Baked Potato Pizza

I recognize that this sounds weird. You're just going to have to trust me on this one.

My cousin started making this baked potato pizza for family gatherings a few years back--now, pretty much every time we have a potluck-style party, she brings it, because everyone always gobbles it up.

A pre-made pizza crust, topped with homemade creamy mashed potatoes, cheddar cheese, bacon pieces and green onions? Yes, please.

When we were having a potluck lunch at work, I perused a ton of recipes before I finally decided to go with something tried and true--even though *I* had never made it myself! A quick text to my cousin for help on the amount of potatoes, and it was a done deal.

This is as easy to make as the mashed potatoes, because once they're done, this comes together really quickly. I bought a pre-made crust from the pizza department at our grocery store. If you don't have something similar, you could use a Boboli or the like. Or, if you don't mind a little extra work, you can use any pizza dough--store-bought or homemade. Just make sure to pre-bake the crust for a bit before putting on the toppings!

Although many of my coworkers were all, "Whaaat?" when I told them what this was, the finished product won them over. It'll win you over, too.

Baked Potato Pizza
(Source: Unknown. Shared by my cousin, Lindsay!)

Ingredients:
- Pre-made pizza crust, or your favorite dough, pre-baked (16" is a good size)
- 4-5 russet potatoes
- milk, butter, salt, pepper, garlic, sour cream, etc. (for mashed potatoes)
- 8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
- 5 strips bacon (I use turkey bacon)
- sliced green onions, for topping

Directions:
1. Peel potatoes and cut into similar-sized cubes. Place into a pot, then fill pot with water until potatoes are submerged (water line should be about 1" above the potatoes). Heat over medium-high heat until potatoes are fork tender, about 15-20 minutes.

2. While potatoes are cooking, make the bacon according to package instructions (microwave or frying pan). Set aside to cool.

3. Drain potatoes. Mash with a potato masher or electric mixer. Add milk, butter, salt pepper, garlic, sour cream, etc. to taste. (Just make your favorite mashed potatoes!)

4. Spread mashed potatoes evenly over crust. Top with shredded cheddar cheese. Crumble bacon and spread it over the pizza. Top with sliced green onions.

5. Bake according to the directions for your pizza crust.

6. Cut into party squares and enjoy!

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Shaved Asparagus Pizza

I am not very adventurous with my pizza. I tend to like to stick to the basics--tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, turkey pepperoni, onions. I just love "regular" pizza so much that I don't often mess with it.

But, every once in a while, a pizza concept comes along that makes me veer off course for a bit. When I suck it up and try something new, I've rarely been disappointed. When I saw this shaved asparagus pizza, I bookmarked it for later consideration. And when we were in need of an easy meal for dinner last weekend, this fit the bill.

I really like asparagus, but I am picky when it comes to cheeses. Luckily, this pizza uses good ol' mozzarella as a base, and flavor is added with little dollops of a spreadable garlic and herb cheese, which I can handle just fine. Combine those two cheeses with asparagus and you've got yourself the full ingredient list. It's THAT easy, assuming you have some pizza dough lying around. :)

This is a perfect summer pizza. Add this one to the list of things to make on an evening when it's cool enough to turn on the oven!

Shaved Asparagus Pizza
(Source: Annie's Eats)

Ingredients:
- 1 recipe your favorite pizza dough
- olive oil, for brushing
- 8 oz. asparagus spears
- 4 oz. fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
- 3 oz. spreadable garlic herb cheese (we used Boursin)
- kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Roll out the pizza dough into a 12-14 inch round. Lightly brush the surface of the dough with olive oil.

2. Cut the tough woody stems off the ends of the asparagus spears. Use a vegetable peeler to shave the spears into ribbons. (It will seem like a lot of asparagus, but use more ribbons than you think you need because it will cook down in the oven.)

3. Place the sliced mozzarella over the pizza dough in an even layer. Pile the asparagus shavings over the top of the mozzarella. Dot the surface of the pizza with the garlic herb cheese. Season with kosher salt and pepper.

4. Bake until the cheese is melted and bubbling and the crust is lightly browned, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before slicing and serving.

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Chicken Ranch Pizza

When I'm in the mood for pizza, I'm usually in the mood for traditional pizza. You know, red sauce, mozzarella cheese, maybe some pepperoni and onions. Occasionally I'll want to go a little different with the toppings--add some broccoli, peppers--but even that is rare.

So to ask me to step completely out of the box and make an "alternative" style pizza? Well, I have to be in a special kind of mood.

Since we are celebrating this New Year's Eve with a quiet night at home, we decided to make some good "party-like" food, which included two mini specialty pizzas--taco pizza, which we've made a handful of times in the past, and then we decided to give this new one a try.

I was afraid that the ranch dressing would be really overwhelming, but to my surprise, it really wasn't. All of these ingredients come together to make a nice slice of pizza. Will I ever make this as a full-size pizza? Probably not, but it's perfect to cut up into small pieces for a party.

Since it's the dead of winter, we didn't grill chicken for this--we boiled it and shredded it instead. But you could do it either way, or even cook it up quickly in a pan on the stove.

Chicken Ranch Pizza
(Source: Annie's Eats)

Ingredients:
- 1 recipe your favorite pizza crust (we use 1/2 of this recipe and freeze the other half for another time!)
- 1/4 cup Ranch dressing
- 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 to 1 grilled chicken breast, chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 1 tomato, seeded and diced
- 2-3 green onions, chopped
- 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven according to the directions associated with your pizza crust. Prepare the pizza crust by rolling it out.

2. Spread the ranch dressing in a thin layer evenly over the unbaked crust. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella. Top with grilled chicken, tomato and green onions. Sprinkle with shredded cheddar.

3. Once assembled, put pizza into preheated oven. Bake according to the directions for your crust, or until the cheese is melted and browned.

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Baked Pizza Rolls

After we made the Southwestern Egg Rolls a few weeks back, I immediately started thinking of other ways we could use the egg roll wrappers. And well, pizza rolls came to mind quickly. Who doesn't love good ol' fashioned "pizza logs" bar food? And wouldn't we all like to have a healthier version?

These are highly customizable to your tastes. Simply fill them with your favorite pizza toppings. We used mozzarella, turkey pepperoni, onions, and chopped spinach.

When baked up, these become very crispy and are perfect when dipped into your favorite pizza sauce. Delicious and easy... and not too bad for you, either!

Baked Pizza Rolls

Ingredients:
- 2-3 cups mozzarella cheese
- 1-2 handfuls turkey pepperoni slices, halved
- 1/4 onion, diced
- 1 (10 oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
- 1 package egg roll wrappers

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, combine everything but the egg roll wrappers.

2. Lay an egg roll wrapper out on a work surface so that one of the corners is pointing toward you and place 1/4 cup of the filling in the center. Fold the tip closest to you up over the filling, roll a bit, then take the points pointing outward and fold them in toward the center. Continue rolling into an egg roll shape until a small part of the remaining point is still free. Dip a finger in water or beaten egg and lightly brush on the edges of the free corner. Finish rolling and press to seal closed. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling.

3. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Lightly oil a baking sheet with cooking spray. Place the sealed egg rolls on the baking sheet seam side down and spray the tops of the egg rolls with cooking spray. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until lightly brown, turning halfway through baking. Serve warm with pizza sauce.

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Grilled Pizza

A few weeks back, we went to a friend's house on a Friday night for dinner and a backyard fire. Greg is a great cook, and we were thrilled to discover he was making us pizzas. But they weren't just any pizzas--they were grilled pizzas. They were so good that we stuffed ourselves!

Shortly after, I opened my Google Reader one morning to see that Annie had posted a little tutorial on grilled pizza. The timing was interesting... were the stars aligned?

It's not as if I had never heard of grilling a pizza before, but I just never had the motivation to really try it. It seemed like it might be a bit difficult. Looking back on that attitude now, I laugh. It really couldn't have been any easier! It actually cooked up way faster than it does in the oven.

Plus, you get these pretty little grill marks on your crust. Fancy schmancy.

Annie's Eats has everything you need to know about grilling pizza, so I won't go into all of the details. Essentially, all you need is a sturdy (not too sticky or flimsy) dough, and if you want to make things easy on yourself, make personal-size pizzas so they are simple to transfer on and off the grill. Oh, and as Annie says... don't forget to oil the grill grates so your pizzas don't stick! And watch your pizzas carefully--they cook up really fast!

We used our favorite, no-fuss bread machine pizza dough and it was perfect. We can't wait to make these again!

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Bread Machine Pizza Dough, Part Deux

Pizza dough... made by a bread machine. I mean, really: It's genius.

I've even posted about it before. And while we love the tangy flavor that the beer brings to that recipe, I still longed for a more traditional pizza dough. But I still wanted the convenience of the bread machine, you see.

Thankfully, Google came to the rescue. A bread machine pizza dough sans beer.

It is oh-so-good.

We tried this for the first time last Friday--we actually took the dough and all of the pizza toppings over to our friends' house and had dinner with them. Unfortunately, in fear of undercooking the pizza, we overcooked it a little bit. It wasn't burned, but was very crispy. Although we enjoyed it thoroughly (the four of us polished off the whole pizza), we knew we had to make the dough again soon so that we'd be able to judge it the way it was meant to be judged--when baked to perfection.

So another Friday night rolled around, and Michael and I decided we needed to give this another try (plus, we still had extra pizza toppings lying around). Tonight's pizza was even better than I was expecting. We've found our "go-to" pizza dough, that's for sure.

Depending on how thick you like your pizza crust, this makes quite a bit of dough. When we made it last week, we stretched the dough to cover a 17 1/4" x 11 1/2" cookie sheet. The crust was not too thick, and not too thin, and as I mentioned before--this pizza was the perfect amount for four people.

However, for just the two of us tonight, we decided to use half of the dough and freeze the other half. Right at the beginning of the "second rise," I took the dough out of the bread machine, weighed it on my food scale, and divided it into two equal halves (if you don't have a food scale, you can just eyeball it). One half, I put back into the bread machine to continue with the second rise. I sprayed the other half with cooking spray, wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap, then put it in a freezer bag. When it comes time to use it, I'll put it in the fridge the day before to thaw it, then remove it from the fridge and its wrapping and let it rise for 30-60 minutes before making the pizza. With the half we used tonight, I stretched the dough to cover a small cookie sheet (13 1/4" x 9 1/4"). It was perfect for a "dinner for two." :)

Easy Peezy Pizza Dough (Bread Machine Pizza Dough)
(Source: Adapted from Recipezaar.com)

Ingredients:
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp. water
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 2 tbsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (if you don't like wheat flour, use all-purpose for this, too)
- 1 packet yeast
- garlic powder, dried basil, dried oregano

Directions:
1. In bread machine, add wet ingredients (water and olive oil), then dry (sugar, salt, flours).

2. In the dry ingredients, make a little "well" with your finger. Pour packet of yeast into the indent.

3. Sprinkle garlic powder, basil, and oregano on top of everything. Adjust amounts to your taste--these spices add flavor to your dough.

4. Select the dough cycle on your bread machine; press start.

5. Spray a pan (size of your choice) with cooking spray. Once dough cycle is done, shape the dough and spread evenly into your pan.

6. Add toppings of your choice. Bake pizza in 425 degree oven for 18-25 minutes.

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Pizza Breadsticks

When it came to food, I didn't do much planning ahead for New Year's Eve. I knew I was going to bring something to the parties we were attending, but didn't think too much about what that would be. That morning, it was crunch time and I had to figure it out, and fast.

I turned to an oldie but a goodie--pizza breadsticks. I've been making these for a few years now. I've brought them to several parties and they're always a hit. I knew I hadn't served them to this particular group of people, so it was an easy decision. Plus, they don't take much time to pull together, so that's a bonus.

These are made with store-bought pizza dough. Pepperoni and mozzarella cheese are folded into the dough, then the dough is cut into small breadsticks and twisted before baked. Served with pizza sauce for dipping, these are a fantastic and addicting snack!

Pizza Breadsticks
(Source: Adapted from Rachael Ray)

Ingredients:
- 1 tube ready-made pizza dough, recommended brand Pillsbury
- 24-36 pepperoni slices (I use turkey pepperoni)
- 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese (or use a little more or less, based on your preference)
- 1 jar of your favorite pizza sauce

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Unroll the pizza dough onto a lightly floured surface. Stretch to make a relatively even rectangle. In an even layer, on one half of the dough, place the pepperoni down onto the dough, making sure to leave a 1-inch border around each edge. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the pepperoni.

3. Fold over the other half of the dough and press down gently on the edges to seal the halves together. Gently pat down the folded dough.

4. Use a knife or pizza cutter to cut 8-10 thin strips (about 1-inch thick). Your breadsticks will be pretty long. If serving at a party, cut the strips in half length-wise so that they are a more manageable size.

5. Holding the ends of each strip, gently twist once, being careful not to let all the cheese and pepperoni fall out (some will, though). Place twisted strips onto baking sheet. After all strips are twisted and placed on the baking sheet, feel free to take any stray pepperoni/cheese pieces and tuck them back into the openings in the twisted strips.

6. With nonstick cooking spray, spray the entire pan, including the pizza breadsticks. Bake until golden brown, about 12-18 minutes. Remove from oven and serve as soon as possible. Serve with pizza sauce.

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Bread Machine Pizza Dough

Today is NFL Draft Day. If you've been reading here for a while, you know that football is a big deal in this household. For as long as Michael and I have been together, we've always made a bit of a fuss over draft day. Mostly just with football food, and um, football beer. But still. It's fun.

A few weeks back, I came across this recipe for homemade pizza dough over on Dinner with the Bickfords. I've never made homemade pizza dough before, but this recipe appealed to me because 1) It is made in the breadmaker, and 2) It contains beer. Need I say more?

At the time, I sent the link to Michael, and he agreed that we had to give this a try. It wasn't long before we realized that Draft Day was coming up, and wouldn't you know--pizza with homemade dough certainly fit the occasion.

We spent much of the early day out and about, enjoying the weather. We took Tessa for a loooong walk, and soaked up the opportunity to have every window in the house wide open. Also, since it was so warm, it was nice to not have to spend much time in the kitchen preparing dinner.

The dough came together really easily. If you make this, you'll have to check your particular breadmaker, but on ours, the dough setting takes an hour and a half. I tossed all of the ingredients into the pan, snapped it into the breadmaker, and then totally forgot about it until it beeped at me 90 minutes later.

The only change I made to the recipe was to substitute some whole wheat flour for some of the all-purpose flour that was originally called for. I have reflected that change in the recipe posted below. If you don't like whole wheat flour or don't have any on hand, simply use all-purpose flour for the entire 2 1/2 cups of flour required for this recipe.

Don't forget to prepare yourselves with the "flat beer," too. Since we knew we were going to make this in advance, we cracked open a beer last night, measured out a cup of it, let it sit out for a while, and then stuck it in the fridge until we needed it today. It worked well (it was definitely flat). If you haven't planned ahead, you can always pour the beer into a cup and stir the crap out of it, or you can put it in a container with a lid and shake it to get all of the carbonation out (have fun with that!).

Once the dough was complete, I stretched it out evenly into our pizza pan. We topped it with store-bought pizza sauce and our favorite toppings. We always have "his" and "her" sides of our homemade pizzas. I generally stick to turkey pepperoni and onions, while Michael loads his side with turkey pepperoni, onions, mushrooms, and olives (and usually some extra cheese).

The resulting pizza was fabulous. The crust was a great thickness--not thin, not overly thick. It has a really interesting flavor (I assume from the beer). There was almost a tangy flavor to it, and it was quite enjoyable. We will definitely, definitely be making this again.

Bread Machine Pizza Dough
(Adapted from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
- 1 cup flat beer
- 2 tbsp. butter
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 tbsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 packet yeast

Directions:
1. Put beer, butter, sugar, salt, flour, and yeast in a bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer (ours says to put wet ingredients in first, then dry, then yeast). Select Dough setting, and press Start.

2. Remove dough from bread machine when cycle is complete. Roll or press dough to cover a prepared pizza pan (I lightly sprayed our pizza pan with cooking spray). Brush dough lightly with olive oil. Cover and let stand 15 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

4. Spread sauce and toppings on top of dough. Bake until crust is lightly brown and crispy on the outside, about 25 minutes.

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Taco Pizza

We started making this pizza a couple of years ago. The first time we made it, we were completely impressed with ourselves, even though there is really no skill involved at all. :) It's just such a good pizza! Sometimes, you're just in the mood for an alternative to the regular ol' Italian pizza.


Tonight, playoff football is on, so we wanted to make some "football food." It's been a while since we've had this pizza, so this was the perfect choice. It totally hit the spot.

You can obviously make this with pretty much any pizza crust. Homemade, store bought, refrigerated dough, or you can go the easiest route possible (we do): a pre-made and pre-cooked Boboli!

Taco Pizza

Ingredients:
- Boboli Whole Wheat Pizza Crust (or crust/dough of your choice)
- 1/2 lb. lean ground beef
- 1 packet taco seasoning
- shredded cheddar cheese
- chopped lettuce
- 1/2 tomato, diced

Other optional toppings: Sliced olives, jalapenos, onions, sour cream (obviously don't add until after it comes out of the oven!), etc. Pretty much anything you like on your tacos.

Directions:
1. In skillet, brown ground beef. Add packet of taco seasoning with water (follow taco seasoning packet instructions).

Note: The back of the seasoning packet will tell you that the packet should be used with 1 lb. of ground beef, as opposed to the 1/2 lb. used in this recipe. Disregard this... by adding more taco seasoning/water than is called for with that amount of beef, you'll be creating a bit of extra sauce that is necessary to cover the whole pizza.

2. While beef is simmering to thicken the sauce, preheat oven according to directions for your crust (for Bobolis, it is 450 degrees).

3. Once beef is done, spread it over the prepared crust. Top with cheese. Place pizza in oven to bake according to directions for your crust (Bobolis only take 8-10 minutes).

4. During the last 5 minutes of baking time, remove pizza from oven to add lettuce, tomato, and any additional toppings onto your pizza. Place pizza back into oven for remaining 5 minutes. When done, remove from oven and let sit 5 minutes before cutting.

Enjoy!

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