Easy, Cheesy Party Pizza

Just because pizza is party food doesn't mean it has to be saturated in grease and come from a cardboard box. Making pizza for parties is a tradition my mom started when I was in middle school, and it's become a staple for birthday parties, holiday parties and just-because parties.

It's always amazing how making food from scratch changes the chemistry of gatherings. Rather than everyone rushing to the pizza box, eating standing up then throwing their plates away and moving on to the next activity, the focus of the night shifts to the communal activities of making food, nourishing our bodies together and enjoying one another's company.

Pizza in particular is an amazing catalyst for community-style parties, because it's a longer process (you can only bake one pizza at a time!) and because everyone gets to take part by choosing toppings, watching and even engaging in the process. My kitchen-friendly friends often enlist to chop fresh vegetables, mix sauce and even assemble the pizzas. Overall, pizza-making parties can become reminiscent of gatherings which used to be traditional in Midwestern homes decades ago - like the kind my grandmother used to hostess.

Enough about food-making and community. Here's the recipe. (Makes 3 large pizzas or 4 thin crust)

Pizza dough:

1/2 cup warm water

2 tsp honey/brown sugar

4 tsp (2 packages) baker's yeast

Activating the yeast. This is the trickiest part - follow these directions exactly, and you'll be fine. The water needs to be barely cool enough for you to hold your hand in it; if it hurts your hand, it will hurt the yeast. *Note: if you're using a metal or glass measuring cup, fill it with hot water to warm it first, otherwise it will lower the water's temperature.

Quickly dissolve the honey/sugar in the warm water, then dissolve the yeast in the sugar water. Mix out all the lumps with a wooden spoon, then set the mixture aside for 5 minutes, or until about 3 inches of foam have formed.

While waiting for the yeast to activate, mix:

4 cups flour (I like to use 1/2 whole wheat flour)

3 tbsp. olive oil

1 cup warm water

3 tsp salt

Once yeast is activated, add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture and knead (if you're using a mixer, use a dough hook for this part. If you're kneading by hand, use a very lightly floured surface) until satiny and smooth.

Grease the bottom of a large bowl and place the dough in it, then place the dough in a warm place where it will not be bumped. A warmed oven is ideal, but DON'T forget you've put it there (that's the story of how I ruined my mom's favorite tupperware bowl).

Let the dough raise for 1 hour, or until tripled in size. Punch the dough down and knead the air out of it, then split it into sections (3 for regular large and 4 for medium thin crusts) and start rolling.

Tips on rolling pizza dough: squish each ball into a flat circle and knead flatter with your hands. Roll with a wooden or marble rolling pin on a lightly floured surface, turning over ever 3-5 rolls. The dough is very elastic, so it will take some muscle to get the dough the size you want. I like to toss mine intermittently to aerate the crust and make the rolling process go faster.

When the dough is a circle 1 inch bigger than your pizza pan, sprinkle your pan with corn meal and shift the dough onto the pan. With your finger, dampen the outside edge with water, then fold 3/4 inch in and press down with your fingers - like a pie crust. Now you're ready for sauce.

Fresh tomato, red peppers, poblano peppers, bella mushrooms, basil leaves and parmesean make this a high-powered Margarita pizza.

See? It's not hard.

Sauce:

1 14oz can tomato sauce

1 6oz can tomato paste

2 tblsp. parsley flakes

2 tblsp. oregano

3 tsp. salt

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 - 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese (fresh is best!)

Mix these all together and spread thinly on rolled pizza dough, being sure to reserve enough for the remaining pizzas.

You can substitute this tomato-based sauce with pesto and olive oil for a delicious, mediterranean twist.

Toppings: Everyone likes different toppings, but here are a few of my favorites:

sliced tomatoes

spinach leaves

artichoke hearts

black olives

basil leaves

broccoli

fresh cooked sausage

fresh fried & crumbled bacon

sliced baby bella mushrooms

sliced green peppers

red peppers

poblano peppers

canned banana peppers

Beware of piling ingredients too high, or the crust will be doughy in the center. Try to limit yourself to 3-5 of your favorite ingredients, and resist the urge to go crazy with the mozzarella. Also, water-laden vegetables like spinach and tomatoes tend to create a soggy top if too many are used.

Some toppings are fun to hide beneath the mozzarella cheese, like tomatoes and basil leaves. I like to grate fresh parmesan cheese over all the toppings to help them stick.

For meat-lovers, fresh fried sausage, red peppers, poblano peppers and parmesan.

Bake at 400 F, or until the edges of the cheese begin to brown. Let sit for 5 min before serving.

*Note: if you're using a pizza stone (which are awesome), be sure to pre-heat the stone to avoid doughy crusts. Always make sure baking surfaces are adequately dusted with cornmeal. A properly cooked pizza can be removed from a hot stone with a peel or flat-edged cookie sheet.

What do you think, friends?

Thanks, guys.

Real Pumpkin Pie

A girlfriend stopped by last week on her way to have dinner at my mom's house up North. We had tea and talked about pies, and it inspired me to make pumpkin pie. This is my favorite recipe; it's is based on the tag of a sugar pie pumpkin I bought years ago from a farmer's market. I like it because it doesn't call for evaporated or sweetened condensed milk, which I can never seem to keep on hand.

A tip on cooking with real pumpkins: it's easier than it sounds, if you cook a lot at once and freeze it. It keeps in the freezer well, and you can pull it out and use it just as easily as canned pumpkin. It's also an awesome winter ingredient to add to stews, sauces or to spice up mashed potatoes.

Low on the sugar, if it's made with real, pureed pumpkin, it's like cheesecake.

For 1 deep 9" pie pan.

Cooking pumpkins can be a challenge, and there's no particularly easy way to do it. I like to buy small sugar pie pumpkins that fit in the oven whole, then de-seed them after they've baked, but if they're soft enough, cut and seed them and bake large slices in 1" water ~375 for an hour, or until soft.

3 cups pumpkin, cooked and pureed

1 cup cane sugar, honey or maple syrup

2 cups heavy cream (whipping cream)

3 eggs

Blend all in a blender or food processor, then add spices:

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

After blended to a smooth liquid, pour filling into an unbaked pie shell. Bake 375 F for about an hour, or until middle just begins to crack. Let cool before serving!

Here's my pie dough recipe. It makes two shells, or one covered pie.

1 cup flour

1/2 cup butter

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg yolk

2 tbsp lemon juice

Crumb ingredients, then knead with 1/4 cup cold water. Do not pour all water at once; mix in water in increments until it reaches dough consistency.

The same girlfriend sent me a link to this McSweeny's article about it being decorative gourd season. I love my home-grown decorative gourds.

Matt, our artist friend, carved pumpkins while I made pumpkin pie. This was the effort of his labor. Good job, Matt!

Fried Squash Blossoms: A Weird and Tasty Delicacy

"But I don't have any squash blossoms to fry," you say. Well, this is also a tempura recipe, and tempura can be used on just about anything. So keep reading even if you don't have squash blossoms.

There's a delightful little man at Fulton Street's Saturday Farmer's Market who has a very, very small stall compared to the other vendors. He has tiny little baskets laid out on his display table containing "specialty produce" like serrano peppers, plump tomatillos, colored carrots, herbs and other unique veggies.

For example: towards the end of summer he sells squash blossoms. They're not just any squash blossoms; they're picked at a very precise time so that there are just a few inches of brand new squash attached to the half-open blossom. They're very pretty, so I asked him what they were for, and he told me to stuff them with cream cheese and fry them in a tempura batter.

Weird? Yes. Naturally, I had to try it. The tempura batter recipe I found was awesome - so crunchy and light. Almost anything can be fried in tempura batter, so you could try this with green beans, mushrooms, shrimp, chicken, onions, summer squash, asparagus - the sky's the limit. I highly recommend mushrooms stuffed with cream cheese fried alongside thick sliced summer squash. OMG, stuffed mushrooms...mmm. Also, it's really easy.

Tempura batter:

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp softened butter

1/2 tsp white sugar

1 egg yolk

1/3 cup ice water

Mix dry ingredients, then fork in wet.

To make fried squash blossoms, have some room temperature cream cheese on hand. Carefully lift up petals until you can see inside the cavity, then spoon in cream cheese until the blossom is nice and plump.

For stuffed mushrooms, you'll want to hollow out the mushrooms with a paring knife. Use fresh whole button or mini bella mushrooms - the kind with nice, big bulbs. Remove the stems and carve some of the inside out to make room, then stuff with cream cheese and plug up the hole with a thin slice of the stem.

To fry:

Heat cooking oil (coconut oil is the best in flavor and nutrition, although it's quite pricy) on medium high until sizzling (test by sprinkling water drops in the oil; if it sizzles immediately, it's ready). You'll want to make sure there is enough oil in the pan to cover the contents. Evenly coat blossoms, mushrooms, veggies or whatever in the tempura batter then drop in hot oil. Cook about 2 minutes on each site on high, or until golden and crispy. ***NOTE: when turning tempura veggies, make sure to lift them from the pan using a thin spatula first - otherwise the batter may stick to the pan and come off.

I had some leftover squid in the freezer when I made fried squash blossoms, so I went ahead and made some fried calamari rings. So good! Don't cook them too long...

The squash blossoms were absolutely delicious. Very nutty, sweet and tender. I liked the blossom part best and Reagan liked the squash part best, which worked out well.

Get ready for fall recipes! October cooking means more than just pumpkin pie...