Saturday Eats - Landing Party Pizza

I had grand plans for a lot of cooking this weekend, some time in the kitchen after being away from home a month with maybe even a three course meal in there.

 The week started so well, but  I knew I shouldn't have worn the red shirt. (For those of you who grew up on a desert island and never watched Star Trek, the Red Shirt is the uniform of choice for the phaser-cannon fodder taken out quickly in the plot line to alert viewers to danger.)

Yes, I was part of landing party Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy and the Dead Guy, better known as Ensign Ricky in the red shirt. I started out thinking I was going to save the planet and I ended up as the smoking boots behind the giant paper mache boulder.

So after what turned out to be a very busy week, I really didn't feel like doing anything fancy for lunch on Saturday.

OK, what can I make without making a run to the store?  I have leftover cooked chicken,  the usual veggies, flour, cheese, some jarred and canned things.  Pizza!! But not your traditional pizza.  White, not red pizza, with creamy garlic sauce and chicken and fresh veggies, herbs and two kinds of cheese. I've made it without the chicken and it's just as good.

It starts with homemade easy pizza dough. (or you can buy yours, some store bought ones are excellent and some store bought ones can double as frisbees for the dog).  I went for homemade because I'm a cheapskate feeling gourmet.

Once the dough was assembled, it was topped with garlic sauce (recipe below), leftover baked chicken, olives, chopped sweet onion, a jar of sun dried tomatoes (drained), crushed red pepper and some Italian seasoning, then sprinkled with a couple of handfuls of mozzarella and cheddar. 

After a a few days of cheese sandwiches and leftover pasta and salad this was heaven and it made enough to feed 2 or 3 very hungry people.

Pizza Dough 
Ingredients:

2 and 1/4 teaspoons of  traditional rise yeast
1 teaspoon of organic sugar
1 cup of warm water (110 degrees - use a thermometer - it really matters!)
2 and 1/2 cups of flour
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. In bread bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in the warm water. Let it stand, out of any drafts, until creamy - about 10 minutes.
2. Stir in the salt, oil and flour. add the flour a bit at a time. stir the dough until smooth and elastic-y. let it rest for 5 minutes.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat and roll out with your hands and then use a rolling pin. once desired thickness is achieved.  Place dough on to a pizza pan and top with whatever toppings you like. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes (keep your eye on it at about 12 mins) and remove when pizza is golden brown. Let the pizza sit for 5 minutes before cutting into it (this is the Hardest step!)

Garlic Sauce (this is so worth the time to make and is excellent with pasta too)

Peel six cloves of roasted garlic and mince (2 Tablespoons of the jarred minced garlic). Saute in 1 Tablespoon butter  in a sauce pan for a couple of minutes on medium heat.  Whisk in:

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup half and half or whipping cream 

A  Tablespoon or two of cream cheese (more will make the sauce thicker)

Reduce heat to medium low.  Sift 2 Tablespoons flour over milk mixture, whisking constantly (to avoid lumps).  Add in two pinches of ground thyme and one of ground black pepper and a dash of garlic salt, and continue to gently whisk.  When stating to thicken, remove from heat and add 1/4 cup grated fresh Parmesan and stir until cheese is melted.

Spoon sauce on crust, top with toppings and bake as directed above.

Beam me up some pizza Mom!

Update:  Mom made bar cookies.  Cream Cheese with Candy Bar Chunks!

I'm sorry but my phaser is set to "FULL".