It's a pizza party

Hi friends! This week I'm still trekking along with the Pantry/Freezer Challenge. I've  significantly whittled down my supply of assorted muffins and baked goods from the freezer (served along with some frozen fruit for breakfast), and I've given serious thought as to how to creatively use up the rest of my ingredients.


Even just a few days into this challenge, it's reminded me to be thoughtful and intentional about shopping and eating - something that was a big part of my life during my year in Americorps. It's so easy now to take for granted that I can run to the store for whatever I need, rather than make use of what I already have on hand.


So, in the spirit of resourcefulness and creativity, PIZZA seemed like a great way to use up random foodstuffs. Anything tastes good on a pizza, right? I made the dough Thursday night, then invited some girlfriends over to make and eat the pizza Friday night...proving that even when cooking straight from the pantry, you can still have a party! (I think three of us still counts as a party - don't you?) :)

Kathleen forming her crust

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
(makes 2 small crusts)


1 T active dry yeast
1 t sugar
1 1/2 c warm water (110 degrees - use a thermometer if, like me, you cannot approximate this exact temperature of water and don't want your yeast to die or not activate)
1 T olive oil
1 t salt
2 c whole wheat flour
2 T ground flaxseed (optional) (F)
2 T fresh chopped oregano and rosemary (optional)
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour


In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the sugar in the water. Sprinkle on the yeast, and let it stand and foam for 10 minutes. Stir in the oil and the salt. Add the whole wheat flour, flaxseed and herbs (if using) and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour and mix with a fork or spoon until the dough comes together. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour over a clean, dry surface and turn out the dough. Knead it, incorporating the rest of the flour, for about 5-10 minutes. Spray the mixing bowl with some nonstick spray, and place the dough back in the bowl, covered with sprayed plastic wrap. Let it double in size, which will take about an hour (you could totally go to the gym while it's rising, like me). Remove the plastic wrap, cut the dough in half, form each half into a ball, place each in their own sprayed bowl, and cover with sprayed plastic wrap. This time, let it rise for another 30-45 minutes. At this point, you can refrigerate and use the next day or use right away. I don't like soggy pizza, so I always pre-bake my crust before adding the toppings (350 degrees for about 6-7 minutes).

Amazing* From-Scratch Pizza Sauce
(makes enough for your 2 small pizzas)


1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes, drained well (over strainer) and juice reserved (P)
2 T tomato paste (F)
1 t olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 heaping t fresh chopped oregano and rosemary
1/2 t dried basil
1/2 t salt
1/4 t sugar
black pepper


Add the whole peeled tomatoes (which have been drained well over a strainer) to a food processor/blender along with 1/2 cup of the reserved tomato juice and buzz until pureed. (You'll have 1 1/2 cups of tomato juice left over.) In a medium saucepan, add the pureed tomatoes, tomato paste, olive oil, minced garlic clove, fresh and dried herbs, salt, sugar and pepper. Stir well to combine everything, and simmer on low heat at least 20 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before adding to pizza.


*Not to toot my own horn here, but this sauce did taste pretty amazing. I've always used store-bought pizza sauce, but I didn't have any, and challenge rules are challenge rules! The key to using canned whole tomatoes is draining them well and adding only some liquid back - which makes for the perfect consistency!


We topped our pizzas with artichoke hearts (P), roasted red peppers (P), spicy olive bruschetta topping (P), pesto (F), spinach, tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. Yum!

Pizza glamour shot

What do you like on your pizza? Any ideas how I can use that extra tomato juice? 

The pursuit of the perfect pie crust

It’s very rare that I follow a recipe exactly as it’s written. I love reading recipes and cookbooks, but I typically use them as inspiration – then do it my way. However, baking is a different story. When I picked up a couple pounds of local apples at the farmers’ market last weekend, I knew that the pie I was plotting would need a killer crust recipe to match.

At this point, a lot of women (or at least my roommate J and any woman in her family) would just whip out their tried and true heirloom pie crust recipe.

I am not one of those women. I did not grow up in a house of homemade pie crusts, and I did not receive a delicate 3x5 index card with the recipe lovingly handwritten by my mother the day I moved out. My mom is a great cook – but in my house, crust is just a vehicle, and therefore, storebought.

So, wanting to do greater justice to these naturally beautiful apples than a throwaway crust, I decided to consult the best. In my one previous homemade crust attempt I used Martha Stewart’s recipe, and the process had instilled such anxiety and stress with its strict warnings that I’d taken no joy in the nice, flaky finished product. This time, I wanted something easier, faster, and less…scary.

With Martha out of the picture, I turned to the greatest culinary authority I know – America’s Test Kitchen. After some quick browsing, I found the recipe for which I was looking (yup, even on a blog I hate ending a sentence with a preposition!).

Like Washington crossing the Delaware^*, I decided to boldly put my faith in the unknown and go for it.

Including prep time to assemble my ingredients and equipment, two thick disks of plastic-wrapped pie dough were chilling out in my fridge in less than fifteen minutes.

After they chilled out and rolled out, forty-five minutes and a few peeks through the oven door later I pulled a bubbling, golden pie out of the oven and breathed in the glorious, buttery scent.

The crust gets two thumbs up – it was easy to make, and turned out perfectly flaky and reaaally buttery. Gone are its days as a second-class citizen in my house! Even my mom, the crust critic, was surprised by how much she liked it.

Note: I didn’t have any shortening on hand, and pretty much never bake with it anyway – so I used all butter and it turned out fine. The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup of shortening (if you want to use it, just replace some of the butter).

Foolproof Pie Dough – my way

(adapted from Cook’s Illustrated)

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon table salt

2 tablespoons sugar

2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices

1/4 cup cold vodka (I used citrus-flavored, which is what I had on hand)

1/4 cup cold water

Add 1 1/2 cups flour, salt and sugar to your food processor bowl with blade attachment, and process until combined, about 2 one-second pulses.

Add all the butter and process until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour).

Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses.

Empty mixture into medium bowl. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together.

Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

*Planned in partial secrecy, Washington led a column of Continental Army troops across the icy Delaware River in a logistically challenging and potentially dangerous operation.