Pioneer Woman's Thai Chicken Pizza

 I went perusing through the Pioneer Woman's cook book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks and noticed a whole pizza section.  I was wanting to try something different other than our too often Supreme.  I came across this option and decided to give it a try.  I've never made Peanut sauce, but I'm a sucker for anything that calls for Peanut butter AND cilantro!  Here is the recipe but I did make some tweaks, those are in RED.

Thai Chicken Pizza

2 garlic cloves, peeled

2 Tablespoons minced fresh ginger (I made it with dry ground ginger)

¼ cup soy sauce

3 teaspoons sesame oil

½ teaspoon fish sauce

1 ½ cups smooth peanut butter

1/2 cup very warm water

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (Call me weird, but I actually prefer canned chicken when it comes to pizza toppings)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 recipe Pizza Dough

Olive oil, for drizzling

4 Tablespoons Thai sweet chili sauce (sold in the Asian foods aisle)

12 oz. fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced

1 cup alfalfa or bean sprouts

2 cups shredded carrots

2 cups cilantro leaves

¼ cup chopped peanuts

First, make the peanut sauce.  To the bowl of a food processor or blender, add the garlic and ginger.  Then add the Soy sauce, sesame oil, fish sauce, and the peanut butter.  And the water but blend as you are pouring in.  Check the consistency, give it a taste, and add a little more of whatever it needs! (This is something that threw me off a little because I don't think I have ever had Peanut sauce so I didn't know what it was supposed to taste like, but from what I tasted it needed more ginger and fish sauce.) Add more warm water if it needs thinning.(This was another thing that I needed to change, the recipe called for 1/2 cup of warm water, to get it to a really runny saucey consistency I ended up adding more like 1 cup of warm water if not more)  

Add chili paste to your prepared pizza crust.  (I'm sure I used WAY more than the 4 tbsp of the Thai sweet chili sauce, once I got a whiff of that stuff I knew it was going to be good, and if a little is good then a lot must be even better right?!  And heck ya, it was!)
Next, sprinkle the chicken breasts with salt and pepper, and grill them on both sides until done. Remove from the grill and slice thin.  (You can sauté in a skillet if you prefer.) (Or skip this all together and use the canned chicken)Lay on the mozzarella slices, then the chicken slices. ( I just used shredded mozzarella)
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbly. Throw on as many sprouts as you’d like.
Next, add the shredded carrots and cilantro leaves.
Drizzle with peanut sauce all over the top of the pizza.
End with a sprinkling of chopped peanuts.

Seriously so good!  

Jersey-isms Part 4

You see this?  I thought I had gotten myself pretty acclimated around here, but it's stuff like this that really throws me off!  Two Tilton Rd.'s right by each other!  This is actually a mistake that I took when we first got here. Luckily I was meeting a friend to go running and she was very forgiving when I showed up late because I turned down the WRONG Tilton. 

But today it actually got the better of me.  I had a doctor's appointment on a road called Black Horse Pike.  I had never been to this doctors office before so I looked up the address and typed it in my Google maps app, building number and all!  Remember that, it's important.  So I'm coming up on the place it tells me my destination is, but as I pull into the parking lot I see a sign for Spencer's, like the risque store in the mall.  Maybe it's their outlet store, this place was big, but definitely NOT where my doctor's appointment was.  So I plug the address in maps again and notice two options pop up under the same building number, same street, just different towns!  It's on the same road!  How can they have the same building number???  I had to call the doctors and tell them I was across town, but I'll be there in 12 minutes, more like 15...nuance...

Seriously? What is that about?  I just thought it was a fluke thing when I came across two Tilton's but I'm finding other streets that have the same names.  This definitely took the cake though, having the same building number on the same street.  Is that even legal?  Oh well, I got it figured out and I have learned my lesson, check the town!!

Disney Cake

I've decided to start advertizing my cakes here in Jersey.  It's taken me awhile to commit to it considering my kitchen is the size of a shoe box.  And we're not talking Michael Jordan size, not even boots, more like a box of flats for my 4 year old small.  But I've been feeling like my creative juices are needing an outlet and I miss making cakes, so I took the plunge and posted on the Coast Guard Spouses Club that I do cakes and I got my first order that day!  I was really excited and of course nervous, I always get a little nervous that my clients will like the cake I make them.

She wanted a Disney inspired cake and sent me some pictures, it seemed pretty simple but it was a lot of red and black fondant.  That intimidated me at first, because red and black are the hardest to home make, but I didn't want to spend money on store bought fondant just for the colors.  For one, they don't taste as good as my marshmallow fondant and two, it's $20 for just one tub and I was only charging $30 for the whole thing!  So even though I wasn't sure how it would come out I decided to make the colors myself.  I'd have to say that I'm pretty proud at the way it turned out.

Hopefully I'll get some more business soon.  It was a little difficult navigating the space but it was so nice getting to do what I really like to do.

Easter 2013

 We have a really good Coast Guard group here in that they like to throw parties for the holidays.  They had an Easter Egg Hunt on the Saturday before the Saturday before Easter.  The kids loved seeing the Bunny, in fact Charlotte probably loved him the most, she kept going up to him and getting in other people's shots!  Another Coast Guard friend took this picture for us, isn't the helicopter a cool back drop?!

The Ward Primary Easter party almost didn't happen.  They usually have the YW put on a Spring Fling party that includes an egg hunt, but for some reason this year it's 2 weeks after Easter, so instead of canceling the Primary egg hunt I stepped up and volunteered to plan it.  It was a lot of work, but I have awesome help from the Primary President, 2nd Counselor, Secretary and other very eager volunteers.  If it wasn't for all these people there would have been no way I could have created something so much fun!

 This is the spot for the Easter Bunny to sit.  Not as cool as the helicopter, but I couldn't fit that into the gym.

 We had a cookie station for the kids so they could decorate Easter themed cookies.  I made all the icing, but I had lots of help with people donating cookies.

 This was another station where they did all kinds of crafts.  They made a funny bunny hat (scroll down to see Miriam modeling her creation), a hanging Easter accordion egg, a cute chicky plate and coloring pages.

 This is actually where we had the hunt.  At our church building there is no back yard area, it's just all parking area.  Then in the front is a busy road, so no outside area for a decent egg hunt.  So I just created one in the hallway of our church.  This is before the eggs were placed, but imagine a ton of eggs on chairs, on door handles, in the hallway...everywhere!!

 We also had a guess how many jelly beans are in the jar contest.  Can you believe that there was actually a girl who got the exact number right!!  The prize was the jelly bean jar!

 We did the hunt in waves.  First the Sunbeams and Nursery got to go, then we reset and let the Valiants go, then reset for the last time and let the CTR's go. 

 Charlotte wasn't really getting the concept yet, she kept grabbing the eggs and putting them in other peoples baskets!  She was content with the ones she could hold, but didn't concern herself with filling up her own basket.

 This is down the other side of the hall.  Hannah with her friend Lilia are combing the place to make sure they got them all.

 This is the funny bunny hat I went with.  I think it's hilarious!  And it's different than the plain bunny ears one, thanks Pinterest!

 That is one happy Bunny!!  I wonder who that could be?

 Oh right, it's Theo!  LOL!!  Of course since I'm in charge of it I assigned the costume wearing to my husband.  He loved it though, and did an awesome jig for the kids, seriously it was so funny I almost wet myself...

Our lovely family photo, except Charlotte had already had her fill of Mister Bunny so she wasn't cooperating.  But it was a super fun day and I was so happy I got to head it up.

 Of course I had to include a picture of the kids in their Easter Sunday best.  Aren't they just too adorable!

I had to include this one also, I have no idea what was so funny but they are so cute.  I really was a great Easter season, I hope everyone else had a good Easter as well!