Celebration

This is how I celebrated finishing graduate school yesterday- I made pizza. Finishing school has been along process and I am very glad to have it completed. Aaron has been an excellent husband though all of this- hearing my complaining, having me spending Saturdays at the library, and living with a messy house at times. But, no more! Now I can enjoy the summer, and we can begin preparing for a new chapter in our lives. In September we are visiting some friends in Cambodia and then when we get back we are moving to ________. Hopefully it won't be _______ for too long as the job search begins! Today I slept in until 10:30 (something I haven't been able to do in at least a year I think). Aaron and I made breakfast, I went for a run, weeded the garden and watched some women's World Cup soccer. Tonight we will go out for dinner and a movie. It is a day to relax and enjoy not having the pressure of an assignment for school in the back of my mind. It is a good feeling that I want to savor today.

Pizza is always a good way to celebrate and last night I used everything we would normally have on nachos on a pizza. I used some dough that I had frozen from my new favorite dough recipe. I mentioned this in a previous post , but if you haven't tried it yet you must. It is so easy to put together in the morning and then by dinner time you have a great dough ready to use. Last night I rolled out one large dough instead of small ones to cook on the skillet like I did before. I pre-cooked the dough for about 7 minutes at 475 degrees. Then I topped the dough with taco meat, black beans, green chilies, and cheese. After cooking it for about 12 minutes at 475 degrees I added slices of avocado, cilantro, a squeeze of lime and some hot sauce. A little sour cream mixed with salsa brought it all together and made a perfect taco pizza. Make your own and share about your favorite pizza ingredients.  Enjoy!

New Jersey Flavors

I was recently in New Brunswick, New Jersey for a week called "Urban Plunge." Teams came from several states in order to serve in various areas throughout the community. Fortunately, I was placed on a track that served at Elijah's Promise soup kitchen. Started in 1989, Elijah's Promise is now the largest soup kitchen in New Jersey. As a nutrition professional, I was very excited to learn that they are not just about putting food on the table but that they strive to provide nutritious meals that are fresh, balanced, healthy and taste good. It was such a rewarding way for me to spend my time!
In the mornings they would put us to work chopping fruits and vegetables for the lunch meal. It was truly amazing how the chef would organize the different volunteers every day, putting them to work (many of whom likely not having much cooking experience). And somehow the food always turned out great and no fingers were chopped off! One day we actually made fresh pizzas--enough for at least 175 people. The soup kitchen receives donations from area markets and farmers, plus they have a plot of land on a farm where they grow their own produce. We covered the pizzas with all of the vegetables, cheese and meat we could find, plus we also served sauteed pesto vegetables. Yummy!

Last week as I was thinking of what to make for dinner with friends, I decided to use my own pizza dough recipe and make calzones. A co-worker had given me zucchini from her garden and my little garden was ready to harvest tomatoes, green peppers, and some fresh herbs; so I thought pesto vegetable calzones would be perfect. You can fill yours with whatever you have on hand--ham, pineapple, peppers, mushrooms, sausage, chicken, tomatoes, olives--pull out what you can find in your freezer or refrigerator!

Elijah's Veggie Calzones
Serves 4

1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp) yeast
1 1/2 c warm water
1 tsp salt
3 c white flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1 T honey
Pesto vegetables (see below.
2-3 cups fresh spinach leaves
16oz mozzarella, fresh cut into slices or shredded
4 oz Parmesan cheese
1 handful of fresh basil- chopped
1 handful of fresh oregano- chopped
8oz can of tomato sauce

Measure water into bowl and sprinkle with yeast. Stir thoroughly. Add 1 c white flour to liquid. Beat 3 minutes with mixer. Add salt and honey. Mix by hand or with dough hook on mixer. Add remaining flours, 1 c at a time; knead for 5 minutes. Roll into ball and let rest of 10-15 minutes. Preheat oven to 450. Grease and dust baking sheet with cornmeal (or use airbake pan). Separate dough into four equal balls.
Roll out the dough and brush with a little olive oil. Leaving about a 1 inch perimeter, spread several tablespoons of tomato sauce over the inner portion of the dough. In the bottom half of the dough, spoon about 1/2 cup of the pesto vegetables, handful of spinach leaves, handful of mozzarella cheese, some of the fresh herbs and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Fold the upper half of the dough over the vegetable mixture. Pinch the dough to form a lip and then twist the dough together to close the calzone. Brush with olive oil. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crust is browned.

Pesto Vegetables-Give all of the vegetables a rough chop
1 small zucchini
1 small yellow squash
2 small green bell peppers
1 large tomato or 2 small-medium tomatoes
1 small yellow onion
3-5 cloves of garlic minced
1/4 cup pesto sauce (homemade or store bought)

Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil into a skillet, heat on medium-high and add garlic and all of the vegetables. Saute for about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the pesto sauce and evenly disperse through out the vegetables. Saute for 2-3 more minutes and remove from heat.