GET HEALTHY ~ EAT SALAD

Incorporate more fresh salads into your diet and enjoy the health benefits; putting it on a pizza – not so much. 

One of my favorite salads is the Cobb salad; crisp bacon, avocado, chicken, tomato and eggs diced and placed in perfectly aligned rows atop a bed of fresh greens.  How bad can that be for you?  Actually, for many years, I deluded myself into believing that a salad was a salad no matter what the ingredients were or how they were prepared.  As salads go, the Cobb can be a real bad boy with around 750 calories and 50g of fat per serving, depending on the type of dressing.  Oh yes, those counts are for salad with grilled chicken!  Now, is it just me, or do you think 'healthy' when you hear someone say, "salad with grilled chicken?"

After moving to Arizona, I began to incorporate local ingredients and spices into our meals.  I wondered if my beloved Cobb salad could go southwestern and still maintain its original integrity.  So the experimenting began; I season the breaded chicken cutlets with chipotle chili powder, used roasted red peppers, pepper jack and Manchego cheese for a southwestern flair and created an avocado ranch dressing to pull it all together.  My guess is that one good sized serving of my salad had upwards of 1,000 calories and God only knows how much fat.  Now the next question – could my savory southwestern Cobb work as topping for a pizza.  Answer – yes, yes and yes!

To make my Sunny Southwestern Chicken Cobb Pizza, I pre-grilled one side of the dough, flipped it over and spread it with roasted red pepper pesto; I then topped it with a mixture of Monterrey jack and pepper jack cheese.  I sliced my previously sauteed breaded chicken tenders crosswise and lined them up around the pre-grilled dough on top of the cheese; diced onion, halved cherry tomatoes and a light sprinkling of cheese came next; then back onto the grill for some healthy baking. 

While the pizza was doing its thing on the grill, I tossed some shredded romaine lettuce with the avocado ranch dressing.  After removing the pizza from the grill, I cut it into serving size pieces, topped it with the dressed romaine and sprinkled the minced hardboiled egg and diced cooked bacon over all.  I seasoned it lightly with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper and topped it with shaved Manchego cheese.  Although it did not have the neatly lined up rows of finely diced ingredients found in a traditional Cobb salad, I must say, it totally exceeded my expectations.  It was like eating my much-loved Cobb with a hunk of warm bread.   Try grilling some dough and topping it with one of your favorite salads – you may be surprised at the delectable end result.



Sunny Southwestern Chicken Cobb Pizza



Lu's Ludicrous 'Lobsta' Bake Pizza

Knowing how much we miss the taste of sweet Maine lobsters now that we reside in Arizona, my sister Luann surprised us on one of our trips to Connecticut by preparing an old fashioned New England lobster bake.  She kicked off the festivities with an appetizer of three dozen huge shrimp swimming in cocktail sauce.  They were so big, they looked like lobster tails!  Then, the ludicrous lobster bake began.  Lu, AKA the queen of excess, served a quarter bushel littleneck clams, a quarter bushel mussels, 15 one and one half pound lobsters, 4 dozen ears of corn and enough melted butter to float a small fishing boat.  You may be asking why I call this 'ludicrous'.  Well, truth be told, there were not twelve guests, not even ten.  No, there were only five of us at her table that night!  We talked and laughed and we ate, and ate, and ate until we could eat no more.  Amazingly, we didn't even have to trek to a beach and build a fire pit- she did it all in her kitchen.   


This pizza is my version of Lu's lobster bake and although it may take more preparation time than you would normally spend making a pizza, you will experience the taste of a traditional New England lobster bake with each bite, making it well worth the effort.

After stretching the dough into a large rectangular shape, I liberally brushed it with melted garlic infused butter into which I had stirred fresh chopped parsley and chives.  I topped this with a layer of shredded mozzarella, fontina and Parmigiano cheese onto which I nestled the clams and roasted corn kernels.  Pieces of oven roasted tomatoes, cooked diced red bliss potatoes and some sliced, smoked Cajun Andouille sausage covered the clam and corn layer which was then topped with the remainder of the cheese blend.  I was going for the layering here that one finds at a true clam or lobster bake - minus the seaweed of course.  While the pizza baked on a hot stone on my grill, I sautéed cooked chunks of lobster in the remaining garlic/herb butter.  This was the crowning glory - gently placed over the entire pizza as soon as it came off the grilI.  I finished the pizza with a hit of lemon zest, freshly squeezed lemon juice, more grated Parmigiano, red pepper flakes and sea salt.  Upon taking my first bite, I could almost smell the smoke from the fire pit and hear the waves crashing onto the shore as the sun set on Russian Beach in Lordship.

Look for this recipe in Pizza Memoirs or drop me a note and I will gladly share it with you.

Holy Pizza Testing ~ Cannoli Anyone?

It is usually not difficult to scare up a few volunteers who are willing to taste-test my pizzas; this past weekend was no exception.  When I told my neighbors that I needed to test my Holy Cannoli Pizza, they were all over it! 

Not long ago, I was thinking about one of my visits to our daughter Jen in Connecticut.  She lives only a few blocks from what is called the Italian section of town.  On this particularly beautiful fall day, she was at work and I decided to go for a walk to get some exercise.  As I put on my sneakers, I was feeling really good about choosing to do something that would be beneficial for my health.  I walked for quite some time, taking in the beauty of the fall foliage and enjoying the cool, crisp air.  Then, before I knew what was happening, I was within a few feet of Lucibella’s Italian Bakery.  Oh no, now what?  Well, I thought, it would be foolish to be this close and not go in to purchase a cannoli!  Having instantly convinced myself that there was no other choice; I went through that familiar old door straight to dieter’s hell.  As you can probably guess, I did not leave that marvelous little bakery until I had purchased a box full of cannoli and other tasty treats.  What an amazing afternoon!  And when Jen called to ask what I had been doing, I said proudly, “I went for a long walk.”  [Note to self: wipe powdered sugar off face before Jen gets home.]

I created my Holy Cannoli Pizza to pay homage to the cannoli, one of my very favorite desserts.  With just a hint of cocoa and cinnamon in its crunchy shell and a filling of sweetened creamy ricotta studded with bitter chocolate and candied orange peel, I can think of no more perfect, portable dessert. 

In order to replicate the crispy shell of the cannoli, I used a bit of cocoa powder and cinnamon in the dough, stretched it quite thin and then grilled it for 3 to 5 minutes per side directly on the gas grill grates. After the finished crust came off the grill, I spread it with a simple, yet delectable filling of creamy ricotta that I sweetened with confectioners’ sugar and flavored with vanilla, orange zest and chopped bitter chocolate.  I finished the pizza with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar, a sprinkling of chopped pistachio nuts, candied orange peel and more chopped chocolate.   My revised recipe calls for chocolate curls to finish off the pizza – it just looks fancier! 



Holy Cannoli Pizza



I must say that this was not the prettiest looking pizza I have ever made, but it ranked among the top five most delicious of all the pizzas I have made since I began writing Pizza Memoirs.  My husband Charlie loved it and he would not walk across the street for a cannoli (he's not Italian) and Faith and Charlie, two dedicated pizza taste-testers, loved it and said they would not change a thing.  If I could, the only thing I would change would be to make it calorie free!

Cold, Wind and Rain - PIZZA TESTING TIME

It is a cold, windy and rainy day in Tucson – quite unusual weather for the month of May.   OK, by cold I mean 67^o   and by rainy I mean a few intermittent spritzes as the wind blows the clouds through.  It feels like a dreary late winter’s day in Connecticut, and I am thinking of warm comfort food.  So what’s new?  This will be a good night to test a pizza and it will have to be something that is warm, creamy, tasty and just plain comforting.  The choice is made – Auntie Ann’s Creamy Chick ’n Mushroom Pizza, good old fashioned comfort food reminiscent of the chicken and cream of mushroom soup casserole popular in the 60s and possibly the 70s that every woman knew by heart.

I created this pizza for my cousin Kenny who described his favorite food as the aforementioned chicken and mushroom dish his mother, my Auntie Ann, used to make for him.  I could almost taste it as he spoke of the ‘usual’ spices she added and of the garlic.  Kenny said, “Everything had garlic as I remember.”…a statement that brought me right back to our childhood days.  I never thought of Auntie Ann as a great cook because I saw her as more of a career woman who kept very busy running Ann’s Newfield Bakery, but Kenny said he “…used to love that chicken served with the mandatory salad containing plenty of olives.”  My guess is that Auntie Ann would never have imagined that her son’s very favorite chicken dish would one day become a pizza.  When you make this pizza, don’t forget to serve the ‘mandatory’ salad.

          Auntie Ann’s Creamy Chick ’n Mushroom Pizza

Ingredients:

1 cup	From one can (10 ¾ oz.) cream of mushroom soup – recommended brand Campbell’s
3 tablespoons	Fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped; plus additional for garnish
¼  teaspoon	Kosher salt, plus additional for seasoning
½ teaspoon	Freshly ground black pepper, plus additional for seasoning
4 ounces	Whole milk mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 - 6 ounce	Boneless skinless chicken breast or thigh cut into ½” strips *
¼ teaspoon	Garlic powder
4 tablespoons	Extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon	Unsalted butter
3 cloves	Garlic, chopped
6 ounce	White button mushrooms, cleaned and thickly sliced **
8 to 9 ounces	Prepared pizza dough at room temperature
2 ounces	St. Andre triple crème cheese cut into ¼” slices

Directions:

1.  In a medium bowl, combine cream of mushroom soup, parsley, salt, pepper and mozzarella cheese.  Set aside for topping.

2.  About 15 to 20 minutes before preparing pizza, season chicken strips with salt and pepper to taste and garlic powder.  Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat.  Sauté chicken until it loses its pink color and browns slightly.  Remove from pan and when cool enough to handle, cut into bite size pieces.  Set aside for topping. 

3.  Add the butter to the pan in which you sautéed the chicken.  Heat on medium-high until butter foams.  After foam subsides, add garlic and stir a few times.  Add mushrooms and season with pepper to taste; toss to combine.  Cook for a few minutes undisturbed, then stir occasionally and cook until mushrooms are lightly browned, about 5 minutes.  Set aside to cool and use for topping.

4.  Roll, stretch and shape dough into an unrefined 12 by 14 inch rectangular or circular shape according to basic directions.  Brush both sides of dough with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and place on a large, rimless baking sheet or pizza peel that has been dusted with cornmeal.  Carefully lift dough and lay it on the preheated grill (see Grilled Pizza Primer).  Close grill lid and grill for 3 to 5 minutes or until bottom of crust is golden brown with darker grill marks.  Remove from grill with tongs and place grilled side up on a flat baking sheet or pizza peel. 

5.  Spread soup/cheese mixture evenly over grilled side of dough to within 1/2” from edge.  Carefully slide pizza onto grill, turning burner directly under pizza to low.  Close lid and bake for 4 minutes, or until soup and cheese begin to melt.  Using tongs, carefully remove pizza to a pizza peel; immediately close grill lid.  Scatter chicken strips over pizza, top with sautéed mushrooms and St. Andre cheese.  Turn off burner directly under pizza.  Return to grill and bake for 6 to 8 minutes longer or until crust is firm, topping is bubbling and cheese is melted. 

6.  Remove from heat and sprinkle with chopped parsley.  Cut and serve immediately.

**Tip:  To clean mushrooms, brush with a dry pastry brush or wipe with a damp paper towel; trim stems and

*Super Time Saver: Use 4 to 6oz. of cooked chicken breast or thigh meat, sliced, cubed or shredded and skip step #2.

I have to be honest; my expectations for this pizza were not that great.  Even as I was creating the recipe, I doubted that it could work, but was determined to give it my best shot.  I’m happy to report that I was so very wrong!  The seasoned condensed cream of mushroom soup and shredded mozzarella cheese had just the right consistency to hold everything together as the pizza baked.   The mushrooms had a full earthy, garlic flavor – Aunt Lena would be proud of me.  The final layer of St. Andre’s Triple Crème cheese was this pizza’s crowning glory; it completed the pizza with a depth of flavor and a creaminess that not only replicated the original chicken and mushroom dish, but elevated it to a whole new place in the food chain.  As we came to the end of our meal, pizza peel sitting in the middle of the table with only crumbs to remind us of the wonderful meal we had just consumed, I could swear I heard Auntie Ann singing “The Party’s Over!”   

Which Came First the Chicken or the Barnyard Pizza?

Even before our granddaughter Julia was able to walk; her love for all animals was evident.  We have pictures of her when she was less than 6 months old,  sitting in a box with her grandma Bubbie’s dog who was giving birth to a litter of puppies at the time.  The look on her face was one of pure love – she was at one with those pups!  In addition to the family pets, a German wire-haired dog named Ophelia and a really fat cat named Smithers, she is the proud “mother” of 5 chickens, 5 ducks, 2 guinea pigs and 2 rabbits, all of which she lovingly cares for and feeds. She takes after her grandma Bubbie who loves all animals and has taught Julia about the responsibility of having pets.  I still cringe when I think of the day that Julia, who was about three years old, was showing me how she feeds her guinea pigs.  Before I knew what she was doing, she had the cage open; guinea pig cradled in both her hands and was stretching her arms up toward me, asking me if I wanted to hold him.   Well, my daughter-in-law Kim probably noticed the blood drain from my face as I fumbled for a reason to say no.  “Ammie Lin can see him better if I hold him,” Kim said.  We laugh about it now, but I didn’t think it was funny at the time.  I love dogs, but I keep any other creatures at arm’s length, not really understanding my unrealistic fears.  I read stories to Julia about animals, we sing songs together about animals, but that’s as far as I can go with it.  She is 5 years old now and I can still see her as a little bit of a thing singing “Old MacDonald”….she knew every animal sound before she could even put a sentence together.  While you are preparing this pizza with your children, encourage them to sing a few verses of that wonderful old song being sure to sing about the toppings - with an oink, oink here and a cluck, cluck there.....E-I-E-I-O!!!

Julia's Barnyard Pizza

Julia’s Barnyard Pizza is easy to make and great fun to eat.  The ‘big kid’ in our household, Charlie, loves having an entire breakfast on one piece of pizza.  I tested this pizza a while ago and decided to write about it when I received the picture of Julia and one of her chickens that was taken this Easter.  If you notice, in the story I said she was 5 years old and now she is nearly 7….time is passing way too quickly and I have been working on this book way too long! 

To make this pizza, simply cut some breakfast sausage links into small pieces, sauté about two cups of frozen shredded potatoes until nearly done, stretch and shape your pizza dough and you are ready to assemble the pizza.  Spread the dough with a thin layer of tomato sauce (Hunt’s works well).  Sprinkle on some shredded cheddar cheese and, using tongs, make four ‘haystacks’ out of the pre-cooked potatoes and, using the back of a spoon, make a well in the top of each haystack.  Scatter sausages around the potatoes and bake in a very hot oven for about 5 minutes; remove from oven and carefully slide one egg into the well on each of the four haystacks.  Top with more cheddar and bake for about 7 minutes longer or until eggs are set and crust is golden.  Another option is to cook the eggs separately and place on pizza after it is baked. 

The first time I tested this pizza, I placed the raw eggs into the potato ‘haystack’ wells before placing it on the hot stone in my gas grill.  It looked quite beautiful and I was so proud thinking that this was a winner and I would not even have to revise the recipe.  Well, that was a short lived dream.  I opened the grill and deftly jerked my pizza peel to position the pizza on the hot stone and to my horror – thunk, thunk, thunk, and thunk!  Each of the four eggs kept going after the dough stopped in its place on the stone.  Oh yes, now I remember something I learned long ago about an object in motion.   What a mess – eggs everywhere.  I quickly scooped them back into their wells, which were clearly not deep enough and baked the pizza for which I had already lost my appetite.  Of course, that didn’t stop me from eating it.  After finishing it with a nice squirt of ketchup, salt and pepper, I cut it into four pieces and the real fun began.  We folded the crust around the sausage, potatoes, egg and cheese and we experienced a taste more remarkable than any breakfast sandwich we had ever eaten.   

The second testing of the pizza was considerably more successful.  Pre-baking the pizza for 5 minutes helps the crust to firm up so you can just slide it off the pizza peel when placing it back onto the stone for the remaining baking time.  So, not to worry about flying eggs if you try this pizza, just remember to pre-bake and enjoy the process.

You will find the complete recipe for Julia's Barnyard Pizza in Pizza Memoirs.

Spana~KO~Pizza

Spanakopita is a surprisingly savory strudel of sorts that is to Greeks what pizza is to Americans.  My first and only attempt at making it for my husband, whose mother was Greek, was somewhat of a failure.  My problem was that I did not know how to work with phyllo dough.  The fine sheets tore as I handled them, came apart as I brushed butter on them and dried out completely while waiting to be used.  The spinach filling was quite good, though, and I baked it in a casserole, admitting defeat.  Many years have passed since then and my fear of phyllo stands firm. Thus, I decided to eliminate it from my repertoire and create a pizza using a traditional spanakopita filling on amazing whole wheat pizza dough.  This pizza is my way of ‘thumbing my nose’ so to speak at phyllo.

For the topping, I lightly sautéed chopped onion and scallions for a few minutes.  I then stirred in frozen chopped spinach that had been thawed and drained, parsley, dill, nutmeg, salt and pepper.  I found the dill and nutmeg gave the mixture a complexity of flavor present only in the best spanakopita.  After this mixture cooled a bit, I folded in a good amount of crumbled feta cheese.  Now to top the pie - I scattered shredded mozzarella over the oiled dough and distributed the spinach/feta mixture evenly over that.  Pine nuts and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano completed the pizza topping.  It baked up to golden perfection in about twelve minutes on my smoking hot pizza stone.  After removing it from the heat, I topped it with freshly grated lemon zest.



Spana~KO~Pizza



Since I have to be mindful of portion sizes in order to stay within my daily points plus range, I allowed myself two small slices – for lunch.  It was so amazingly savory and gooey; I then proceeded to have another slice – afternoon snack.  OK, so now I was trying to wait for another fifteen minutes so my brain could catch up and register satiety which takes the normal brain about twenty minutes; time to package the rest of the pizza and put it away for dinner.  As I placed the package into the refrigerator, the struggle continued.   “You know you are going to eat the rest of this for dinner,” I said to myself, “so why let it get cold?”  “Just take it out of the ‘fridge and let it sit on the counter,” I continued, “There is nothing in it that will go bad.”  So onto the counter went my tidy foil package containing the rest of that fabulously, delicious Greek delight of a pizza.  Twenty minutes passed and I realized that the voice in my head must have been so loud it prevented my brain from doing the satiety thing it was supposed to be doing.  Now I had to put my new behavior modification skills to work.  In order to break an old habit (eating when not hungry, for example), one should do a new activity in its place to form a new habit.  Taking a walk is a good example; so I did what I was taught.  I took a walk – right over to the counter, placed the last two slices of the Spana~KO~Pizza on my plate, sat down and had dinner at 3:00 P.M.  What is it they say about not being able to teach old dogs new tricks?  That afternoon put me about three days into my points plus value for the week, but I did not give up.  Lesson learned – for now.  But let me tell you, it was worth every bite.  That savory spinach filling on a pizza crust satisfies sufficiently – who needs phyllo?

SHRIMP COCKTAIL REVOLUTIONIZED

Over the years, I have served shrimp cocktail more times than I can count.  Eventually, boredom set in and boiled shrimp with no frills cocktail sauce held no charm.  I began experimenting with new sauces and dips, trying everything from sickeningly sweet to killer spicy – learning the hard way to use wasabi powder in moderation.  Realizing that the shrimp also played a part in this lackluster appetizer, I marinated them in garlic, oil, salt, and crushed red pepper, grilled them and dipped them into a fragrant, nutty roasted red pepper pesto.  Success!  The combination was incredible and thus became my go to shrimp cocktail appetizer.  This revolutionized shrimp cocktail was the inspiration for my Shrimp and Red Pepper Pesto Pizza.

I have tested this recipe before and found it to have amazing depth of flavor resulting from the interplay of the roasted red pepper pesto and the piquancy of the Manchego cheese.  There were also several varying textural levels from the crispiness of the crust to the smooth, buttery texture of the cheese and the slight crunch remaining in the freshly sliced red peppers and onions that added to the overall complexity of this pizza; and the shrimp, because they were nestled in the pepper pesto and cheese, were cooked to juicy perfection.   With such great results from my first test run of this pizza you might be wondering why I must test it again.  For the first test, I baked the pizza on the outdoor pizza grill and it now needs to be baked in a conventional oven as per the recipe.  Yes, the amount of testing that is needed before finalizing recipes for Pizza Memoirs is mind boggling.  So, let the testing begin. 

I placed my cold pizza stone on an oven rack in the top third of the oven and began heating the oven to 500^o Fahrenheit.  Wanting to insure that the stone was truly heated to the maximum my oven would allow, I preheated the stone for one hour.   After slipping the prepared pizza off my pizza peel onto the very hot pizza stone and quickly closing the oven door, I began shredding the fresh basil leaves to use as the final garnish.  Within four minutes, I noticed the top of the pizza was already beginning to brown.  Oh no, that’s not good.  I probably should have placed the stone a little lower in the oven; isn’t hindsight wonderful?  Within nine minutes, the pizza was browned, glistening with the oil from the cheese and ready to come out of the oven for its final garnish of basil leaves and freshly grated lemon zest.  As the blend of yeasty, peppery, buttery and herbaceous scents reached my nose, I was jolted back to reality by two words that raced across my mind like an Arizona dust devil,  ‘Points Plus’.  Yes, my dream of eating half of this amazing work of art was dashed against the rocks of reality and with renewed resolve to remain faithful to my Weight Watchers plan for another day; I sat down at the table and SLOWLY consumed two small pieces of my Shrimp and Red Pepper Pesto Pizza. 



SHRIMP AND RED PEPPER PESTO PIZZA



 Yum, yum, and yum…it tasted as good as it looked and smelled; I could have easily eaten two more pieces.  Two, who am I kidding?  I probably could have eaten the entire pizza.   Instead, I silently repeated a quote I read in one of my Weight Watchers books – “Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels.”  Hang in there all my friends who are working so hard to improve your health; if you believe you can do it, you can do it.    Linda