pepperoni pizza - easy as pie (pizza pie, that is)

"Do you want to order pizza tonight for dinner?"
"No, grandma. Just this past year I learned how to cook, so I mean, I should like cook things for you. You know?"
"Oh sure honey. Can we cook pizza then?"
... So to appease all sides, we instead opted to create a pizza at home. I'm not quite ready to make a pizza dough from scratch (I've only made one yeast bread before- honey whole wheat bread- and although it was successful, I'm not emotionally ready for the second time around).


Enter: Pillsbury pizza dough in a can.


Okay, so for once I cut a few corners- kill me. Canned tomato sauce, shredded mozzarella, and sliced pepperoni helped out too.


Who knew pizza was this easy to make? No joke- it tasted like a regular pizza you could have got from anywhere.


I mean, nothing to write home about. But at the same time, it took literally 5 minutes, allowed me to put whatever toppings I wanted, and made my grandma happy. Score.


Stringy mozzarella cheese is my shit.

mini cheese & bacon quiches - "big purses, big hair, big men"

I live by this rule: The bigger, the better. Big purses, big hair, big men, ...and I should probably stop this here. I follow this philosophy probably because subconsciously it makes me feel smaller. Now, I know I'm no huge obese whale, but I'm definitely not a teensy tiny twig. To contradict everything I have just said (haha), I actually love mini-sized food. Okay, I can actually put the two concepts together- Miniature foods allow me to portion control my food intake, thus keeping me a smaller size. (Complete blatant lie- I end up eating more in the long run.)



There's just something about tiny cutesy edible things that are so fucking adorable. I'm obsessed with the concept of appetizers, and I think every meal of every day for the rest of my life should consist of tiny handheld balls of cuteness (that's what she said). Completely unrealistic, especially seeing how long these things can take to create. I actually cut my time drastically by rolling my dough into balls and flattening them out, opposed to rolling the entire thing flat and cutting individual sized circles.



I had this grand image of me creating tons of mini appetizers and making assorted plates of deliciousness for all of my grandma's friends. Didn't happen. After doing the crust of these quiches (a minimum hour), it was time to create a filling. I whipped together what we had in the fridge- assortments of cheeses and meats. I then attempted to pour them into the muffin tins with the differences noted in my head. Unfortunately I forgot where I put what. Fortunately, although not purposely, they all tasted the same anyways.



I used a pate sucree (how you like them French apples?), which is a pastry crust made for tarts and similar shit. It's on the sweeter side, but I figured I'd go with it anyways because this dough is just a thousand times easier to whip up than regular pie crust.


So what exactly does a sweet crust taste like with a savory filling? Unusually satisfying, that's for sure. I guess I never took into consideration how that contrast would play out in the final step. Well lucky for me- I have a very huge sweet tooth!

For those not so keen for the sweetness, I have actually attempted savory quiches- My mexican quiche tart came out extraordinary, as did my previous mini cheese and bacon quiches.

homemade pizza - technically not from scratch

Every Sunday I wake my lazy ass up to go watch my boyfriend play flag football. He's in this league thing where they challenge other teams and play football with flags apparently (can you tell I know nothing about sports?). After the game, I went back to my house while he cleaned up and calmed down his testosterone. I wanted to bake a batch of cookie dough, but surprisingly I had no brown sugar left! This unusual travesty caused me to go to my favorite supermarket, where I stumbled upon a bag of pizza dough on sale. Sure, why not?


I took my sack of dough to my boyfriend's house, along with a can of tomato puree and a cube of mozzarella. I thought we'd figure out the rest of the details once I got there.


After spreading out the dough on a baking sheet, my boyfriend spooned on some of the tomato puree. Being the anti-tomato-person he was, he only put a few measly spoonfulls on the dough. On the other hand, me being the cheese-fiend, I forced him to use the entire brick of mozzarella. To make the tomato sauce not so bland, we sprinkled some oregano and seasonings on top.


As for the toppings, we basically had to stick to whatever we had on hand. He wanted a meaty topping (I should have known), so he chopped a ton of meatballs in half and threw them on. Me, on the other hand, (other than being cheesy) I wanted the pizza to be veggie-full. I brought a can of olives (which we only used about 5 olives because my boyfriend hates them) and there was a leftover half of red bell pepper in the fridge.


Mmm, once the kitchen filled with the smell of hot pizza, we knew it was ready to take out. Although it doesn't look fancy or pretty, the rustic look was homey and organic.


I cut a big slice for myself and (after taking a ton of pics) I took a bite. Tasted like regular pizza surprisingly- but a very meaty pizza. My boyfriend had to cut the huge chunks of meatballs every square inch of the pizza.


Although this pizza has nothing on the New York pizzerias, it surpassed my expectations. I guess these little storebought packs of pizza dough really do work. Next time, because yes there will be a next time, I plan to cut back on the meat and add more cheese!

chicken parmesan - with a marinara-esque sauce

Just like the previous weekend, my boyfriend and I prepared dinner for ourselves. (We're finally starting to learn how to work together in the kitchen!) The whole healthy-foods idea went out the window, and we opted for a more hearty and fulfilling meal- Chicken Parmesan. And also, like usual, he chose to not abide by a recipe, but rather make it up as we went along. This whole concept of "making it up on a whim" is very unfamiliar to me; and although it's somewhat hard to restrain my need for order and perfection, I enjoy watching my boyfriend in his chaotic impulses.


There was no question as to if we would buy jarred pasta sauce or make our own. We both generally agree that making things from scratch is the way to go (more so in my case, though). What I thought was strange was that my boyfriend insisted on putting mushrooms (which he claims to dislike) in our pasta sauce.


We sweated the vegetables and added the can of crushed tomatoes. Meanwhile, I was still having anxiety attacks because he was not following a recipe, nor has he ever made marinara sauce. After he deemed it the appropriate amount of time, he put the chunky red concoction in the blender, mixed it to a puree, and then poured it back into the pot.


As we let the sauce meld together (hopefully, I thought), I tended to the poor kitchen that got the wrath of his madness. Put a stove and some cooking ingredients in front of him, and my boyfriend turns into the Tasmanian Devil.


Too oblivious to notice I was busy cleaning, my boyfriend moved along and prepared the chicken breast.


After everything was done, we placed the breaded and cooked chicken in a baking dish, smothered it with our homemade sauce, and enveloped the living hell out of it with cheese.


I could tell that my boyfriend really loves me- He made a thoughtful effort to make this dish as cheesy as humanly possible. He understands my need for cheese, even when he himself wouldn't normally care for something that cheesy.


The dripping sauce and the oozing cheese atop the chicken breasts were all neatly placed on our toasted rolls.


All in all I think our meal was a success. I had no complaints whatsoever; the chicken was cooked perfectly through, the cheese was crispy yet gooey, and the sauce was creamy and luscious.


I did however have a comment- which was that the sauce wasn't exactly a marinara sauce. Sure, it looked like it, and with all the other elements it tasted almost like it, but it just wasn't exactly marinara-y. It tasted great regardless, but next time perhaps we should just glance at a marinara recipe to see what ingredients we forgot or what we should take out. Nevertheless, my boyfriend's ingenuity never ceases to amaze me; example being that he just made his own mock-marinara sauce.