Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

First Patriots game of the season was last night, and Dan was giddy with excitement. Me? Not so much. As dreamy as Tom Brady is, my favorite part of watching football is the eating. Chips and dips...wings...pizza. Mmm, junk food!

I saw this recipe for pizza puffs on FoodGawker and knew right away that I was going to have to make them. The ingredients were all things I had laying around, the prep/cook time was short, and the recipe just looked/sounded really tasty. 

These puffs are seriously delightful, guys. They taste exactly like pizza, but fluffier. And, because they're bite-sized, they're extra easy to eat. You pop one in your mouth, chew, savor the deliciously cheesy flavor, and the next thing you know the whole plate is gone. Definitely a great addition to the list of appetizers/snacks that will help get me through football season.

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs (Adapted from the Kirbie's Cravings recipe)

Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup flour

- 3/4 cup milk

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 cup shredded cheese (I used Parmesan and Colby Jack)
- 1 large egg

- 1/2 cup green onions, chopped

- 1/3 cup pepperoni, chopped/diced

- Salt/pepper to taste

- Italian seasoning

Steps:
(1) Preheat oven to 400, and grease a mini-muffin pan.

(2) In a large bowl, mix everything but the Italian seasoning.
** You should get a batter that's slightly less thick than pancake batter.
(3) Scoop batter into the cups of the mini-muffin pan, about 2/3 full. Sprinkle some Italian seasoning on top of the batter in each cup.

(4) Bake 10-12 minutes.
(5) Serve warm with a side of marinara or pasta sauce.

For other great recipe ideas, click here.

Kale and Lemon-Pepper Chicken Pizza

(I got a new camera! Can you tell?)

Both the Pioneer Woman and the Crumbly Cookie assured me that their favorite pizza dough is at its best the longer it's kept in the fridge, so I took their advice and let the second half of my dough chill for a few days. I didn't have the patience to wait 3-4 days, but I figured that two days was plenty, so I pulled the dough out of the fridge today for another round of pizzas.

Now that I know what kale is, I'm eager to work it into my vegetable rotation. I bought a big bag of it at BJs the other day, but have been kind of at a loss as to what to do with it. I mean, I ate it bunch when I was younger, but I'm pretty sure my parents just sauteed it and served it with rice. Sauteed kale is delicious, of course, but there's gotta be more you can do with it, right? Toss it onto a pizza with chunks of tangy, savory lemon-pepper chicken, for instance?

Man, when I tell you this pizza was delicious...you really need to take my word for it. The dough, which had become even more malleable with a few extra days in the fridge, was perfectly tender and chewy, and had a smoother and more uniform consistency/texture than my last batch. The saltiness of the sauteed kale complemented the tangy-peppery-ness of the chicken, and in the absence of sauce, the gooey melted mozzarella was the deliciously fatty glue that held it all together. Nom nom nom!

Kale and Lemon-Pepper Chicken Pizza 

Ingredients: (makes 3 personal pizzas)

- 1/2 of the pizza dough from the Pioneer Woman's recipe
- 3 tsp olive oil + more for greasing baking pans
- 2 cups kale, chopped

- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

- 1 chicken breast

- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- Salt/pepper to taste

Steps:

(1) Preheat oven to 500.

(2) Grease two baking pans with olive oil, making sure entire surface is coated in oil.

(3) In a pan, cook kale on medium-high heat with a dash of salt until leaves are just wilted. Set aside.

(4) Cut chicken breast into strips, and season each side with salt and lots of pepper. Soak chicken strips in the lemon juice for about 10 minutes. Cut into bite size pieces, then set aside and start prepping the pizza dough.

(5) Cut dough into 3 pieces. Take one piece of dough, lightly flour both sides, and then stretch and smooth into the desired shape/thinness. Do this with all three pieces. Please stretched dough into baking pans. (I used a 13x9 cake pan + 9x9 square pan)

(6) Spread 1 tsp on the surface of each pizza.

(7) Divide 1 cup mozzarella between 3 pizzas.

(8) Divide cooked kale and chicken bits between 3 pizzas, spreading them evenly on top of the mozzarella.

(9) Sprinkle remaining cup of mozzarella between 3 pizzas, on top of the chicken/kale mixture.

(10) Bake for 8 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.

One year ago: Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

Pepperoni Pizza

Mmm, pizza. Pizza pizza pizza. Is there anyone in the world who doesn't love pizza? Show me a person who says they don't like pizza, and I'll show you a liar. I mean, what's not to love about it? Tender (or crispy, or chewy) crust...tangy or creamy sauce...gooey melted cheese...and any yummy topping you could possibly want or think of...Is it any wonder that "Pizza Day" is basically every single kid's favorite day in the lunchroom?

Dan and I are very loyal Domino's customers (Pizza Hut has better wings, though), but I've been dying to make my own pizza for a while now. The Crumbly Cookie blog had a few tasty-looking posts about homemade pizza last year, and they've been sitting in my queue of bookmarked "must try" recipes since. But, with my repeated failed attempts at handling yeast, I had no confidence in my ability to make pizza dough, so I put off doing it, rationalizing that I couldn't make pizza properly anyway since, hey, no pizza stone. Then, this past weekend my stunning success making focaccia gave me a huge boost of confidence, and I figured, hell, let's try pizza!

(Yuck, this pizza did NOT photograph well...tasty though!)

I've been  really into the Pioneer Woman lately, so I actually went with her pizza recipe instead of Crumbly Cookie's, although as far as I could tell, their recipes were substantially similar if not identical. Yeast, flour, and salt mixed together, followed by a slow, cold rise in the fridge over night. My luck with yeast held, and the dough was wonderful. After many hours in the fridge it was more stretchy than sticky, despite not having as much flour as you'd expect, and it was easy to pull and stretch it into the shape and thinness I wanted. Awesome!

For the sauce, I cheated and went with store-bought Ragu. What can I say, I was feeling lazy, I didn't have crushed tomatoes or tomato paste, and Ragu is perfectly good pizza sauce in a pinch! Anyway. After saucing the dough, I loaded it down with shredded mozzarella, colby jack, parmesan, and pepperoni slices. 10 minutes at 500 degrees later, Dan and I were sitting down to a very delicious, cheesy, tender-crusted homemade pepperoni pizza. A very satisfying dinner, with plenty leftover for Dan's lunch. I still have enough dough for another pizza, so...keep your eyes peeled for another pizza post soon,  probably with white sauce and lots of vegetables.

Recipe can be found here, courtesy of The Pioneer Woman.

One year go: Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

Easy Veggie Pizza

Ah, Superbowl Sunday. A day of feasting on fat things -- chips, dips, fried things, sweets, and every possible permutation of breaded chicken.  Great for the taste buds, not so amazing for the waist line. Who was it that said "a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips"?

So I decided to whip up something healthy-ish (but still tasty) for the Superbowl party Karen and I were going to.  I've made this dish for other parties and it's always been a big hit.  No one can resist pizza!  And besides, what's healthier than a big pile of raw vegetables?

One of the best things about this recipe, aside from its taste and simplicity, is how pretty the final product is. With so many different vegetables mixed together, there's no shortage of eye-catching colors -- it's like eating the rainbow, or maybe a Picasso painting.  I like to use cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, cucumbers, and red onions, but if you like peppers, bell peppers and banana peppers are also a nice touch.

You know that Hidden Valley Ranch commercial where a bunch of kids are at a birthday party and they're gobbling up vegetables like candy because everything is covered in Ranch dressing? This is kinda how this pizza works -- take a flaky crust, cover it with creamy Ranch-y stuff, then load it up with vegetables that complement the sauce.  It's like a veggie platter disguised as something much more appealing.  Guess what future my kids are going to get when I want them to eat vegetables?

Easy Veggie Pizza

Ingredients:
2 cans, 8oz. Pillsbury crescent rolls
1 package dry ranch dressing
3/4 cups mayonnaise
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
Any vegetables you want (I tend to use broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, onions, and cauliflower)

Steps:
(1) Preheat oven according to crescent roll label. (Usually 375 degrees)

(2) In a medium-sized bowl, mix ranch dressing, cream cheese and mayo until smooth. Set aside.

(3) Chop vegetables into small pieces (See pictures -- I use a faux-Bullet hand chopper). Mix vegetables in large bowl and set aside.

(4) Unroll each crescent roll onto a lightly greased pan. Bake as directed. (About 12 minutes, or until rolls are golden brown.)

(5) Once rolls are cool, divide dressing mix between the two pans and spread evenly.

(6) Top rolls with chopped vegetables.