Pear & Gorgonzola Pizza

I ate my Taco Ring for lunch all last week. It was still delicious! So fear not the leftovers :)

My new obsession is my version of California Pizza Kitchen's Pear & Gorgonzola Pizza. I have made this pizza four times in the last five days. It is yummy! My version starts with caramelized onions on a prepared crust. Then I layer pears, tangy Gorgonzola and toasted pecans on top and finished the pizza with a healthy bunch of arugula tossed in balsamic vinegar. It looks like it takes all day, but you will be finished in 20 minutes or so!

Jenn, I actually took photos of the entire process this time! I will upload them tonight :)

Pear & Gorgonzola Pizza

Makes 4 servings

WW Points Plus: 11

Ingredients

2 mini Boboli prepared pizza crusts

1 small onion, sliced thinly

1 Tbsp butter

1Tbsp olive oil

1 Bosc pear, sliced thinly (I usually keep the skins on for extra nutrients!)

2 oz gorgonzola chese, crumbled

2 oz pecans, toasted and chopped

Fresh cracked pepper

4 cups arugula

1 Tbsp basalmic vinegar

Shaved parmesan

Directions

Preheat broiler. 

Combine the butter and olive oil in a saute pan on medium high heat. Add thinly sliced onion and saute until caramelized. Remove onions from pan and place 1/2 on each pizza crust. Spread them evenly as these are the "sauce". 

Reduce heat to medium and add thinly sliced pears to pan and cook until slightly browned and just cooked through (approx 2 min).

Layer half the pear slices on each pizza over the onions 

and top with gorgonzola cheese and chopped pecans. (NOTE: I usually throw the pecans into the saute pan and let them toast while I layer the pears. But be careful not to burn them.)

Finally, add freshly cracked pepper to the pizza. Place pizza in oven directly on rack and broil for 5-7 minutes.

While pizzas are in oven, toss arugula with basalmic vinegar in a large bowl. A little bit of basalmic goes a long way in this dish so be carefully not to overdress your greens. Add some shaved parmesan. 

When pizzas are ready, remove from oven and top each with 2 cups arugula mixture. Serve immediately. 

NOTE: I have made this the night before to take for lunch the next day. I put the basalmic vinegar in a sandwich baggie and the arugula in a separate ziploc bag. While the pizza is toasting in the toaster oven, I toss the arugula and vinegar in the ziploc bag and then top my pizza! Yumm-o :)

Frita Batidos Review

We grabbed dinner tonight at Eve's new restaurant in Ann Arbor. It is a take on Cuban street food. Fritas are chorizo sandwiches topped with fried shoestring potatoes. Batidos are a tropical take on milkshakes so the restaurant is basically Cuban burgers & milkshakes. Overall it was yummy. The decor is very laidback. Ordering takes place at a counter/bar and diners enjoy the street food at picnic tables and bar stools.


We ordered the conch fritters, the pulled pork sandwich and churros with chocolate espanol.


The conch fritters were served with a lemon "scented" mayo, creme fraiche and cilantro lime salsa. The cilantro lime salsa was fabulous. It was spicy, well seasoned and perfectly balanced. Do not pass this up when you go. The fritters themselves were light, as fritters should be. The were filled with veggies and large pieces of conch and were very good. The lemon "scented" mayo was not exactly "scented". It was VERY heavy on the lemon. It went well with the fritters, but a little went a long way.


My pulled pork sandwich was topped with a tropical coleslaw and I ordered a side og "avocado spread" which was really a very tasty guacamole. The pulled pork was seasoned surprisingly. I think I expected a Mexican ancho-chile/bbq kind of flavor but it is uniquely Cuban with undertones of cinnamon and other island spices. I really enjoyed it, especially with the cilantro lime salsa and avocado spread. The tropical coleslaw wasn't as tropical tasting as I thought it would be but I give my sandwich two thumbs up. :)


And now for the really disappointing part of dinner. We decided at the last minute to take some churros and chocolate espanol home with us. After having churros and Aztec hot chocolate at Rick Bayliss's XOCO in Chicago I was very excited to taste Eve's version. The portion was very large and the churros travelled well. The chocolate espanol dipping sauce was fabulous. It was the perfect mix of chocolate and spices. The churros themselves were not great. They were described as "orange and nutmeg scented". The orange was soo overpowering that the churros were almost inedible. As dessert lovers I was shocked that we couldn't finish them. We split one churro and the rest went in the trash. I suggest getting a chocolate espanol drink and skipping the churros!


Dont waste your money on the churros but definitely stop by and try the sandwiches and salsa!!!

Vegetarian Taco Ring

Sorry for the delay in posting. I haven't been doing much cooking recently. But that should be changing since I gave up eating out for Lent! And I should let ya'll know that I won't be eating meat this Lent so expect more vegetarian posts :)

The mind is a strange thing. Before Lent I had few to no cravings for meat (in particular red meat). I spend one day as a vegetarian and I suddenly want nothing but a giant bowl of chili. So on my trip to the grocery store last night I picked up some meat substitute and made my take on an old recipe from my Aunt Joan called a Taco Ring! The original recipe is from Pampered Chef and is intended to be baked on their round stoneware. But a pizza baking sheet works just as well.  Here is a link if you would like to try their version. Taco Ring Recipe

Before giving you the recipe, I would like to make a few comments about meat substitutes and my preferences for using them. These products are made from vegetable proteins and pressed into various forms (ground "meat", "chick'n" tenders, etc). My first rule for using these is to always use them straight from the freezer. If thawed the products often fall apart. Secondly, these products are usually extremely low in fat and (very much like extra lean meat products) can often be very dry. It is very important that you add either fat or liquid to them to make for a more pleasant texture.

As a native Texan from a family of serious meat lovers (speaking of, I'm sure if my mother is reading this she is rolling her eyes and muttering about "those damn yankees" ruining me) I think I can weigh in on the best substitute for meat products. In college I would choke down a Boca Burger every now and then when I was low on Points values and desperately craving a burger. While Boca has a wide range of products and flavors (and are available pretty much nationwide) they really aren't my favorite player in the meatless meat world. Morning Star Farms does a very good job (try their sesame chikn! yum) but my absolute fave meat free products come from Quorn. These are actually soy-free and in my opinion MUCH better as a meat substitute than tofu and other soy based products. Try their chik'n tenders in stir fries or for fajitas! Their ground beef substitute is the best I've found. I use it to make chili, spaghetti sauce and my grandma's Italian sausage bread. I've fooled more than a few meat eaters!

Vegetarian Taco Ring

Makes 4 servings

WW PointsPlus: 13

I doubled this recipe and froze half of the "chili" for another day since it calls for 1/2 cans of various things.

Ingredients

1/2 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 large onion, diced

2 gloves garlic, minced

1/2 can Rotel Tomatoes

1/2 can diced tomatoes

1/2 can Red Kidney Beans

1/4 cup salsa

1 packet taco seasoning mix (or chili powder, cumin, pepper and cayenne to taste)

6 oz ground beef substitute 

1 package (8 rolls) crescent rolls

4 oz pepperjack cheese, shredded (cheddar or monterrey jack can be substitued)

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan. Add the onions and saute until soft. Add garlic and continue cooking for 1 min. Add the beef substitute and quickly saute, mixing well. Rinse kidney beans and add to pan with tomatoes and salsa. Season with taco seasoning and let simmer for 10-15 minutes or until  thickened.

In the meantime, grease a round baking sheet (unless using stone) and lay out crescent rolls in a sun shape, overlapping each other. Place chili mixture on top of crescent "sun" and top with cheese reserving a small amount to top ring. Fold the points of the "sun" over to cover chili mixture and seal. There will be gaps in your ring where chili mixture is visible. Top ring with remaining cheese. Bake at 400F for 15 minutes or until crescent rolls are browned and cooked through.

I like to top this with fat free sour cream and more salsa.

NOTE: if you do not have a round baking sheet, this can be baked as a pizza. Press the crescent rolls into bottom of pan and top with meat mixture and cheese.