Mexican Pizza

I'm a HUGE fan. I'm telling you. When is Mexican food NOT good? I have so many recipes I want to post from many meals ago, but this was last night, and I couldn't wait to post it.

So, I made the good old salsa, crock-pot shredded pork the same way that many of us have made it. I guess it might be more well know to be made with chicken. It's much like the bbq chicken below, but instead I made it with a pork loin and salsa verde. I made a lot so I had a lot to play around with for other meals. We had it as soft Tacos the first night. I was feeling Pizza since I usually do it when we make bbq pork/chicken. But since the pork had the lovely Mexican flavors from the salsa, I thought maybe a cornmeal crust would help with the all around Mexican flavor. Lo and behold, someone has thought of this before, as I found when googling around for a cornmeal pizza crust. Here's what I did.You'll need:
One recipe Cornmeal Pizza Dough(we only used half and froze the other half, and I went ahead and used some wheat flour , like the recipe said, but I think you'd be able to get the cornmeal flavor better with all while flour.)
Shredded salsa pork (pork loin and salsa verde in a crock pot for about 7 hours)
more salsa verde
tomatoes
red onions
cheese
black beans
corn (this and the beans were acutally left over from our tacos. I had cooked them with an onion and a sprinkling of the same spices as below.)
cilantro
lettuce
cumin
chili powder
garlic power
s&p
cilantro-lime dressing (Made famous by Cafe Rio. The recipe can be found many places, though I used the one found here. I used like 3 times the amount of lime juice the said, and next time I'll use half sour cream, half mayo, instead of all mayo like the recipe says. Still so good.)

Roll your dough on a pizza stone that has been sprayed and sprinkled with more cornmeal. Spread a little salsa on as a base. Add as much pork as you'd like. Follow with the corn/beans, red onions, tomatoes, more salsa if you'd like, the cheese and the spices. Bake in a 475 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until the crust is baked, and the ingredients are warmed through. Cut into slices and serve with lettuce, cilantro (or any garnishes/flavor additions) and a good drizzle of the dressing. Oh, I can't tell you how much I enjoyed each bite. And, you probably need to eat this pizza with a fork.
The best part is, we STILL have tons of pork left. I'm thinking Navajo tacos. Tonight.

Orange Rolls

I was looking through the recipes that I was given by people at one of my wedding showers. I totally forgot that people had given them to me. This one sounded great, and It was sitting on my counter staring at me for a week before I tried it. I'm telling you, they are delicious.

Orange Rolls
(From Aunt Ruth Earnest)

Dough:
3 pk. yeast dissolved in 1/2 c warm water
1 can evaporated milk plus enough water to make 2 cups
1/2 c sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 tsp
salt
6 cups flour

Filling:
1/2 c softened butter or margarine
1/2 c sugar
grated orange zest
1 t OJ concentrate

Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
about 2 T OJ concentrate (enough to make it pourable)

Mix in order-cover, let rise about 2 hours. Dough should be sticky. Roll 1/2 of the dough in a WELL floured surface into a rectangle. Spread half the filling on the dough. Fold into thirds, like a letter, cut into strips with a pizza cutter, and twist each strip a couple times. Place on a foil lined, greased baking sheet a couple inches apart. Let rise about 20 minutes (or overnight in the fridge. I did that with the other half since I didn't need them that night), and bake for about 20-25 minutes in a 375 degree oven. Glaze immediately.
Not all of this is exactly what the recipe said, but I gave the directions how I made them. With the other half of the dough, I just did them cinnamon roll style, rolling the dough/filling up, and slicing it. You will love the results. You can also, of course make these into cinnamon rolls too.

Mulitgrain Bread Pudding

This is another odds and ends type recipe since it was purely to use some things taking up space in my fridge. I had milk that was toward the end of it's drinkable life, and yolks left over from my meringue adventures, so this seemed like the thing to make. I also had a loaf of multi-grain French bread that always seems a little dry if it's not eaten a few days after purchasing. So here's the procedure:

Cut one loaf of bread into cubes and place into an greased 9x9 baking dish. Whisk together about 10 yolks, or 4-5 eggs (I just happened to have a container full of yolks, but whole eggs will work fine. The yolks will just make it especially rich.) in a bowl. Whisk in about 3 1/2 cups of milk (about 1/2 cup of this was evaporated milk that I also was sick of looking at in the fridge, but again, regular milk is fine.) Add about 1 1/4 c of brown sugar, about 1/2 t of cinnamon, 1/4 t nutmeg, and any dried fruit or nuts you want to add. This one had walnuts and dates. Pour over the bread and then preheat the oven to 350. While the over in heating let the milk soak into the bread, pressing down to make sure all is soaked. Bake for about on hour. Check after 45 minutes and if the top is getting too dark, but the custard is not cooked, cover with foil and continue cooking until it is completely cooked through. You can tell by inserting a knife and prying the bread apart checking to see if there is any liquid. If there is, it is not done. It must be completely solid throughout. It will be puffed up and golden. Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, or a nice vanilla sauce. It's good at any temperature, but I like it right out of the oven. I served ours with a maple glaze.

Sweet Potato Pound Cake

I made this on a whim to use up some sweet potatoes I had been looking at for weeks. I found this recipe and it turned out pretty well. Expect I omitted the pecans and added dried cranberries and chopped dates. And I made it in two loaf pans instead of a bundt, for no particular reason.

A tip: instead of peeling, boiling, then mashing the potatoes, just prick them and put them in the microwave. Cook until very soft, cut in half and scoop out perfect mashed sweet potatoes.

Chocolate Banana Bread

I doubled this recipe and made it into a pound cake. It weighted a TON, and was so moist, dense, and delicious. If I was feeling extravagant that night, I'd have put a white chocolate ganache glaze, and served it with ice cream and fresh whipped cream, but for a stake function, they just got a powdered sugar dusting.

Tomato Basil Pizza

Easy:
Basic dough rolled out (recipe below)
pizza sauce spread
fresh basil torn and distributed
cheese
tomatoes
parmesean
salt, pepper,

Like unto margarita pizza. I just didn't have fresh Mozzarella so this was my variation.


L'Academie de Cuisine's Pizza Dough

2 c water, luke warm

1 ½ t yeast

2 T olive oil

2 t salt

5-6 cups flour

1. Combine yeast and water in a mixing bowl. Stir to dissolve the yeast.

2. Add the olive oil and first two cups of flour. Add salt on top of flour as not to disturb the yeast. Stir together and add another 2 – 1 1/2 cups of flour making sure to reserve 1 cup for bench flour. Mix together well.

3. Pour out onto a flour surface and knead for 5 minutes adding flour ass needed.

4. Let the dough proof in a greased bowl until doubled in size, about 1 ½ hours.

5. Punch down and shape flatten out into any shape you want your pizza to be. I roll mine right onto my pizza stone with a little cornmeal sprinkled on it.

6. Bake at 500 degrees for about 10 minutes.

This makes two medium pizza crusts. I like to use half the day I make it and freeze the other half for another night. Just defrost completely and let it rise and then follow the recipe from step 5.

Whole Wheat rolls

I made these rolls for the barbecue pork sandwiches at my Pampered Chef party. Here is the recipe. They very hearty, sweet, and perfect for sandwiches.

Past breads

These are rolls I made for easter with my cinnamon rolls recipe.

Irish soda bread: We had this on St. Patrick's Day with out Irish stew.

Bran muffins: I love these in the morning. I wish I would have the freshly baked every day.


Banana bread: I believe this was given to friend who'd just had her baby. I like to glaze things a lot.