Barbecue Pizza! (And way too much effort, holy cripes)

Hello again fair reader!

As you may (or may not) remember from my previous post, my boyfriend likes simple things when it comes to food - I, as the cook, like complex ones. I usually win, being cook and all, but try to compromise ... he likes pizza, pasta, couscous, all those basic staples, so I usually get weird with one of those as a base. Pizza is often my go-to because, honestly, it's super simple.

So, feeling ultra confident in my abilities, I decided to make a barbecue pizza. Easy-peasy, right? Too easy, said my brain, let's throw some homemade caramelized onions on that sucker!

Groan.

 So, I diced two onions super thin, put then in a pot with a pat of butter, and got to work. But I didn't have two things necessary for caramelized onions - a cast iron (or general not non-stick) pan, or like 5 hours. Caramelized onions take a heap of time, folks. So I found this killer recipe -15-minute caramelized onions - from the brilliant J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. Now, if you have a regular pot/pan, yours may take only 15.5 minutes. I only had non-stick (it's so pervasive!) and so it took me, I dunno, like 30 minutes. Still not typical caramelized onion time, but also still a pain.

Brown, damn you!

So, about 30 minutes (and one exasperated and starving boyfriend) later, I had this:

Much better!

 

Then came time to dress the pizza! Now, I'm only a mild masochist - I had already spent way too much time on onions, I wasn't about to try to do BBQ sauce from scratch, and Trader Joe's had a new delicious Kansas-style mustard based sauce that I just had to try. Plus, I was already there for their awesome pre-packaged pizza dough (again, not a complete masochist), so why not? I tossed the dough, and spread on some of that delish sauce.

Then I added the caramelized onions, grilled chicken, mozzarella and some brussels sprouts (for crunch and cause they're awesome - just don't steam them) and baked away. I was gonna take process pics, but le beau and I were ravenous by this point, so you get this instead:

Heh. Sorry.

 

We got a little carried away with the eating, but dang was it good! Fully recommended, though maybe buy some caramelized onions instead. On the bright side, we had a surplus so I've been throwing them in everything - sandwiches, on eggs, in salads, you name it! Total diet upgrade.

We also threw back some wine with it, Dearly Beloved's I Thee Red.

I want Dia De Los Muertos skulls on everything!

 

Pretty stellar for the price, not to dry or woody or whatever you usually get with reds, but still nice and complex. Why no, I don't know anything about wine, thanks for asking.

 

Anywho, thus concludes another awesome dinner in the Herban household - happy experimenting, everyone!

Fun with chopped salads!

I've always loved chopped salads ... ever since I was little and my mom used to order them as a special treat from CPK, they just remind me of home. Yes, even though they weren't homemade. My mom likes cooking, but she's never seemed to have the knife-love I do. Wait. That sounds bad. I just love chopping, I swear! It's like catharsis to me, something I can stand in the kitchen, listening to music, and just methodically do. So, naturellement, I love chopped salads and I love making them myself. Being strictly happy-meat-and-only-occasionally-mostly-vegetarian-ish means that I can't really order chopped salads anyway, they're always laden with delicious salamis and such. But man, homemade chopped salads are nothing to sneeze at! Seriously, go wash your hands. Gross.

I started out with some oh-so-tasty baby zucchini. I like mine raw - it has a really nice crunch that's different from most veggies - but if you wanted to cook it, your taste is all that matters.

I used about 2 per salad.

After slicing into rounds, I diced them finely; I like my chopped salads to have a little bit of everything in every bite.

Then ... things went a little monochrome. Green zucchini, green cucumber, green olives, green artichoke hearts ... I needed some color variation. Cue the cheese and tomato!

Ah, yes, much better.

Now, this setup is fine if you are making one chopped salad for the day. But I decided to pack mine up in jars, so that I could just pull them out at a moments notice, dress, and munch.

Here in the pictures above, you will see me committing a silly error for the sake of prettier pictures.

When you pack up your jars (or tupperware, or what-have-you), you need to put the juiciest items on the bottom, so they don't juice all over your lovely crunchy ingredients. So now, I had the fun task of separating them into three portions while separating them from the other chopped ingredients. This was NOT efficient, and was a gigantic pain in the buns.

Tomatoes-> artichoke hearts-> olives-> cucumbers-> zucchini-> cheese. Whew.

Now, I am a garlic fiend. I love it. I love it roasted spread on baguettes, I love it sauteed in pasta, I love it diced and raw in salads. It's delicious. It's spicy. It's smelly, and my boyfriend hates it, and he wasn't at home so I don't care I love it.

You know how to peel garlic, right? You take out the clove, lay a wide knife on top, and WHACK! Hit it hard with the side of your fist till the wrapper comes off. Et voila!

Flat. As in parallel to the board. As in don't slice your hand. Knife safety!

 

Then I dice it super-fine, sprinkle over the top, and mmmmmm.

 

Now, this salad is looking a little ... vegetable-y. Needs some protein, and a punch or flavor! TO THE GARBANZOMOBILE!

 Again, garbanzos (chick peas, that stuff you make hummus with) are a divisive factor between the beau and I. I love, he hates, we compromise and I eat them at lunch. I blame his conservative English-Italian East Coast family, but the Italians love them some spices so ultimately I blame the Brits. I, West Coaster that I am, had no choice but to love the flavahs ... my mom's rule with food was 'you have to try it once - if you still hate it you never have to eat it again.' Fair rule mom, well played. So, I get my freaky food fix on at lunch time, so the beau doesn't have to deal.

You know the drill - dice up the garbanzos, toss 'em in.

Next, Tofu Time. Don't roll your eyes at me, kid, wait and hear me out. Baked tofu. You are not allowed to say you don't like tofu till you have seen what it can do. Now, this post is already too damn long, so I'm going to bore you later with tofu facts and a baked tofu recipe. Just make it, dice it up, throw it in that salad and thank me later.

Check out that bountiful bounty!

Learn from my mistakes. Don't put the freaking lettuce in the freaking jar. I had every intention to eat those salads over the next few days. Honest. Forgetting, of course, that it was a holiday weekend. And that my boyfriend had Friday off. Whoopsie. So there the lettuce sat, slowly wilting, sad and lonely - yes, even the mighty arugula (lettuce of choice 85% of the time). Awful. Don't do it. Just leave your jars half empty until you are about to eat them, then you throw in that leafy goodness. And let me tell you, this is one killer salad. Flavor like crazy, low cal, almost non-existent fat, nutrients like crazy, and it keeps you nice and full so you don't go snacking. What do you mean, am I trying to get in shape? Such accusations, I swear!

Sweet manna from heaven.

Anywho, that's it for real-post numero uno. Feel free to switch out any ingredients that set your little heart a-fire, and happy munchin'.

A lesson hard learned ...

If you're starting a blog about making stuff (particularly foodstuffs), you have to take pictures. Ingredients, process, finished product, etc. NOT just scarf it all down cause it's SO DELICIOUS.

A note to self.

Downhome Traditions - with a kick in the class!

     I'll be taking down-home classics and giving them fun modern twists - think classic cocktails gone jello shots, handpies with crazy fruit, mashups of East-vs-West ... If you think of something fun, don't hesitate to email me!

      All right ... let's do this thing!