Tasty Tuesday - Strawberry Goat Cheese Pizza

There are some things that I see on menus or at events where I go ummm, I think I'm just gonna skip this one or pass over. This recipe was one of them initially, but ... since I was at a strawberry event, I did feel the need to at the very least try a piece of the goat cheese pizza they served, especially since I sort of have a major love affair with goat cheese.

I'm really really glad that I did. It was so good. So so good. It's possible that I ate slightly more than my share of the pizza. I was most definitely going to repeat this one at home. The question was when... Fortunately I had a potluck to attend the next week after the strawberry event and was supposed to bring an appetizer.

Guess what I made!

I altered the recipe to some degree - of course - because I can't not do that. The original recipe made a lot of appetizers. I don't generally need that much. The way I cook and host, I tend to have a lot of variety of foods and don't need quite so much as it was going to make. I also made extra of the balsamic reduction because I do so love balsamic. That and ... even Mister Man liked the reduction, shocking!

The version posted below is my adaptation. The original recipe can be found in Strawberry Recipes for Everyday published by California Strawberries. And I actually have a copy of this cookbook to give away as soon as I put up the post on that. Annnnd post is up. Go enter the cookbook giveaway.

When I put this out at the potluck, it got a few "ummm what is this?" looks at the start. Once someone dug in and took a bite though? Let's just say it disappeared. I had more requests for this recipe than I have in a long time. My husband overheard a compliment from someone else that was over the top awesome. This is definitely one I'll make again, and not only because it's so unique.

Strawberry Goat Cheese Pizza

Ingredients:
1/3 c hot water (not steaming, but 110 or so degrees)
1 T yeast
1/2 t sugar
1 c flour
1/2 t salt
1 T olive oil (divided)
1 T white balsamic vinegar
1/4 c "regular" balsamic vinegar
4 oz goat cheese, divided (set out 2 or slightly more to soften, keep the rest cold)
1 c strawberries, hulled and quartered
1/2 c arugula
pepper

Directions:
In your bowl, add the water and sprinkle the yeast atop it. Add the sugar and 2 t of oil over it. Stir briefly, then add half the flour and stir until combined. Add the salt and mix again until it's incorporated. Add the remaining half cup of flour slowly, stopping when you have reached a good consistency (depending on humidity, you may need more or less flour - you want it not sticky but not dry). Keep mixing on low with your dough hook for five minutes until it feels soft (or knead by hand for 10 or so minutes). Let it rest, covered, for 20 to 30 minutes while you prep the remaining ingredients.

Set out 2 ounces or a little more of the goat cheese on the counter to begin softening. In a nonreactive saucepan, place the white balsamic and heat simmering until it's reduced by half. Whisk in the remaining 1 t of olive oil into the balsamic. Pour this over the hulled and quartered strawberries. Stir to ensure they're all coated, then let them sit. Reduce the balsamic the same way, simmering until it's reduced into a nice thick syrup, a little over halfway reduced (not so much that it's solid and umm burned like I may have the first time I did it because I wasn't paying attention).

Remove your dough from the bowl and roll it into the shape you desire - I like a long rectangle for this appetizer - on a lightly floured surface. The dough shouldn't be too thin, but you want the rectangle to stretch about 8x14 inches or so - rough measurements on my part. Bake in a 400 degree oven for ten or so minutes. You want the crust to just start browning.

Once removed from the oven, immediately spread the softened goat cheese on the crust to within a half inch of the edge. Do this while it's still hot, and the goat cheese will spread much more easily.

Arrange the strawberries on the goat cheese crust, not perfectly, but no clumps either. I found putting them cut side down helped in cutting the pizza later - and it looked nice, too. Bake this again for another seven or so minutes.

While the pizza is baking a second time, get your arugula ready (yes, this is really sad looking arugula. It was all I had on hand, and I was desperate. Good news, you want it to wilt a little on the hot pizza, so it was fine). I like this chiffonaded, as it makes the arugula easier to eat. To do this, simply gather your arugula together in a pile...

Then you roll it into itself so that it makes a nice log. Once you have it like this, use one hand to hold it and the other to slice it like you would a roast. This makes great ribbons and can be used for any leafy thing you want to cut quickly and prettily.

Once the pizza comes out of the oven, sprinkle it with the remaining goat cheese that you've kept cold. Just crumble it with your fingers over the pizza. If you need more, go for it! Goat cheese is yummy. Add a little black pepper atop this, then distribute the arugula.

This works to serve immediately, although it can also be held a couple hours and served room temperature or cold from the fridge. Trust me on this one. It disappeared quickly.

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.

Enter to win a strawberries cook book

Easter Party Recap

For all of you who have been waiting to hear how the Easter egg hunt went – with bated breath, I assume – I finally have the update. My apologies for the delay. We went to spend Easter with the in-laws (lots ‘o stories to come yet on this trip, trust me), and I didn’t have access to a computer from Thursday until tonight.

So without further ado:

Yep, I really had 36 kids in my house. At one time. With their moms. Voluntarily. With the idea that they were going to hunt eggs. And silly me, I decided to add more to the festivities because hunting eggs would be done so quickly.

Apparently, my logical mind failed me when I set this up. Every year, my babysitting co-op does an Easter egg hunt. Last year was the first year I was in the co-op, so it’s my only comparison. It was supposed to be at one of the social chair’s houses, but it snowed last Easter. She didn’t want to do it inside (wimp!) so called the park district in a panic and they let us use their gym.

When I went, there were 20 kids or so, and it didn’t seem that bad. They all brought their own baskets, they hunted for eggs their parents had dropped off with no squabbles over some kids getting too many eggs and others not getting any. We then had the Easter Bunny come, and kids got their pictures taken and got a basket of cr@p from him, and they went home after around an hour.

The only issue was that this cost $12 per kid, and this year it was going to be at least $13 or $14. I only have two kids, and I objected to that. Since I’m one of the social chairs this year, I get a little sway. We decided to skip the bunny and just do it at my house. And since we weren’t getting the basket from the bunny, I decided to have the kids decorate cookies (hey, if I did it for Mister Man’s third birthday party, I can certainly do it for older kids!) and we’d order pizza since the hunt wasn’t going to start until 4:30.

Brilliant! Lots of fun! And I could put it on for only $3 (anyone else love the $5.99 huge pizzas from Dominick’s?).

What I didn’t count on was everyone else thinking it was brilliant. And cheap. Needless to say, 36 kids signed up. Literally, three families didn’t participate, all because of other conflicts. Whoops.

And of course, someone found the bunny costume for $75 that the co-op decided to buy for use every year (cheaper than the $95 one company wanted for a rental of a near-identical costume). Dear hubby agreed to wear it and be the bunny for us, so everything was going to be perfect! No, I didn’t say that with a straight face.

Since I was still feeling a little off from the flu earlier in the week and hadn’t yet baked the cookies, I decided to take Wednesday off work. Good idea, me! That meant I was able to get the house straightened up, make all the cookies, restraighten the house, and call the moms who had yet to drop off their eggs to remind them that I needed the eggs the previous Saturday – although I was far nicer in my reminders.

Somehow, I still ended up hiding the eggs as people were arriving, but since no one can be on time, it worked out fine. Some of the moms helped me, while I did two areas – one upstairs for the truly little kids and downstairs for the kids 4 and up. Gotta love the moms who help.

When I realized I needed a stronger voice than mine to get the instructions across to such a large mass of people, two moms volunteered. One gave instructions, and the other was the gatekeeper to the basement so I didn’t have any lawsuits from kids falling down the stairs and being stampeded by the mass behind them. As expected the egg hunt lasted all of 2.4 seconds. I’m amazed by how quickly kids can pick up eggs hidden everywhere but yet pick up toys at the speed of molasses that are in plain sight on the floor. Kid magic, I suppose.

The bunny arrived right on time, and the wee ones flew to the bunny to give him hugs. Seeing the bunny in person, I realized the costume was a bit creepy looking, but my kids loved him at least. Most of the others did, too, and there was quite the conga line to sit on the bunny’s lap. A few kids had the good sense to not want to go near the creepy bunny, and they stayed away. Mister Man, on the other hand, kept getting candy from his now filled bucket and trying to share it with the Easter Bunny who had no pockets. Too cute, but he was so disappointed when he found the Easter Bunny had dropped some on the his way out.

After the bunny came the cookie decorating. I somehow managed to make enough eggs and bunnies for each kid to decorate 3, plus extras for breakage and other issues. I’m still not sure how that happened, since I started off with the goal of one. Fortunately, everyone enjoyed making them and several enjoyed eating them, too. Mister Man didn’t want to make his around everyone else for whatever reason though, and his was decorated after everyone left and he realized he’d missed out on something.

Then the wait for the pizzas started. I had ordered them to be ready at 5 and sent my dad to pick them up – Dominick’s is 3 minutes away – at 4:55. Cookies were all decorated, and the kids had started to tear into the toys and do the usual destruction of the house that occurs when children walk through the door. No pizza. I started to hear questions from the moms. No pizza. Finally, I called my dad to see what was up. Apparently Dominck’s had messed up and had to remake pizzas so he was waiting but would be home shortly.


Five minutes later, he arrived home with nine pizzas. I found out that the problem had been that Dominick’s had burned one pizza, which they gave us anyway. Trust me, I would never have guessed which one it was had I not known one was supposed to be burnt. If it had been me, I would have just left with the other pizzas and gone back later if we still needed the last one, but my dad is too good a guy.

You’d think that 9 pizzas, 36 kids and 14 adults would be a pretty good ratio. Suprisingly, it wasn’t. We had almost 4 pizzas leftover. I tried sending them home with anyone I could, and we gave one to a next door neighbor, but we still had over a whole pizza left at the end. Better too many than too few though!

And the best part – by 7:30, the house was back to normal. Even my husband said it wasn’t too bad to clean up. Little does he know I’ve already been volunteered to host this again next year…. Now, if I can just track down the last two parents who haven’t yet paid for the party….

Happy Easter!