Rustic Potato Pizza

I once saw a photo of potato slices on pizza.  It looked good.  Very, very good.  The other day I was thinking about making a pizza and I recalled the potato pizza.  I researched various recipes and some said to peel then cook the potato, some didn't say to cook it first.  Some recipes called for butter while others called for EVOO.  Some  instructions said to bake for 15 minutes, others said to bake for 35.  Since none of the ingredients nor directions set me on a clear path I decided to create my own.  I'm so happy I did.  It turned out fantastic and it's versatile.  Alter the ingredients (cheese, potatoes, herbs) to suit your preferences or to use up the cheese you've got in the refrigerator.  What is also nice is that you don't have to measure out each ingredient.  If you like more cheese, use it.  If you want less, cut it back.  Just make sure you have the pizza covered so that each bite has some potato.

This pizza is light.  Even though it's got oil, cheese and potatoes, it bodes well for an appetizer for a group of friends to share.  To serve it as an entree, serve it with a salad.  The combination of mozzarella cheese and Gruyere cheese is incredible.  You can use any combination that you like.  I was really in the mood to buy some Gruyere and I thought it would complement the creamy taste of the Yukon potatoes and fresh rosemary.  Gruyere is a harder cheese with a slightly salty yet creamy flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 FRESH homemade or store-bought pizza dough (regular or whole wheat) 
• NOT ready-made like Boboli
• 2 tbs Fresh rosemary, roughly chopped, divided
• you can use dried but it can't match the quality of the fresh stuff
• 1 Yukon (yellow) potato, peeled and sliced about 1/8"
• a potato about the size of your fist
• 6 oz Gruyere cheese, shredded, divided
• 6 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded, divided
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• EVOO 
• S & P

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. Peel and slice potato.  Set in a bowl of salted water and set aside.
3. Spread or roll fresh pizza dough on a greased baking sheet pan.
4. Brush EVOO on dough to cover, sprinkle with garlic and 1 tbs chopped rosemary.
5. Spread 3/4 of the shredded cheeses on the dough.
6. Drain potatoes and pat dry.  Sprinkle both sides with S & P.  Place on pizza.  Do not shingle or layer.
7. Cover the pizza with the remaining cheese and rosemary.
8. Bake for 20 minutes. 

We all really enjoyed this recipe, although my son picked off the rosemary first.  

Tilapia with Balsamic Butter Sauce, Thyme Mashed Potatoes and Hericot Vert

Fish is on the dinner menu once a week and the hubby likes Tilapia for it's light texture and flavor. I found a tilapia recipe that seemed easy enough to make in Bon Appetit magazine back in January 2007. If you've been following my blog here and there then you know I've been trying to plan a dinner menu a month at a time and I'm trying recipes that I've been saving for years that I've never prepared before. Here's one of those recipes. I wish I hadn't waited so long because the feedback was possibly the best I've received from my husband in the 9-10 years we've known each other.

I had a few problems making this dinner...well, three. The third problem involves FIRE, but I'll get to that in a minute. Oh wait! Four problems come to mind. I can't believe this meal made it to the table and the feedback I got. I should've thrown in the towel over and over again.

So I gathered up all the ingredients that I needed to successfully prepare a wonderful meal. I started by boiling the potatoes for the Thyme Mashed Potatoes. I've cooked boiled potatoes hundreds of times. It's not hard and 20 minutes is all you need. 20 minutes is all the recipe called for. 20 minutes is all I cooked the potatoes for. But, wouldn't you know it? I messed them up, kind of. If I had been making anything other than mashed potatoes I would've needed to head back out to the grocery store.

When I went to drain the potatoes, they were a mushy mess. They practically mashed themselves as they boiled away. I guess it made my job easier, but they looked rough. To mess up the THYME mashed potato recipe further, as I was mincing the thyme I noticed something seemed off. No, I didn't buy the wrong herb. It looked like thyme, but it smelt so good - like flowers or lemons. I checked the container it came in and sure enough, it was lemon thyme. Okay - not a total disaster, but not what the recipe called for. What ever - a hint of lemon sounded nice with a fish dish.

So with two disasters down and two more to go, including the one with FIRE, it was time to get the Balsamic Butter Sauce going. In a small sauce pan I put in the 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar and the minced garlic. The recipe calls for this to simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes. I needed to start on the fish so I turned the heat down and let it simmer away...until I smelt, nope, not FIRE, but a burning smell. My sauce was turning into charcoal in the pan. Crap! Again, not a complete disaster because I had plenty of balsamic vinegar and garlic left and I just needed to dump it and scrub the pot clean.

So, with three disasters dealt with I moved on to preparing the fish. The fish was not frozen. The instructions called for the pan to be heated on HIGH with a TBS of oil. Not a problem, but when the oil was starting to smoke I felt that the temperature was up too high. I turned it down a bit and added the fish. Well, I guess the pan didn't cool down enough and the fish was cooking very fast. I added some more oil to keep the fish from sticking but the kick back from the oil was crazy. It was although I was cooking something frozen in the pan. Oil was shooting everywhere. I was gentle shaking the pan back and forth to prevent the fish from sticking when all of a sudden, you guessed it, FIRE! Flames were circling around my electric flat top stove. This isn't a gas stove so I was a little freaked out. I called out to my husband, who had no idea I wanted a new kitchen remodel this badly! By the time he got to the kitchen, everything was under control again and no damage was done. I have a handy fire extinguisher, but luckily I didn't need to use it.

I shewed my husband back out of the kitchen and finished cooking the meal. I presented it after all of my near-secret disasters and heard nothing but great feedback. The fish was cooked perfectly, the potatoes were seasoned perfectly and were so smooth, and the sauce was incredible. The meal was truly restaurant quality. Hearing all of this made the whole effort worth it!

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2007/01/tilapia_with_balsamic_butter_sauce_thyme_mashed_potatoes_and_sugar_snap_peas

Potato Bites

The Super Bowl. What images does that conjure up in your mind? Party. Football. Commercials. Food. Lots and lots of food.

This year, for Super Bowl XLV, we had neighbors over with their children to watch the big game. We typically go to a party, but this year Super Bowl Sunday fell on a night that just happened to be my night to pick up "the Panera donations". Meaning, where ever I was watching the game, I'd have to drop everything and leave at 7:30 PM. That's a whole other story.

So, with menu planning on my mind, I visited the Kraft Food website and found a recipe for Potato Bites. This recipe seemed a lot easier to make then potato skins. There were only 3 reviews on the site at the time and the only real comment regarding the preparation was "it's messy to make". Thanks. Rolling mashed potatoes into balls sounded "clean" to me.

So boil, mash, scoop, stuff and roll. I did it 24 times, just like the recipe called for. These balls were huge and looked good. (Jokes were made about this while people tried them). After baking for about 15 minutes, I served them. They turned out really well, but could've used more time in the oven since the cheese was still more chunk then a melty, gooey center. Yeah, melty is not a real word. I know.

We have some left over so it'll be interesting to see how well they reheat.

Enjoy!
http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/velveeta-potato-bites-121401.aspx

Cheesy Potatoes

I like cheesy potato casseroles. One problem though. Most call for cream of chicken soup. Being a vegetarian, I'm not one to dig into a casserole if I know there's something in it that contains meat/fish/poultry. I decided to alter a recipe to see how it would turn out.

I'm a fan of the Kraft Foods website. Not because the food always turns out great, but mostly because the dishes are pretty easy. I'm all about easy recipes.

These are the substitutions I made. I didn't use store bought Southern Style Hash Browns. I opted for organic Russet potatoes, and left the skin on (easier and healthier). I substituted Cream of Potato soup. It seems like a good sub since I was making a potato dish. I didn't use any butter on the topping. I'm sure it would taste great, but do we really need it? Not really. Also, my original recipe called for cheesy crackers for the topping (like Cheez-Its). On the website it calls for Ritz. I just used a natural cheese cracker.

In making this recipes, I followed the measurements exactly. If I was going to make this again, I'd bake it for less time and add either more soup or sour cream.

Overall, a tasty side dish that would be great to take to a pot luck or holiday meal.

Side note: Son wouldn't eat it. So picky!

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/cheesy-potatoes-95131.aspx

Accordion Potatoes

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/accordion-potatoes-ghk1207

This was the second time I made this recipe from Good Housekeeping. The presentation is outstanding.

This is a little time-consuming (slicing the potatoes down as far as you can without cutting through them) and messy (getting all the garlic olive oil in between the cut). It's worth the trouble if making it for company.