Red Onion and Bleu Cheese Pizza

Frozen pizza is by far the one of the easiest & quickest dinners for us. There are just some nights you want to take the night off. Well believe it or not, making your own pizza takes the same amount of time as baking a frozen one. You can find pre-made pizza dough in the refrigerated deli section of your grocery store. It's a great way to use up some loose ends in your fridge. You could scatter small chunks of chicken breast, frozen veggies, whatever you like. I've done a BBQ chicken pizza (use bbq sauce instead of marinara), a hard-boiled egg pizza, and a Eggplant & Olive puff pastry pizza. This time I went for a caramelized red onion and bleu cheese pizza. It was fantastic! The crust was perfect and I love those big bubbles in the edges of the pizza. Don't be scared of pizza dough, it's really fun to play with!

Red Onion and Bleu Cheese Pizza
pre-made pizza dough
Half red onion, sliced
Blue cheese crumbles, around 1 cup

1 Preheat oven to its highest temperature, mine is 500 degrees. Take pizza dough out and place on the counter while you prepare remaining ingredients. (hint: pizza dough is always best used a few days after its made)
2 Heat a medium skillet with olive oil and saute red onion until caramelized and wilted, about 10 minutes. You can sprinkle some brown sugar to help the process going.
3 Roll out the dough by gently stretching or using a rolling pin to the desired thickness and size. I kind of go for the odd-sized shape to make it look more homemade. Place on large baking sheet and brush some olive oil and season with a little salt.
3 Scatter the red onions evenly around the pizza, then with the bleu cheese crumbles.
4 Place in oven and bake for 12 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Enjoy!

Sugar-Broiled Grapefruit

My mom used to make this when we were younger as a quick weeknight dessert. We loved it. It was juicy, sweet, tart and also fun to eat. It was like a scavenger hunt, scraping all the last bits of sweet nectar from the bottom of the grapefruit. My mom crumbled some brown sugar on top and microwaved it. It was still delicious, but I wanted to give it a deeper, smokier flavor. I broiled it in the toaster oven instead and it was great! I think any citrus would work, orange would be especially lovely too. I also sprinkled some sea salt before serving because I was craving a sweet salty flavor. Give this a try as an easy dessert, snack or even breakfast.

Just slice the grapefruit in half, crumble brown sugar over the entire exposed grapefruit and put under the broiler for 10-15 minutes or until caramelized.

Awesome Chickpea Salad

This is another dish from my mediterranean dinner party menu. I kind of threw this together about 30 minutes before the party, but it ended up being one of my favorite salads of the night!

It is very simple but very flavorful, too. This filling salad has chickpeas, cucumbers, red onion, shredded carrot, mint, parlsey, lemon juice and olive oil — all things that are laying around the kitchen. And of course, you can substitute any of the veggies, or beans for that matter, with whatever you have on-hand. I bet a chopped up hard-boiled egg would be great, too. Plus, not only is it delicious right when you make it, but it is also great the next day, straight out of the fridge for a quick cold lunch or snack. Give it a try!

Chickpea Salad

serves 6

adapted via Martha Stewart

2 cans chickpeas, drained and washed

1 seedless cucumber

1/2 red onion, chopped and soaked in a bowl of water for 20 minutes

3 shredded carrots

3 tablespoons fresh mint

3 tablespoons fresh flat leaf parsley

1/2 lemon juiced

olive oil

salt 'n' peppa

1 In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix. Combine lemon juice with olive oil, to taste, and season.

2 Pour dressing over salad and mix well. Serve cold, after 30 minutes of letting the dressing meld with the salad, or can be served right away if you are pressed for time. It will still be delicious!

Spinach-Ricotta Stuffed Shells

These shells were one of the dishes I made for a dinner party the other week. They were deliciously stuffed with clouds of ricotta and spinach and smothered with marinara sauce. They were also especially great because they could be made ahead and frozen until the day of the party. All you do is bake them for 30-40 minutes and they are ready. I will post some other dishes from the party later on this week. In the meantime, enjoy these heavenly stuffed shells!

Spinach-Ricotta Stuffed Shells

1 box jumbo pasta shells

15 oz ricotta cheese

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp dried parsley or 1 tbs fresh parsley

1 tsp dried basil

3/4 cup grated parmesan

salt 'n' peppa

pinch of nutmeg

8 oz mozzarella

10 oz frozen spinach, thawed

2 cups prepared marinara sauce

goat cheese, optional

1 Cook pasta shells al dente, drain and set aside. I drizzled some olive oil on them to prevent them from sticking.

2 Combine ricotta with eggs, parsley, basil, parmesan, salt, nutmeg, half of the mozzarella and spinach.

3 Lay the shells out on a baking sheet and stuff, one by one, with a large spoonful each.

4 Pour half of the marinara sauce on the bottom of a large baking dish (or two small ones). Then place the stuffed shells on the coated dish. Pour the rest of the sauce over the shells, then sprinkle the rest of the mozzarella on top. (I sprinkled some goat cheese over the mozzarella because I had some leftover that I wanted to finish, completely optional)

At this point, if you want to freeze them, cover with saran wrap, then aluminum and place in the freezer. When ready to bake, place in oven at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until bubbly and heated through.

And the winner is...

Congratulations hex conduction hour! Thanks for sharing your favorite tool. Please contact me at znachman@gmail.com with your mailing address to claim your prize! :)

Blogiversary giveaway!

Well, it's been about a year since I've started this blog, can you believe it? It has been so much fun to share photographs and recipes with fellow bloggers who are all so kind and talented. To celebrate this momentous occasion I am having my very first giveaway!!! Of course it had to be cooking/kitchen related because this is a food blog after all!

It is a BergHOFF stainless steel salt shaker and pepper mill set. Isn't it pretty? I loved it when I saw it and thought it was so modern and sleek. They are from allmodern.com. They have an awesome selection of everything from furniture, (even italian brands), to home bars (perfect for entertaining), to kitchen accessories.

One lucky winner will receive this stainless steel salt and pepper mill set (yes, both salt and pepper!) Just leave a comment and tell me what your favorite kitchen gadget is. It can be anything, a tool/pot/knife/teapot/doodad, whatever. Just tell me what ur fave is!

The deadline to enter is tomorrow, Friday by midnight. I will pick a winner randomly. Good luck!!