Quick, simple, easy cheater pizza. When I want  pizza and don’t want to mess with making dough, this is what I make. You can’t go wrong with some bread, a little cheese and whatever the heck else you want with it! The possibilities are endless. I did not put pizza sauce on this time, but you certainly could. Experiment! Have a pizza party……everyone grabs a chunk of bread and then get crazy with it! Have fun. I kept this one simple….kinda like a margarita pizza (mozzarella, fresh tomato, basil). I don’t like basil at all…ick…..so I didn’t use it. But whatever you throw on your pizza, have fun and enjoy!

French Bread Pizza

loaf of French bread
mozzarella cheese (or use a combination of your favorite cheeses)
fresh tomato, sliced thin
garlic butter or olive oil

Heat oven to 400. Place your bread on a baking sheet lined with foil. Spread some garlic butter or sprinkle on some olive oil onto the bread. Or you can use pizza sauce. Start putting on the cheese. Add tomato slices (or whatever else you want). Drizzle with a wee bit of olive oil and place the pan in the oven. Bake just until the cheese gets melty and ooey gooey. At this point, I sprinkle on some crushed red pepper flakes. YUM. Take that first bite…get that crunch and chew and all that melty goodness. Mmmm-m-m-m–mmm

Get creative……make some pizza bread.

Asparagus is a favorite vegetable of mine. So are Portobello mushrooms. Put them together in a stir fry and you have a great meal or side dish. I love serving this  with some wild rice. This time I mixed the rice right in with the veggies. Yum……..a very simple and satisfying meal.

Asparagus Mushroom Stir Fry

1 bunch of fresh asparagus
1 large Portobello mushroom
1 clove fresh garlic, minced
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar (or red wine vinegar)

1 box of prepared wild rice (I used Uncle Ben’s) optional

Cut asparagus and mushrooms up into bite size pieces. In a large skillet, add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Add asparagus and mushrooms. Stir around and fry to desired doneness. Add garlic and toss. Sprinkle in the vinegar, salt and pepper. Serve immediately as is, or stir in the PREPARED rice and serve.

I love fish and I love good sauces. Sometimes fish needs a good sauce……not a heavy cream sauce, but a sauce to add just a little pizazz, or zip. I love this sauce on baked chicken  too. It’s even good on some fresh, steamed broccoli or spinach. Super quick to put together, it is delicious. This time, I put it on some pan grilled salmon. Ohhhhhhhh, so good. If you serve it with rice, you get all that sauce running into your rice and it’s just so yummy. You don’t have to use salmon. Try it with any fish really….or chicken. You wont be disappointed.

  Butter, chili paste, orange juice and honey

Salmon with Orange Honey Chili Butter Sauce
for 1 serving

6 – 8oz of fresh Salmon (or another fish that you prefer)

In a lightly oiled skillet, add the salmon, skin side down. Remove the skin if you prefer. Cook to desired doneness. I like mine rare and cook it for about 3  minutes a side. While it’s cooking, prepare the sauce.

Sauce

1 Tblsp of butter
1 Tblsp of honey
1 tsp Asian chili paste (found in the Asian section of grocery store)
1 Tblsp orange juice

Mix all ingredients together. Pour it into your skillet with the fish  just as you are ready to remove your fish. After removing the fish and placing it onto your plate, pour the sauce all over the fish. You will love this!!

Ok, so the other night I was at my local go to  restaurant. I love the mud pie there. It is the best. But on this night, the Manager told us about a new mud pie……strawberry mud pie. What???!!! She brought one to our table…and what could we do? We didn’t want to be rude, so we had to eat it, right? Wouldn’t you? Oh, and besides….it had fresh strawberries…..that’s FRUIT! Fruit is good for us! OMG…..this mud pie was eye rolling, moaning, delicious. Yup. Well, of course I couldn’t wait to make one myself. So, let me tell you about it. You start with a chocolate cookie crust and then layers of good strawberry ice cream, fresh strawberries, ganache (thick, sticky, gooey chocolate), whip cream, more strawberries and drizzles of strawberry puree. I know right now you are saying “ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, yummmmmmmm”. You just have to make this. You really do!!! I’m having a couple of the girls over this week for dinner and we just may have to skip dinner and go straight to dessert. I’m already thinking of future mud pies, like vanilla ice cream and fresh raspberries…..or mint chip…..and how about salted caramel!!!

I used dove chocolate candy for my chocolate sauce.

Please don’t be intimidated. It seems like a lot of steps, but super simple and you can make it your own way.

Strawberry Mud Pie

1 chocolate cookie crust ( see recipe below)
1.5 quarts of good strawberry ice cream, softened
1  1/2 cups of chocolate ganache (chocolate topping)
3 cups of diced fresh strawberries ( 1 cup for the pie, 1 cup for topping, 1 cup for the puree)
whip cream

Note: you could use a store bought chocolate cookie crust and a store bought jar of thick chocolate topping. But I made my own.

Cookie crust
1 package of oreo cookies. Remove the filling. Crush the cookies into crumbs
3 tablespoons melted butter

Chocolate topping

1 cup of chopped dark chocolate chips
1/4 cup heavy cream, more if sauce is too thick

Mix the cookie crumbs and the melted butter together. Press the crumbs into the bottom of a spring form pan or a deep pie dish. Freeze for about 20 minutes. In the mean time, dump the softened ice cream in a bowl. add 1 cup of the diced strawberries and mix all together. Dump half of the mixture into your chilled crust and gently spread it evenly around. Pour half of the melted, cooled chocolate all over the top of the ice cream. The chocolate will set up quickly. Add the other half of the ice cream and spread evenly, drizzling with the remaining chocolate. Place in freezer for at least 2 hours. Just before serving, top with whip cream and strawberries. Slice, and drizzle with puree. Happy.

Sorry I haven’t been posting this past week. I have been busy baking and painting Valentine’s Hearts cookies. I painted over 300 of them. Hearts everywhere!! Lots and lots of hearts. Something about hearts that just make you feel so good. They make you smile. Just wanted to share the pics with you all and I hope they make you smile too.

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentines day. May your hearts be full.