Barbeque Chicken Pizza

A bit blurry, but you get the idea...

Back in the day, when I was interning at the Goodman Theatre, I brought in a slice of my BBQ chicken pizza for lunch. I was walking from the microwave to the room where we were having a lunch meeting and several other interns started hovering over my lunch, as hungry interns are  often wont to do.

Now, I like to think the admiration of my pizza was due to the pizza and not just the noon-time hunger striking, but the world may never know. Unless, that is, you try out the recipe!

This is another one of those I-kinda-stole-this-from-a-Portland-restaurant recipes. For backing when I was interning in Maine (Yeah, I've done a lot of internships, five in fact. Six, if you count the two seperate summers at NVSF), my roommates and I fell in love with a pizza called the "Harbor Master" at Portland Pie. I'd never been much for chicken on pizza before, but man - this one was good.  And now that I'm approximately 1,086 miles away from a Portland Pie, I had to start making them on my own. My biggest change is the removal of a standard pizza sauce for straight-up BBQ sauce goodness.

Depending on what I have around the house this shifts around a little: sometimes they'll be bacon, sometimes basil, sometimes just chicken and cheese. Pizza's good that way.

BBQ Chicken Pizza (adapted from Portland Pie Co.)

• 1 large boneless, skinless chicken boob cut into small pieces.
• 1 package of pizza dough (mine's wheat and from Trader Joes, I've used the Pillsbury in a can quite often, and of course, you could always make your own if you're feeling fancy)
• corn meal for the pan/stone
• barbeque sauce - my ultimate favorite is the Chicago-based Sweet Baby Ray's, but as Mr. Cleaver and I learned when we tried to bring some to his mom as a gift, it's available all over the USA now.
• ½ white onion, diced (optional)
• 3 strips bacon, chopped (optional)
• basil (fresh or dried or optional)
• cheese (so not optional) I usually use a whole bag of the italian mix, but again, you could get all fancy and grate you own.

Preheat the oven to 400-425°F.  Sprinkle your pizza pan/stone/cookie sheet with some cornmeal to prevent sticking and place rolled out dough on top.

If using, brown the diced onions in a little butter, just enough to the the raw taste off. Remove onions and cook bacon in same pan.

At this point, I usually put the crust (sans anything) into the oven to pre-bake for about 5 minutes.

After the bacon is cooked, remove and drain any fat. Cook the chicken bits until throughly cooked through. Shred any large chicken pieces with a fork. Coat the shreed chicken with BBQ sauce.

Take your pre-baked crust and cover with BBQ sauce like you would any thin pizza sauce. (see below).

Once you're all sauced up, add the cheese. Then top with the chicken, bacon, onion, and basil, and maybe a little more cheese (I never said this was healthy). Put it all back in the oven and cook for another 5-7 minutes or until the cheese is all good and melty.

Let cool a tad (I'm notoriously bad for burning my mouth on food), slice and serve.

And see if a couple of interns don't start sniffing their way over :)

I don't have a stick blender, so that makes it "Rustic"

See that texture? It's "rustic." And making me hungry.

As in, "Rustic Potato Soup."

When it comes to cooking, I have a number of solid family-inherited recipes that I use (many posted here) and as I get more adventurous I've begun to add some of my own, like the Chicken Satay. My process for making up new recipes, pretty much always follows the same pattern.

1. I eat something in a restaurant, see something on tv, or read about something that seems super-tasty
2. I pull out my trusty copy of The Joy of Cooking and see if they have anything similar.
3. I roam over to ye olde internet and look at epicurious.com and then search for recipes on blogs.
4. I write down the ingredients that seem to make sense or overlap from these sources and go shopping.
5. I cook using memory and whatever ingredients I have purchased.
6. I fiddle.
7. I enjoy.

And that's pretty much the process. A month or so ago I decided that I needed to try my hand at making soup. Mr. Cleaver makes a lovely chicken/turkey soup/stew whenever we roast a bird, but I had yet to delve into this food category myself. I decided to start with one of my favorites, potato soup.

Here's what I came up with, please note that it owes a lot, like a lot a lot to this recipe from Nook & Pantry.

I love it when there are so few ingredients, it's like that 5-or-fewer episode of Everyday Food. I also love cooking shows on PBS.

Rustic Potato Soup (serves 4-6)

• 5-6 potatoes, washed and peeled (keep the peels)
• 4 slices of bacon, chopped in to bits
• ½ onion, diced
• 1½-2 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups milk
• salt and pepper
• shredded cheese of choice for garnish (I like cheddar)

In a large stockpot, cook the bacon bits. At this point you can either cook the potato peels in the bacon fat for crunchy potato skins or you can drain the fat.

Chop the potatoes into about 1-inch cubes. Toss the potatoes, diced onion and half the bacon bits into stockpot and add the chicken broth. Add enough broth so it just covers the potatoes. Boil the potatoes until soft about 6-7 minutes. I usually test the potatoes by sticking a fork into the largest potato piece and if it slides off it's good.

Mash the potatoes with a whisk or a potato masher. Add the milk, stir and boil until the soup thickens some. The potatoes are so starchy that it's totally unnecessary to use any thickener (ie flour).

Divide into bowl sand top with cheese and remaining bacon bits, or other garnish of choice.

This soup is rib-sticking good and Mr. Cleaver-approved!

Chocolate Chip Cookie

Although our apartment doesn't have the greatest view (McDonald's parking lot anyone?), we have a pretty great place in a nice building.

One the best parts? Our cadre of doormen - kindly folks who open doors when our arms are full of groceries, sign for our packages, give movie recommendations, discuss local sports, and know both my maiden and married names. I don't know who is in charge of hiring these people,  but seriously, they are awesome and deserving of the best cookies I know how to make - Ghirardelli chocolate chip.

Happy New Year! 

Because of the pre-holiday craziness and a lack of all-purpose flour, I didn't get a chance to make these in time for Christmas - so now they get to be surprise New Year's cookies.

This recipe comes from the back of the Ghirardelli chocolate chip bag and is good.

I grew up in the Bay Area so I have a special place in my taste buds for Ghirardelli chocolate, it's not the fanciest chocolate out there, but among the brands commonly found in grocery stores, I think it's the best - so take that Toll House!

Our Cast O' Characters 

Adapted from 

Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Yield: 4 dozen 

• 1/2 bag Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 1/2 bag of 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
• 2 sticks butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup(s) sugar
• 3/4 cup(s) package brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoon(s) vanilla
• 2 1/4 cup(s) all purpose flour (I use wheat flour for the 1/4 cup - it makes me feel a teensy bit healthier about the whole 2 sticks of butter thing)
• 1 teaspoon(s) baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) salt

Heat oven to 375ºF.

Cream together butter, sugar and brown sugar. Although the Kitchen Aid Mixer is the traditional wedding gift in our family, Mr. Cleaver and I opted out on that one. If I don't make butter cream by hand how would I work my biceps?

Baker's Workout - Butter Cream

Add vanilla and eggs to the butter cream. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt, mix well. Add the flour mixture to the butter cream. This cookie dough is VERY dry, so this also takes a little oomph - more calories burned for me! (See new year's working out is easy!).

After the dough is mixed well add in the chocolate chips. Jewel had a buy one-get-one-free offer of chocolate chips, so I used two different kind here: semi- and bittersweet, but it works fine with just one.

Maybe one the most wonderful sights in baking. 

The finished dough on the way to my mouth.  My mother always said that the sugar counteracts the egg, so you can't get salmonella, I chose to believe her.

Pretty Maids all in a row. 

I've found the cooking time on these varies wildly from oven to oven - until I moved into my current apartment it always took around 12, but now it takes eight.  So watch the first batch carefully.

I like my cookies on the larger side - who doesn't - but I usually end up with fewer than the four dozen the recipe indicates, in tonight's case - it was 39. 

Err, 38. Quality control. 

Peppermint Ice Cream

One of my favorite things about the holiday season is the advent of peppermint ice cream, but now since I own an

 ice cream maker

 - I thought I'd give a shot at making my own this year. I meant to post this recipe before Christmas, but I left for Maine and didn't bring the recipe with me. So now it can serve as a way to use all those leftover candy canes! 

Peppermint Ice Cream

4-6 candy canes depending on how minty you like it

slightly less than 1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon  lemon juice

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 cup milk

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Crush candy canes until broken into fairly small bits (see photo). Combine half of the candy cane crumbles with the remainder of the ingredients and mix well.  Put the mixture in the the fridge for a minimum of 6 hours up to leaving it overnight - this will allow the candy cane to dissolve into the mixture and I've found that it gives the ice cream a better consistency when you churn it.

After chilling the mixture, stir well and pour mixture into ice cream maker, making sure to scrape all the sugar and remaining bits of candy cane out. After the machine has been churning for about 15 minutes, add the remaining half of the candy cane, which will end up as crunchy bits in the finished product - if you're not a fan of crunchy things in your cream,  add all the candy cane at the beginning. Churn the ice cream until desired consistency, mine ice cream maker usually takes a total of 45 minutes. Pour the ice cream into a container and put into the freezer until solid and enjoy - goes especially well with chocolate! 

Blue-Rimmed Plate Special

Meatloaf has a bad rap.

It is, for sure, a loaf of meat - something that doesn't quite sit well with our well-intentioned ideas of better modern eating (any reality aside). And like cheese balls and Jell-O molds, meatloaf has that aura of 1950's food that's trying a little too hard.

Of course, this being the Ms. Cleaver Chronicles, I'd be somewhat amiss if I didn't proclaim love for the meatloaf. I like meatloaf so much, it's what I ate on my second-first date with Mr. Cleaver. I can only think of one other person who truly appreciates this dish as much as I do (hi Winnie!). But if you haven't eaten meatloaf recently, you really should because it is tasty. And with a few minor modifications, better for you than a hamburger.

A few years ago, I decided to jettison beef from my diet, except for "when it really mattered," meaning I like a good steak every now and again, but by and large ground beef almost never makes it into my kitchen. And really, I don't miss it - most of the things I formerly made with hamburger (or hamburg as Mr. Cleaver says) like tacos, chili and this dish, have enough seasoning that it doesn't make much difference when I use ground turkey meat instead and I feel a little better about eating it. I do what I can.

And so, like the Chili I posted earlier this week, I make my meatloaf with turkey, but feel free to use beef if you want.

Mmm-mm Meatloaf : (Serves 3)

1- 1½lbs ground turkey meat (or beef)

½ onion, finely diced

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp thyme

½ sleeve of butter crackers (ie Townhouse or Ritz - not Saltines)

2/3 cup of ketchup

1 egg

Preheat oven to 350°F.  If desired, lightly grease a loaf pan.

Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl using a sturdy spoon or your hands. transfer to pan and make into a "loaf "shape.  [Note: To really make a good sized, loaf you'd probably need at least 2 lbs of meat, but I'm only cooking for two here.]

Put in oven and cook for 45 min-  1 hour or until internal temperature reaches 160°F on a meat thermometer.

Chili Weather

When the weather is like this...

One can't help but make this...

This chili is adapted from the one my mother always made growing up, but I substitute ground turkey meat for my mother's ground beef, a move she says, "just sounds wrong." I assure you that is tastes great either way.

This recipe is really simple and can pretty much be expanded or added to indefinitely. Mr. Cleaver particularly enjoys it for the chili dogs that come the next day. Best of all, it can be made in one pot and would work great for crock-pot loving people (Ignore the skillet in the above photo, I normally don't use it for this, I just needed to thaw my meat quickly).

Simple Turkey Chili (serves 3-4)1 lb Ground turkey or beef1-2 cans red kidney beans, drained1 can tomato sauce2 Tbl Chili powder (or to taste)½ onion, diced (optional)bell pepper (optional)cheese (optional)If using onion, saute in pan with a small amount of butter in a large pot (3 qts or more). Add the meat, breaking it apart with a spoon and brown (Though I've always wondered why the phrase is "brown" since almost all meat turns more of a white or grey color).

Once the meat is browned, stir in the tomato sauce, drained kidney beans and chili powder. Two tablespoons makes for a fairly mild chili, so feel free to punch it up as desired at any point in the cooking process. As I recall, my brother always liked to add about half a bottle.

At this point, turn the heat down as low as possible, and cover. It can sit for hours like this, with only occasional stirring. I usually make corn muffins or bread at this point and serve dinner when the muffins come out of the oven.

Serve leftovers the next day as chili dogs. Or try my personal favorite, the "tail-wagger:" chili on top on Fritos - the brain child of the folks at Mutt's, the Chicago-style hot dog place across from old high school.

My Favorite Leftover

I am one of those holiday eaters who live for leftovers. Yes, Thanksgiving dinner takes way too much time to make for the amount of time it takes to eat it (especially when its just two people), but the food is so good and you hardly have to cook at all for about a week (especially when Mr. Cleaver makes an amazing turkey stew)!

My favorite use for leftover Thanksgiving food is something I like to call "The Portlander." I call it the Portlander because I totally stole it from a New England bagel chain and that's what they call it. It takes no skill and is totally tasty.

The Portlander

Ingredients: Leftover turkey Leftover stuffing Canned whole cranberry sauce (I preferred the canned because the slightly gelatinous nature holds together better) Bulkie rolls

Put the two halves of the roll in the toaster or under the broiler and heat until warm - not toasty.

Reheat the turkey and stuffing the microwave. Take your warm roll and add a thick layer of stuffing, topped by the turkey and the cranberry sauce, put on the top half of the roll and enjoy how the flavors blend so magically!

Cinnaminninies and Cheatin' Cherry Pie

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I made and froze Mr. Cleaver's holiday cherry pie this afternoon to be baked on Thursday. There's no recipe for the pie because I am a total cheater and use the cherries from a can. The crust however, is totally homemade, flakey, and delicious. You can find the recipe for that here. There is a bonus recipe at the bottom of this post, for those inclined. 

Mr. Cleaver loves pie. Particularly cherry. Last year, even though we had an apple pie in the freezer, Mr. Cleaver requested cherry. Since I love making pies, I obliged and we didn't eat the apple pie until the Superbowl, which made the Bears spectacular loss more bearable (pun? perhaps intended). This year, since I knew saving the second apple pie would be pointless, I ate it several weeks ago.

In many ways, pie  has been a central part of Mr. Cleaver and I's relationship. Like I said before,  Mr. Cleaver loves pie and I love making it.

It started, ever so circuitously, at Thanksgiving. I was living in Maine and had just started dating Mr. Cleaver a few weeks before. He invited me to accompany him to his parents for Thanksgiving, but I thought that was way too soon to be meeting the folks, so I opted to go with the rest of interns buddies to the Portland Stage annual Thanksgiving.

Hating to come empty-handed, I made a raspberry pie. But living in a furnished apartment meant I was missing several of my usual tools and, among other things, I ended up having to use an oddly shaped glass to roll out my crust. The pie turned out fine, but I wasn't looking forward to using a glass for the rest of the year.

Mr. Cleaver doesn't get any of that pie, but he does finds out that I make them. Gears begin to spin.

Flash forward a few weeks and Christmas is fast approaching. This time, still unable to travel to California for the Holidays, I have accepted Mr. Cleaver's invitation to join his family.  Christmas is still several weeks away, but John has an early gift to give me.  He prefaces the gift by saying that he's been carrying it around in his car for several weeks, and that he was afraid to give it to me, because he didn't want me to think that he had certain expectations, etc., etc.

After much waffling, he gives me a rolling pin.

I am thrilled, he is thrilled I'm thrilled. Everyone is thrilled except my roommate, who had also purchased me a rolling pin for Christmas.

Christmastime and I'm off to Mr. Cleaver's folks, a perfectly-rolled out crust on another raspberry pie for his folks and even though we've only been dating two months, I want to make a good impression. I present his mother with my pie, only to find out they have about four other pies already purchased for about six people. This is a pie-loving family.

Despite this excess of pie, his family is very kind and they eat the pie I brought and declare it tasty. I am relived, though slightly weirded-out by how Mr. Cleaver's brother-in-law keeps making references to how I'm going to be the next in-law.  Let's just call it foreshadowing.

Several months later, I'm at Mr. Cleaver's apartment and I find some cherry pie filling in his pantry. Just in case, you know, I was over and just really wanted to make a pie. 

Bonus Recipe:

Cinnaminninies:

 I doubt my father came up with these, but he did have an awful good name for them. This is my favorite way of putting that extra pie dough to use. 

Ingredients: Leftover pie dough, Milk, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and  Sugar.

Preheat over to 350.

Place small bits of leftover dough in a pie tin. Brush with a small amount of milk and sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar as desired. Cook for about 20 minutes or until brown on edges.Enjoy warm, but let cool enough so they don't become "cinnaminni-owies."

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce and Sweet Cucumber Salad

I came up with this recipe after a visit to a local Thai place with Mr. Cleaver about a year ago. I don't know if I've ever made it the same way twice, this is one version. As with most recipes I make. this oowes a heavy thanks to the joy of cooking and searches on Epicurious.com.

Chicken Satay: (serves 3-4) 2 Chicken Breasts 1 plain yogurt 1 tsp. minced garlic 1 tsp. curry powder (or to taste - this version is very mild) 1 tsp. lime juice ½ tsp. soy sauce bamboo skewers

Soak the skewers in water for about ten minutes, so they'll burn less. Turn on the broiler.

Slice the chicken into thin strips. In a shallow pan, mix together yogurt, garlic, curry powder, lime juice and soy sauce. Add chicken and stir until chicken is coated in sauce. Thread chicken unto the soaked skewers and place on a foil covered baking pan or cookie sheet. Place under the broiler and cook for about 25 minutes, turning halfway through, or until cooked completely.

While the chicken is cooking make the salad and sauce.

Sweet Cucumber Salad: (serves 2) 1 cucumber ½ cup shredded red cabbage 1/4 cup lime juice 1 Tbl sugar

Remove the skin of the cucumber and dice, avoiding the seedy center. Place in a medium bowl, add the cabbage, lime juice and sugar. Mix together and allow to sit. The juice will turn pink. Note: this does not keep, so serve immediately.

Peanut Dipping Sauce: (serves 3-4) ½ cup creamy peanut butter ½ cup (coconut) milk 2 Tbl brown sugar 1 Tbl soy sauce 1 tsp lime juice

Mix ingredients together in a small pot and warm over low heat. Whisk until smooth and serve warm.

One Bowl Banana Bread

If the only reason we had alcohol in the house was to bake Sherry Nut Bundt Cake, then the only reason my mother owned a Cuisinart was to make banana bread.

Okay, that's not entirely true - occasionally my dad would use it to make really tasty hashbrowns, but for the most part the Cuisinart was a one-hit wonder. But like Don McLean's American Pie, it was a good hit. Whenever I feel like I'm in a breakfast rut I like to make a loaf - it also travels really well, so I'll often make some for road trips.

The recipe below is an adaptation of the banana bread recipe from an old Cuisinart cookbook that always fell open to this page, because again, it was the only thing it was used for.

I don't own a Cuisinart and while you can do the recipe in a blender for the most part, it's easier to make and clean if you do it one-bowl style.

One Bowl Banana Bread

Makes 1 medium-sized loaf

• 3 overripe bananas
• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup wheat flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp lemon juice or vinegar
• ½ cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350° F

Break up the bananas and butter into a large mixing bowl. With a sturdy whisk, mash together the butter and bananas until mixed well - the butter will still be a little chunky, but should be about pea-sized.

Add flour, sugar, soda and salt. Whisk around on top of the bowl before using a spoon to combine with butter/banana goop. Add eggs, milk and lemon juice, adding the juice last. Mixture may bubble slightly when the lemon juice is added. Mix in walnuts and pour into a greased loaf pan.

Bake 55-60 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Serve warm with butter. Makes a great breakfast treat.