still cookin'

As I've mentioned a couple of times I have really gotten into cooking; more so since we moved back to Grand Rapids and I started working from home. Finding the time to cook, experiment and learn has opened a new door into my culinary world. I enjoy it immensely. I enjoy looking through recipes, watching Food Network and creating my own inventions.

Somewhere along the way, I had heard of baking a pizza in a cast iron skillet. We finally bought one! Bill uses it to make breakfast potatoes (a weekend staple in our house). I also recently acquired a piece of granite stone that I can use to roll out dough, something I cannot do no matter how much flour I use on my regular counter tops. This "scrap" piece sits on a butcher block island and has proved to be very useful. I have also found a recipe for homemade pizza dough. The store bought dough always falls apart and it never bakes in the middle even when I par bake it. All things combined in my mind (it's complicated, but that's how my brain works, trust me it all came together in there) and I decided to make a pizza in our new cast iron skillet.

I found a great blog, "Last Night's Dinner" where a cast iron skillet pizza was discussed in great length. I used the baking portion from that blog, and combined it with two other pizza recipes. First I made the dough on my granite stone. Then, I caramelized a Vidalia onion in the skillet, I added Italian sausage and cooked it until it was cooked through (not browned). I put the onions and sausage on a paper towel lined plate while I rolled out the dough. The dough was thin enough that it wasn't deep dish thick, but I pressed it up against the sides. I spread out tomato sauce, and drizzled the edge of the crust with olive oil. Then I added the sausage and onion. I topped it with several types of cheese. Of course I used mozzarella (shredded, not fresh, next time I'm going to try fresh), I used some feta, Parmigiano Reggiano, and when it came out of the oven, I topped it with plain fresh grated Parmesan.

This was the result. It was delicious. I was quite proud. The dough cooked all the way through and it was nuclear hot when we bit into it. I tried telling Bill I was holding back and now that I know he's not going to leave me after ten years, I can finally show off my cooking talents. He isn't buying it, but he is enjoying my cooking.

We plan on trying country fried steaks again (the first try almost burned down our first apartment, we've learned a lot since then and are more confident that we'll be 100% successful in our 2nd attempt, especially with the skillet) and Bill will be frying up chicken. But those will have to wait until cooler weather returns. We need to get back out to the grill.

Don't forget, I love to share my cooking, so if you ever want to come visit just give us a call!!