Homemade Pizza..well, sort of

 

DISH homemade vegetable and ham pizza

INGREDIENTS

package of garlic and herb pizza dough (Trader Joe's, as always)

shredded cheese

vodka sauce

mushrooms

black beans

tomatoes

onions

ham

basil

salt and pepper

garlic powder

HOW TO

1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees (or whatever your pizza dough package says)

2) Knead dough with flour and spread out and fill entire pizza pan

3) Spread vodka sauce (or your pizza sauce) across the dough. Spread shredded cheese around on top.

4) Cut up onions and cook separately on a pan and caramelize.

5) Cut up vegetables and ham (or other desired meat) into pieces and spread them and the onions across dough.

6) Top the pizza with some basil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and more cheese.

7) Put into oven for 10 or so minutes until dough is cooked and cheese is melted.

DANKNESS FACTOR 8/10

COMMENTS/TIPS

     I'm just the biggest fan of Trader Joe's garlic and herb pizza dough; I could eat it alone. I think it makes the pizza, but the vegetables and meat of course add the greatest flavor to the pizza. We used vodka sauce instead of pizza sauce which turned out to be really tasty and made the pizza more sweet. It's just a simple, quick dinner but the results always turn out perfect if you just top pizza dough with your favorite things.

     I love the pizzas that we make. The crust is very doughy and has great flavor. I always eat so much of it, and that's a good sign  I guess. I like how we keep it somewhat healthy by using less cheese and putting on lots of good ingredients. 

Btw, we finished season 2 of Jersey Shore already HA

Thai Yellow Turkey Curry

Well, today I walked into Brian's place and dinner was already cooked!

DISH thai yellow turkey curry

INGREDIENTS

cut turkey breasts
chopped onions
chopped cooked potatoes
Thai yellow curry sauce (Trader Joe's!)
water
olive oil
brown rice

HOW TO
1) Caramelize onions with olive oil in cooking pan under medium heat.
2) Cut potatoes in small bites, then microwave them for about 1 minute to soften; then place potatoes into pan with onions.
3) Then cut and add in turkey pieces to pan; let it half cook. Add in curry sauce and water (water will reduce while cooking)
4) Let everything cook and sit under medium heat for about 2 hours.
5) In another pot, cook the brown rice until desired texture is reached.
6) When everything is done, top curry on top of brown rice and you've got yourself a delicious curry dinner.

DANKNESS FACTOR 8.5/10

COMMENTS/TIPS

     The turkey was nice and tender along with the nice soft potatoes. We weren't sure whether Thai curry differed from Indian or Asian curry, but it was pretty similar, but slightly different from Asian curry: sweet, not a too overpowering curry taste, slightly spicy. I don't know about you, but I'm just a big fan of the simple curry and rice dinner. "It was just so tasty. It doesn't matter what it looks like" - Brian Plummer.
     So so so tasty. I've become a big fan of curry, and last time I didn't cook it long enough, but this time it came out great. I could eat this for days...


So after a year of trying, Brian's finally hooked on Jersey Shore! (he even suggested we put a Jshore video on this post) I downloaded it and we've been watching the episodes starting from the first season, and we've gotten to the beginning of season two OH YEAH.

 

Sloppy Joe Turnovers

Second recipe from Pillsbury: The Best of Classic Cookbooks is sloppy joes! (my choice)
Simple ingredients were appealing, but also cause I never had a legit sloppy joe; sad right?

DISH sloppy joe turnovers

INGREDIENTS
(we ended up doubling these ingredients, which made 8 sandwiches with some sloppy joe mixture left over)
1/2 pound lean ground beef
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 (6 oz) can refrigerated buttermilk flaky biscuits
we added some ground cinnamon and pepper to our mixture

also, though we didn't do it, try sprinkling cheese on top before putting it in the oven

HOW TO

1) Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2) In large skillet, brown ground beef and onions until beef is thoroughly cooked. Drain. Stir in ketchup, sour cream, salt, garlic powder (and cinnamon and pepper if desired). Simmer for 2 minutes.
3) Separate dough into 8 biscuits (if not already separated). Press each biscuit into a 4 x 4 inch square.
4) Place about 1/4 cup beef mixture on center of each square. Fold over one corner of each biscuit to form triangles; seal edges with fork.
5) Place on ungreased cooking sheet. Cut two 1/2 inch slits on top on each.
6) Bake at 375 degrees for 12 to 18 minutes or until golden brown.

DANKNESS FACTOR 8/10

COMMENTS/TIPS
     The sweetness of the biscuits with the beef mixture was delicious. The biscuits were nice and soft with a slight crunch to them. I wouldn't go as far as to call this a sloppy joe mixture, but more a hamburger like mixture cause it really wasn't sloppy joe like. The turnover idea was different and you didn't even need utensils to eat it; definitely going to take this idea but make our own concoction on what goes inside. The sprinkling of cheese on top would have really made it something. Cheese makes everything better.
     They were really good. I liked the idea of using biscuit dough to make them. There was a certain flavor that kind of turned me off, but I grew used to it and devoured my plate. Next time we will put a different mixture in the middle. 

Cinnamon Sugar Biscuits

Brian brought over his multi-grain pancake mix, and there was a recipe on the side of the box on how to make biscuits using the mix. We decided to take a plain biscuit recipe and make it a sugary cinnamon biscuit treat.

 

DISH cinnamon sugar biscuits

INGREDIENTS

2 cups Trader Joe's Multigrain Baking & Pancake Mix

2/3 cup milk

3 tablespoons oil

cinnamon

sugar

pinch of salt

HOW TO

1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2) Stir together baking mix, milk, and oil in medium bowl; the recipe doesn't include this, but add in cinnamon, sugar, and a pinch of salt to the mix for extra flavor

3) Mix ingredients with hands and have flour at hand because the dough gets extremely sticky; we had to do without flour so it stuck all over my hands, but it's still doable.

4) Add 2 inch dough balls on ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle on top some more cinnamon and sugar.

5) Bake 8-10 minutes at 425 degrees or until golden brown.

Makes about 8-10 biscuits.

DANKNESS FACTOR 5.5/10

COMMENTS/TIPS

     I didn't add any sugar to the mix, just a sprinkle on top, so it tasted a little bland, but the cinnamon was a good touch. With sugar in the mix and a pinch of salt, this would have gotten a higher rating. The texture was perfect though.

     A little bland, but I guess that's what you get when you don't open them up and put some butter in them. Our next batch was a lot better, but we still haven't perfected it. 

Light Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

So we finally got around and bought a cookbook. We went to a used bookstore downtown and after sifting through numerous of books, we decided on: Pillsbury: The Best of Classic Cookbooks
And now we can officially start our weekly new recipes; the first thing we chose to make are enchiladas (Brian's choice). I'm just not a big fan of sour cream so I always stayed away from enchiladas and just never actually tried them, but it was SO DELICIOUS. Super easy to make and doesn't take that long.

DISH light sour cream enchiladas

INGREDIENTS
1 (8 oz.) container light sour cream
1 (6 oz.) container nonfat plain yogurt
1 (10 3/4 oz.) can condensed 98% fat free cream of chicken soup with 1/3 less sodium
1 (4.5 oz.) can diced green chiles, undrained
12 (6 or 7 inch) white corn or flour tortillas (we used whole wheat)
1 cup shredded reduced fat Cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1/4 cup sliced green onions (we also added bits of sauteed red onion)

(optional) chopped tomatoes and shredded lettuce

 
HOW TO

1) Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 13 x 9 inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
2) Cut and cook pieces of chicken in cooking pan; add red onion and a bit of olive oil to saute for more flavor in enchiladas
3) In medium bowl, combine sour cream, yogurt, soup, and chiles; mix well.
4) Spoon about 3 tablespoons sour cream mixture down the center of each tortillas. Sprinkle tortillas with cheese, chicken, and onions.
5) Roll up; place in sprayed dish. Spoon remaining sour cream mixture over tortillas. Cover baking dish with foil.
6) Place in 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Remove foil.
7) Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and bake uncovered for another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. If desired, garnish with shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes

DANKNESS FACTOR 9/10

COMMENTS/TIPS

     Very flavorful and cheesy with a perfect crunch. The sour cream mixture was delicious and, as they said, light, so that was good. Just an all around great dish; will definitely make it again.
     This was our first dish that we had made from the cookbook, and it was great. It was really heavy so you couldn't eat a lot of it, but it gave us ideas on how to make it better. Next time we will use more peppers, a little less cheese, and just try to make it a lighter dish. All around a good dish.

Goddamn Sushi

So part two of our fabulous Valentine's weekend brought us to Yanagi Sushi, the best sushi in town and our favorite place to eat; we have gone here at least 7 times. Sadly it's pricey, but honestly worth the money because you will leave the place 100% satisfied. Everytime we go, we have our usual Golden California Roll but we decided to switch things up this time around:

DISH Hungry Roll (fried spicy tuna roll with salmon served with mayonnaise and eel sauce) - $8.75

DANKNESS FACTOR 9/10

COMMENTS

     Perfect amount of spiciness, and it's fried and crunchy so of course it's going to be delicious. Plus, this was the first roll we were served, and the first bite into any roll is the best.

     One of my favorite rolls by far. I love the spicy tuna and the friedness of the roll; it gives it a good crunch. I love this roll, definitely a winner.

DISH Tiger Eyes Roll (baked squid and salmon with avocado, gobo, and crabmeat served with eel sauce) - $11.50

DANKNESS FACTOR 6/10
COMMENTS
     The roll was much smaller than we expected, but still tasty. It kind of had two or three simple flavors rather than the 50 different flavors the rolls we usually like have, but we wanted to try out the squid which turned out to be pretty good. It was definitely unique and unlike anything I've seen before. Not really worth the price though.
     Not the best roll; it was very chewy and I like my squid to be tender. It was also the most expensive roll we bought and my least favorite one. The picture on the menu was also deceiving. Will not be ordering again. 

 

DISH Baked Dynamite Roll (California roll with scallops, mushrooms, and onions on top, baked with house mayo and gobo) - $9.75

DANKNESS FACTOR 11/10

COMMENTS

     Hands down our favorite roll in this restaurant. There are 100 different flavors, the scallops are tasty, the mushrooms and sauce are absolutely delicious, it has a nice crunch to it, and it's just perfection. It has replaced our old time favorite Golden California Roll.

     ONE OF THE BEST THINGS IVE EVER EATEN!!! God definitely had a role in the making of this roll. 

DISH Tofu Cheesecake (it wasn't on their menu but they had a little ad for it on the table, and it looked good and sounded different so why not.
DANKNESS FACTOR 7.5/10
COMMENTS
     We thought it'd be really light and thin considering it was tofu based, but it turned out to be pretty thick and dense. It was served cold, and it had a unique texture different from most cheesecakes. SO GOOD.
We didn't try the free dessert technique because 1) they blast bass bumping, fist pumping music for your birthday and clap and sing for you and 2) we had just celebrated and had that done for my birthday about a week ago.
     I was hoping for a really light, airy cheesecake when we ordered it, but it was kind of a let down. Don't get me wrong, I love my sweets, but it wasn't worth it in my opinion.

Yanagi Sushi
1203 Marsh Street
San Luis Obispo, CA
8/10

We need to start learning about food presentation because our dishes look sad next to these restaurant dishes. All in time.