Life and more Pizza Bites

Late update is late. It's been busy and hectic and stressful the last couple of days, there has been much A&W consumed and not a whole lot of cooking going on. We apologize...

Since Doctor Who isn't having new episodes until Christmas, we've decided to start watching Life, the newest in shows along the lines of Planet Earth and the like. We made pizza bites again, but this time with different fillings.

There's a pizza place that does amazing vegetarian pizzas, so we used the same vegetables and spices that they did in an attempt to mimic their deliciousness. We also decided to try bacon cheeseburger pizza bites!!

Hopefully this week will bring more delicious posts for you guys to try. Thanks for tuning in!

-Sam and Jesso

Doctor Who Night: Pizza Bites

Doctor Who night, which sadly will end for the year tonight, was the time for appetizers. Sam and I came across a blog talking about pizza bites a while back, and we decided to try our own take on them.

Pizza Bites (intermediate difficulty)

What We Used
Dough:

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp white sugar

Filling:

• Pepperoni
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Cheddar Cheese

The dough was actually fairly easy to prepare, though time consuming. We dissolved the yeast in the cup of warm water and let it stand about ten minutes until it was milky.

When the yeast was done turning into slime, we stirred all the dough ingredients together in a bowl, then kneaded (add a little more flour if it's waaaay too sticky during this stage) until it was thoroughly mixed. Then we let it sit for a couple hours until it doubled in size.

When it was done growing, we pulled off little palm sized chunks and formed them into little discs. We filled the discs with a few pieces of cubed pepperoni and cheese then pinched the discs closed to make little filled balls which we placed in a 9 x 11 cake pan. We covered again and let them rise again for a while.

Once they were the size of small buns, we placed them in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes until golden brown. Before you put them in the oven you have the option to brush them with olive oil and herbs... we used garlic and basil, which was awesome. Some parmesan cheese would have been lovely as well, but we didn't have any.

We served with a dish of maranera sauce, and the entire thing was fantastic. Nice little snacky pizza pockets.

-Jess

Doctor Who Monday: More of the Shortcakes, Sorbet, and the Great Phyllo Experiment

Should we just rename Doctor Who Monday to Shortcake Monday? We liked them so much last week that we wanted to do them again (except... smaller. With enough whipping cream for everyone.)

Doctor Who night tends to involve a bunch of people and snack food. As such, we've taken to mostly making finger foods, ergo the phyllo pastry.

Broccoli, Mushroom and Cheese in Phyllo

What We Used:

• Phyllo pastry
• 2 cups mushrooms (button works best, but we also had some leftover Portobello)
• 1 and 1/2 cups grated marble cheese
• 1 head broccoli, cut small
• 2 shallots
• melted butter
• marjoram to taste
  

Mince the shallots, slice the mushrooms, grate the cheese and cut the broccoli! Heat some oil in a pan and add the shallots and marjoram. Add the mushrooms once the shallots are cooked for awhile, and when the mushrooms cook down a bit, add the broccoli. Cook until the broccoli is tender but not too soft.

Now it's the hard part.

Layer three sheets of phyllo pastry together and brush them down with butter. Cut into squarish shapes (they don't have to be perfect) and put some of the veggie mix into the middle. Top with cheese and fold them however you'd like. We wanted to do triangles, but we ended up going with a much different shape in the end.

Brush the tops with more butter to keep them from drying out and bake in the oven until they're golden and crispy!

Verdict?

Perfect. The buttery Phyllo added just enough salt to the mushroom/broccoli/shallot mix to make lovely bite sized yummy things.

Lemon Pomegranate Sorbet

What We Used:

• 1 large pomegranate
• 5 lemons
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 cups water
• a pinch of salt
• a splash of 7-up

I was official in charge of lemons again, since Sam's allergic. I beat up, halved, and squeezed five lemons into a measuring cup. The goal was 1 cup of lemon juice, but I was slightly short so after I strained out the seeds and pulp with cheesecloth, I topped it off with 7-up.

Sam, meanwhile, was removing the seeds from the pomegranate and setting them aside.

In a pot on the stove, we dissolved the sugar in the water and brought the entire mix to a boil on a medium heat (make sure to stir constantly). After boiling it for a few minutes, we removed it from the heat and added the lemon juice, pomegranate seeds, and a pinch of salt. It was brought back to a boil until the pomegranate seeds released their color.

The entire thing was strained again into a pre-chilled metal bowl and then shoved into the freezer. Every once in a while, it was removed and stirred to put air in the mix and get the right texture.

Verdict?

The flavor is fabulous. But sorbet is the perfect place to experiment with mixing fruit flavors. The pomegranate added a beautiful color and sweetness to the sourness of the lemon.

-Sam and Jess