thursday things – hamsters, pizzas, and the best things I ate in April

palm trees instagram @yayitswee

Happy Thursday!

First things first, you must watch this video.

If you’re not convinced that you must watch it, here is what you will be missing:

via: FoodBeast

Now that that’s out of the way, there’s a new (alleged) “World’s Best Cake” brought to us by Sweet Paul and now I must make it.  It looks almost too simple and too easy…. but I must find out for myself.

Also, Chicago gave birth to waffle donuts and now I feel like my life is going to be incomplete until I eat one.

credit: FoodBeast

And sure I’ve heard all about the horrible lime shortage, but I wasn’t really affected by it until this week when I went to buy some limes…. 4 stores later I found some.

Seriously, people. Now don’t you think if you just shut your traps about this stupid Limeageddon people wouldn’t freak out and buy all the limes and then we could avoid this whole catastrophe?

I was super annoyed.

Anyway, if you are hit by Limepocalypse 2014 the Kitchn is here with some lime substitutes for you.

Also, it’s one of the oldest pieces of cooking lore – do not salt your eggs (esp scrambling eggs) or you will ruin them and make them tough and inedible. Well, my dears, I’m here to tell you that it’s all LIES! LIES, LIES, LIES!

Which is good, because I always salt them anyway and just try to ignore the voices in my head that are yelling at me to stop. (As I do with most things). TMI?

If anything, salting your eggs actually makes them more tender so go find whoever told you not to salt your scrambled eggs and punch them in the throat.

Or just show them that article, ya know, whichever method is preferable to you.

The best things I ate in April

I have also decided to share with you the best things I ate this month. Because sharing is caring.

This lasagna grilled cheese with parmesan-crusted garlic bread from my very own kitchen. Seriously, guys. Make this.

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 The broccoli carbonara from House Brasserie in downtown Scottsdale. It’s grilled broccoli made carbonara-style tossed in an eggy sauce with salty pancetta and so much delicious. This is hands-down the best broccoli I’ve had in my entire life.

I am pretty sure my heart actually stopped when I took my first bite.

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This banana cream pie from Zinburger at the Phoenix Biltmore. I’m usually a chocolate girl but my dining companion wanted the banana cream pie and who am I to say no? I intended to just have a bite because, really, who cares about bananas?

By the end of dessert it was all I could do to stop myself from licking the crumbs off of the plate. It was seriously that good. 10254308_226549487541342_408256559_n

I’m sure you’re expecting some sort of Cinco de Mayo round-up but it’s not happening this year, folks! I’ve got plenty of recipes on hand for you if you’re lost and I’ve got one coming for you this weekend but no round-up here guys!

If you’re really at a loss for what to do with your time, head over to Movita Beacoup’s cake-off and vote for your favorite cake. Remember the goal was for it to be CRAPPY. So don’t vote for the prettiest or tastiest cake. You want to vote for the crappiest one. Unfortunately I was unable to enter this year due to my poor time-management skills and the fact that the deadline fell right after Easter weekend.

One of these years, though…

For now, I’d much rather talk about leftovers. And these pizzas.

Well, more accurately, these pizzas made from leftovers.

diy pizzas instagram

 

I’m always trying to think of new ways to consume our leftovers and since last week we had leftover meatballs and leftover BBQ chicken… there really wasn’t any way I could think of to combine them into one meal.

Then, it hit me, we also had leftover pizza dough in the freezer!

I thawed the dough, enough to make two pizzas, et voila! Our left-overs were as good as new!

leftovers pizzas

Ingredients

  • 1 pound pizza dough, divided into two portions
  • Leftovers!
  • Our leftovers included:
  • Shredded BBQ chicken from BBQ chicken sandwiches (warmed in the microwave)
  • Leftover turkey meatballs from pasta night, silced
  • Leftover pasta sauce
  • A shallot
  • Some basil
  • Some cilantro
  • Lots of cheese

Instructions

    Heat your grill or oven
  1. You want it screamin' hot. We use the grill (with a ceramic baking stone) which we heat very slowly to avoid breaking the stone. It takes us about 30 minutes to finally get the grill up to 500+ degrees. Alternatively you can use your oven - I would place one rack in the bottom third and one rack in the top third of the oven and move the pizza to the top towards the end to finish cooking.
  2. Prepare your dough
  3. Stretch and stretch your dough portions into your desired shape/size. They will not always cooperate, in which case you can leave them to rest a bit, covered with a towel, until they are feeling more agreeable. It is easiest to work with room-temperature dough for this.
  4. Top your pizzas
  5. Pizza 1: Layer shredded BBQ chicken (w/ the sauce) on the bottom, then cheese, then shallot, then cilantro (after it's out of the oven).
  6. Pizza 2: Layer pasta sauce, then cheese, then meatballs (which we sliced for more even heating). Top with fresh basil after cooking
  7. Cook the pizza
  8. Cook on ceramic stone or baking sheet until the bottom is crisp and cheese is melted. If desired, you can place pizza under the broiler for a few minutes at the end to really brown the cheese and get it nice and toasty.
https://wee-eats.com/2014/05/01/thursday-things-hamsters-pizzas-and-the-best-things-i-ate-in-april/

 

8 thoughts on “thursday things – hamsters, pizzas, and the best things I ate in April

  1. that burrito hamster vid…is my everything. sometimes i say to myself “good thing i don’t own a hamster, or i’d spend most of my time making it tiny meals.” seriously.

    i salt my eggs too! like halfway through, not at first, but i still do it and i make BOMB eggs, just saying.

    i’m in denial over limageddon. i can’t. there are NO SUBSTITUTES. none. and i need to know more about that broccoli carbonara. so no actual noodles, right? just grilled broccoli done in a carbonara way b/c OMG WOW OKAY DOING THAT.

    you’re really going to make me make all the things this week. i mean, yes to making that grilled cheese of yours…like so much yes. also, the nordic cake? TOTALLY. i’m with you though: it looks so easy and sounds easy but is it easy? let’s find out together.

    • I never realized how much hamsters and I have in common (in terms of eating technique) … hmmmm

      I agree, nothing can TRULY substitute for a lime. Not really….

      Ugh, the cake. I need it. Yes, let’s find out, shall we?

  2. Thank you for sharing that hamster video. I’ve seen it linked to a few times already, but this was the first chance I had to watch it, and MAN was that worth it. (I love that he got the proportional sizing just right, for a burrito nearly as big as the hamster’s head.)

    Also I agree with Shannon that there are NO SUBSTITUTES for limes, and it is the saddest thing ever. (Around here, I still haven’t had any trouble finding limes… yet, but they are wayyyy more expensive than usual — basically $1 each.)

    • I hadn’t even noticed they were missing until I went looking for some! I finally found some at 79 cents a piece… sheesh!

  3. I saw that hamster thing when Movita posted to fb, and it’s SO CUTE!!! I love miniature anything. Also, that broccoli looks insane. Yum!!!

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