Friday, June 10, 2011

Here's a first from me- a cooking success story!

 OK, so don't get too used to this, you won't see too much from me in the cooking or cleaning dept, because I don't really enjoy either one unless I have a real purpose, like company.  But, I got this recipe the other day in the little magazine that our local electric co-op puts out every month and it sounded good and looked OK and I decided we should try it.  (There's no indication of who wrote this recipe, sorry.)

Spinach Artichoke Pizza-theirs looked good, but ours looked better- bigger, thicker, beefier!



Here's their recipe and then I'll tell you what I did differently.

Spinach Artichoke Pizza

3/4 cup spinach artichoke Greek yogurt veggie dip
1 prepared pizza crust or homemade pizza crust, 10-12"
1 cup packed baby spinach leaves
1 cup canned artichoke hearts, slivered
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1/3 cup pitted and halved Kalamata olives
1/2 cup crumbled Feta cheese
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 400º.  Mist a pizza pan with non-stick vegetable oil spray. Pre-bake crust for 8-12 minutes or until golden brown.  Baking times vary, for different crusts.  Spread artichoke spinach dip on hot crust.  Cover with spinach, artichokes, tomatoes, olives, feta cheese, and pepper.  Bake again for 5-7 minutes.  Cut and serve, serves 6.

OK, here's what I did differently.  I used pita bread for the crusts- I took three of them, oiled them up with some nice olive oil, sprinkled with oregano and baked them until both sides were brown and crusty.  Then I spread on the only yogurt/spinach dip I could find in our store, it wasn't greek or artichokey, but I made up for that later.  It's really tasty though and has water chestnuts in it which adds a little crunch, fun! Covered that with spinach, added pepperoni slices, piled on diced tomatoes (I'm too cheap to buy cherry ones) and then lots of artichoke slivers and slivered olives and lots of cheese and pepper.  Then baked again.  We quartered them for ease in eating.  
So I didn't do a lot differently and they turned out yummy!  Jim ate 1 3/4  and I ate 3/4 of one and then I zapped the 2 remaining quarters for lunch the next day and it was scrummy, even better than fresh out of the oven.  Served with salad, it's a feast!

Edit- GOAT CHEESE added on top of the spinach dip, but under the spinach, makes an amazing addition to these pizzas!  Also, some slivered red onion.  :)  Our pizzas are now coming out of the oven about 4" thick with goodies!  They're getting better and better, too. Also, if you can find the mini pitas,the pitettes, what great little appetizers these would be!


We'll have these again and they'll be great for summer entertaining, you don't have to have the oven on for very long and a clever person could probably figure out a way to do them on a grill, too. 

So there you have my one and only, probably, bloggy food recommendation.  :)

5 comments:

Laura said...

Looks yummy! I get a magazine from the Texas Power Co-op each month and I have gotten some fabulous recipes from it!

Love Of Quilts said...

When I started reading your post I said this sounds like me I don't like cooking or cleaning either just sometimes have too.I also get a Co-op magazine with recipes but I haven't ventured to try any but now we love pizza so I may just try your when the garden comes in. Trish

edyB said...

YUM-O!!! I think I'll try this one. Of course the hubby and mother-in-law won't touch it but that means more for me. They are so picky and don't like veggies ~ DUH! How can they not? I love veggies especially on pizza. My garden is full of fresh herbs and soon I'll have tomatoes ready to pick! Can't wait use them on this recipe. Thanks for sharing, Sooz!

Anonymous said...

You had me at artichoke. Seriously, I'm getting int he car now.
And don't you have the cutest kitty kat ever!
Miss you,
Spicey

Unknown said...

This was absolutely delicious! I used a different crust recipe and I cook the crust alone for 5 mins before I added rest of ingredients on top.

Gretta Hewson
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