Whoa, this thing still works!?

So, it's been a couple of years with no updates.

I stopped because I was in a rut, food wise, as well as not having as much space to prepare food at home.

BUT

As I was perusing the web, I saw something that piqued my interest.

There may be some posts to follow, that will be in the same vein but different.

We'll see...

p.s. I have not tried the bacon wrapped pizza from Little Caesar's yet. You can be that'll be put up here when I do.

Pan Pizza Pie

All righty, after all the lead up, it's here.

The Pan Pizza Pie

I don't make this sucker often, but I'm considering changing that stance because it's easier than I remember (when I do it in the right order) and it's REALLY good.

So, we take 3 pizza crust pouches (this time I went with Chef Boyardee). I put 2 together for the bottom crust and 1 for the top. Start the oven preheating to 450. I make them according to the instructions, except I add a good dose of oregano / Italian seasoning and some garlic powder. Mix those up, cover their respective bowls so they can rise up a bit, and then I work on the toppings / filling.

For today's, I went with sausage and pepperoni. I belive it was some Jimmy Dean sage sausage, use whichever brand / flavor floats your boat. I didn't toss any pepperoni (Hormel in the resealable pouch) in with it like I did last time (no reason, just laziness more than anything). I also tossed a bit of the oregano / Italian seasoning on the sausage as it cooked. Once it was done, drained it, then tossed it back in the skillet and put a little of the sauce I was using (Prego Meat Sauce) in there to flavor it a little more.

At this point, I roll out the bottom dough until it will fit in the cast iron skillet (not the same one I used for the sausage) with some of it coming out of the top. Once it's in there, I poke some holes in it with a fork (to avoid bubbles) and then dust the bottom with some Parmesan  and mozzarella cheeses. Next is a layer of sauce (amount to taste). Next is a layer of pepperoni. Next is the saucy sausage.

I forgot to get pics before this stage, shows you how out of practice I am. Then I added some more sauce (this thing is a TON of bread, so you will want to add more sauce than you would normally add for a pizza). Next is a good layer of mozzarella and little bit of Parmesan cheeses.

Again, this part can vary by taste. I probably should've gone a bit more cheese, but I'm still relearning this recipe. After you've cheesed it, then you get the top crust, roll it to where it'll fit on top, but not over hang too much. And then you roll the edges together.

I then brushed it with some olive oil, instead of doing an egg wash as you would for a normal pie.

BUT, since it is more pie than traditional pizza, I usually cut some vents into the top crust.

A smiley face for all the readers.

Next we go into the oven. I let it go at 450 for about 10 minutes, then knock it down to 375 for another 30 minutes or so. This is what it looks like when it's ready...

I brushed a little more olive oil around the edges. If you're really into cheese, you could toss some on top of it at this point, then throw it back in the oven for a few more minutes (knocking it back up to the 450ish range) to brown it to your liking. I'd recommend letting it sit for a little bit when you take it out of the oven, gives the insides time to solidify a bit. If you try to cut it as soon as it comes out, it'll ooze everywhere. To each their own. I took this one to work today, and after the 45 minute trip (had it in a Pyrex stay warm pouch), here's what 2 slices look like:

The crust has a good Italian herb-y flavor, the cheese was a bit understated, but tasted good. The sauce was very prevalent and tasty. A great cold rainy day treat. 

Sorry about the tease

I had really intended on returning sooner. And that tease was supposed to be just a little tease.

BUT.

I was making dishes for a Pie themed Christmas party. The entrees were pizzas and then whatever dessert pie you wanted to make. So, I was making my stuffed pizza pie and attempting a chocolate pecan pie for the dessert pie*. As things in life are prone to doing, I got running late, and by the time the pizza was done cooking was when I was supposed to be at the party. Luckily it wasn't too far from the house, so it wasn't a big deal. What was a big deal was me forgetting to document the construction of the pizza AND the finished product. I will say this about it, while not pretty in the least, it was VERY tasty. So, to rectify this situation, I've just gotten done preparing another one, this time for work. I DID happen to get some pictures of the construction of it (excepting the mixing of the dough, but come on, it's dough) and the final product (it's still cooking). So, you will get the pizza post later today, or sometime tomorrow (hopefully).

As for the chocolate pecan pie, I used a Paul Deen recipe, but I wasn't happy with how the chocolate didn't melt and fuse with the rest of the pie goop, so next time (yep, there'll be another of those to make up also) I'll be doing it a hair differently. I'm not a pecan pie fan, so it's not high on my list, but as I still have plenty of ingredients left over (save the pie shell), it'll be happening sometime soonish.

*Reason for making a pie I'm not going to eat...

Edwards (I think it was them) used to make a CBPP (Chocolate Butter Pecan Pie) that most of the people that were going to be at this party LOVED. Then they stopped making it. This was years ago, and they loved it so much, they STILL check the pie isles (in vain) when they go to the store hoping to find the elusive beast. So, as it was a Christmas party, I wanted to give a gift. I was told a couple of people tried it and said it was pretty good, but I want to do better by them and it.

A Taste of Things to Come

8-9-12

On Thursday, the 9th, I went with a turkey and bacon wrap, an egg roll, and a cupcake for lunch:

The lady didn't offer to panini press it, so I just nuked it once I got it back to the office. It was ok, it needed something, maybe I'll see if they have some  honey mustard they can spread around the inside of it next time. The egg roll was pretty good, they're still not as good as they used to be. They're still making these evile cupcakes, and they're still stupidly tasty.

Didn't have dinner, but after the game, Jody, Grynner and I ventured to the old IHOP as we've not done in ages. I was fairly hungry, so I went with the country fried steak breakfast:

The pancakes were outstanding and finally quenched my pancake craving. I didn't even realize I was still having the pancake craving until I ate the first bite of them. The eggs were really good, and the hashbrowns were really good, for IHOP's. Still didn't hold a candle to Waffle House's. The country fried steak was the let down here, it was riddled with way too much connective tissue, so much so that I didn't eat much more than what you see in that pic. The flavor was good, but it was just a bad cut of meat, and I was so full off the other stuff on the plates (Jody got an appetizer sampler, so I had a chicken tender, a cheese stick and some onion rings off of it) I didn't finish it.

Ohmahgawd, I'm fat

On Wednesday, Shawn and I didn't care for what was in the cafeteria, so he suggested ordering pizza for lunch. His Dad, Mike wasn't too keen on his sandwich, so he liked that idea. So, I went with the old standby in this situation, the $10 pizza box from Pizza Hut:

Now, I usually end up getting this from a different PH location, as I usually order this for game night. But, I must say, even though they were about 5 minutes late, it was still nice and hot when it got here. Plus it was in the middle of lunch rush, so I wasn't too upset. The pizza was really good, the cheese sticks were just barely good. They had some cheese on them, but not a lot and it had been done longer than the pizza had, so they tried to cover up the fact by dousing it in their herbed parmesan mix. The cinnamon sticks were outstanding.

On the way home, I felt like a burger, so I stopped off at Sonic:

I went with the usual Super Sonic (only ketchup, which they put cheese on, so she had to take it back and fix it) and tater tots. It was good (once it was fixed) and seemed a lot bigger than usual. I managed to eat all the sandwich and tots, and felt around the same size as Jabba the Hutt afterwards. The coke was a really good mix between the syrup and carbonated water.

Olive Garden

On Tuesday afternoon / evening, I met Jody and Jesse at Olive Garden. Now, I don't see any pics from this, but I could've swore I took some.

I started off with a pick 2 appetizer of toasted ravioli and chicken tenders. I love both of these. The ravoli is usually a little tougher than I like but the flavors are great. Their chicken breading is outstanding. I love the flavor it imparts to the chicken and it gives it a nice crunch to go with it.

Next up I went with their zupa toscana soup, which is a creamy-ish chicken broth, with lots of Italian sausage, potatoes spices and some kind of greens in it. I nice zesty and slightly spicy soup. I went with 2 bowls of it, and should've only done 1.

For the main course, I went with their lasagna. It was good, meaty, cheesy and gooey. The sauce had a nice tangy-ness to go with the meats in it. I couldn't quite finish it, though, hence me saying I should've only gone with one bowl of soup. All in all, it was everything I wanted out of the trip.

More Arby's

On Monday, the 6th, I'm not sure what I had for lunch. I don't think anything, but maybe some chips. For dinner, I stopped in at the old Arby's and went with the #2 combo with 2 potato cakes. I didn't get a picture of it, but sheesh after all the Arby's I've had lately, you should know what it looks like at least as well as I do. As is usual (and the reason I keep going there so much) the sandwich was hot, juicy and filling and the potato cakes were the perfect compliment of flavor and crunchiness to the sandwich.

Pizza

Sunday afternoon after church, I stopped in at the local Brick Oven Pizza. I went with the usual Pulled Pork BBQ:

It was outstanding. Tons of cheese, the bbq sauce was nice and sweet, and the pork was tender and flavorful.

I don't remember what I had for dinner that night, and I didn't get a pic of it. It was either chicken tenders and tater tots or fried rice. I'm leaning towards the chicken and tots.

A cafeteria miracle

I worked on Saturday the 4th. And it was a good thing I did. For the only time our cafeteria does what EVERY OTHER PLACE that does Southern Fried Chicken does normally is on the weekends:

I present to you all: Fried Chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, and corn on the cob.

EVERY TUESDAY, our cafeteria has Fried Chicken. And NEVER does it do mashed potatoes with their fried chicken on Tuesdays. NEVER. It's always rice, and some kind of odious potato concoction. But, because I wanted to make some hours up, I got lucky and got what everyone should get whenever they go someplace with fried chicken. /end rant

The chicken was pretty good, the flavor was confined to the skin for the most part. The potatoes were tasty, the gravy great as usual. The corn was merely ok, it had a flavor in there I couldn't really identify, as I was really just expecting corn, butter and salt. It definitely needed more butter, which I didn't think to get at the time and we didn't have any in the office fridge.

On the to Greg's, I stopped off at McD's and grabbed some nuggets and fries. The nuggets were really good and the fries were pretty good. I had to add some salt, as apparently that location was going easy on it.