What's laying around the house?

Sorry this post has been delayed due to my lazy photographer...haha. I'm just going to post pictures that have not been edited. Please don’t hold that against me. Anyways, it’s still so hot here that I haven’t really been wanting to spend time in the kitchen slaving over a hot stove/oven. Luckily, on Sunday we finally broke down and got one of the last AC units in San Diego county apparently. Now, as long as I make something quick I can run back into the coolness of my room without feeling like I’m going to pass out.

Monday night we decided pizza sounded good and the great thing about it is normally you have almost all of the ingredients on hand to throw one together. This dinner really showed how you can put together some store-bought ingredients to make something really wonderful, even if it is only “semi-homemade”. So here are 3 tips for a quick and easy pizza night featuring Shrimp, Goat Cheese and Pesto Pizza.


1. I always keep some raw frozen shrimp in my freezer. They take about 5-10 minutes to thaw out under running COLD water and then only another 5 minutes to cook, depending on the cooking technique. Before throwing these on the pizza I went ahead and sautéed the shrimp up in a little garlic, olive oil, and a dash of crushed red pepper flakes.

2. Pizza dough is easy to make! I go through kicks were I will make a bunch of pizza dough and just keep it in the freezer so that when I need it all I have to do is pop it in the fridge to thaw out in the morning. You can use it for pizzas or for flat bread (my favorite is sprinkling sea salt, fresh cracked pepper and fresh thyme). I usually use this recipe from Tyler Florence on Food Network http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/pizza-dough-recipe/index.html. This time, however, I did use store-bought Boboli mini shells, no big deal. You can get them and freeze them or whatever you need. Trader Joe’s also has some really good dough that is already made and just needs to be rolled out.

3. Pesto is also easy to make….only if you have a food processor! Again, I used store bought because I only have a big huge food processor (which I love) but I didn’t feel like using it and then cleaning it. Pesto is another thing that can be made as a large batch and then frozen. While I have not tried it, I know people who make it, then pour it into ice cube trays to freeze and then keep them in a Ziploc in the freezer so you can have it already portioned. Pesto is great to use with a lot of things from pasta to pizza to tossing it in your mashed potatoes or slathering on a steak. I used basil pesto but feel free to use cilantro or anything else.

This pizza is SOO good; I highly recommend you make it. The goat cheese is creamy and tangy and really is just a fantastic partner with the shrimp and pesto. Oh and I almost forgot, I also sliced some Roma tomatoes on top, which look pretty, and get all roasty!

PS- I also used a pizza stone. It definitely gives the crust a nice crispness in addition to providing even cooking. Preheat the stone with the oven otherwise it can break.