Desert Snowstorm Prompts Pizza Testing

It was 4:17 AM Sunday, February 27^th when the sound of the wind whistling through an unlocked window awakened me.  I got up to secure the window and couldn’t believe my eyes as I peered outside into the darkness.  It took a few seconds for it to register, but yes, I was seeing snow.  Beautiful, fluffy snowflakes were coming down at a pretty good clip, covering the ground and blanketing cacti, trees and shrubs alike; the Sonora desert looked pristine and magical.  The wonder of the scene brought me back to our winters in Connecticut, and the magnificence of freshly fallen snow and the bitter cold, and the incessant shoveling, and the ice; reality check – that’s why we left Connecticut.  For some reason, seeing the snow set me to thinking about Christmas back east, and since nearly every one of my holiday memories is somehow connected to food, I found myself thinking about Christmas dinner.  I could almost smell the large, luscious roasted prime rib of beef, each slice crowned with cool, creamy horseradish sauce.  Our feast also included a casserole of cheesy garlic mashed potatoes, puffed in the oven until golden brown and a full array of vegetables; each regally dressed for the Christmas feast.

The Big Horseradish Twice Baked Potato Pizza is the reinvention of our traditional Christmas dinner.  My fine Christmas china is replaced by yeasty pizza dough upon which the rest of the fabulous feast bakes to perfection.  I just couldn’t get the memory of this meal out of my mind so I decided to test the Big Horseradish pizza before I actually went out of my mind.  Since I successfully incorporated pizza into my Weight Watchers meal plan last week and lost 2.4 pounds, my fear of taste testing pizzas for Pizza Memoirs has somewhat diminished.  I do remain acutely aware that portion control is key.

The Big Horseradish Twice Baked Potato Pizza

This pizza truly replicated our prime rib dinner in its original form with one exception; the taste of the steak was a bit subdued.  It didn’t stand out as the entrée course of a dinner should.  The roasted garlic paste base, melted Gruyere and horseradish mashed potatoes melded perfectly, providing well rounded flavor with each bite.  Recipe revisions include placing smaller spoonfuls of the mashed potato mixture on the pizza, leaving room for the taste of the steak to come through in each bite; and making sure the steak is rare when sliced and placed on pizza.  In reality, I would be perfectly happy leaving the steak out altogether and placing larger dollops of the mashed potatoes on the pizza; the potatoes were that good!  I could then classify it as vegetarian – doesn’t that sound healthier? 
Thank God I am a lifetime member of Weight Watchers.


The Perfect Bite