Heirloom Tomato Pizza with Pesto and Fresh Mozzarella

One of my favorite things about summer is visiting the local farmer's market to purchase some of the freshest produce around. But one thing that's even better than purchasing fresh produce is getting it for free - the tomatoes used in this recipe were grown in a friend's garden! They had some extra heirloom tomatoes lying around and graciously gave a bunch to Jake when he was over visiting them a couple weeks ago. 

This recipe (like the majority of pizza recipes) takes only a couple minutes to prep, and the pizza is ready to eat in under 15 minutes! Best of all, this recipe only requires 5 ingredients.

Ingredients:

• prepared pizza dough
• cornmeal or flour for dusting
• pesto
• fresh mozzarella
• heirloom tomatoes

How to:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Allow pizza dough to come to room temperature. Dust a pizza peel or other surface with cornmeal or flour to prevent dough from sticking to surface.
• Roll out dough using your hands or rolling pin on top of dusted surface.
• Spread 2-3 Tbsp of pesto on top of the dough.
• Top pizza with fresh mozzarella and heirloom tomatoes.
• Spread 1-2 more Tbsp of pesto on top of the mozzarella and tomatoes.
• Transfer pizza to oven and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Jake and I received a pizza stone as a wedding gift, and we absolutely love it. If you too are using a pizza stone, place it in the oven before turning it on, so it heats up as the oven is preheating. We use our pizza peel to then transfer the pizza into the oven.

I love that despite this recipe's simplicity, it tastes like a gourmet pizza! I'm so glad our friends gave us lots of heirloom tomatoes - we'll be making this pizza again very soon. I made the dough from scratch from my recipe I've previously shared with you. I didn't have enough basil on hand to make my own pesto, so I just used the store bought stuff (which was still delicious).

Enjoy!

The original recipe can be found here.

Chicken Tostadas

As the summer is coming to an end, I find myself getting busier and busier. In the past month, Jake and I have had three weddings (although we could only make it to two of them), I've traveled to visit friends all over the place, and have started training to run the Baltimore marathon relay. Things don't seem to be slowing down anytime soon - Jake and I are making a trip up to Massachusetts in the next few weeks to attend ANOTHER wedding, and I'll be starting a second job in September. As hectic as things are, I've had a pretty fantastic summer, and am excited for all the fun things I have planned over the next year! But I can delve into that at another time...

Anyway, because things have been so crazy (especially with trying to fit in a work out after a long ass day in the lab), I'm finding less and less time to craft fab gourmet meals for Jake and I. Which leads me to introduce this recipe for Chicken Tostadas. This recipe uses leftover chicken, and can be assembled in less than 30 min.

Ingredients:

• 8 6-in flour or corn tortillas
• 2 avocados, pitted, and cut into 1/2 cubes
• 1 Tbsp lime juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup fat-free refried beans
• 2 cups shredded, cooked, boneless chicken breast
• 1 1/2 cups (~4 oz.) shredded pepper Jack cheese
• 2 cups shredded romaine lettuce
• 1 cup tomato salsa

How To:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with heavy-duty foil.
• Mist both sides of tortillas with cooking spray, place on sheet, and bake until crisp (~ 8 minutes). Set aside.
• Toss avocado with lime juice, and season with salt.
• Spread some beans on each tortilla, top with chicken and avocado, and sprinkle with cheese. 
• Return to oven and bake until warmed through (7-10 minutes).
• Top with lettuce and salsa and serve immediately.

Jake and I had a ton of leftover chicken from the last time we made Jerk Chicken using my recipe for Jamaican Jerk Marinade. I diced up a bunch of that chicken and used it in this recipe. The spices and heat from the marinade worked well with the coolness of the avocado here, so I recommend trying that out! You can also just use a rotisserie chicken if you don't have any grilled chicken laying around.

Enjoy!

Triple Chocolate Ice Cream

So Jake and I bought a house in the burbs last year. At first I thought it was going to take some serious getting used to. Let me explain - Jake and I would frequent Cold Stone Creamery at LEAST once a week during the summer. There was one right down the street from us when we lived in the city. I'm pretty sure I've tried every single flavor this place has to offer. And I've mixed almost everything into my ice cream - which is one of the best things ever about Cold Stone. AMIRIGHT?? Clearly, dessert is a priority in my life. 

Lucky for my stomach, we happened to move to a place that is in VERY close proximity to a frozen yogurt place. This became my new obsession. Honestly, Jake and I ended up at this fantastic establishment twice a week. We had a problem - the amount of money we spent here is sad. There's really no other word for it. But dammit, that stuff is good.

Anyway, one of my fabulous bridesmaids bought me an ice cream maker that I can hook up to my KitchenAid mixer. Once I started using this fantastic appliance, I sort of forgot (I use the words 'sort of' very loosely) about my love affair with frozen yogurt. I was eating real, full-on-fat, creamy delicious ice cream again. I was hooked. Now, I'm constantly looking up new ice cream recipes to try. Jake suggested I try a chocolate ice cream recipe (he was always a sucker for the chocolate shakes at Cold Stone). Alas, I share with you my recipe for Triple Chocolate Ice Cream.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whipping cream, divided
• 2 squares (1 oz. each square) semisweet baking chocolate, cut into chunks
• 2 squares (1 oz. each square) unsweetened baking chocolate, cut into chunks
• 2 cups half & half
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 8 egg yolks
• 4 tsps vanilla
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups chopped milk chocolate (from ~4 bars of milk chocolate)

How to:

• In a small saucepan, place 1/2 cup whipping cream, semisweet chocolate, and unsweetened chocolate. Heat over medium-low heat until chocolate melts, stirring frequently. Remove from heat & set aside.
• In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat half & half until very hot but not boiling, stirring often. Remove from heat and set aside.
• In a small bowl, combine sugar and cocoa powder. Set aside.
• Place egg yolks in a mixer bowl. Whisk eggs while gradually adding adding in sugar mixture until well blended and slightly thickened. 
• While continually whisking, very gradually add in chocolate mixture and half & half. Mix until well blended.
• Return mixture to saucepan. While stirring constantly, cook over medium heat until small bubbles form around the edge and the mixture is steamy - do not boil.
• Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in remaining whipping cream, vanilla, and salt. Cover and chill thoroughly in fridge, at least 8 hours.
• Make ice cream in an ice cream maker, according to its directions, adding in the milk chocolate during the last 1-2 minutes of freeze time.

I followed the recipe for Triple Chocolate Ice Cream that's outlined in the little booklet that came with my ice cream maker. Of all the different types of ice cream I've experimented with, this was my most successful. I found that freezing the ice cream maker attachment and chilling the prepared mix for at least 24 hours and overnight, respectively, yielded the best consistency. When Jake tried this, he legit said to me "This tastes like real ice cream. You could serve this to people and they would have no idea you made it." Thanks? Haha, that's what I was going for!

Enjoy!