Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Pumpkin Cheesecake


This recipe is all the genius of Pioneer Woman. with Halloween and Thanksgiving coming up I have had pumpkins on my mind. This treat is absolutely delectable and would be perfect for parties or even Thanksgiving dessert. You have to try it!

I am not even going to try to r-write it, just click here.

Bacon, Chicken, Ranch Pizza

I love to try new things with pizza. For about the last year I have been bored with tomato sauce and have been experimenting with new things. This one was very good!


Bacon, Chicken, Ranch Pizza
1 recipe Carla’s pizza dough
1 recipe Buttermilk Ranch dressing (you could use store bought but it is not as good)
1 chicken breast
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
2 tablespoons butter
3 strips of bacon cooked
1 red bell pepper sliced into strips or chopped up into small pieces (whichever you prefer)
1 cup shredded mozzarella
Salt, pepper and paprika to taste
Place pizza stone in oven and pre-heat to 475. If you don’t have a pizza stone go get one, then read previous. (Pizza stones really make the best crispy pizza crust.) Have your dough rising while you assemble the ingredients. Assemble the ranch dressing. Or if you are a very organized person who knew what they were going to eat a day before making it, take your premade dressing out of the fridge. I clearly have been on a last minute dinner spree and so had to make the dressing today. Mix together panko bread crumbs, salt pepper and any other spice you desire. Today I decided that paprika sounded good. It also gives the coating a nice orange red color. Festive, ya know?
Taking some of it aside (about 1/4 cup) slather it onto your chicken breast until fully coated. Then dip chicken into bread crumbs making sure to coat all sides.
Put 1 tbsp of butter into a frying pan, place chicken over it and fry on medium to medium low heat till it is good and brown, it should also cook about halfway through the chicken. You don’t want the heat to be too high because then your chicken will burn on the outside before it is cooked in the middle. Flip the chicken placing another tablespoon of butter in the pan and cook until it is done. Slice into thin strips.
The purpose of this is to make the chicken moist on the inside and crunchy on the outside. Flipping it to many times will take off the crunchy shell so try to only flip it once.
Cook bacon, if you don’t know how to do that check the package.
Carla’s recipe makes two pizzas so you can either double this recipe or use the extra dough for something else. I made garlic-cheese spirals with the extra dough; the original recipe was from Our Best Bites. Roll out one pizza crust. I always roll mine onto parchment paper so that I can easily transfer it to the pizza stone. Spread about1/4 - 1/3 cup ranch on it. You can really use as much as you want, that is just what I did. (I think, I don’t actually measure these kinds of things.)
Cover ranch with mozzarella then crumbled bacon, red pepper and sliced chicken. Slide pizza onto hot stone. Bake for 10 min or until the cheese looks bubbly and the crust is browned.

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

There are many different versions of this recipe. Here is mine,just tweak it to suit your taste.

1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp pepper

Mix all ingredients in food processor or blender. Store in the refrigerator till ready to use.