the best pizza I’ve ever made

I’m getting used to seeing lots of greens in our farm box every week during these winter months.  I’ve done tons of recipes with swiss chard and kale.  Some good.  Some not so good.  But I enjoy the creative challenge of figuring out how to use them

This week, we had collard greens.  The biggest most beautiful looking leaf I have ever seen.  As big as a palm branch.  I could have fanned myself if it weren’t a freezing 66 degrees in our house.

So I went to my trusty website www.epicurious.com to find out what I could do with these gorgeous greens and came across the pizza recipe that will undoubtedly go down as the best pizza I’ve made so far.  Friday night is usually make your own pizza night, so I decided to try it .  The kids, of course turned up their noses at the green stuff and added none of it to their pizzas.  But followed the recipe online and made a few of my own changes and Leif and I devoured it.  I think I might have to actually seek out collard greens in the grocery store to make this pizza again. 

Pizza Bianca with Goat Cheese and Greens

(Not my photo, my pizza looked even better, with a little red pepper and red onions!! YUMMY)

Pizza Dough (this is the easiest, best homemade pizza dough recipe I’ve used – comes from America’s Test Kitchen – I love those people)

• 4-4 1/4 cups bread flour
• 2 1/2 tsp (or 1 envelope) instant yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tbls olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups warm water

Seasoned oil

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

Topping

• 1 bunch greens (about 10 ounces), of any kind - ribs cut away
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 8 ounces whole-milk mozzarella cheese, coarsely grated
• 4 ounces soft fresh goat cheese, crumbled (about 1 cup)
• red pepper, sliced
• red onion, sliced
• Yellow cornmeal

For dough:
Pulse 4 cups of flour, yeast, 2 tbls sugar and salt together in a food processor fitted with dough blade.  With .processor running, pour the oiled, then water through the feed tube and process until a dough ball forms.  30-4o seconds.  Let the dough rest for 2 minutes and then process for another 30.  if after 30 seconds, the dough is sticky and clings to the blade, add the remaining 1/4 cup flour 1 tablespoon at a time as needed.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and form into a smooth ball.  Place the dough in a large lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap.  Let rise in warm place until double in size 1 1/2 – 2 hours.

Turn the dough onto floured counter and divide in 2 equal pieces (or more if you have kiddos who like to each make their own).  Cover in GREASED (don’t forget that part) plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.  Working with one dough ball at a time, press and roll out into circle and transfer to baking sheet or stone.

 

Meanwhile, prepare seasoned oil:
Mix oil, garlic, and red pepper in small bowl. Let stand 1 hour.

For topping:
Cook greens in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, about 2 minutes. Drain. Rinse under cold water; drain. Squeeze dry, then coarsely chop. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in small skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and stir 30 seconds. Add greens and stir 1 minute. Season to taste with salt.

Preheat oven to 500°F.

Sprinkle rimless baking sheet with cornmeal. Roll out dough on floured surface to 13-inch round. Transfer to baking sheet. Sprinkle mozzarella over dough, leaving 1-inch border. Scatter greens over mozzarella. Top with red pepper, red onions and goat cheese. Brush crust edge with some of seasoned oil. Set aside 2 teaspoons seasoned oil; drizzle remaining oil over pizza.

Bake pizza until crust is brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven; brush edge with seasoned oil and serve.

Book 1: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

To keep me honest on my bucket list, I will blog about the 30+ books I am hoping to read this year.  The finished the first last week.  And to start the year off right, it was a non-fiction.  If you remember, I am hoping to read at least 3 within the year.  I’m not a huge non-fiction reader… so will be a good challenge for me.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is a true story that begins in 1951, when a poor black woman named Henrietta Lacks dies of cervical cancer, but pieces of the tumor that killed her were taken without her knowledge or consent and have lived on, first in one lab, then in hundreds, then thousands, then in giant factories churning out polio vaccines, then aboard rocket ships launched into space. The cells from this one tumor would spawn a multi-billion dollar industry and become a foundation of modern science--leading to breakthroughs in gene mapping, cloning and fertility and helping to discover how viruses work and how cancer develops (among a million other things). Meanwhile, Henrietta's family continued to live in poverty and frequently poor health, and their discovery decades later of her unknowing contribution--and her cells' strange survival--left them full of pride, anger, and suspicion. For a decade, Skloot doggedly but compassionately gathered the threads of these stories, slowly gaining the trust of the family while helping them learn the truth about Henrietta, and with their aid she tells a rich and haunting story that asks the questions, Who owns our bodies? And who carries our memories?

(excerpt taken from Amazon review)

I thought the book was very well written, with an incredibly engaging story line.  It read like a piece of fiction.  I enjoyed the ethical debates brought about by the book and would recommend it to anyone interested in family history, science and bioethics.

4.0 out of 5 stars

Greek Fish Florentine

We eat a lot of tilapia in this house.  One of only a few fish we eat – that an salmon.  I should have added ‘try a new fish’ to my 38 Bucket list – but I’m a bit scared.  

Tilapia however, is mild and easy fish.  And I have a few go to recipes that I always seem to make with tilapia.  Now I’ve got one more.

From Clean Eating magazine.  (I didn’t include measurements – as I just guessed and used what I had on hand)

tilapia fillets

grape tomatoes

1 clove garlic

1 tbls Italian parsley

lemon juice

2 shallots, diced

olive oil

baby spinach

feta cheese (how ever much you feel – for a bag of spinach 12 oz, I used about 1/2 cup)

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place fillets and tomatoes in glass baking dish.  Sprinkle garlic, parsley, and lemon juice over the top.  Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes (until fish is opaque and flakes easily).

In medium skillet , sauté shallots in oil for 1 minute.  Add spinach, cooking until wilted, about 5 minutes.  Stir in feta and heat until melted and event distributed.

Serve tilapia on top of spinach mixture, finishing with baked tomatoes.

(Nutrients:  1 fillet and 1 cup spinach mixture:  Calories 311 . Fat 11 ,Carbs 20. Fiber 2; Protein 36g)

 

So yummy, so easy and so good for you!!

I too have a problem…

This could seriously be me.  Only I have an additional problem.  I can’t get rid of books.  Even truly awful books.  For some reason, I can’t part with them.  I have no intention of ever reading them again (or finishing them for that matter) and would never lend them out to even my worst enemy to read.  Yet I continue to hang on to them.  And it seems they are gathering together …. see all these books in the photo?  Couldn’t finish any of them (excpet the Gladwell ones – those are Leifs)

But why can’t I toss them in my Goodwill pile?  Or donate them to the library sale?  It’s not that I have ample space to keep all these books.  Shelves, drawers, and tables are nearly over flowing in every room in our house.  Perhaps, when every inch of this book shelf is full.  After Leif’s nerdy books have found their own home.  And the comic books have gone elsewhere.  And all the photos and extra stuff have been squeezed out.  Perhaps then I will be forced to weed out those less then recommended books. 

Or maybe we’ll just go to IKEA and buy more shelves….

 

By the way, to find the above poster and tons more really funny stuff, head here: http://thoughtballoonhelium.blogspot.com/

My list of 38

On my 38th birthday, I read my horoscope and it said “Invite an exciting future that delights you.”  So I sat down to make a list of 38 things I want to do this year – my 38th year – that will delight me.

I hope to get back to my blog this year (see #22) and plan to keep track of my progress of my list here.

1. Read 30 books (at least 3 of them non-fiction)

2. Travel to Ireland, France and Norway

3.  Lose 30 more pounds

4. sew something wearable

5. Knit a hat

6. Plant a vegetable garden

7. Hike Rattlesnake lake with the kids

8.  Pickle something (beans, cucumbers, beets, eggs…)

9.  Purchase a big, comfy, colorful reading chair

10. Participate in a new fundraising event

11. Beat Lynn at 1 game of Words with Friends (at least once)

12. Join a new organization that I care deeply about

13. Take a yoga class

14. Discover a new Washington town

15. Donate blood

16. Refinish new/old chairs

17. Take a cake decorating class

18. Go to three art exhibits

19. Attend a seminar of some kind

20. Use fondant icing

21. Participate in bible study class

22.  Blog more (at least once a week)

23. Plant clematis and figure out support system

24. visit Cannon Beach

25. find a poet I like and read their works

26. make handmade gifts for family

27. read my daily meditation book regularly and do the exercises

28. fill up my current journal

29. make cheese

30. Attend ballet, symphony or opera (or all three)

31. potty train Beckett

32. kayak

33. go to one music concert

34. visit/hike around mt. Rainier

35. be better about sending cards and writing letters

36. make lefse

37. volunteer some place new

38. Tell my family how much I love them – everyday

There.  I said it and it is now in print.  Feel free to hold me accountable.

Thanks again for all the birthday wishes…. it’s going to be the best year yet!!