Salad Pizza

Have you ever walked into a pizzeria and tried a slice of their delicious salad pizzas around lunchtime?? If you haven't I urge you to give one a try next time. I like these specialty slices because the crisp lettuce, fresh juicy tomatoes and sweet roasted red peppers on top of the crispy pizza crust with a garlicky homemade Italian dressing give it the perfect combination to feel like you are having both pizza and salad. I don't know about you but here in NJ this type of cold cheese free pizza is very popular even if you have to eat it with a fork and knife.  I tried to model my own version of salad pizza after my favorite slice which comes from La Casa in Westfield, NJ and I think I really nailed it!!

Ingredients for Pizza:

Pre-made Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

1 1/2 Cup Tomato Sauce

1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning

1/2 Head of Iceberg Lettuce - Sliced into strips

2-3 Large Ripe Tomatoes

12 -15  Roasted Red Pepper Strips

Small Onion sliced raw if desired

Pam Spray

Ingredients for Italian Dressing:

1/3 Cup Olive Oil

1/4 Cup Red Wine Vinegar

1 Tsp Dried Oregano

2-4 Cloves of Garlic Minced or Pressed

1/2 Tsp Salt

1/4 Tsp Black Pepper

Preheat your oven to 425 F. Spray your pan with Pam and set aside. Roll your pizza dough out on a lightly floured surface. Place 1/2 in thick pizza dough in pan stretching it to fit. Cover with tomato sauce, then sprinkle with Italian seasoning. Bake 15-18 minutes till sauce is bubbling and crust is crisp and light brown. While the pizza is baking you can make the Italian dressing so it has some time for the flavors to combine.

In a mason jar or salad dressing container combine all of the ingredients for the dressing (minced or pressed garlic, red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano). Close the container and give it a few good shakes. Allow it to sit for a bit than shake it again.

When your pizza is cooling you can prepare your toppings. Wash and slice the iceberg lettuce into thin strips, slice the tomato, drain and slice the roasted red pepper into strips and thinly slice the raw onion if you are choosing to use it. When it is ready spread the lettuce all over the bottom in a decent layer covering all of the sauce, arrange your sliced tomato nicely on top then place your roasted red pepper strips around and in between all of the tomato. If you are using the raw onion you can place that on top as well.

Give your Italian dressing another few good shakes and slowly pour about half of what you made on top of the pizza. Be careful not to over dress it as it will make the pizza soggy. I suggest eating this pizza immediately as it taste the best fresh and cold. If you choose to save the left overs, separate each piece with foil so the dressing doesn't make the crust soggy.

Enjoy!!

Toasted Coconut Key Lime Pie

Yummm!! I can honestly say without any regret or guilt that I ate about half this pie myself and loved every bite. The toasted coconut on top of the bed of freshly whipped cream with the smooth tart filling and the sweet crumbly graham cracker crust makes for the perfect bite. It's not a very hard pie to make and it's a great dessert for a warm evening so give it a try before the summer is gone!! 

Ingredients for Pie:

14 oz can Sweetened Fat Free Condensed Milk

14 oz can Unsweetened Lite Coconut Milk

3 -5 Limes (1/3 Cup Fresh Juiced and 1 Tsp Zest)

7 Large Egg Yolks

Ingredients for Topping:

1 Pint Cold Heavy Cream

2 Tbsp Sugar

1/4 Cup Toasted Coconut

Adapted from: http://www.marthastewart.com/

Ingredients for Crust:

1 1/4 Cup Graham Cracker Crumbs

1/3 Cup I Can't Believe it's Not Butter - Melted

1/4 Cup Sugar

Pinch of Salt

Keebler.com

Preheat the oven to 375. In a medium sized bowl combine the graham cracker crumbs with sugar and a pinch of salt. In small microwave safe dish melt your butter or margarine. Pour the butter into the bowl with the crumbs and mix until just combined. Transfer the crumb mixture to a 9 in pie place.

Using the back of a fork push the moist crumbs into the bottom and up along the sides of the dish until it seems to be set and firmly packed. Bake in the oven 6-8 minutes until light brown. Allow to cool for about 30 minutes before filling.

In a large bowl pour in the coconut milk, condensed milk, lime juice and egg yolks. Using a whisk combine everything together until it's smooth. Pour the filling into the cooled pie crust. Take one of the limes you juiced and zest it over top of the pie before placing it in the oven for a little extra lime flavor. Reduce the oven to 350 F and bake about 40 minutes until the pie is just a little wobbly in the middle.

Let the pie cool for an hour or so on a wire rack and then in the fridge for 1-2 hours. While the pie is cooling you can make the whipped cream and toasted coconut. In a stand mixer bowl that has been in the freezer for about 10 minutes whip the cream and sugar together on a high speed until stiff peaks which should take about 3 minutes. In a small pan over low heat toast the coconut until it is just crisp and golden brown. Spoon freshly whipped cream over top of the pie before serving. Sprinkle with toasted coconut. Slice and Serve!!

Enjoy!!

Linked at: http://www.thecountrycook.net/

Lemon & Dill Grilled Salmon

Every week I walk by the Seafood department and see beautiful pink pieces of Salmon. I love almost all seafood but Salmon has never been my favorite so I've never prepared it at home even though John loves it. I decided to take on the challenge and give it a try this week.  I love the combination of lemon and dill on seafood so I made a simple sauce and put it on the grill with some asparagus. It was easy and quick to make plus it tasted amazing, John told me he thought I could serve it in a restaurant and even Owen ate a few bites of it!! The salmon was moist and the sauce was buttery this recipe definitely swayed my thought on Salmon and we will be having it again sometime soon. 

Ingredients:

About 1lb Fresh Wild King Alaskan Salmon

2 Tbsp Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 Tbsp Margarine

1 Tsp Dried Dill

1 Tsp Dried Basil

1 Tbsp Honey Dijon Mustard

1 Tsp Salt

4 Cloves Garlic - Minced

2 Dashes Cayenne Pepper

Adapted from: http://www.inspired2cook.com/

In a small pot combine all of the ingredients for the sauce. Mix everything together stirring occasionally over medium heat. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, allow it to simmer for about 5 minutes.

Using heavy duty tin foil place the salmon skin side down in the middle of  a large piece. Fold all four sides up creating a little boat for the fish. 

When the sauce is done slowly pour it over the top trying to keep most of it on the fish. Some of the oil will slide off into the boat but that's fine. If you need to spread it out evenly over the entire piece of fish with your spatula.

Preheat your outdoor grill to about 400-450 degrees. Place the foil on the grill and close the lid for 10-12 minutes. Conveniently the asparagus take just as long so I chose to grill them at the same time with just some olive oil, salt and pepper, turning them once while they grilled. If you aren't a fan of using a grill or you don't have one you can close the foil packet and bake this recipe in the oven at 350 F for 15-20 minutes.

You'll know the fish is done with it looks opaque, flaky and lighter pink instead of dark pink and shiny. The edges may be slightly crisp from the skin which is fine. Allow it to cool for a few minutes when you get it inside then slice into pieces and serve. Part of the reason I don't usually prefer salmon is the skin and in this preparation it stuck onto the foil so I was pleasantly surprised I didn't have to pick it off my piece.

Enjoy!!

Linked at: http://www.thecountrycook.net/

Irish Soda Bread

This month for Secret Recipe Club I was assigned The Harried Cook.  Marsha's blog has lots of different baked goods, delicious looking scones, muffins and cookies that are totally worth checking out. I wanted to find something for St Patrick's day since we are only a week away and I was in luck when I came across Marsha's recipe for Irish Soda Bread. I usually buy Irish Soda Bread from the food store in the days leading up to St. Patrick's Day. I like to put a slice in the toaster oven for breakfast with a little bit of butter. ShopRite's version of it has raisins and since that's what I'm used to eating, I decided to add raisins to my loaf. I really enjoy the little bit of sweetness they add to the bread. This recipe make a huge loaf which is great if you've got a lot of mouths to feed or like to share your baked goods with other people. I love that this is a bread you can make without yeast and the time it takes to wait for it to rise. In fact since I still have the buttermilk in the fridge I may just make another loaf to eat with our corned beef and cabbage next week.

Ingredients:

4 Cups Bread Flour

4 Tbsp Sugar

1 1/2 Tsp Salt

1 Tsp Baking Soda

1 Tsp Baking Powder

4 Tbsp I Can't Believe it's not Butter - cold & diced

2 Cups Cold Reduced Fat Buttermilk 

1 Egg

1 Cup Raisins

A little all purpose flour for kneading

Preheat oven to 400. Put parchment paper or something similar down on your baking tray, if you don't have either you can grease your baking tray with butter or spray it with Pam. In a small bowl combine the wet ingredients (buttermilk and egg). Set aside.

Combine the dry ingredients in your mixer bowl (flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and baking soda). Mix on a slow speed until combined. Add the diced up cold butter and mix again on a low speed.

Slowly add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients while the mixer is running on a low speed. Only allow the dough to mix until it is just combined. Do not over mix the dough. It will be wet and lumpy but that's what you want. 

Add the raisins and gently mix them in using a spatula.

Transfer the dough onto a well floured surface to knead. Knead the dough which will disperse the raisins more throughout the whole loaf. Form the dough into s round loaf and transfer it onto the baking tray shaking off some of the flour.Using a serrated knife cut an X into the dough.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until the whole loaf is golden brown. The base of the loaf should sound hollow when knocked on the counter.Transfer to a rack to cool completely. Slice and serve. Keep wrapped in foil until used.

Enjoy!!

An InLinkz Link-up

NYCWFF 2014 - Down Home Country Brunch

I'm so sorry it took me this long to tell you about the rest of our weekend last month at the New York City Wine & Food Festival. As most of you know my mom and I got to go to the festival because of the generosity of Shoprite and after attending and working the Grand Tasting on Saturday we got to go to the Down Home Country Brunch on Sunday at the Midtown Hilton hosted by Trisha Yearwood. 

I liked the Down Home Country Brunch more than the Grand Tasting as it was smaller and much more intimate. They set up these lovely tables in a big beautiful ballroom so you could go and get plates of food down the hall and then come back to your table and actually enjoy it. We brought along two out of the three of my sisters so it was nice that we could all sit and eat together. They also gave us a full menu of the food choices and who made them which made it easy to know what foods were worth waiting in line for.

These shrimp and cheesy gits with collard greens and ham were the best plate of the day in my opinion. Lev Gewirtzman is the chef and owner of Mayfield in Brooklyn and I'm dying to go and try out what wonderful creations he has in store for his guests. The white shoepeg corn pudding that went along with the BBQ ribs was really good as well from the Hill Country BBQ Market.

One the left is monkey bread french toast that had a bourbon maple syrup from Bo's Kitchen and Bar Room. On the right is our host's Country Quiche. As most of you know Trisha Yearwood is married to Garth Brooks and apparently it was his idea to put cheese tortellini in her sausage and tomato quiche recipe. I wouldn't think to do that but it was delicious and hearty :)

Here I am with Damaris Phillips who was the winner of The Next Food Network Star Season 9. She is from Kentucky and has an adorable southern accent, I'm so glad I got to meet. She hosts the show "Southern at Heart" on the Food Network where she teaches guys to cook for their ladies which I record on my DVR every Saturday morning!!

The little cup on the left was Damaris's Cornbread in sweet milk that had a drizzle of honey. Although it sounds like a strange combination it was clearly my families favorite as every single one of us brought two or three of those tiny cups back to our table. There was something about the cold milk with the cornbread that made it delightful. The plate on the right was open faced shrimp benedict from Damian McDowell from Marietta in Brooklyn.

We even got to meet the beautiful and talented host of the brunch Trisha Yearwood who sang a few songs for us acoustically after we were all done eating to promote her new album Prizefighter coming out later this month,

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NYCWFF 2014 - Grand Tasting Presented by ShopRite

This past weekend we had the opportunity to attend the New York City Wine & Food Festival courtesy of ShopRite!! We both were so excited for it and the events we went to turned out to be amazing!! We are so lucky to have been sent by ShopRite, and we can't wait for next years festival :) On Saturday afternoon we were invited to the Grand Tasting on the pier to both experience and work the event. There were hundreds and hundreds of booths set up with vendors giving out tastes of both food and alcohol. There is no way anyone can try everything that is available, even if you had the whole 5 hours and a huge appetite so you have to carefully pick and choose what's worth it to you. 

Fleet Street Kitchen located in Baltimore, MD had what I would consider to be my personal favorite bite of the day which was their Braised Short Rib. They also offered a Pumpkin Triffle that had mini marshmallows on top. I paired these two delicious offerings with Entwine Pinot Grigio. My other favorite bite of the day came from Crave Fish Bar located in New York, NY which was a Smoked Scallop that was topped with olive oil, fig and pumpkin seeds. That was the only bite I actually had two of but didn't take a picture of it either time...Sorry!!

Here we are in front of the Cupcake Wine truck. We were total advocates for the Wine Glass Necklaces which make holding your tiny plates of food easier as your beverage dangles in front of you. Just be sure not to walk around with it full. Plus an extra bonus is it keeps the amount of glasses that break during the event minimal since everyone has them hanging from their necks!

This Churro flavored pretzel with Nutella dipping sauce was from the Cooking Channel booth. They also had an Everything pretzel with honey mustard sauce as well as a Za'tar pretzel with middle eastern spices paired with a Tazaiki Greek yogurt dipper, but I was in a dessert kind of mood. Since there aren't a lot of tables and chairs set up we grabbed our pretzels and went over to watch one of my favorite food network stars!!

This is Rachel Ray doing a cooking demo on one of the two stages set up in the rear of the pier. Notice the large mirror above her, it allows all the people watching to really see what she's doing in all those orange pots and pans. Afterwards she was taking questions from the audience and even let a few people taste what she made which was some kind of pasta casserole. 

These fancy bites were from a booth set up that was promoting a sweepsteaks to win a trip down to Mexico City. All 3 were signature dishes of 3 different famous chefs from Mexico. We had a Mexican Wonton with minced meat and pomegranate perils, decadent chocolate mousse with fresh whipped cream and mint and huge shrimp cocktail with vegetable tapenade and micro greens.

I totally chickened out for a picture with Aarti Sequeira who won The Next Food Network Star season 6 in 2010. She was a food blogger just like me and won the whole thing with lots of flavorful Indian dishes. She hosts the show Aarti Party and is often a judge on Guy's Grocery Game or other competitive programs.

At the end of the day it was our turn to work the Potluck Blog area of the ShopRite booth. We were out in the crowds talking to people and handing out recipes that are currently on the ShopRite Potluck blog!! It was so exciting knowing that hundreds of people took one of our recipes so hopefully we have increased our following and got the Potluck blog more publicity. 

Sweet Thai Chili Grilled Shrimp and Vegetable

Stay tuned to hear all about The Down Home Country Brunch we went to on Sunday morning in the Midtown Hilton, hosted by Trisha Yearwood!!

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