Pizza and Calzone Night PLUS Dessert!

thin crust personalized pizzas

calzones!!!

raspberry-mango pie mmmmmmmmmmm

Last night, I decided to try to make something we love to order on the weekends...pizza!!! And of course, you can just let your imagine go beyond that...calzone/pastie/pizza pocket! Toppings were going to be different, no doubt. I browned up some ground beef (real ground beef...not like the fake ground beef you get at real pizza shops. Did you know that the ground beef is really soy??) Anyways, I added some mexican seasoning to make the beef become taco filling...mmmmm...

Then whatever I had in the fridge...red peppers, mushrooms, cheese -- lots of that, and pasta sauce.

I let the girls make their own pizzas and said they were delicious. What is better than have the kids personalize their own dinner and enjoy eating it.

For dessert, Karen brought over a raspberry-mango pie from Wanda's Pie in the Sky pastry shop in Kensington Market. She warned us that it was rich...but I thought the tartness of the raspberry even it out. The crust was very buttery. Yum yum.

Pizza Dough --makes 8 good size pizzas

1 1/2 cup of warm water
2 tsp of active dry yeast
1 1/2 tbsp of honey
2 tsp salt
3 cups of flour
1 1/2 tsp of olive oil

Put water in large bowl and sprinkle yeast. Whisk in honey until blended or dissolved. You can leave the yeast to bubble -- takes approx 10 mins. But since I can never predict when a baby will give me quiet time, I added the salt and flour right away. Mix in the flour gradually until it forms a dry dough, then you have to get your hands into it to knead it. Knead for 5 mins. Then form into a ball and pour in the olive oil. I flipped the dough in the bowl so that the olive oil coats top and bottom of the dough.

Then cover it with plastic wrap and let rise for 2 hours, which it will double in size.

Then punch it, and cover again to rise for another hour -- this step is not necessary.

Preheat oven to 450 F

Cut up the dough into small palm size balls -- slightly smaller than a baseball. The flour your table or rolling surface and roll out to thin or thick for your crust. For calzone, roll out and add toppings to the top half of the circle and then brush with egg on the edges. Fold bottom to the top to make a crescent shape. Seal edges by pressing the edges with a fork. Brush the tops with egg for a nice brown crust.

Pizzas will take around 12-15 mins while the calzones take 20-25 minutes.

One pan dinner - Spanish Rice

You may have noticed that most of my recipes have been on the sweet side. But don't worry, I tested a spanish rice dish that I can share. I would not call it paella because the recipe does not use saffron. The taste is light and excellent for those hot days. The red colour is from tomato sauce. The chicken is my twist to the dish.

Spanish Rice with Chicken - serves 4 plus lunches for the next day. Now, that's a real bang for your buck!

4 chicken legs, skin off and cut into 3 pieces
Pinch of Salt and pepper

3 cups of rice
1 medium onion, diced
1 tbsp of chili powder
3 tbsp of olive oil
1/2 can of 796ml tomato sauce
1/3 water
1/2 cup of chopped scallions -- green onion
salt and pepper to taste

Wash and cook rice and set aside -- you can do this the day before.

In a skillet, brown chicken until cooked. Remove chicken from pan. Pour out excess oil and sautee the diced onion until transparent and brown.
Add the cooked rice and stir constantly. Add chili powder to the rice and stir. Add olive oil and stir thoroughly.
Combine water and tomato sauce and stir into the rice. It will look like wet risotto. But keep stirring to prevent sticking. Cook for 20 mins. Then add the scallions, and add salt/pepper to taste.
Return chicken to the pan and cover for another 20 mins. Lower heat to a gentle simmer. This will further cook and heat the entire dish and evaporate some of the liquid to make the rice less wet.

You can serve in the pan or plate it with rice, chicken and a side salad. You can also add some tiger shrimp as well.

My total cooking time was 1 hour. Not your 30 minute meal kind of dish but just as good and healthy.