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

 

 

 

Marinated Broccoli Salad

How to tell it's been a busy week around our house.  There are three cat food bowls in the sink and two wine glasses in the dish drainer.  Otherwise, the kitchen appears to be unused.  Lunch is what we can find from the freezer because there are no leftovers.  The mail is stacked neatly in the mail cubby.  And, on the desk because the cubby is full.  There's a stack of current papers on my hassock.  And, when you open my blog there's nothing new there.  Ah, yes, Christmas season is upon us. 

Tuesday I went to a continuing education meeting followed by a cocktail hour at a new restaurant right up the street.  I was deep in conversation with my friend Matt (whose mom provided the awesome roasted cauliflower recipe that we love so much) when the wait staff announced we needed to clear the room for the next batch of folks.  There were boxes to take home the rest of the appetizers if we so desired.  Sign me up.  It'd mean Connie'd have a great dinner.  Shrimp cocktail, New York strip slices, toasted ravioli, pizza, brownies.  All from the new Harry and Izzy's - an offshoot of St. Elmo's Steak House.  Connie inhaled the goodies when I got home.  We're looking forward to eating dinner there sometime next time spring when the lines die down!

Wednesday, we met our friends Donna and Phil for dinner so we could see them one more time before they head to Florida for the winter.  More and more of our friends are becoming snow birds.  It's making me feel old!  This time, we headed to Noah Grant's in Zionsville.  They have a really fun wine list.  Normally, I can pick up a wine list and know half the bottles.  This time I knew one winery and that was it.  We wound up with a bottle of pinot noir that was just about perfect.  Shooting Star.  Donna took a photo of the bottle so I'll be able to get a copy and hopefully find the wine.

Thursday was the monthly wine dinner at Chef Joseph's.  He really outdid himself this time.  Our favorite was a black sesame cone filled with a shrimp and jalapeno concoction with a melon salsa on the side.  I'd happily devour one of those daily.  We sat with folks we've gotten to know over the years so that made it even more fun. 

Ah, ha!  That means I have an opportunity to go into the vast archives of photos I've taken and chat about a wonderful recipe that never made it to the blog.  Not too long ago I bought the Neely's Celebration Cookbook.  If those folks are as much fun as they sound, I'd love to spend a day with them!  The cookbook has fantastic recipes - many of which are on my make soon list. 

My contribution to the Thanksgiving dinner was two vegetables and an appetizer.  Brother John suggested broccoli since that's something that everyone will actually eat.  My mind immediately went to this recipe.  It's a bit different from the traditional broccoli salad.  And, will be my go-to version in the future.  It's perfect.  I wouldn't make any changes to the recipe. 

Marinated Broccoli Salad

Ingredients:
6 c broccoli florets
2 T honey
3 T red-wine vinegar
1 t crushed red pepper flakes
freshly ground black pepper
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 c slivered almonds, toasted
1/2 c dried cranberries

Directions:

LIghtly steam the broccoli.  The original recipe called for blanching it which will work also.  I just prefer steaming the broccoli.  You want it to be tender crisp and bright green so don't overcook it!  To stop the cooking, immerse it in a bowl of cold water.  Drain it well and put it in a big bowl. 

Next, you're going to make the dressing.  Whisk together the honey, vinegar, pepper and crushed red pepper.  Slowly whisk in the olive oil. 

Toss together the broccoli, cranberries, almonds, bacon and red onion. 

Drizzle the dressing over and toss.  Serve.

from The Neely's Celebration Cookbook

Truffle Oil Broccoli

Mom and I were chatting the other day about go-to vegetables.  Broccoli's at the top of the list.  When I was a kid it was normally the frozen variety.  Now that the fresh stalks are available year-round, we rarely buy frozen.  But, plain old steamed broccoli is a bit boring in my opinion.  Connie's too.  A few years ago, I tried a recipe for roasted broccoli.  It was just amazing.  So, we switched our allegiance to roasted.  Sometimes I toss it with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Sometimes just the olive oil.  Other times, I finish it with a bit of lemon juice, soy sauce and sesame seeds.  As I was reaching for the olive oil the other evening, I spied the white truffle oil.  Hmmm.  I wonder how that'd work?  Never know if you don't try.  I tossed the broccoli with a bit of white truffle oil and roasted it just like always.  When it came out of the oven, I sprinkled it with just a little bit of black truffle salt.  Heavenly!

Truffle Oil Broccoli

Ingredients
fresh broccoli
truffle oil
truffle salt (optional)

Directions:
Cut the broccoli into florets.  Toss with some truffle oil.  Roast at 500 for 15-20 minutes or until some of the florets have turned brown and crunchy.  Serve sprinkled with a little truffle salt if desired.