Spring Pie

Pizza. Lately I have been resorting to pizza on work nights. No not delivery and not even frozen pizza, not even your traditional tomato sauce pizza. Rather I have been resorting to pizza in the general sense. I take a cheap bag of pre-made pizza dough from trader Joes and add different veggies that I have sitting around in my fridge waiting to be eaten. In the words of an Ex the pizza is just a vehicle for the good stuff.

Pizza starts with a good bed. I have found a good cheap bed that is perfect to lay all my veggies on: trader joes pre-made pizza dough. First, the price is right: $0.99 a bag and this is enough to make two pizzas (each pizza is enough for either one with left overs or plenty for two). Second, Trader Joes has three different varieties: plain, herb garlic, and whole wheat.

After a good bed you need some good sheets and a nice comforter to make your bed yummy and pretty. Lately I've been topping my pizza with fresh spring time vegetables. After several trial and errors I have found that the best pizzas are those with simple toppings and not overdone. I had several where I kept putting on topping after topping and then adding cheese. While these were delicious i have grown to like the simpler pie with a few simple toppings and lately have been going cheesless. Following are a few of my recent creations:

Leek Garlic and Mushroom

This is a very simple pizza but the flavors are perfect together. On top of plain pizza dough I brush Olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then I add finely chopped leeks, thinly sliced garlic clove and top with thinly sliced crimini mushrooms. Then cook in oven untill the crust is crispy and the mushrooms perfectly cooked.


Green Onion, garlic, Potato, Mushroom and Asparagus

This is my latest creationg and I think my favorite so far. I used the herb and garlic dough brushed on olive oil sprinkled salt and pepper and a few red pepper flakes. Then added finely chopped green onion and thinly sliced garlic. Next, I added very thinly sliced yellow potatoes and thinly sliced crimini mushrooms. Finally I topped it off with halved asparagus that had been tossed in olive oil and salt and pepper. YUM. and it is pretty too.


Sweet potato Pizza

I made this pizza when I realized that I had a surplus of sweet potatoes that needed to be eaten ASAP. Started with a plain pizza dough base, brushed the dough with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper and red pepper flakes. Then added very thinly sliced sweet potatoes. Next I added caremalized onions. Topped with tiny mushrooms tossed with olive oil salt and pepper and rosemary (can't remember their name; the mushroom lady gave them to me in exchange for watching her stand at the farmer's market) and finally topped with a few shavings of romano cheese.

Simply Sweet Tators

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and so are tables full of variations on the favorite tuber of sweetness-- the sweet tator!

I grew up with my grandmother's sweet potato casserole mashed sweet potatos with a crunchy topping of brown sugar and pecans. It was almost so sweet it could be a desert. In fact, when I lived in India, on Thanksgiving we made a t-giving meal. My contribution was Nana's sweet potato casserole. Aside from the fact that in India ovens don't exist: I had to resort to a toaster over- increasing the baking time from 1 hour to 6 hours ( even still the topping on the top was never crispy like Nana's-- the cooks laughed at me but told me how much they liked it. It apparently was similar to many of the indian sweets that pack enough sugar to kill a large elephant.

Then there is the perenial sweet tator dish: Yam cubes roasted in a jammy sugar substance and topped with marshmallows.

I recently discovered a much simpler and not quite as sweet version of the sweet tuber.

I take a good size sweet potato, bake it in a 350-400 degree oven, Squeeze open and add butter, little brown sugar and either creme fresche or sour cream.

YUM!!!