Pizza, all rolled up

Thursday nights have become homemade pizza night at our house.  Awhile back I checked out Jim Lahey's My Pizza from the library and ever since, we have experimented with better than decent and sometimes darn good homemade pizza.  I especially like that I can mix up the dough on Wednesday night, just mix, no kneading, and after leaving it on the counter, have great pizza dough on Thursday night.

Sometimes I plan specific toppings, while sometimes, I clean out the fridge. Leftovers make great pizza toppings.  The version shared below is an example of both with a slight twist. Lahey recommends preheating one's oven to 500+ degrees for at least 45 minutes before baking your pizzas. This is great except when our un-air-conditioned kitchen is already over 80 degrees in the summer or a weeknight when dinner should be served before the kids' bedtime. I started making stromboli because it cuts my oven-on time to a half an hour to forty minutes.

Weeknight Stromboli
Dough:

• 500 g unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 g active dry yeast
• 16 g sea salt
• 350 g water

Yes, I prefer to weigh ingredients in a yeast dough.  With the variable humidity in our house, it is more accurate than volume measures.  It also gives me an excuse to pull out the cool digital kitchen scale my mother-on-law got me for Christmas a couple of years ago.

Combine all ingredients thoroughly.  Cover and let rise on the counter for 18-24 hours.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Pat out or toss to make a rectangle (for stromboli).  Note, the dough is pretty wet so I use a lot of flour to prevent sticking to me and the work surface or pan.  Make a row of toppings down the middle of the rectangle.  Cover with both flaps of dough.  Tuck ends under.  Make a couple of steam vents.  Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and everything is bubbly.

The stromboli shown here is stuffed with homemade pesto, leftover Caprese salad with local fresh mozzarella and heirloom tomatoes and some browned pancetta bits.  The pancetta had been procured specifically for pizza night.  Everything else was leftovers.

Dinner Tonight: Huli Huli Chicken

It's been a bit since I've posted. Life has been its usual crazy with school beginning to wind down, spring volleyball coming to an end, the last rush of classes at work leading into summer construction season, the beginning of planting season and a serious effort at potty training on Henry's part. Whew!

Lately I've been a bit fascinated with some of the video recipes on FB. My phone's web browser has many pages open to the options I've seen on FB. This week I decided to try one ... Huli Huli Chicken from the Recipe Critic. I did make a few modifications as pineapple juice was elusive when I was tossing together the marinade on Tuesday night. I also had a mix of chicken breasts and chicken tenders so I opted to cube and make kabobs for the grill.

I have enough cheesy broccoli and cauliflower and leftover chicken for a great lunch tomorrow.

Huli Huli Chicken

Adapted from the Recipe Critic and Taste of Home

Marinade:

1 c. Mandarin Orange Juice (subbed for the called-for Pineapple Juice)

1/2 c. Soy Sauce

1/2 c. Brown Sugar

1 tsp. Ground Ginger

1 tsp. Garlic Powder

Combine all marinade ingredients in a gallon-sized resealable plastic bag. Add 3-4 pounds of chicken pieces. Let marinade for a few hours (or days).

Put chicken pieces on skewers. Allow the chicken to rest at room temperature while the grill preheats, about 20 minutes. Grill the kebabs over medium heat until an internal temperature reaches 165° F. Because the marinade has quite a bit of sugar in it, watch it carefully to avoid flare-ups or excessive charring.

Leftovers Refashioned - Ham and Beans over Cornbread

The plan posted on Sunday went a bit awry this week. The grocery store trip did not yield many of the items on the list from the ad ... one of the consequences of shopping after the deli and meat counter are closed near the end of the ad week. (I also see that I left Wednesday blank which is OK, I guess, since I think I had Cheerios for dinner that night.)

One of this week's improv dishes utilized a leftover meaty hambone from the freezer and some pantry staples. For cornbread, I use my store brand mini-box that goes on sale for 2/$1. To dress it up, I'll add a cup of shredded sharp cheddar or another strong cheese.

Ham and Beans over Cornbread

• 1 meaty hambone left over from previous meals. I store mine in the freezer for future use. If frozen, I always thaw before slow cooking.
• 2-4 cans low- or no-salt beans ... I used one can of black and a can of great northern.
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 tbs. worcestershire sauce
• 2 cloves pressed, grated or minced garlic
• 1/4 c. dehydrated onion flakes
• 1/2 c. beef broth

Combine all ingredients in a sturdy Dutch oven over medium heat on the stovetop. Allow to simmer until the sauce thickens and the ham bits slide easily off the bone.

Remove the bone and discard. Remove any bigger-than-bite-sized chunks of ham and chop or shred into smaller pieces. Return ham to mixture. Serve hot over prepared cornbread.

You may notice this isn't hot or spicy. To bump it up a notch, include red pepper flakes or your favorite hot sauce.