECTIONS

Combine whole tomatoes, Rotel, onion, jalapeno, garlic, sugar, salt, cumin, lime juice, and cilantro in a blender or food processor.

Pulse until you get the salsa to the consistency you’d like—I do about 10 to 15 pulses.

Test seasonings with a tortilla chip and adjust as needed.

Refrigerate salsa for at least an hour. Serve with tortilla chips or cheese nachos.

Horizons = Expanded

While grocery shopping for ingredients for the Mediterranean Quinoa Bowls, I encountered two foods that I had never tried before, and decided to give them a shot.

One was the artichoke:


Abby made a yummy dipping sauce from mayo, garlic, and some chili powder. I was intrigued by this crazy vegetable. What other food do you scrape the food off of the leaves? And all that hair that we had to get through to get to the heart? CRAZY! I'm glad I tried it, and would like to try some kind of lemony dipping sauce next time.

I also tried a blood orange:


The beautiful red color that I saw when I cut it open made me giddy! I know...the simple things in life. It was yummy, but didn't taste much different than a regular orange. I looked up some information about the blood orange, and apparently it's just a sweet orange with a genetic mutation to make it so colorful.

Week 44: Mediterranean Quinoa Bowl

This dish wasn't a whole lot of work...just a bunch of delicious ingredients thrown together. I thought it would be a good time to try doing a couple things on my own, like:

-roasting my own red peppers (this KIND of worked)
-using DRY garbanzo beans instead of canned (they are STILL soaking on my stove 3 hours later...obviously did not work)

I also threw some black olives into the mix because I love them. If I did this again, I might add some red onion, because that's a Mediterranean flavor too, right?

Year of Yum Rating: 4 1/2 STARS



INGREDIENTS

1 cup quinoa, dry
4 broccolinis
4 to 6 oz. block of feta cheese, cut in cubes
1 cup roasted red peppers, cut in slivers
1/4 cup capers, rinsed and drained
1 cup chickpeas, cooked
3 tbsp. flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 tsp. dried oregano
Generous pinch of sea salt
Fresh ground pepper
1 Meyer lemon
1 tbsp. good quality olive oil

DIRECTIONS

1. For the quinoa, typically, bring two cups water and one cup dry quinoa to a boil. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. Place the broccolini right on top after ten minutes and cover to finish the quinoa and the broccolini will steam on top. Remove the broccolini to a cutting board, and transfer the quinoa to a large bowl and fluff with a fork.

2. Toss the red pepper slivers, chickpeas, capers, dried oregano and salt and pepper to the quinoa and stir. Give the broccolini a rough chop and toss it in the bowl. Squeeze the juice of the entire meyer lemon (avoiding seeds) and the olive oil, stir again.

3. Lastly, cut the feta into small cubes (easiest if done straight from the fridge or even let it sit in the freezer for a few minutes). Add the cubes and the parsley to the quinoa and give it a gentle fold. At this point, it is probably a tad warmer than room temperature, which is great. If you’d rather it cold, let it sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes to cool down.

(For beautiful photos, visit the source of the recipe: Sprouted Kitchen.)

Week 43: Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Abby and I have been talking about making gnocchi for some time now, so she found a recipe that didn't require dough chilling in the fridge for an extended period of time before cooking. I was slightly frustrated while we were making it...probably mostly because it was something new, and I felt like I was messing things up left and right. Despite this, the finished product was really yummy, and it was just cool that we made this gnocchi from scratch. Leftovers were also yummy, with just a little bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Year of Yum Rating: 4 STARS

INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 lb russet (baking potatoes)
1 (3/4-lb) sweet potato
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano plus more for serving
1 1/2 to 2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup sage leaves (from 1 bunch)
1/3 cup bottled roasted chestnuts, very thinly sliced with an adjustable-blade slicer or a sharp vegetable peeler (we couldn't find chestnuts, so we just toasted some walnuts)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

DIRECTIONS

Preparation for gnocchi:

1. Preheat oven to 450°F with rack in middle.

2. Pierce russet and sweet potatoes in several places with a fork, then bake in a 4-sided sheet pan until just tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

3. Cool potatoes slightly, then peel and force through ricer into sheet pan, spreading in an even layer. Cool potatoes completely. (No ricer for us, so we used a fork.)

4. Lightly flour 2 or 3 large baking sheets or line with parchment paper.

5. Beat together egg, nutmeg, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper in a small bowl.

6. Gather potatoes into a mound in sheet pan, using a pastry scraper if you have one, and form a well in center.

7. Pour egg mixture into well, then knead into potatoes. Knead in cheese and 11/2 cups flour, then knead, adding more flour as necessary, until mixture forms a smooth but slightly sticky dough. Dust top lightly with some of flour.

8. Cut dough into 6 pieces. Form 1 piece of dough into a 1/2-inch-thick rope on a lightly floured surface. Cut rope into 1/2-inch pieces. Gently roll each piece into a ball and lightly dust with flour.

9. Repeat with remaining 5 pieces of dough.

10. Turn a fork over and hold at a 45-degree angle, with tips of tines touching work surface. Working with 1 at a time, roll gnocchi down fork tines, pressing with your thumb, to make ridges on 1 side. Transfer gnocchi as formed to baking sheets.

Fry sage leaves and chestnuts:

1. Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until it shimmers. Fry sage leaves in 3 batches, stirring, until they turn just a shade lighter and crisp (they will continue to crisp as they cool), about 30 seconds per batch. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Season lightly with salt. (When you first place the leaves into oil, they’ll sizzle and make happy crackling noises, and as they cook, the noises will subside. When you feel like sage has “calmed down” you can fish it out. It’s pretty much done.)



2. Fry chestnuts in 3 batches, stirring, until golden and crisp, about 30 seconds per batch. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Season lightly with salt. Reserve oil in skillet.



Make sauce:

1. Add butter to oil in skillet with 1/2 tsp salt and cook until golden-brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Cook gnocchi:

1. Add half of gnocchi to a pasta pot of well-salted boiling water and stir. Cook until they float to surface, about 3 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to skillet with butter sauce. Cook remaining gnocchi in same manner, transferring to skillet as cooked. This was my favorite part...I love that there's no guessing involved, and they pretty much just TELL you when they're done.



2. Heat gnocchi in skillet over medium heat, stirring to coat.





3. Serve sprinkled with fried sage and chestnuts and grated cheese.



Notes:
Uncooked gnocchi can be frozen (first in 1 layer on a baking sheet, then transferred to a sealable bag) up to 1 month. Do not thaw before cooking. If freezing gnocchi, you might want to half the sauce.