White spinach pizza.....

I really wanted to love this pizza. It has all the ingredients I love; spinach, mushrooms, and 4 different types of cheese. I ate so much red sauce in Florida, that the thought of a pizza using a white sauce really appealed to me. To top it off, I picked up a ball of 100% whole wheat pizza dough at Trader Joes on our way home. I was excited to use that. I tried to find a link to this recipe, but its not posted yet. This recipe comes from the Early Summer 2007 issue of Food and Drink. Food and Drink is the magazine of the LCBO( Liquor Control Board of Ontario). In Ontario( and all of Canada), you just can't go into a grocery store to buy booze. I know some US States are the same such as PA. Anyway, I digress.....

So, I made this white sauce with milk, flour, onions and roasted garlic. The recipe has you roast 2 cloves( not 2 heads) and then set it aside. I never saw what to do with the garlic as it was missing from the instructions, so I just added it to the sauce. You then saute some spinach and squeeze out the water. First, I found the sauce way too thick. The recipe calls for whole milk, but I used some fat free half and half I picked up at TJ's as well. I had to add some skim milk to thin it out. After the sauce and spinach goes on, you'll put on some parmesean( I used pecorino romano). Then 3 kinds of cubed cheese. The reason for using cubed cheese is so you get pockets of different cheese flavor. I used gouda, ementhaler and mozzarella( not cubed, it was shredded). You then layer on sliced cremini mushrooms and strips of red pepper. Robin and I both don't care for cooked red pepper so I left it off.

I popped it on my baking stone for 10 minutes( at 450f), the instructions say to lift a corner to check for browning. Well, it was very brown, but it was far from cooked. The dough was still kinda raw inside. I ate around the raw parts, but Robin wanted to cook her slice more. She wrapped it in foil and threw it back in the oven for 10 more mintues. By this point, I was disgusted with it so I took Harley for a walk. When I came back inside, Robin told me that the pizza never fulled cooked, even after 10 minutes in the oven. I really think its the whole wheat dough. I seem to recall having this problem before with this type of pizza dough. I guess its back to making my own pizza dough. Oh well, live and learn...........

Not what I expected.....

I've been dreaming about a New England type lobster roll for awhile. Since this xmas dinner was just Robin, me and her mom, I decided to make something very casual for dinner and I chose the lobster roll. I ordered 2 lobster tails from work and when I got them, I was surprised, because the flesh of one of the tails was pink, while the other was white. The tails were 8oz each so I knew it would be plenty of meat. My catering boss suggested I saute the lobster meat in butter which I did. However, It curled up and just didnt look like lobster to me. I'm thinking it was a spiny lobster or rock lobster instead of Maine lobster. It was good, just not what I wanted. I searched high and low for top loading hot dog buns, but I could find any so I made some faux hot dog buns using white whole wheat flour and a recipe from King Arthur. I mixed the cooked lobster with some mayo, a bit of celery and scallion. I served these with root veggie chips and full sour pickles from Trader Joes.