Menu of the Week

Our menu of the week features a repeat from last week...because it was just THAT good. Of course I tweaked the ingredients and I think it's even better. Keep reading to see what we had.

Menu of the Week

Menu of the Week

Our family enjoyed some new recipes this week. A few of these were requested to be "regulars" from now on. Keep reading to find out which we loved the most... Company Pot Roast from Ina Garten, Smoked Samon Tartines and Crab Cakes, Spaghetti Carbonara, Crawfish Pie, Mini Pizza's and Salisbury Meatballs over Egg Noodles.

Menu of the Week + Salmon in Lemon Brodetto and Pea Puree

 

It was another great weekly menu at our house with some repeated favorites and a couple new recipes that will be making a comeback.

 

The Chicken Tacos are one of those easy meals good for several days of lunches.  I take frozen chicken breasts and put them in a crock pot with a jar of salsa and a package of taco seasoning. Set the slow cooker on low all day (5-8 hours) and then the chicken easily shreds with a fork inside the crockpot. I buy tortillas, a block of cheddar cheese to grate at home and we call that a great dinner. I serve with black beans and sometimes Mexican rice. Super easy, really yummy. I feel like this isn't even a recipe at all which is why I have not featured it on HWM. Maybe I should throw it up on here next time I make it so I at least have a picture to reference when it shows up on our weekly menu.

 

On Monday we had the usual Salmon but this time I decided to try a Giada recipe from Food Network. This Salmon in Lemon Brodetto and Pea Puree is a perfect dish for spring. I've got the full recipe with pictures below.

Girls Night Recipes

When my friends and I plan girls night, it always involves sinful snacking. If there were a night to fry something, this would be it. Lots of jokes (sometimes at my expense), lots of fried food, lots of wine, lots of chatter around the roar of a fire - no boys allowed. You won't find spicy chicken wings or philly cheese steaks anywhere near our buffet. Let me highlight some of our favorite snacks for girls night!

Fried zucchini slices, otherwise known as Zucca Chips are so perfect for girls night! For one, they are quick and easy. Secondly, these are delicious!

Be sure to buy at least one zucchini per person because they shrink up and we tend to eat these by the handfuls.

As soon as you pull them out of the fryer, allow them to drain on a paper towel and sprinkle with salt right away.

While we were at it, we also thinly sliced potatoes and fried them up as well.

Homemade Pizza Dough from a Bread Machine

Would you say that fancy toppings make a great pizza? I believe a great pizza starts with the pizza crust. The dough should be the most important part and if you get that right, then it will only take a few toppings to get you to that perfect pizza pie. You are aiming for both a crunchy and chewy crust, like a French baguette. It needs to be plastic enough to expand with the increase of gas and elastic enough to hold the expanding gas.

I love homemade pizza dough, but I don’t want to mess with all the fuss of the many steps. My solution is to use my bread machine. Here is the recipe I use for Traditional Pizza Dough (for 2-lb. bread maker):

1-1/4 cups water
1-1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
3-3/4 cups bread flour

The best flour to use is bread flour made specifically for bread machines because it is high in protein which can accommodate more gluten.

1-1/2 Tbsp. sugar
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1-1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

Pizza dough gets its rise from the yeast. Active dry yeast is regular yeast that has been dehydrated and broken into granules. When adding it to your bread machine, add it last and don’t let it touch any liquid. I make a small well in the center of the flour (making sure not to punch through to the liquid below).

White Pizza with Roasted Garlic Sauce

This pizza recipe doesn't use tomatoes for the sauce but instead uses roasted garlic smeared on the pizza dough with caramelized onions and wilted spinach. I also made an accompanying roasted garlic sauce to dip the pizza into. Vampires beware.

I topped the pizza with seared chicken that I seasoned with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. This can easily be left off to make the pizza vegetarian.

I also caramelized some onions by sauteing them on medium-low heat with a little olive oil until they became sweet and brown. Try not to eat the caramelized onions one by one why you finish assembling the pizza.

Two types of cheese were used for this pizza: Mozzarella and Fontina.

I took half a bag of baby spinach and wilted it gently in a pot over medium heat.

Roasted garlic heads! I could make a dinner out of THIS, I love it so much. Just cut the tops off the garlic heads, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and bake at 375 for 30 minutes to one hour. Garlic is ready when tops are brown and garlic is visibly bursting out of the top of the garlic head.

Using a mortar and pestle I ground the soft cloves of garlic into a paste.

For this recipe, I used a prepared pizza dough. To date I haven't tried to make my own dough although my new bread machine has a setting for dough that I plan to try soon. I first smeared the par cooked dough with garlic paste, then topped with wilted baby spinach and caramelized onions. Top with chicken pieces and lastly cover with cheese.

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes or until cheese is brown and bubbly.

To accompany the White Pizza I made this Garlic Sauce by Emeril Lagasse.  It's made with milk, butter, flour, salt, cayenne and 3-4 heads of roasted garlic. Recipe below.

We both thought this was a great dinner and a nice change from the margarita pizza we both love. Next time I would like to try my hand at making my own pizza dough - I've read it's easy... I need to give it a shot. Also, I would like to start the recipe with crisping some bacon pieces, and then caramelizing the onion and boiling down the spinach in the drippings. Yum! I wouldn't change this recipe much beyond the addition of bacon. I thought it was great. The garlic sauce was interesting. It actually made way too much sauce for this purpose, but in the future I could use this to make a fine sauce for pasta!

{White Pizza with Roasted Garlic Sauce}

Pesto Pizza

There are many many ways to make homemade pizza, but this is one of those pull-it-together-last-minute-pizzas for a group of girlfriends who are sitting around drinking wine on your patio. Oh, how I love those nights! I have some of the best girlfriends and they never fail me. We may differ politically, but we accept each other and all our quirks, we think the same things are funny, rejoice in good times, share in the hard times.

This is the gang at my cinco de mayo party where we all wore stick on mustaches.

Yes, I do love my girlfriends and I don’t know what I would do without them. One evening this summer I invited the girls over for a late Sunday lunch. We started by opening a bottle of crisp white wine and then finished off all the white wine I had in the house (4 bottles). There were only five of us! Allyson (the baker) brought a homemade loaf of bread with her, we tore into it and dipped into my spinach artichoke dip. When the sun went down, we made this pizza and opened a lovely red wine.

Coppola's Rubicon Estate 2005 Merlot
For this pizza you will need a can of pizza dough, or a can of crescent rolls. I’ve learned that you should bake the crust halfway through before layering your pizza toppings – otherwise the crust would come out soggy. For sauce I used homemade pesto, but you could use store bought pesto. If you aren’t a fan of pesto, make tomato sauce or use store bought pasta sauce.



Next I tore fresh mozzarella and covered the pizza generously. I sliced tomatoes thinly over the mozzarella but if you aren’t a fan of this style pizza layer your pizza with other favorite veggies. The finishing step is to add a light layer of shredded cheese on top. I used parmesan. Bake your pizza according to your crust directions. I baked mine for about 15 minutes in a 425 degree oven.