White Chicken and Bacon Pizza

Hello to all!!!! As you all know, I have a new job! But, I will still be blogging about recipes and food ideas, just not as often. Hopefully, you will try today's recipe - it is a pizza recipe my mom used to make for us all the time, and I make for my boys, and they love it! It is a white chicken and bacon pizza! Sooo good!!!!!!

What you will need:

Fresh pizza dough (I make my own, but, that is another recipe!!)

Left over chicken (rotisserie chicken is great for this recipe!), shredded.

Cooked bacon, cut into large pieces

1 tup of ricotta cheese

Fresh garlic cloves (1 or 2)

Parmesan cheese, grated

1 onion, sliced thinly

Balsamic vinegar

Olive oil

Butter (not margarine)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

Roll out your dough according to the size of your pizza stone. Sprilkle some olive oil on the stone or baking dish and spread the dough out on top. Set aside.

In a pan, drizzle some olive oil, and melt approximately 1 tblsp of butter. Put all the onions in the pan, and let them cook down and caramelize. Drizzle a little balsamic vinegar on the onions and stir. Set aside to cool.

In a bowl, mix the ricotta cheese, a good hand full of parmesan cheese, grated garlic, and salt and pepper. Sprinkle a little olive oil in the mixture and set aside. Mixture will be thick.

Time to build the pizza!

On the prepared pizza dough, spread the ricotta mixture right to the edge, top with onions, shredded chicken, and bacon. Top with parmesan cheese, and then, drizzle with olive oil.

Place the pizza in the oven and bake until dough browns around edges, and is fully cooked. It will depend on the size of your pizza!

Let it cool a little before cutting your slices. Enjoy!

Fricciolini

Yesterday I posted a pork loin roast recipe, and promised everyone I would post a recipe for the left overs today, so, good morning everyone, and here is the recipe for fricciolini! Fricciolini is an Italian slang word used by my mom's family to describe these little balls of yummy-ness!

There is no measuring in this recipe - EASY!!!!

In a food processor put your left over meat.

Add any left over potatoes if you have any (if not, put a potato in the microwave and cook until very tender)

Add an egg or two depending on how much meat you have.

Add a huge hand full of parmesan cheese, grated.

Add a nice amount of parsley, and salt and pepper.

Once everything is in the food processor, whir it all together. The mixture will start to stick together. Once this happens, make little balls out of the mixture however big or small you like, and put on a cookie sheet. Flatten them out a little. You may put them in the fridge at this point to set up a little bit. Once you are ready to cook them, put some olive oil in a pan, and heat it up. Meanwhile get yourself a little bowl and put some flower in it, mixing it with salt and pepper. Run the fricciolini through the flower to just dust them, and place in the hot oil. Shallow fry them until golden brown on both sides!!!!!!! YUMMY!!!!!!!

Cheers!

Paula

Rosemary Thyme Pork Roast

Happy New Year everyone!!! I hope your holidays were very joyous! It is a new Year, and here is a new recipe - very much a comfort food, and I don't know about you, but, with all the snow we have been getting I can take all the comfort I can get!

The recipe originally came from the Rachael Ray Show, which most of you know, I love! But, I tweaked it a little bit to make it easier to cook in a short amount of time! Enjoy it everyone and let me know what you think of it!

Ingredients:

1 pork loin roast (2-3 lbs or so) with silver skin trimmed.

8 cloves of garlic

3 large sprigs of rosemary (or 2 Tblsp if dried)

3 large sprigs of fresh thyme, or (or 2 Tblsp if dried)

Olive oil

salt and pepper

Method:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Make 8 slits in the top of your roast with the sharp end of a knife and push a garlic clove in each slit. Slather the whole roast with olive oil. In a small bowl combine the rosemary and thyme, and salt and pepper. Add a little olive oil to it to make it into a paste. Using your hand, rub the rosemary mixture onto the top of your roast. Put the roast into a roasting dish, or a baking pan, and cover it with tin foil. Place in the oven for 40 minutes or so, depending on the size. Remove tin foil, and let cook to crisp up for another 20-25 minutes, or until cooked through. The roast should still be a little pink as pork can be tough if over cooked. Serve with roasted potatoes, a salad, and cranberry sauce, or apple sauce! It is MOST yummy!!!!!

Try it and enjoy! Tomorrow, I will post a recipe for "Fricciolini" which you can do with the left overs from the pork roast!

Cheers!

Paula

Sausage and Apple Appetizers

Hi all! so, on the week end I made a new recipe which my husband absolutely loved! So, I thought I would share it with all of you.

Ingredients:

4 mild Italian sausage

olive oil

1 large apple, or two small ones (I used Macintosh apples) cored, and cubed. (make sure the cubes are small enough to place on top of the sausage slices).

dried sage

brown sugar

apple cider

salt and pepper

In an oven dish, bake the sausages until golden brown on all sides, let cool, and cut into slices, across the sausage, on a diagonal. In a hot pan, place a small amount of olive oil just to coat pan and place the sausage slices flat in the pan. Brown both sides, and then, set then on a platter and let cool. Place a small amount of apple cider in the same pan and de-glaze the pan, making sure to pick up all of the yummy brown bits. Place the apple cubes in the pan, along with the sage (to taste), salt and pepper and brown sugar. Let the apples soften and then, take out of pan. Put the apple pieces on top of the sausage pieces and secure with a toothpick, so each one is a nice little bite! The juice left over in the pan can then be drizzled over top of the sausage and apple bites. These can be made ahead of time and then placed in the oven in an over proof dish, covered with tin foil to heat up. They were a hit - hope you try them, and let me know what you think.

Cheers!

Banana Bread Pancakes

• A friend asked me to post this recipe, so, this one is for you Jeanette!
• 
  
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 Tblsp sugar (white)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• pinch of salt
• cinnamon - as much or as little as you like
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups of milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 cup vegetable oil
• 2 whole bananas, mashed

In a bowl place the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and stir with a fork until combined. In another bowl mix together the beaten eggs, milk vanilla extract, oil and bananas. Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture, and mix with a fork until just blended - the batter should be lumpy. In a pan or griddle, melt some butter or spray with non -stick spray and pour the batter with a large spoon or a ladle, and form the pan cake - flip the pan cake when bubbles begin to form on the surface! yum! Serve with extra bananas on top and of course real maple syrup!

Short cuts: use your favourite pan cake mix and make it as per directions on the box, and then, add the mashed bananas and the cinnamon.

Enjoy!

Hello everyone! It is cookie season!!!!! The other day, I bakes a fantastic peanut butter chocolate chip cookie! and, EASY!!! so, I thought I would share the recipe with you - it only has 5 ingredients! It freezes for three months! enjoy!

1 cup Peanut butter (either smooth or crunchy)

1 cup Brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Stir peanut butter and sugar until well combined. Add the egg, and stir it in until well combined. Add the flour and stir that in, and then, stir in the chocolate chips.

On a baking sheet, roll out balls of the dough (as small or as large as you'd like!) and place on the cookie sheet flattening out with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 -14 minutes!

Let the cookies cool on the tray for a few minutes, and then, enjoy!

Happy Baking!

Comfort food is what we are all craving at this time of year, so, here is a very simple recipe for Pork Loin which looks fancy, but, is really really easy! Hope you all like it.

With this recipe, please keep in mind that I don't use recipes and rarely measure, so, I am giving you an approximate amount of each ingredient - taste is as you go and make it your own!

Ingredients:

*1 full pork loin, with silver skin trimmed off

*2 Tblsp olive oil

*1/4 cup maple syrup

*juice and rind of one orange

* splash of balsamic vinegar

*2 garlic cloves, minced finely

*1 Tblsp ground sage

*salt and pepper

* 1/2 onion, sliced thinly

* 1/2 cup of white wine

* splash of chicken stock

*2 Tblsp butter

In a bowl, mix the maple syrup, the orange juice, the orange rind, the garlic cloves, sage, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, and 1 Tblsp of olive oil. Pour the mixture into a Ziploc bag, and place the pork loin in it. Make sure the loin is coated all around, and place in the fridge for at least one hour, but, up to 8 hours.

Take the pork loin out of the fridge about a half hour before you are going to cook it.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat an oven proof frying pan on med heat, and then pour the remaining olive oil and heat it up. Once the oil is heated, add the pork loin, and sear it on all sides (you are not cooking it at this time, just searing it). Once it is caramelized on all sides, add the sliced onions, wine, and stock and put the whole pan in the oven. Bake in the oven for about 20-30 minutes, keeping in mind the size of your loin. (a small loin, will take about 20 minutes, and a larger one will take 30 minutes).

After the loin is cooked, take it out of the pan, and let it rest, tented with tin foil for about 7 - 10 minutes. While the loin is tenting, and resting, put the pan back on medium heat, and pour some stock into the pan, to de-glaze. Make sure you use a wooden spoon and pick up all the bits at the bottom of the pan!!! then, add the butter and melt - this will thicken the sauce.

Slice the loin, and pour the sauce on top!

YUM!!!

Enjoy! and let me know if it works for you:)