So it's pizza you bastards want, is it? Fine, I'll play ball. Mike probably wins as crust goes, I just used one of those cheapo pre-mixed bags. I topped that with a pizza sauce from scratch: 6 oz tomato paste, 6 oz water, parmesan, minced garlic, fresh basil, oregano, marjoram, salt, red pepper flake, black pepper, and sugar. Then it got colby and cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, bacon, spinach, a whole heapin helpin of fresh roasted chicken, a little more parmesan, and green onion. It was good. It would have been great, but the crust kinda sucked.

All made with the same pizza dough as last time.

Kielbasa and egg:

Grilled pizza with garlic, olive oil, basil, tomato, a little remaining chicken and some cheese:

Grilled chicken and bell peppers on a barbecue sauce base:

The remaining grilled chicken and kielbasa with a traditional tomato pizza sauce and mozzarella:


Group shot:

And not only that, but this also marks the 100th post for Vittles And Mangia! Woot! Alright, so this dish here, totally came right off the top of my noodle noggin, and its probably in the top 3 best things I've ever cooked. It was soooooo good.

Senor Pollo:

-1 2 lb. Cornish Rock game hen, stuffed with onion, rosemary, garlic, and a lemon half.
-Glaze/Sauce, 1 cup orange juice, 1 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cup olive oil.

I preheated the oven to 375, seasoned the hen with salt, black pepper, and paprika. Slapped the thing in a roasting pan with 2 orange slices tucked in underneath it. I poured in about half of the sauce. Then I cooked it for about 1 hour and 10 minutes or so, opening it up to brush more of the sauce on the meat every 15. I pulled it out when it got to be about 173 internally or so, and covered it, knowing that the residual heat would bring it to 180 without losing moisture.

Weird Spinach Celery Concoction:

I eyeballed all of this, and I admit that the flavors might read as a little off, but trust me when I tell you that it was awesome.

-about 2 cups finely chopped celery (but not that fine), sauteed for 5 minutes on medium high in 2 tablespoons of butter. Once I was satisfied with the color I added 2 big cloves of minced garlic, and a big spoonful of flour. I'd say it was probably a tablespoon or two. The idea was that the flour would add to the butter and basically make a rue right there in the pot with the celery and garlic. After the flour browned I added a healthy sprinkling of dill, though I'm not sure how much, and a good drizzle of maple syrup, probably about 2 or 3 teaspoons. Then I covered it, reduced it, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. When the celery was tender, I added, I think, about 2 cups of fresh chopped spinach, and brought it back up to medium high. Then I let the spinach wilt and cook down into the rest of the dish. That was it, it was ready.

Served these two with some leftover garlic mashed potatoes. It was awesome, but 1 half of the bird was maybe too much food for one person.

Left to fend for myself for dinner tonight and for whatever reason I decided I felt like pizza, even though it was already after 6pm when I found out.Chicken, bacon, and garlic pizza. Pretty good. Here's a couple more shots to give you the full experience.


Update: There have been some complaints that I didn't actually post the instructions for making this. I didn't because I am lazy, and since I'm still lazy I'll just direct you to where I got the dough recipe here. Follow this, top as you want, cook as it instructs, and then there's pizza.

Same as before, but this time Casey tracked down some food grade lye on the internet. It makes a huge difference.

Unfortunately, I've only got the one left to take pictures of since the others have all been eaten already.

So beef ribs are the main protein for this week. To start it off I thought I'd braise some of them. First, I marinated them for about 15 hours in:
-Soy sauce
-Ginger
-Rice Vinegar
-Sesame oil
-Honey
-Garlic
-Onion
-Orange juice
-Red Pepper flakes

When I was ready to cook I got a skillet going super hot with vegetable oil, dumped the rack in and heavily browned it on both sides, removed it then added some chopped onion, and green beans, browning those. I put the ribs in a deep roasting pan, covered them with the veggies, then dumped in all of the remaining marinade, a can of beef broth, and about 1/2 cup of white wine, which was all I had left. Covered it in foil, popped it in the oven at 200 degrees, and let it go for a little over 5 hours. When they came out they were moist, and tender, and full of flavor. We ate them with a side of macaroni and cheese as we are wont to do. BOOM!

Check these out.

Dough:
1 package (2 1/2 teaspoon) active dry yeast or 2 teaspoons instant yeast
3/4 cup water
3 1/2 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 Tablespoons powdered milk
4 tablespoons sugar
3 eggs
6 tablespoons butter, softened

Filling:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup raisins

Glaze:
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Mix all the dry ingredients except for the yeast.
2. Add the yeast, water, and eggs and mix until combined.
3. Mix or knead in the softened butter, until it forms a smooth, satiny dough. It will be sticky.
4. Place it in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double in volume. This will be roughly 1 to 1.5 hours.
5. Once it's doubled, punch the dough down, cover it back up, and stick it in the fridge overnight.
6. The next day divide the dough into two halves. Working quickly while it's still cold, roll each half out into a roughly 8" x 10" rectangle. Brush this with an egg wash made from whisking together one whole egg and 1 tablespoon of milk, then spread the filling out over it.
7. Roll the sheet up into a log, then slice into 8 discs. Place each disc on a greased baking sheet and press it flat with your hand, like this:

8. Repeat with the other half of the dough, then brush them all with more of the egg wash. Leave them to rise for 45 minutes to an hour, or until they're "puffy".
9. Preheat the oven to 385º.
10. Bake the rolls for 15-17 minutes, until golden brown. Immediately brush with the glaze once when they come out of the oven.

Once they cool the final product should look something like this:

11. Eat them, which looks something like this: