It's a love/hate relationship these days... (Sweet Potato Pizza)

Love/Hate.

Words that are on opposite ends of the spectrum.  Well, kind of.

I would say that love and apathy are on the opposite ends, in actuality.

But let's roll with this.  We hear it all the time. "I have a love/hate relationship with ______________." It might be a person, a situation, or in my case, a food.

Sweet Potato Pizza.  It's a love/hate thing, for sure.

Let's get the LOVE out there, first and foremost.

This might possibly be the best tasting pizza that has ever graced my kitchen.  Wait, might? Nah... IS.  This IS the best tasting pizza that has ever graced my kitchen.

The blend of garlic and sweet potatoes, combined with a Parmesan and fresh greens top... WOW.  And that Trader Joe's garlic herb pizza dough?  Um, HELLO.  This is vegetarian goodness that my super carnivorous husband asks for again and again.

So yes, we LOVE this pizza.

And for the HATE?

Well, that is primarily experiential.  The first three (three!) times I made it I looked at those vibrant oranges and greens, and I couldn't take pictures of it.  Darn sun that kept setting too early!  So I had to keep making it again.  And again.  And again.  Until finally I had enough light in the day to take pictures (hooray for Daylights Savings Time -- a food blogger's best friend).  But then my sweet potato was white when I peeled the skin away.  No vibrant orange for me.  Oh, the let down!  So you will just have to trust me that this is, indeed, a sweet potato pizza.

And the other bad thing?  Easy.  It goes away too fast when all I want to do is keep eating more... because really, I can't get enough.

I guess love wins.

SWEET POTATO PIZZA

ingredients

• 1 pack fresh pizza dough or make your own (I used Trader Joe's... $1.29)
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and thinly sliced                                                     
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 head garlic, peeled
• 1 T olive oil + 2 T more
• salt/pepper
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan
• 1 cup fresh greens (baby lettuce, arugula, etc.)

directions

1.       Prepare pizza dough according to directions on package.  Mix sweet potato, onion, and garlic with 1 T. olive oil and a bit of salt/pepper in roasting pan.  Cook at 400*F for 10 minutes or until soft. 

2.      Spread dough out on pizza pan or baking tray.  Brush with remaining olive oil.  Spread cooked sweet potato mixture on top.  Top with cheese.  Bake for 13-15 min. at 400*F or until lightly golden brown.

3.      Remove pizza from oven and top with fresh greens.  Cut and serve.  ENJOY!

 COST: $5.24           COST PER SERVING (3): $1.75

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Tomato Pizza with Ricotta and Oregano

I live in a cave.  No, not literally.  Figuratively.  (Although living in a cave literally could be pretty awesome if it was outfitted correctly.  And there were no bats.  None.)

The problem is this: there are windows facing the East and windows facing the West, but not a single window facing North or South.  So if I get really early in the morning I can catch some good light in the guest room (AKA sports equipment room + ironing room + art supply room + random box holding room).  But that doesn't work on days I have to go to work.  Or if I am in the right spot at the right time in the evening, I can catch some good light on my kitchen floor.  Yes, floor.  Hey -- my options are limited.

But today I discovered lighting gold.  If I move my toaster and my olive oil and -- well, you get the picture -- I have a little area that has pretty good light.  Not perfect, but better than most places in my cave.  This may sound pathetic, but I did a little happy dance over that.  Taking pictures on the counter so beats taking pictures on the floor!

This great light captured some even greater today -- tomato pizza.

Did you know I don't like pizza?  I mean, it is OK, but I hate tomato sauce on pizza.  HATE it.  So I have to find a place that has pesto or white sauce like Round Table.  And then there is all that cheese.  Makes a body not so happy, at least in my experience.  Sure, the taste buds like it, but the digestive track?  Not so much.  At least not ooey-gooey cheese like mozzarella.  But this pizza?  Well, thank you Everyday Food for suggesting it to me!  No tomato sauce and instead of ooey-gooey cheese it is a ricotta and Parmesan blend.  Not as hard on my belly.  And of course, fresh tomatoes!

As for the oregano, I pulled a little bit out of my herb garden.  I always feel a little bit like Laura Ingalls Wilder when I eat something that I planted myself.

So, for this generally-non-pizza-eating-girl and her Brazilian-pizza-eating-husband (which, by the way, ROCKS and would beat American pizza in Rock Paper Scissors each and every time), how did this pizza score?

TEN!  From both of us.

Sorry, Round Table, but there is a new pizza love in town.

Tomato pizza with ricotta and oregano

Recipe adapted from Everyday Food, September 2012

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb. fresh pizza dough (I used garlic-herb dough from Trader Joe's -- only $1.29)
• 4 T olive oil
• 1 c. fresh whole milk ricotta 
• 4 oz. grated Parmesan
• 1 egg
• 2 pints small tomatoes (either grape, cherry, or mini-heirloom -- I used the heirloom)
• 1 large heirloom tomato, any color, cut into half moons
• salt and pepper
• fresh oregano, to top

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 500F with racks at the thirds.  Take pizza dough and drizzle 2T of olive oil on top.  Roll out into a 16-inch oval and place on baking sheet.
2. Mix ricotta, Parmesan, and some salt (1/8 teaspoon maybe) in a bowl.  Beat in egg.  Spread on top of pizza dough, leaving a 1-inch border.
3. Mix the small tomatoes with the remaining olive oil (2T) and salt and pepper to taste.  Put in an oven-safe dish or rimmed baking sheet.  No need to cut them first.  Place the pizza dough on the top rack in  the oven and the tomatoes on the bottom rack, and bake for 15 minutes, or until tomato skins have burst.  Remove tomatoes and bake pizza dough about 5 minutes more, or until deep golden brown.  
4. Mix the large heirloom tomato pieces in with the cooked ones.  Place on top of pizza when it comes out of the oven.  Top with fresh oregano.  Enjoy! :)

COST: $9.84   Cost per serving (4): $2.46

Plus a side salad, $2.91 per plate

Avocado Pizza

Like you, I have fallen in love with Pinterest.  (Like how I just assumed you do?  Well, if you are reading this you probably are a fan of sharing things via the web, which makes me assume you like Pinterest.)  If you haven't jumped on the bandwagon, you really should.  Why?  Because I find great ideas there.  Like this one.  Avocado Pizza.

It's not really a pizza in the traditional sense, but it has all the same elements.  Bread base (pocketless pita bread), sauce (avocados mixed with lemon and salt), and toppings (an egg, sunny-side up).  But it has one thing pizza doesn't have -- a five minute time period, start to finish.

Four easy steps --
1) heat the pita bread on both sides
2) spread 1/2 of an avocado mashed with lemon juice and salt
3) put a fried egg on top
4) eat

Pretty simple, huh?  A pretty tasty, too.  This is my third one this week, if that is saying anything.

You have a weekend to enjoy, and so do I, so I will stop talking about this and just tell you to do it.  You will be coming back to thank me, I am pretty sure.  And then I will be thanking the makers of Pinterest for allowing us to be flooded with such great ideas, all day long ;)

Cost per Pizza: $1.01

Him & Her: The anatomy of a couple

My husband and I are an "us".  And I love that.  Together we are a young couple, enjoying life and sunshine.  We are a family -- a little family, but a family.

But we are also two individuals.  There's him --

and there's me --

Notice how incredibly cool his list is.  Surfer?  Drummer?  These two words scream, 'Not boring!'  (And that stuffed snake around his neck?  It was handed to him by a five year old, and he was very obliging.)

My list, however, is a bit different. 

Reader.  Writer.  Photo-taker.  Not quite in the same category as surfer, huh? 

Oh well.  I am cool by my own right.  It just doesn't look like that on paper.  Good thing paper doesn't define me.

At least we have the last one in common.  Being a goofball trumps them all.  And we are so darn good at it!

Sometimes we switch rolls, though.  Like last summer when I  tried, and succeeded, at getting up on the surfboard.  Need proof?

I look I am going fall over, huh?  That's because I did right after this picture was taken.  But I don't care.  I am up.  On a surfboard.  Am I a surfer?  No way.  But I can surf...

This past weekend my husband tried on one of my hats and made some pizza.  Luckily for him the dough was already made by our friend and all he had to do was roll it out and put toppings on it.  Still, he did it!

Is he a cook?  No way.  But he can cook...

Way back when we were first dating, like first dating (maybe 1 week into it) I was in his mom's kitchen making soup with her (BTW, I was staying with his family in Brazil when we started dating.  We joke around that his mom fell in love with me before he did, but I think it really is true...).  I needed some onions to be chopped and so I asked him to come in to do it, and he did.  I didn't think much of it until his mom said, "Eh necessario uma americana para fazer um brasileiro ir para a cozinha."   (It takes an American woman to get a Brazilian man into the kitchen.)  HA!

This time it wasn't an American woman but an American friend that got him in there.  But look at him!  He is like a pro!  Sure, he had some help, but so did I with the surfing.  And I must say, Caleb's dough with Paulo's toppings made a great pizza. 

Looks like we are rubbing off on each other...

Pizza and a Movie (Cooking in the Classroom)