Hey Y'all!
Well!! The Internet drama continues at my house! The crazy thing is that it works just FINE on the WEEKENDS! But when Monday morning rolls around... we are back to one hour of Internet equals three hours of no Internet. So, sadly I think my modem is going to be replaced tomorrow. Oh well. That means I can update more!
As you can see from my last Crackberry post.. I took a trip to Charleston on Friday! I had an appointment with my GI doc. Everything is going well. I have new meds, upping of old meds and a colonoscopy soon. I have to schedule that tomorrow. Uggh. No eating high on the hog that week! And of course, while I was in Charleston, I had to visit
Knit and
Andolini's!
I have been cooking up lots this past week! I have several new recipes to post this week and if you get lucky, maybe even TWO today! I made a FANTASTIC blueberry cobbler on the fourth of July and the recipe is so easy, peasy, that you can't not make one of these this summer!
A few posts ago, I posted a picture of a yummy Taco Pizza that I made. I got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman's blog. It is really easy to make and the results are fantastic! Sadly, I didn't take alot of pictures while I was making the pizza. You know. Camera drama and all. But I will post the recipe here and walk you through it step by step!
Now, here is the key to the pizza. The crust. I actually made my own crust and it was really easy to do. But, you may not have the time that I have or you may not have the patience. That is fine. You can buy a premade crust. No one will know! But if you have the time, make the crust. It is very good and makes two crusts. So if you like this pizza as much as me, then you will already have an extra crust ready to go in the freezer!
To make your own pizza crust you will need:
1 teaspoon of instant or active dry yeast (you can find this in the baking aisle)
1 1/2 cup of warm water
4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1/3 cup of olive oil
Start by adding the yeast to the warm water. Stir a tiny bit. Let it sit for about 15 minutes. While you are waiting, combine the flour and the salt. I just put it in my Kitchen Aid Mixer. Then slowly add your olive oil. Then add in your water/yeast mixture. Stir all together until you get a sticky lump.
Now here is the tricky part. This dough is better if you let it sit for a day in your fridge. I forgot about mine and it sat for 3 days. It was sooooo good!
When you are ready for the pizza, split the dough in half. Put the half you are not going to use in a Ziploc and put it in your freezer. Now, you are ready Freddy for the next time!
So, just let your dough hang out for now.
For the actual Taco Pizza you are going to need:
(Don't y'all miss my pictures??)
1 can of black beans (14 ounces)
1 teaspoon of taco seasoning (I just bought an envelope and put the unused portion in a Ziploc)
1 cup grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 cup grated Monterrey Jack Cheese
4 corn tortillas and 1/3 cup canola oil (if you want to make your own tortilla strips. If not, add regular tortilla chips crushed.)
1 head of green lettuce, shredded (this is not iceberg lettuce, but the leafy green kind!)
2 whole red tomatoes, diced
Cilantro leaves
1/4 cup sour cream
3 teaspoons of hot sauce, your choice!
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Place your bottom rack on the lowest rung on your oven.
So, the first thing you want to do is dump your beans into a sauce pan. Put the burner on medium/low heat. Add in your one teaspoon of taco seasoning. Mix well and once the beans are warm, take a potato masher and mash the heck out of the beans. You want them to look like refried beans, but still be a little runny. When the beans are done, take them off of the burner and set aside.
Grab a cookie sheet. Drizzle a little bit of oil on the sheet. Then take your pizza dough and stretch it across the cookie sheet. Make it VERY thin! This pizza will be more of a rectangle than a circle. But the overall goal is a THIN crust. Once you have your crust spread out, then top with the beans. Then, sprinkle your cheeses over the beans. Place in the oven for 9-12 minutes, checking regularly to make sure your crust is not burning.
If you wish to make your own tortillas strips, now is the time! Cut your corn tortillas into VERY thin strips. I used my pizza cutter to cut through the tortillas. Put 1/3 cup of canola oil in a small skillet. Let it warm. Drop about a half of handful of strips in at a time. Let them fry for about 30 seconds, and then remove. Continue this until all strips are fried. As you remove the strips from the oil, place them on a paper plate with a paper towel to drain the excess oil. *If you choose not to do this, I think that regular smooshed up tortilla chips would work fine too!
While the crust is baking, you want to dice up your tomatoes, and chop your lettuce. You will also want to wash the cilantro and cut off some of the stems. Also, at this point, mix up your sour cream at hot sauce. Put it into a Ziploc bag. Put this back in the fridge. This is a yummy way to top off your pizza!
When you pizza is finished, remove from the oven. Garnish with lettuce, tomatoes and cilantro. Add the tortilla strips. Next, take out your Ziploc baggie with the sour cream/hot sauce mix. Snip a little bit of off one of the corners of the bag. Drizzle over the entire pizza. YUM!!
***Now here's were I changed the recipe a little bit. I knew that I was not going to eat the entire pizza in one night. So I cut off of the squares I was going to eat and added the garnishes. I froze the rest. I also kept the leftover garnishes in a baggie in the fridge. That way, for the rest of the week, I could reheat the pizza and add everything else. Because y'all, to me, there is nothing worse than heated lettuce. It makes me ILL!!!
And, since I was having camera issues, I will show you what the finished pizza looks like. This is from
The Pioneer Woman's website.
And, here's mine!
This was a very yummy dinner. I also found out, that I really like cilantro. Who knew????!!
So I hope that you will enjoy this pizza as much as I did. In fact, I still have slices in the freezer! Just pop them out and heat for about 1 minute in the microwave. YUMMY IN THE TUMMY!
Hopefully I be back later on today with a Blueberry Cobbler recipe!
Tootles!
:) JKP
You will need 1 jar of Thick n' Chunky medium salsa by Taco Bell, I can of light kidney beans and 1 can of dark red kidney beans, 1 can of tomato sauce, a couple of sprinkles of chili powder, 1 onion and a pound of ground beef.
