Always looking for sunshine, figuratively and lite Always looking for sunshine, figuratively and literally. Sometimes we don’t have to look very far and it finds us. ☀️
It didn’t take much to get me to @mikespastasand It didn’t take much to get me to @mikespastasandwichshoppe when a friend texted me a screenshot of their cheese butter. Up until last week I had never even heard of cheese butter but just two days later, I’m driving an hour round trip to get some. 😂 I was never one to succumb to peer pressure (I didn’t have my first drink until I was 21!), but when it comes to food finds, I am very easily intrigued. After all, that’s how I’ve discovered some of my favorite bites over the years … lardo from @butlerandtheboard, a spicy Italian sausage, and my love of chicharron. If you haven’t visited Mike’s in Nutley, it’s worth a visit. While there, I also got a small tray of meatballs (a bargain at $10!) and a delicious mortadella sandwich that is worth a round trip. ✨
The long, dreary and grey months of the Winter nee The long, dreary and grey months of the Winter need a little bit of color, so here you go. 😍 Love this chest of drawers. Discovered it buried in a local shop and bought it specifically for the green color (one of my favorites). Vintage Coke crate was a $10 score from a garage sale place on Facebook some ten years ago. And the assorted markers in Roy G Biv order (natch) that aren’t used anymore because my kids have sadly left that phase. 🙃
Weekend Photos in Review, old school still photo s Weekend Photos in Review, old school still photo style, hope you had a good one! ✨
A friend was taking a trip to Ireland and asked if A friend was taking a trip to Ireland and asked if I wanted her to bring me back anything. Would you believe me if I told you I asked for salt? I love picking up different varieties, whether we’re traveling or I’m just visiting a new shop. Maddie grabbed me a super cute one from her trip to Paris last year, and the Magic Unicorn Salt I get locally is another favorite. What’s yours?
One of us hops like a bunny down the steps, has a One of us hops like a bunny down the steps, has a serious case of FOMO on the daily, gets hiccups more than anyone we know and has perpetual bed head. She’s quite the unique roommate but may be exactly what our home needed. 💛
I haven’t had a bagel in ages, but when I saw th I haven’t had a bagel in ages, but when I saw that @njdotcom had picked six bagel shops at the “best in the state,” and one was reasonably local, all the sudden I needed one. I was never one to fall prey to peer pressure, but I’m very definitely a marketer’s dream. 😂 Alfa Bagels is on Route 10 in Randolph and has a good assortment of bagels, including all the usual suspects, but with a few others like rainbow, Asiago and French Toast throw in for good measure. Their bagels always seem to have a nice chew, which I appreciate and I love their sesame one. My go-to order lately is a double toasted flagel with lox spread and tomato. Their lox spread is a little ho hum, but the bagel is delish. Check them out next time you’ve got a craving (or get motivated by a local news story 😝). What’s your bagel order?
✌🏻 ✌🏻
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Sweetnicks

Food and Life

Pizza Night

March 4, 2007 · Narrative

When planning tonight’s menu for our weekly dinner with The Neighbors, I wanted to keep it simple, simple, simple. I ended up going with a pizza night, which worked out perfectly. The Neighbor Wife made a salad and brought fresh fruit, so we ended up being well fed, without being overfed.

Two new recipes for the pizzas tonight, both from Rachael Ray. Both very good, but completely different. The first one was Cheese and Caramelized Onion Pizza. Seriously, when the ingredients are caramelized onions, prosciutto, grated Fontina cheese and crumbled gorgonzola, you KNOW there’s no way you can go wrong with this one. Out of the two pizzas, this was hands down our favorite, and there was not one speck leftover. Delicious, and will be a definite repeater. The Neighbor Wife even took the recipe with her, so you know that’s a good sign.

The second recipe was for a Carbonara Pizza recipe Rachael made this past week. Using all the usual components of Spaghetti Carbonara (eggs, cheese, pancetta), it definitely tasted like Carbonara. It was hard to rate this recipe next to the other one, because they are so very different. This one was good, but the other one was more like OMG good.

I thought the kids might like to get in on the act, and make their own pizza, so we set them up with a crust, tomato sauce and cheese and let them go to town. They definitely got a kick out of making their own pizza, but neither would touch it when it came out – too busy playing.

Until tomorrow…

A year ago today… American Idol and new cookbooks
Two years ago today… short nothingness; there is a vast difference in posts two years ago as opposed to one year ago, that’s for sure.

P.S. Tomorrow is our Weekend Dog Blogging round-up – be there or be square.

Carbonara Pizza
Recipe courtesy of Rachael Ray

1 refrigerated pizza dough, or one from your favorite pizza joint
Cornmeal, for sprinkling on pizza pan
Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), for drizzling
1/4 pound pancetta, chopped
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
1 large clove garlic, grated
Black pepper
2 large egg yolks, beaten
1 1/2 to 2 cups shredded provolone cheese
A handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Preheat oven to 450°F. Roll out dough into a large, thin, round or rectangular shape. Scatter a little cornmeal on the pizza pan or baking sheet before placing rolled-out dough on it. Drizzle dough with EVOO and prick it with fork tines in a few places.

Place in oven and partially bake for 7-8 minutes. Drizzle EVOO in a small skillet and heat over medium-high heat. Cook pancetta until crisp, 4-5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and cool. Brush the baked pizza crust with some of the grease from the skillet you cooked the pancetta in for a little extra flavor. (I skipped that step; extra grease not necessary) Add beaten egg yolks, ricotta, Romano, grated garlic and black pepper to a bowl and stir to combine.

Spread the ricotta cheese mixture out over the pizza crust, then top with provolone cheese.

Scatter the reserved pancetta all over and bake 12 minutes or until crust is crisp and the cheese is evenly golden on top. Scatter parsley over cooked pizza, cut into wedges and serve.

Yields 4 servings

Cheese and Caramelized Onion Pizza
Recipe courtesy of Rachael Ray

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), plus some for drizzling
2 large onions, thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pizza dough, from your favorite pizza shop or store-bought
1/4 pound sliced prosciutto, cut into strips
1 cup grated fontina cheese
1/4 pound gorgonzola cheese, crumbled into small pieces

Preheat oven to 425°F. Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat with the butter and 2 turns of the pan of EVOO, about 2 tablespoons. Add the sliced onions, season with salt and pepper, and cook; stirring frequently for 20-25 minutes or until very brown and caramelized. Remove from skillet and let cool slightly.

Drizzle a little EVOO on to the pizza dough and pull and stretch until almost the same size as the baking sheet pan. Drizzle the baking sheet pan with EVOO, then set crust in place. Poke the pizza dough in several areas with the tines of a fork. Season the dough with salt and pepper, and spread the caramelized onions on top.

Top the onions with the prosciutto, then the fontina and gorgonzola cheese.

Transfer to the oven and bake until the dough is cooked through and the cheese melts, about 20 minutes. Remove, cut into portions and serve.

Yields 4 servings

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Posted In: Narrative

Comments

  1. Claire says

    March 4, 2007 at 4:22 am

    SO much fun! The carmelized onion pizza sounds delish! I think next time I make pizza, I’ll try that…perfect for a girls’ movie night. You went back to your roots from 2 years ago and did pizza, funny! Glad to see Nicholas and the Girlfriend back in the picture. She looks older since the last picture.

    Reply
  2. Cate says

    March 4, 2007 at 12:51 pm

    You HAVE to try that one – you will not be disappointed. I made the onions ahead of time, so it was a snap to put together. Ah, c’mon, it hasn’t been *that* long since we made pizza … has it? :) Hard to believe how big the kids are getting!

    Reply
  3. Shawnda says

    March 5, 2007 at 3:03 am

    The carmelized onion pizza sounds delicious!

    Reply
  4. Cate says

    March 6, 2007 at 2:05 am

    Shawnda – I’m not sure I can wait until this weekend to make it again!

    Reply
  5. Kris says

    March 7, 2007 at 1:45 pm

    Oh yummy! I saw the show with the Carbonara pizza last week when I was home with sick kids. The other one looks De-lish too!

    Reply

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Always looking for sunshine, figuratively and lite Always looking for sunshine, figuratively and literally. Sometimes we don’t have to look very far and it finds us. ☀️
It didn’t take much to get me to @mikespastasand It didn’t take much to get me to @mikespastasandwichshoppe when a friend texted me a screenshot of their cheese butter. Up until last week I had never even heard of cheese butter but just two days later, I’m driving an hour round trip to get some. 😂 I was never one to succumb to peer pressure (I didn’t have my first drink until I was 21!), but when it comes to food finds, I am very easily intrigued. After all, that’s how I’ve discovered some of my favorite bites over the years … lardo from @butlerandtheboard, a spicy Italian sausage, and my love of chicharron. If you haven’t visited Mike’s in Nutley, it’s worth a visit. While there, I also got a small tray of meatballs (a bargain at $10!) and a delicious mortadella sandwich that is worth a round trip. ✨
The long, dreary and grey months of the Winter nee The long, dreary and grey months of the Winter need a little bit of color, so here you go. 😍 Love this chest of drawers. Discovered it buried in a local shop and bought it specifically for the green color (one of my favorites). Vintage Coke crate was a $10 score from a garage sale place on Facebook some ten years ago. And the assorted markers in Roy G Biv order (natch) that aren’t used anymore because my kids have sadly left that phase. 🙃
Weekend Photos in Review, old school still photo s Weekend Photos in Review, old school still photo style, hope you had a good one! ✨

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Always looking for sunshine, figuratively and lite Always looking for sunshine, figuratively and literally. Sometimes we don’t have to look very far and it finds us. ☀️
It didn’t take much to get me to @mikespastasand It didn’t take much to get me to @mikespastasandwichshoppe when a friend texted me a screenshot of their cheese butter. Up until last week I had never even heard of cheese butter but just two days later, I’m driving an hour round trip to get some. 😂 I was never one to succumb to peer pressure (I didn’t have my first drink until I was 21!), but when it comes to food finds, I am very easily intrigued. After all, that’s how I’ve discovered some of my favorite bites over the years … lardo from @butlerandtheboard, a spicy Italian sausage, and my love of chicharron. If you haven’t visited Mike’s in Nutley, it’s worth a visit. While there, I also got a small tray of meatballs (a bargain at $10!) and a delicious mortadella sandwich that is worth a round trip. ✨
The long, dreary and grey months of the Winter nee The long, dreary and grey months of the Winter need a little bit of color, so here you go. 😍 Love this chest of drawers. Discovered it buried in a local shop and bought it specifically for the green color (one of my favorites). Vintage Coke crate was a $10 score from a garage sale place on Facebook some ten years ago. And the assorted markers in Roy G Biv order (natch) that aren’t used anymore because my kids have sadly left that phase. 🙃
Weekend Photos in Review, old school still photo s Weekend Photos in Review, old school still photo style, hope you had a good one! ✨
A friend was taking a trip to Ireland and asked if A friend was taking a trip to Ireland and asked if I wanted her to bring me back anything. Would you believe me if I told you I asked for salt? I love picking up different varieties, whether we’re traveling or I’m just visiting a new shop. Maddie grabbed me a super cute one from her trip to Paris last year, and the Magic Unicorn Salt I get locally is another favorite. What’s yours?
One of us hops like a bunny down the steps, has a One of us hops like a bunny down the steps, has a serious case of FOMO on the daily, gets hiccups more than anyone we know and has perpetual bed head. She’s quite the unique roommate but may be exactly what our home needed. 💛
I haven’t had a bagel in ages, but when I saw th I haven’t had a bagel in ages, but when I saw that @njdotcom had picked six bagel shops at the “best in the state,” and one was reasonably local, all the sudden I needed one. I was never one to fall prey to peer pressure, but I’m very definitely a marketer’s dream. 😂 Alfa Bagels is on Route 10 in Randolph and has a good assortment of bagels, including all the usual suspects, but with a few others like rainbow, Asiago and French Toast throw in for good measure. Their bagels always seem to have a nice chew, which I appreciate and I love their sesame one. My go-to order lately is a double toasted flagel with lox spread and tomato. Their lox spread is a little ho hum, but the bagel is delish. Check them out next time you’ve got a craving (or get motivated by a local news story 😝). What’s your bagel order?
✌🏻 ✌🏻

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