Pizza and Salad

 

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to try more recipes.  All too often last year 6:00 arrived and we had no clue what was for dinner.  Cluster Truck, a trip down the street to Murphy’s at Flynns, grilled cheese…  Time to change.  I created a spreadsheet to track our progress.  Name of the recipe.  Where to find it.  (Not as easy as it sounds with 2500 cookbooks and thousands of saved recipes either in print or electronic version.)  Where have I posted it – blog, biz website?  How did we rate it?  The great news is since December 17, 2022 we’ve tried 18 new recipes.  Eighteen.  That’s kind of a lot.  Average rating of 3.8 on a scale of 1-5.  Actually I’m pretty certain we’ve never had a “1.”  I’ve thrown away some 2’s that I probably should’ve labelled a one.  But I didn’t.  Out of the 18 we had three 2’s.  Two were just incredibly blah.  And one was salty.  Kinda like licking a salt block salty.  That I threw away and it should’ve been a one.  We had three three’s and seven four’s and five five’s.  Not a bad distribution of scores! 

By the weekend I was down to three recipes on the to-try list. Time to hunt in the freezer and figure out what I want to use up over the next week.  Chicken thighs, ground pork, sweet Italian sausage, cod, shrimp and a container of rice from a run to Golden Dragon were all in the freezer.  Some smallish potatoes and some naan bread were hanging out in the kitchen.

Next up, hunting for recipes for all of the goodies.  I love eatyourbooks.com.  And, I’ve usually got a stash of recipes to try on my desktop.  And, then there are the cookbooks I’m in the midst of reading.  A plethora of choices!

Naan bread makes some of my all-time favorite pizzas.  Without the dough-making effort.  On to eatyourbooks.com where I kept seeing references to the Emily Cookbook. Pizza with sausage plus a salad of broccoli, orange and feta would be one evening. 

Cod Florentine with a roasted potato salad on the side would be another.  Then, bacon, egg and shrimp fried rice would use up a bunch of things.  A recipe for chicken and wild rice in a cream sauce would be great with a side of carrots.  And, last but not least lettuce wraps with the ground pork would be wonderful with a side salad of shaved zucchini and radishes.  Connie headed to the grocery for the few items we needed and we were ready to start cooking! 

I’ve been a big fan of broccoli salad ever since my friends Helen and Bob took me to a cute little diner out in the middle of nowhere.  Their broccoli salad was very finely diced.  No horsey sized pieces of broccoli.  Just a lovely mix that meant you got some of everything in every bite.  I feel the same way about vegetable soup where I like all the veggies cut to about the size of a pea or a kernel of corn.  Lots of goodness in every bite!  This broccoli salad came from Taste of the South.  I get the magazine on Readly and love it along with their sister publication that showcases New Orleans. 

We skipped the tomatoes and used Rao’s pizza sauce.  Just like their marinaras I rarely buy any other brand.  It’s just plain the best I’ve had.  We didn’t have cheddar cheese curds but I did have a lovely wedge of white cheddar that would be a good substitute.  Time to cook!

What did we think?  A solid five out of five for both of them.  I think I could’ve just sat down with the bowl of broccoli salad and polished that off for dinner.  It was amazing.  Despite a lot of substitutions the pizza also was a solid five.

Broccoli Orange Feta Salad

Serves 10

Ingredients:

½ c olive oil

¼ c sugar

3 T Dijon

2 T apple cider vinegar

2 T fresh orange juice

2 t kosher salt

½ t ground black pepper

8 c chopped broccoli (about 2 large heads)

2 large navel oranges, sectioned

1 c diced red onion

1 c crumbled feta cheese

½ c sunflower seeds

½ c golden raisins

 

Directions:

Make the dressing first with the first seven ingredients.  Toss together the other ingredients and the dressing.  Chill for a couple of hours to allow the flavors to blend. 

 

Adapted from Taste of the South

 

The Camp Randall Pizza 

Ingredients:

2 large naan breads

½ lb sweet Italian sausage, crumbled, browned and drained

½ c Rao’s pizza sauce (the recipe calls for crushed tomatoes)

¼ c grated pecorino Romano (we used Asiago)

10-12 cheddar cheese curds, cut in half (we used ¼” white cheddar cheese cubes)

12 thin slices green bell pepper (I used ½ of a bell pepper)

6 cremini mushrooms, very thinly sliced

 

Directions:

Spread ¼ c of pizza sauce on each naan bread.  

Top that with the sausage and Asiago or Romano.  Then sprinkle on the bell pepper, mushrooms and cheddar curds or cheese cubes.  

Bake at 500 until the toppings are bubbling, about 5-10 minutes. 

 adapted from The Emily Cookbook