Socca Pizza with Arugula Pea Pesto, Yellow Tomatoes, & Ricotta

I did not invent the concept of the socca flatbread pizza, though I wish I had, because then I could brag about what a genius I am. Alas, the inspiration for my pizza came not in a dream, but in the form of this gorgeous spring pesto flatbread at the Kitchn. In place of the original version's salad and mint pesto topping, I topped my flatbread with an  arugula and pea pesto, yellow heirloom tomatoes, ricotta cheese, pea shoots, and Parmesan.

Olive Cherry Focaccia Pizza ("Fopizza") for the Better Homes & Gardens Recipe Insiders Group

When the latest batch of Better Homes and Gardens Recipe Insiders recipes appeared in my inbox for review, I was immediately attracted to the flavors in this one. Salty, sweet, tart, spicy ... yep, that about covers it. Its original incarnation is as a bruschetta, and while I think that would be fab, you know I just had to Trixify this a little bit.  Rather than go with my favorite focaccia recipe, I made a Sicilian pizza dough I've worked with before  that I think yields something in between pizza and focaccia ... a topping delivery method I have dubbed the fopizza.

Pass the Pissaladière ... It's French Friday with Dorie

Are you sitting down? No, really. If you aren't, please do. Or at least hold on to something. Okay, here goes ...

... For this week's French Fridays with Dorie dish, I played it pretty straight and stuck (more or less) to the recipe. And I liked it.

I know! First time for everything, right?

Zapiekanka: A Polish Street Food Goes Gourmet, with Swiss Chard Pesto, Sauteed Crimini Mushrooms, Oven Roasted Corn, and Garlic Aioli on a Fresh Homemade Baguette for the 5 Star Pizza Makeover

Imagine my surprise when the theme for this month's 5 Star Makeover - hosted as always by the prolific Natasha of 5 Star Foodie and Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks! - was announced. Pizza. But wait a minute. I just made a pizza for last month's 5 Star farmers market challenge: the glorious Tycoon, a manly pie dripping with steak and blue cheese and potatoes and quail eggs.

No matter - if there's one thing I love it's stuff on bread, and the possibilities are endless. And it seems I tend to get inspired by the various permutations of pizza  I encounter on my travels.  Last year I recreated (and created) a few versions of langos, Hungarian deep fried pizza, after visiting Budapest. So it seemed only fitting that for this pizza challenge I would create a gourmet version of zapiekanka, a  pizza-esqe Polish street food I enjoyed in Krakow. Remember?

The Tycoon: Steak, Fingerling Potato, Blue Cheese, Roasted Garlic & Quail Egg Flatbread Pizza for the 5 Star Farmers Market Makeover

 

A pizza so fancy ... so retro ... so rich ... so downright manly it must be named The Tycoon ... or so says Poppa Trix

For the  June/July 5 Star Makeover Challenge - hosted as always by the multi-talented Natasha of 5 Star Foodie and Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks! - we were tasked with creating a gourmet dish using only farmers market ingredients (except for pantry staples). Given the quality of ingredients and breadth of choice at the farmers markets I frequent, the possibilities here were practically endless.

I know that I haven't invented something new by making a pizza, and some may question a pizza's right to wear the "gourmet" mantle, but I couldn't get the idea of these flavors out of my head.  I wanted a souped-up version of a steak, egg, and cheese pizza - and momma gets what momma wants. And besides, I am calling it a flatbread pizza, which imparts a more ...  highbrow quality. Also, it's called the Tycoon, per Poppa Trix, who said that this was the best thing he has eaten in a very long time. 

Pizza or Focaccia? Crispy Purple Kale, Feta, Red Onion, Black Olive & Garlic on Some Seriously Good Crust (Whatever it Is)

 I seem to be having a hard time naming things lately. Take this dish. Is it a pizza? Is it focaccia? Plain old bread? And if it is pizza, is it Sicilian? Chicago-style? Deep dish? Sigh. I'm not sure.  Maybe I'll call it a fopizza.

International Pizza Pie Incident: Lángos, aka Hungarian Pizza, Three Ways

 Because a little tiny bit of fried pizza never hurt anyone ...

Welcome to the second International Incident Party, in which food bloggers from around the world put their own spin on a different dish each month. For April, we celebrate the birthday of the Incident Crew's founding member, Penny aka Jeroxie, with variations on the theme of pizza pie. (For full details and info on how to participate, check out her post about it here.)  

I must admit that when pizza was announced as the theme, I initially felt a bit stymied. You see, though in general I don't tend to be overly didactic or rules-y about cuisine, pizza, to me, is a simple and beautiful thing. It's a plain New York-style pie, with no toppings other than a modest amount of mozzarella cheese, maybe a bit of fresh basil,  and that beautiful, tangy tomato sauce. That's how I always used to order it in Brooklyn, and that's how I make it at home.

I wanted to  break out of my own pizza preconceptions and go a completely different route for this party, but what to do? Well, my quandary was instantly obliterated during my trip to Budapest, where I tasted the delectable lángos, otherwise known as ... Hungarian pizza! Bingo.

A Guest Post by Poppa Trix: New York I Love You, But You're Making Me Fat

In which Poppa Trix goes to New York and eats and eats and eats while I have to stay home and work and work and work. 

 

When I told Trix that I had to go to New York for a few days of family business she went through a brief period of jealousy before settling on the kind of statement that gets made all the time around here: "You know you're going to have to write a blog post about this, right?" She had a point. I already had a list of old favorite food joints I wanted to check in on and her challenge gave me the perfect opportunity to try some new places as well, meticulously documenting every dish in photos and notes along the way. If she wasn't going to get to join in on any of the actual eating at least she was gonna get a nice trip report out of it. And in an effort to keep things cheap I decided to hold all meals to $10 or less (not including alcohol, of course!)

Of Bread & Dough & Lots of Snow; Or, When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Baking

 "Without bread, all is misery."

William Cobbett, British journalist, 1763-1835

 

 

After two major blizzards dumped punishing amounts of snow on us and brought commerce, fun, and life as we know it to a screeching halt, everyone in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. has developed their own version of the Snow Story by now, myself included.  You know the kind of stories I'm talking about - people getting stuck in the snow for hours, or not being able to find milk, or losing power, or having their roofs collapse from the weight of all that nasty heavy wet stuff.

And let's face it: You're sick of hearing about it, right? Well, we're sick of it too.  But given that most of our streets still aren't plowed and most things are still closed and driving around is at worst hazardous and at best incredibly annoying, it's hard to stop talking about the snow and its aftermath. There's nothing else to do. Look, people, this isn't New England or Wisconsin or Canada! We aren't used to this sort of thing. So please, bear with us.