Monday, April 19, 2010

favorite things



Last night Carl made us an especially delicious homemade pizza. First attempt at making his own homemade pizza dough. The results were amazing! Its so incredibly easy that I seriously doubt we'll ever go back to store-bought dough again.

Carl's Curry Pie
Homemade pizza dough
2-3 chicken breasts (cut up into bite size pieces)
Curry sauce (we used a bottle of Trader Joe's Curry Simmer Sauce)
1 onion - sliced
Cilantro- a handful or two depending on your tastes
Mozzarella cheese - shredded

Pizza Dough:
we used a great recipe from The Kitchn
the ingredients are super simple and include:
3/4 cups (6 ounces) of water
1/2 teaspoon of active-dry yeast (if using instant yeast, you don't need to dissolve it during the first step)
2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour (we used wheat flour)
1/2 tsp salt
Once you've made the dough, just roll it out, get it on a baking sheet or pizza stone and go crazy!!

For the curry topping:
Carl tossed the chicken pieces into a bowl and smothered them in the curry sauce
He then laid the chicken right on top of the dough (I was a bit skeptical about this one - I was WRONG!)
I carmelized the sliced onions
He chopped some fresh cilantro from our herb garden

Keys to a great pizza:
Put on your toppings first - no cheese
Cook for about 5 minutes, rotate 180 degrees (to make up for the oven's hot spots)
Cook another 2-3 minutes, THEN add your cheese
Cook another 3 minutes and VOILA - its pizza time!

 And don't forget that glass of Sangiovese...

Carl enjoying some of his favorite things: homemade pizza, glass of good red and favorite T-shirt


More favorite things from this weekend
Watching this awesome drum group banging it out:

These kids were amazing. Check the head-banging they've got going on.


A fun little walk downtown, with a quick pit-stop in front of our amazing Museum of Art



And a very necessary pit-stop here for some delicious gelato




More sweet goodness from here


Its always a must when I work up in Los Olivos

How could I resist these sweeties?!?!

Coming home from work, my honey waiting with a cocktail (sort of a necessity after the lame-o day I had) and our amazingly talented friend, Rusty Lindsey there for an evening serenade in our front yard



If you get a chance, please check out Rusty's site. He's awesome, and if you live in the SoCal area there's a good chance you'll be able to check him out live!

And finally, enjoying some craft time



Hope your weekend was filled with favorite things as well. 

XO,

Chelsea