Try it: Pizza Contest!

 

Tonight for dinner, we decided to do something fun.  Its been really busy in our house for a while, and we needed to laugh, and be competitive.  So D and I had a pizza contest for dinner.  We bought these little bread shells for pizzas and had them in the freezer.  The rules were that you could use anything we had in the house for toppings-- but it had to be an original pizza, one we have never made before.

Here's my entry: The Popeye!  It has Alfredo sauce instead of tomato sauce, mozzerella cheese, lots of baby spinach, grilled chicken and parmesan cheese on top!  For seasoning, I added some basil and black pepper, and that was all.  When I saw D's, I felt that my pizza was a little plain.  But I had faith that it would be delicious.  It had all my favorite things on it...

 
To tell you about his pizza entry, here's D:

D here.  I called my pie the Meatball Mozzarella Dream Team.  Okay, so maybe that's a little overboard.  Mix the above two ingredients with some onions and Parmesan over some kind of tomato sauce.  Overall a good pizza, just missing some kind of kick at the end.  Not sure what that could be yet, but all good things to those who wait.  Am I right?  Of course I'm right...I think.

We were our own judges.  The criteria was "tastiness" (?), combination of flavors, presentation, and who was the better looking chef. (So, that one was a tie.)

D won presentation.  I just threw stuff on top of my pizza and didn't really care about what it looked like.  The colors were pretty.  D had concentric circles of meatball, and in between those pieces were slivers of onions.  Dude takes care in his pizza making.

As for flavor... I won.  My pizza was kinda rich with the creamy Alfredo sauce, but it was good with the chicken and spinach and basil.  So yummy.  I thought it tasted like when you have a bowl of Chicken Alfredo pasta, and you sop the remaining sauce up with a piece of bread.  Don't you do that?  Of course you do.

So who won?

Since my pizza won 2 of the categories (excluding the best looking chef), that made my pizza the winner!  D agreed.  He thought his was missing something.  I think it would be good with a spicy sauce and some peppers.  That way it could be the "Spicy Meatball."

How do you have fun dinners?  Do you eat something special? 

DIY: Pumkin Spice Latte (Its ok that I spelled it wrong, I probably made it wrong.)

I'm back!  Since I took such a long break, I thought I would apologize with this peace offering on how to make your own addicting beverage.

I know so many people that are addicted to the Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks.  And that's cool.  I used to love them!  But lately, I've noticed that they have been making my sick; and my tummy can't handle too much of a beating anymore.

Also, for those who know me, I am incredibly cheap when it comes to spending money on things I'm pretty sure I can make myself.  For a fraction of the cost.  And its probably way healthier for me.  And tastes better.

ANYWAYS, I was searching for people that have tried to make the PSL for themselves, and they had some great ideas!  But they seemed really time consuming for a cup of coffee.   

That's the pleasure of SBux, you don't have to do anything but hand over that money!  So here is a "latte" that is easy, fast, and cheap.


Steph's Pumkin Spice Latte (Its ok that I spelled it wrong, I probably made it wrong.)

Ingredients:

1-2 tbsp honey (or you could use less agave syrup)
A mixture of cinnamon, ground clove and nutmeg that equals 1/4 tsp
About 1 cup of Soy milk, or any kind of milk
3/4 cup of strong coffee

Method:

Mix the honey (syrup) and spices together well.  Set aside while you assemble the rest of the team.

For the coffee part, I use my Keurig brewer.  (See I told you I wanted fast!)  To brew your coffee this way, use a dark roast (bold) coffee.  Brew one up using only 6 oz. of water.  That will make a nice strong cup for you latte.

 
For the milk part, pour your milk into a high walled bowl.  With a whisk, beat it until its frothy.  About 30 seconds.  Put the milk in the microwave for 30 seconds (until hot.) Take it out, give it another quick whisking, and assemble the knockoff latte:

Add 1-2 tsbp of honey to your cup, pour the hot coffee over the syrup and mix well.
Then pour the foamy milk into the coffee, and spoon some foam on top.

You could sprinkle some cinnamon on top if you are obsessed with making it look legit.  But then drink it immediately, because you've wasted enough time.

Or wait, and try to get some artsy pictures of it until the foam is gone:

Either way its delicious.  And I still have my 5 bucks.  And my Pumpkin Spice fix.  Enjoy!