The "Everything That May Spoil Soon" Pizza

Happy Tuesday, readers! The sun is shining, birds are singing, the Polar Vortex is wreaking havoc on basically the entirety of the United States and I'm trying to use up all my perishables. You know how it is, you buy food, life gets in the way and then suddenly you have several weeks' worth of food you need to eat before it gets rotten and stinks up your fridge.


Last night I had the perfect idea! What food can you put literally anything into and it (almost) always ends up incredible? You guessed it! Pizza! There are so many weird combos that people still eat! BLT pizzas, Chicken Bacon Ranch pizzas, Green Chile Cheeseburger pizzas, dessert pizzas! You get the idea. Anyway, upon close inspection of my refrigerator, I had 1 fresh tomato, 1 green bell pepper, 1 shallot, and a pack of bacon so I threw them on top of a pizza and viola! An excellent dinner option.


The "Everything That May Spoil Soon" Pizza

For the crust:
1 Tbsp active dry yeast
1 C warm water (105-115 degrees)
1 Tsp sugar
1 Tsp salt
2 C flour (plus more for sprinkling)
1/2 C corn meal (optional)


Dissolve yeast in water.


Using your handy stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine all ingredients until mixture resembles pizza dough.


Roll dough out on a floured surface to about 1/8 inch thick.


Now this is where the cornmeal comes in handy: sprinkle corn meal onto your pizza stone or pan and it'll keep your dough from sticking to the pan (in theory, unfortunately I haven't mastered how to prevent sections of my pizza dough from completely adhering to my pizza stone. Anyone have any suggestions?)


For the pizza:
1 pizza crust
2 C pizza sauce (I was lazy and bought some from Aldi, but homemade is much better)
1 bell pepper, diced
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 tomato, thinly sliced
6 slices of bacon, diced and cooked
1/2 C parmesan cheese
3 C mozzarella cheese


Preheat oven to 450.


Cook your bacon in a skillet to just under desired done-ness (remember, it'll continue cooking in the oven), and drain on a paper towel.


Top your crust with sauce, bell peppers, shallot, tomato, cooked bacon and mountains of cheese.


Bake on the bottom rack of your oven for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.


This pizza hit the spot, and had the added bonus of using up the items I spent my hard earned money on and don't want to simply throw in the trash. SCORE!


Enjoy your Tuesday, folks!

Mexican Tortilla Casserole

Today I have accomplished pretty much nothing. I lounged around on the couch for a few hours, I folded and put away laundry, I packed for my upcoming trips (stay tuned for posts about Lubbock, Texas and Chicago, Illinois). I gotta tell you, it's been amazing to be so lazy the past few days. There's something strangely comforting in having no obligations, plus the colder temperatures promote staying in. When the weather outside is frightful, I like to stuff my face-hole with soup and casseroles. Tonight's face-stuffing was Mexican Tortilla Casserole inspired by Ree Drummond's The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime. I've already explained that Ree Drummond is one of my culinary idols and this cookbook is shear genius!

I say "inspired" because while I believe that this recipe would be fantastic as is, I did a few improvisations with ingredients that I happened to have on hand. Look at me! I'm like a real cook using my instincts and stuff. The original undoctored recipe is here

Mexican Tortilla Casserole

2 Tbsp olive oil
6 whole tomatoes, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
4 Tsp chili powder
2 Tsp paprika
2 Tsp cumin
1/2 Tsp salt
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into bite-size pieces
28 oz pinto beans, drained
1 15 oz can black beans, drained
1 C diced green chile
2 C hot salsa
12 corn tortillas
3 C diced and roasted potatoes
1 11 oz can corn, drained
1 1/2 lb grated cheddar cheese
2 C red chile sauce
Sour cream, for serving

So the above recipe is with my adjustments and substitutions.

Preheat oven to 375.

In a very large skillet (or in my case a small-ish stock pot) saute onions, garlic, tomatoes and bell pepper for 2 minutes in 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat.

Season with 2 Tsp of chili powder, 1 Tsp paprika and 1 Tsp cumin. Cook for another minute.

Remove the mixture to a separate bowl.

Using the same skillet (or small-ish stock pot), heat remaining 2 Tbsp olive oil and add in the chicken. Season with 2 Tsp chili powder, 1 Tsp paprika, 1 Tsp cumin and salt.

Saute the chicken until golden brown and cooked though. Should be around 5 minutes.

Add in 1 C water and stir to make a sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil and cook until reduced by half, 3 to 4 minutes.

Stir in the beans and green chile.

To assemble the casserole, pour 1 C of the hot salsa in the bottom of a 9X13 casserole dish. Spread the salsa to coat the bottom evenly.

Cover the bottom of the casserole dish with the corn tortillas.

Spread the potatoes (recipe here) in an even layer over the corn tortillas.

Spread the tomato mixture over the potatoes and top with the drained corn. Now add the chicken mixture. Now add half the cheese.

Pour on 1 C red chile sauce (recipe here).

Top with another layer of corn tortillas.

Add the remainder of the salsa, red chile sauce and cheese. Bake covered with foil for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake uncovered for another 15 minutes.

This casserole is absolutely fantastic and filling. I ate a small square and was utterly stuffed and luckily for us (well, Nate really since I will be going on vacation beginning Thursday) there are plenty of leftovers. Well, enjoy your last full week before Christmas, readers!

Creamy Spicy Chicken Soup

I don't know about you but I'm adoring these cold temperatures! Not really surprising but people in the South do not know how to prepare for cold weather. The high today in Raleigh was 43. I dressed in dress pants, a sweater, scarf, thick socks, boots, a peacoat and gloves to go on my daily walk around the State Capital and honestly I got a little warm. On my walk I encountered women wearing tank tops and flip flops and complaining to their walking companions about how they were cold. DUH! You're practically naked in 40 degree weather, no wonder you're cold!

To ring in this magnificent temperature change, I knew I wanted to make soup and what better way to warm yourself up than with a big bowl of hot soup? My Pinterest board is stuffed with delicious-sounding soup recipes, but since it is Pinterest, I'm sure there are a lot of recipe duds so obviously I was skeptical with this recipe but it turned out wonderfully! As with most other Pinterest recipes I use, I didn't follow the recipe to-the-letter but I'm sure the original interpretation would have been just as good. Here's the link to the original recipe Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup

Creamy Spicy Chicken Soup

3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 jalapeno peppers, diced
2 garlic cloves, diced
1 32 oz carton chicken broth
2 Tsp chili powder
2 Tsp cumin
2 Tsp paprika
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 1/2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can diced tomatoes with green chile
1 1/3 C milk
1/3 C Masa Harina (you can find this in the International Section of your grocery store)
1 can black beans, drained
1 can yellow corn kernels, drained
2/3 C heavy cream
1/2 C sour cream
Shredded cheddar cheese, for serving
Tortilla chips, for serving

In a large, heavy stock pot saute the onion and jalapeno until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add in the garlic cloves and saute for 30 seconds.

Pour in the the chicken broth and seasonings. Add in the chicken breasts (keep them whole) and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cover. Boil the chicken until cooked through, this should take about 15 minutes.

Remove the breasts from the pot and allow them to rest for 5 minutes. After they've rested shred the chicken using 2 forks.

Add in the diced tomatoes and chile, juice and all. I happened to have a almost-too-ripe tomato on hand so I diced it up and added it to the pot as well.

Using a 2-cup liquid measuring cup, whisk together milk and Masa Harina and pour into the pot. Boil until the soup thickens, it won't thicken significantly but you'll notice a subtle change in consistency.

Add the shredded chicken, black beans and corn to the pot. Stir in heavy cream and sour cream and simmer for 5 minutes.

I topped our soup with a little bit of shredded cheddar cheese and a few tortilla chips.

The soup was creamy and definitely filling! I had worked out prior to cooking and was ravenous and was only able to fit one bowl in my stomach before feeling like I was about to explode. I hope you're enjoying your frosty temperatures this weekend and if you're not one for cold temperatures this soup will warm you right up.

Macaroni and Cheese

As promised, here's the second post of the day! On Monday, (God why does that seem like it was a year ago?) I invited over my friend Randi Alexander (whom I haven't seen in about 2 months) for dinner. She recently accepted a new big-girl-type job and I began working for my wonderful company so we haven't had a whole lot of opportunity to catch up.


I made a crowd favorite: Macaroni and Cheese.


Who doesn't love cheese? IT HEALS ALL AILMENTS! This recipe was given to me by my dear friend, Casey Witherspoon before I got married and it is probably one of my favorites because it's so simple.

Macaroni and Cheese

3 Tbsp butter
1/4 C flour
2 C milk
Salt and pepper, to taste
3 Tbsp cream cheese (optional)
2 Tbsp heavy cream (optional)
1 lb pasta
2 C shredded cheese (plus more for topping)
1 C Italian breadcrumbs


Boil pasta according to package instructions.


Preheat oven to 375.


In a heavy oven-safe pot (I love to use my trusty Martha Stewart Dutch oven), melt butter over medium heat. Once butter is melted add in the flour. Stir the mixture using a wooden spoon and cook until mixture's color begins to change from pale white to a caramel golden.


Pour in the milk and stir. Let the mixture bubble until it thickens. For me, this took about 5 minutes. Once you achieve optimal thickness, season with salt and pepper. If you're like me and have just random ingredients in your fridge that you bought but now have nothing to do with the small amount that's left, throw them in the sauce. I had about 3 Tbsp of cream cheese I wouldn't use for anything and some heavy cream that was a few days' shy of expiring so I threw them in there too, but the recipe is just as good without these additions. Remove the sauce from the heat.


Now for the fun part: CHEESE! I used a hoop cheddar (a rich and velvety sharp cheddar) and a jalapeno jack (both I picked up at the State Farmer's Market here in Raleigh) but as with any amazing cheese-y dish, get creative. Use whatever cheese makes you happiest. Stir the 2 C shredded cheese into the sauce until it's pretty much combined and melty.


Add in the pasta. Coat the pasta with the cheese sauce and smooth out the top. Top with about 1 C of cheese (because who doesn't want extra cheese?) and top with the breadcrumbs. Bake the macaroni and cheese uncovered for 20 minutes or until melty and bubbly.


This dish is sure to please and is pretty quick to make. From start to finish it's maybe 40 minutes and will have everyone clamoring for seconds. Enjoy, readers! Stay tuned for tonight's dinner of Turkey burgers.

Gingerbread People

Good morning, loyal readers! I apologize for the clear lack of blogging lately. I've been doing plenty of cooking and eating, but not a whole lot of writing about it...so prepare yourselves for like 3 blogs to be posted today :)


I love Christmas, well, all holidays really but Christmas is probably my favorite. Why? Well, your heart just feels bigger. You want to show everyone you know that you're thinking about them and care about them. The weather promotes fuzzy socks, big blankets and plenty of cuddling. OH! And there's the total acceptance that you will gain like 20 pounds but no one really seems to notice. That's what New Years Resolutions are for, right?


This past weekend Nate and I participated in a plethora of Christmas-time activities. Friday night I invited over a friend of mine (shout out to Jenny Bingham for bringing over wine!), I made chili and cornbread and we all sat down to watch Christmas movies. First up was Love Actually. Now, if you haven't seen it, it's on Netflix so get to it! The movie boasts an all-star cast and their various relationships and in true Hollywood fashion, SPOILER ALERT everything works out almost perfectly on Christmas Eve. Everyone professes their love for one another and lives happily ever after. It's a good movie to watch if you're bored and don't want to pay for a movie.


Next up was my personal favorite Christmas movie (Nate recently stated to me that the Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas cartoon was a Christmas special, not a Christmas movie): The Muppets Christmas Carol. I love the Muppets, they're nostalgic, funny and the movie itself is as enjoyable as an adult as it was when I was a child. In fact, here: The Muppets Christmas Carol Educate yourselves.


Saturday was my company Christmas party at the Angus Barn, which was just as fantastic the second time as it was the first. The pavilion was beautifully decorated, we ate way too much, the wine was excellent and when it was over Nate and I migrated to the Meat Locker in the main restaurant. The Meat Locker, as you may or may not recall, is the outdoor patio for smoking and enjoying the beauty of a crisp winter evening. Nate bought himself a cigar and I drank a Manhattan, it was a damn good one too.


Sunday we had tickets to see the (very far off) Broadway performance of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas at the Duke Performing Arts Center in Durham, North Carolina. Unfortunately for us, we didn't realize the 5:00 performance was in Durham until 4:30. Driving on I-40 to Durham is notorious for accidents, back-ups and just being slow. Somehow we managed to get there without incident and we even found free parking across from the theater! It was a Christmas miracle! The performance was spectacular, interactive, funny, and memorable. If it happens to stop anywhere near you, GO SEE IT! Trust me, you will not be disappointed in the least.


When we returned from the performance we made Gingerbread People. I have never made them before but I was shocked at how simple it was and they turned out perfectly! The only hitch is they are a little time-consuming. I got this recipe from Food Network and it was very easy to follow.


Gingerbread People


3 C flour
1 Tsp baking soda
3/4 Tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 Tsp ground ginger
1/2 Tsp ground allspice
1/2 Tsp ground cloves
1/2 Tsp salt
1/2 Tsp fresh cracked black pepper
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 C vegetable shortening, at room temperature
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
2/3 C unsulfured molasses
1 large egg


Position your oven racks in the top third and bottom third of your oven.


Sift the flour, baking soda, and spices through a metal sieve into a medium bowl, set aside.


In a separate large bowl (like the bowl of your stand mixer) beat the butter and shortening until well-combined. Add the brown sugar and beat until the mixture is light in color and fluffy in texture. Beat in the molasses and egg.


Using a wooden spoon, slowly combine the dry ingredients with the wet to make a stiff dough.


Portion the dough into plastic wrap and form 2 disks. Put these in the fridge for about 3 hours. See, told you it was time-consuming.


Now you're ready to pre-heat your oven to 350.


Roll out the cookie dough to 1/8 inch thick or slightly thicker if you want the cookies a little chewy (which I always do).


Due to my lack of cookie cutters (hint, hint, if any loyal readers like me enough to gift me something) I only had gingerbread men and snowmen (hence the "gingerbread people" title, don't wanna leave anyone out of the group).


Arrange your cookie dough onto a lightly-greased cookie sheet topped with a silicone mat or wax paper about 1 inch apart. The cookies don't spread out much but just to be safe.


Place the cookies in the top third of your oven for 7 minutes.  Once the 7 minutes are up, flip the trays so what was facing the oven door is now facing the back of the oven and move the cookies to the bottom third of your oven for the remaining 7 minutes.


Complicated, huh?


Let the cookies cool on the trays for 2 minutes before removing them to a wire rack.


Our cookies came out the perfect chewy texture and the flavor was phenomenal; spicy and delicious! Enjoy the recipe readers!

Red Chile Sauce

Happy Thanksgiving, all! I think the best part of Thanksgiving, well besides eating your weight in turkey, sides and pie, is that it's so different depending on where you celebrate.

While we all eat "the usual", "the usual" changes vastly region-to-region. Think about it for a second, dressing versus stuffing, giblet gravy versus packaged, lumpy potatoes versus smooth and with peas and onions? The Thanksgiving traditions in Pittsburg are going to be different from Thanksgiving in San Diego, is going to be different from Thanksgiving in New York City, and so on and so on. Yeah, I agree there's probably a turkey on most if not all tables and mashed potatoes in some form but the preparations and fixings all vary.

Well, a staple on every New Mexican's Thanksgiving table, and most definitely nowhere else in the country, is red chile sauce. If you are not a native New Mexican, you may be thinking to yourself, "red chile? What? Do they eat anything that isn't smothered in chile?" To answer your question, no, chile really does cover everything that enters our stomachs in some form or another. The sauce also serves a dual purpose: to replace gravy. I have never liked gravy. Call me Un-American or a traitor or whatever, I don't care. I don't like gravy and I am not ashamed to admit it. It grosses me out. Always have. Always will. Period. End-of-story.

Since Nate and I are hosting Thanksgiving this year, I get to subject people to my bizarre New Mexican traditions. This red chile sauce will cover my mashed potatoes, my turkey and who knows what else! So if you want to try something different on your Thanksgiving table this year, I urge you to give this red chile sauce a try! 

New Mexican Red Chile Sauce

1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp flour
1/4 C red chile powder
1 C water
Salt to taste

In a medium sized sauce pan over medium heat, saute garlic until it begins to release the wonderful cooking-garlic aroma. Blend in the flour using a wooden spoon and allow to cook for a minute until it becomes a light golden color.

Turn the heat down to medium-low and blend in the chile powder. I know what you're thinking: "Lindsey, I live in (insert town name here) and they don't just sell red chile powder here! Why are you trying to get me to make this stuff anyway?!" To which I answer you, ok, calm down first of all. Chile powder is actually easier to find than you would think! I was able to buy a huge bag of it at Aldi in Cary, North Carolina. If you don't have an Aldi near you, you could also order it online from my favorite chile purveyor: Chile Monster. 

Now, red chile burns easily so you really have to be careful and blend it in and toast it for only about a minute before adding in the water and salt. I prefer my chile sauce to be a little thicker in consistency so I only added about 3/4 C of my water but if you want yours to be a little thinner than feel free to add in the whole cup, or even less.

Happy Thanksgiving, readers from my family to yours!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Happy Thanksgiving Eve, readers! I wish you and your family a very happy calorie-filled, no-carb-left-behind Thanksgiving! This evening was very busy for Nate and I. He made roasted sweet potatoes and decorated the house while I prepared Green Bean Casserole (following the tried-and-true recipe on the back of the French Fried Onions can, subbing fresh green beans for canned) and pumpkin cheesecake!

This cheesecake honestly couldn't be easier to make! You mix everything up with a blender and bake it for an hour. That's it. Awesome right? Who wants to worry about complicated recipes when they have a billion other things to worry about? Not me, that's for damn sure.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

3 8oz packages of softened cream cheese
1 15 oz can pumpkin puree
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 C sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl or your handy stand mixer, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Unfortunately for me, I did not allow my cream cheese to soften enough and completely blew the motor on my hand mixer. It was a devastating experience, mainly because I was in the middle of whipping my cream cheese and now had to transfer all my cream cheese into the stand mixer.

Once cream cheese is light and fluffy, mix in pumpkin puree, eggs, and spices until combined. This took about 10 minutes to incorporate everything completely.

Mix in flour and vanilla until combined.

Pour the filling into a prepared crust. The great thing about this filling is it will fill up two 9 inch pie crusts! Who doesn't love two cheesecakes?

I stupidly only bought one graham cracker crust but I thankfully have a pantry-full of graham crackers just aging.

Pie Crust

8 graham crackers
4 Tbsp butter, melted
3 Tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl, break up graham crackers. I used a potato masher. It worked well to mash into semi-uniform yet solid-ish pieces. They weren't teeny-tiny like they would be had I used a food processor but it should taste ok.

Mix in melted butter and sugar until the graham crackers start to come together.

Press into a pie pan.

Bake for 5 minutes.

Now for baking the now-crusted cheesecakes:

Bake the cheesecakes at 350 for 1 hour. After an hour, turn the oven off but keep the cheesecakes in the oven.

Allow cheesecakes to come to room temperature before placing in the fridge for 6-8 hours or overnight.

These cheesecakes are heavenly and a nice nod to the traditional pumpkin pie without being drab and boring.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's recipe for red chile sauce!