Tag Archives: easy

White Pizza with Roma Tomatoes

Last week I was unexpectedly told I could work from home on Thursday and Friday, which was not only awesome for its own sake, but because it allowed me to hibernate in front of our living room window unit instead of venturing outside into the blistering sun, which has the potential to scorch the very skin off my bones in about 1 minute flat.

So Thursday and Friday, I booted up our old Compaq laptop (the one that the burglars in January took out of the case and then–hah hah–did not deign to take), logged into my remote desktop, and set up a little station right in front of the air conditioner with: my coffee. The laptop (incidentally, still covered in fingerprinting dust from the detective). My work cell phone. My coconut Greek yogurt (divine). A big glass of water. Two cereal bars. An old, battered copy of Jane Eyre. What ensued were delightfully peaceful mornings and afternoons, with my attention riveted on the passionate dialogues between Jane and Mr. Rochester and the chilling relationship between Jane and the inexorable St John Rivers, with the occasional distraction of answering my cell phone to set up a delivery appointment for a shipment of citric acid, sending an order confirmation to a customer in South America, or getting a transportation quote for a customer Stateside, or going back and forth about a mysterious wire transfer that a customer claims to have sent but we never received. And then–back to the plights of Jane as her will is tried and bent under the stern command of St John Rivers!

Aaaaah. Life is good.

The downside of this break in routine–I got a little lazy with my blogging. Thankfully I had this recipe hanging around in my drafts, and it’s the perfect follow-up to Erica’s pizza crust recipe from last week. So it’s all coming together after all, despite my neglectful 4th of July ways!

I love the simplicity of this lil’ white pizza. It’s not up my husband’s alley, so I’m pretty much guaranteed to get it all to myself. Mmmmm!

My sister Erica called me up and pretty much commanded me to make it. I’m so glad that after a bossy start in my career as a sister, I have learned to listen to the Blonde One when it comes to culinary matters. And decorating matters. And many, many other matters.

Ingredients

(makes 1 pizza)

1 pizza crust
2 spoonfuls Alfredo sauce
2 handfuls grated cheese (mozzarella + Italian blend)
1 sprinkling grated Parmesan cheese
2 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 500 F with a pizza stone inside, and shape the pizza crust on a piece of parchment paper.

Spread the Alfredo sauce on the pizza crust very thinly. I emphasize–very thinly. If not, things get a little gross. Sprinkle on the mozzarella/Italian blend, and then layer on the thin slices of tomato.

Sprinkle a little Parmesan on top of the tomatoes.

Slide the parchment paper with the pizza on top straight on to the pizza stone as soon as the oven is fully preheated.

Bake at 500 for 10-14 minutes, consume, rejoice! You could even sprinkle it with fresh basil right before eating, if that’s your thing.

Now this is my idea of a good pizza! Not a piece of pepperoni in sight.

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Bacon and Kale Skillet

Happy Monday (that’s an order!) to you all! I hope the week is starting off on the right foot for everyone. For me, that means a big glass of veggie juice at 7:40am, a cup of coffee with vanilla sugar and a devotional starting at 7:45am, and a feeling of “I can do this” as the upcoming events of the week rush through my brain and I step out the door to go to work trying to cram each thought and each project into the correct mental cranny. A good outfit to help me feel pretty also makes a big difference–isn’t it amazing how bad a day can become when you just don’t feel like your face ever came together in the morning? And you’re convinced your pants are clinging in an unflattering way?

Juice, coffee, feeling presentable–that helps my Monday roll out the gate without a grimace.

Anyway, today I have a recipe for you all that has made many Monday night appearances at our table, partly because it requires near-zero thought and near-zero effort. Which also sweetens the pill-that-can-be-Monday. This dinner is so quick to throw together, and it never fails to please. It was inspired by the preliminary steps in this quiche, and I just love its simplicity: only 4 ingredients. Only 1 skillet. Heck yeah.

Ingredients

(Serves 3-4)

1 lb bacon
1 red onion
12 oz kale
2/3 cup dry sherry or white wine
Salt and pepper, to taste
Rice, to serve

Chop up the bacon and fry it in a large skillet over medium high heat until browned and crispy.

Yes, in case you’re wondering, this is the most labor-intensive part of the recipe. It’s all water running downhill from here.

Drain all but 1 TBS of the fat.

Now look at the cup full of grease that you just saved yourself from, and feel good!

Look at the grease you spattered on the counter and also feel good. Because you can just wipe it up with a soapy sponge, and the problem disappears.

And when your “problems” can be fixed with a sponge . . . well, then you can really count your blessings.

Dice the onion and add it to the bacon. Fry over medium heat until the onion is softened, 6-8 minutes.

Chop up the kale and add it to the skillet little by little, stirring until wilted. I added almost all of it at once, just for dramatic effect.

But it will cook down a ton! I promise.

Add the sherry or white wine and bring to a simmer. I have to warn you that the flavor of sherry is quite distinctive. It has an acidic edge to it that I happen to love, but if you don’t, feel free to do the white wine, or even a white wine or sherry + chicken broth split.

Cook the kale for about 10 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed/evaporated almost completely. Season to taste with salt and pepper–and I love liberal amounts of black pepper, as you can see.

Serve over rice!

I think I’ve made this every Monday for the past 3 weeks.

Click here for printer-friendly version: Bacon and Kale Skillet