Hawaiian Pizza!

Hawaiian Pizza: a sweet collision of sweet pineapple and MEAT! It's like a luau in your mouth, all you need is the beach and a nice drink and you'll be set.

• 1/2 cup of canadian bacon (half the bag of canadian bacon slices that you buy at the store)
  
• 3/4 can of pineapple chunks - drained and rinsed
  
• Pizza dough - I do it w/ the pizza mix and then make the dough that way, but you can buy the dough or pre-baked crust any way you want.
• Shredded Mozzarella and Cheddar cheeses.
• Pizza sauce of your favorite variety - I like "messing" with mine so it doesn't taste completely like it came out of a can (or jar). Add some spices like red pepper flakes, dill, oregano, etc.. just be careful how much you put in.

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F - or how ever hot the crust says you should.
2. Mix up your dough (FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ON THE PACKAGE), it's a messy ordeal - but fun nevertheless. If you would like to make your own dough click here. You're going to want to kneed it pretty well - if it gets too sticky (don't add water, ADD FLOUR). Make sure to keep your hands nice and 'floury.' Roll it into a ball or mound.
   
3. Grease and flour the pizza pan (otherwise, you'll be sorry!).
4. Place the dough on the pan and spread it out (watch how thin you spread it). Once finished with that - get a fork and fork the crap out of it.. leave the outer 1/2in "hole-less" that way you have a nice crust. The reason why you put fork the dough after it's rolled out is so you don't get massive bubbles in the crust, but sometimes they still happen.
5. Pop that puppy in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes. Pre-baking the crust helps make sure that the crust is done. Nobody likes a piece of pizza with raw pizza dough in the middle.
   
6. Get a ladle, or a big spoon and put some sauce on the pizza (you did just take the pan out of the oven - so it will be hot...)- makes sure to spread it out evenly - put as much as you want on there, I like to give it a nice even coating.
7. Take your Canadian bacon and start laying it out in a circular motion around the inside of the pizza working your way out.
8. Sprinkle the cheese evenly on top of the crust, use as much or as little as you want.
9. Top with bacon and pineapples (as much or as little as you want)
10. Bake it in the oven for a good 8-12 minutes, until the cheese is melted in the center and the crust is a nice "golden brown"
11. Take it out and let it cool for a minute or two and enjoi!

• WARNING: you may have the urge to listen to Beach Boys music, limbo, and hula dance... I'm not responsible for this reaction as you are taking on this task by yourself. Dun Dun Dahhh...
• For a unique cooking experience go to pandora and create a station of Luau music... either that or The Killers [which have nothing to do with Hawaii or pizza - but are still awesome!]
  

As always,
C.C.C. meeeeeee cooooking!
aka
Stf

There Ain't no Party like a Pizza Party!!!

The other day (well last Tuesday to be exact), I was a little bit stir crazy... *maybe that is an understatement.* So, I decided to invite over some of my favorite girlies and have a "pizza party" of sorts...

So here was the "line up"

1. Hawaiian pizza: Where sweet and meat combine! Ample amounts of pinapples and canadian bacon w/ a cheddar and mozzarella blend of cheese.
2. Stf's famous BBQ Chicken Pizza: Juicy shredded chicken, sweet red onion slivers, sweet & tangy BBQ sauce, and smooth cheddar cheese.
3. Rounding the DESERT portion of the party we have Fruit Explosion pizza: apples, oranges, peaches, pineapples, and grapes on top of a sweet cream cheese sauce and a sugar cookie crust! Nom
   
4. And lastly, Cinnamon Apple Pizza: sweet, sauteed apples in a brown sugar, cinnamon sauce topped with home-made Streusel crumbs, and a sugar icing. Definitely sweet, but not too sweet!

Recipes will follow - by the name of the pizza...

Dorms have NO KITCHENS...

This almost drove me crazy my freshman year. No kitchen = no baking = no food. Luckily I had a boyfriend (by the middle of the year) who had his own house - and kitchen! But cooking spans back before college...

Food has always been a good way to make friends with people, because everybody LOVES food! [and those who don't, are absolutely weird... but hey whatev - to each his/her own]. Over the course of my secondary schooling and college (still in, so it's still going) I have become more and more of a cook. And being a cook does have it's advantages: you get to make things that 1)look good, 2)taste good [with the rare opps I put cumin instead of cinnamon in the pancakes - which wasn't me by the way] and 3) make you feel happy! I love just being able to work in the kitchen and just improvise to come up with something new. Sometimes it's worked fabulously - others... eh, let's just say you win some, you lose some.

Growing up in a big family you learn to cook, because eating out all the time gets EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE! That and it's fun getting everyone cooking in the kitchen. My Dad and I love to cook - it's how we de-stress/"Get away from life." You can always tell how our week is going by the amount of food/desert we cook/bake. I can probably attribute my "love of food" to my Dad and his family. We always joke about opening a restaurant or cafe since we have to feed an "entire herd" of people when the holidays/birthdays roll around. I wouldn't trade any of them for the world though - gotta love your family... they're the only ones who HAVE to put up with your crazy self. The only bad part to that is - when you go to college and have to live in the dorms your first year... you have no place TO cook with out having to drive home or some place where there's a kitchen. Although, having to cook with only a microwave makes you think "outside the box." And one can only live on Ramen noodles and Mac'n'Cheese for so long.

But anyway - back to the reason why I'm writing this blog! MAIN REASON: Cooking is fun and the outcomes are tasty. SECOND REASON: to share easy recipes with you so you too can become a Crazy College Chef. [YOU'LL MAKE TONS OF NEW FRIENDS!] I've been meaning to start this for a while now - but I finally just sat down and did it. Soooo keep on the look out for new recipes/techniques/etc... I promise you won't be dissappointed.


-C.C.C. MEEEEE COOOKING!