Friday, September 21, 2012

Chicken Fajita Pizza--and a happy accident

by Leslie

Pizza is a staple at our house.  I mean, we have the stuff at least once a week.  Since we haven't found a great place to get pizza around here, we often make it ourselves.

Last week, I decided to use up some pizza dough that I had in the freezer (by the way, this dough keeps in the freezer so well!).

You can see just how much we love pizza here at the test nest.

Exhibit A.

Exhibit B.

Exhibit C. 

My idea was to use a lot of the fresh veggies we had around from the farmer's market.  I had onions, peppers, green onions, and cherry tomatoes.

Once I got my dough rolled out, I went to the pantry to find some marinara sauce (which is what we use for pizza sauce around my house).  Did we have any?  Of course not.

What we did have, though, was one of my husband's grocery store mess-ups.  Rotel Tomato Sauce.  I had been wanting to make salsa and required a can of the original stuff, but, you know.  Things happen.  There are lots of choices at the grocery store and sometimes the wrong choice gets made.

I might have been slightly ticked at the time, but after I made this pizza, I was wonderfully, gloriously happy.  Thanks, husband!

Here's my pizza, fresh out of the oven.


What makes this pizza so tasty?

The mingling of the flavors, my friend.

Chicken Fajita Pizza

(all measurements are approximate)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Pizza dough of your choice
1 can Rotel brand tomato sauce
dash of salt
1/4 cup red onion
1/4 cup sliced red, yellow, or orange bell peppers
1/2 cup diced or shredded cooked chicken
1/4 cup Monterrey Jack cheese
10 cherry tomatoes
1 T chopped fresh cilantro
2 green onions, finely chopped
crumbled queso fresco

1. Roll pizza dough out to desired thickness and place on a sprayed cookie sheet or pizza pan.

2.  Drizzle a small amount of olive oil on the crust and sprinkle lightly with salt

3.  Cover pizza with Rotel Tomato Sauce (We used about 1/2 a can)

4.  Spread the rest of the ingredients (except cilantro) on top of crust and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the crust is brown and crusty.

5.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with cilantro and green onion

6.  Dine and enjoy!


Monday, September 10, 2012

Backyard Project-Fire Pit

by Leslie

When we purchased our house, one of the biggest selling points was the yard.  It is large (which is not what we were looking for), but it is beautiful.  There are several vignettes with various flowers and shrubs and we just couldn't say no!  We have a fenced off vegetable garden and an arbor that is covered in a beautiful vine with white flowers.  There are lovely ornamental trees and raspberry bushes already producing fruit!

The other thing we had--

THIS:



 To you, this may look like an innocuous planter.  I mean, I guess that's what you could call it.  But let me tell you, this thing was huge.  It had no purpose.  It had weeds growing all over it and the dirt was packed so solid you couldn't plant anything else in it.  I think it had originally been used to hold some sort of statue or fountain.

My plan?

Tear the thing apart and built a fire pit (hello, s'mores!)

  The only problem was, it was about three feet deep and 5 feet across.  The kicker?  Underneath the top layer of dirt was a whole mess of rocks.

That's when I quit working on this project.  I stayed away for about a month.

Then, one weekend Laura, Derek, and Ella stopped by.  Derek offered to lend us some help, so, thanks to my wonderful husband and brother-in-law, many of those rocks were removed and loaded by hand.  They were dumped behind our shed so we could forget about them.

That's when I quit working on this project for a second time.  I stayed away for another month.

Then, during Labor Day weekend, Jaime and I got to it and finished the damn thing.




Here I am after about my twentieth load of rocks.  It was hot.

Does anyone need any rocks?


This is the state after de-assembling the planter.  Resemble any ancient architecture you know?

 After pulling everything apart, we started to dig a base for the fire pit.  Jaime did some sort of geometric measuring to find the center, then we delved in.  I've never been one for measuring.  Then we took a break to eat lunch.  Jaime took a nap.


Whilst Jaime was napping, I pieced together the pit.  This was not an easy job because some of the pieces were glued together from the former structure.  It ain't perfect, but I don't care.  By the way, I did check out Rochester's city codes for fire pits.  Check out your own city's just to make sure.


Once it got dark, we built ourselves a fire.  I hardly waited for the flames to be lit to make myself a nice s'more.

What do you think?  Fire pit success?


Friday, September 21, 2012

Chicken Fajita Pizza--and a happy accident

by Leslie

Pizza is a staple at our house.  I mean, we have the stuff at least once a week.  Since we haven't found a great place to get pizza around here, we often make it ourselves.

Last week, I decided to use up some pizza dough that I had in the freezer (by the way, this dough keeps in the freezer so well!).

You can see just how much we love pizza here at the test nest.

Exhibit A.

Exhibit B.

Exhibit C. 

My idea was to use a lot of the fresh veggies we had around from the farmer's market.  I had onions, peppers, green onions, and cherry tomatoes.

Once I got my dough rolled out, I went to the pantry to find some marinara sauce (which is what we use for pizza sauce around my house).  Did we have any?  Of course not.

What we did have, though, was one of my husband's grocery store mess-ups.  Rotel Tomato Sauce.  I had been wanting to make salsa and required a can of the original stuff, but, you know.  Things happen.  There are lots of choices at the grocery store and sometimes the wrong choice gets made.

I might have been slightly ticked at the time, but after I made this pizza, I was wonderfully, gloriously happy.  Thanks, husband!

Here's my pizza, fresh out of the oven.


What makes this pizza so tasty?

The mingling of the flavors, my friend.

Chicken Fajita Pizza

(all measurements are approximate)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Pizza dough of your choice
1 can Rotel brand tomato sauce
dash of salt
1/4 cup red onion
1/4 cup sliced red, yellow, or orange bell peppers
1/2 cup diced or shredded cooked chicken
1/4 cup Monterrey Jack cheese
10 cherry tomatoes
1 T chopped fresh cilantro
2 green onions, finely chopped
crumbled queso fresco

1. Roll pizza dough out to desired thickness and place on a sprayed cookie sheet or pizza pan.

2.  Drizzle a small amount of olive oil on the crust and sprinkle lightly with salt

3.  Cover pizza with Rotel Tomato Sauce (We used about 1/2 a can)

4.  Spread the rest of the ingredients (except cilantro) on top of crust and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the crust is brown and crusty.

5.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with cilantro and green onion

6.  Dine and enjoy!


Monday, September 10, 2012

Backyard Project-Fire Pit

by Leslie

When we purchased our house, one of the biggest selling points was the yard.  It is large (which is not what we were looking for), but it is beautiful.  There are several vignettes with various flowers and shrubs and we just couldn't say no!  We have a fenced off vegetable garden and an arbor that is covered in a beautiful vine with white flowers.  There are lovely ornamental trees and raspberry bushes already producing fruit!

The other thing we had--

THIS:



 To you, this may look like an innocuous planter.  I mean, I guess that's what you could call it.  But let me tell you, this thing was huge.  It had no purpose.  It had weeds growing all over it and the dirt was packed so solid you couldn't plant anything else in it.  I think it had originally been used to hold some sort of statue or fountain.

My plan?

Tear the thing apart and built a fire pit (hello, s'mores!)

  The only problem was, it was about three feet deep and 5 feet across.  The kicker?  Underneath the top layer of dirt was a whole mess of rocks.

That's when I quit working on this project.  I stayed away for about a month.

Then, one weekend Laura, Derek, and Ella stopped by.  Derek offered to lend us some help, so, thanks to my wonderful husband and brother-in-law, many of those rocks were removed and loaded by hand.  They were dumped behind our shed so we could forget about them.

That's when I quit working on this project for a second time.  I stayed away for another month.

Then, during Labor Day weekend, Jaime and I got to it and finished the damn thing.




Here I am after about my twentieth load of rocks.  It was hot.

Does anyone need any rocks?


This is the state after de-assembling the planter.  Resemble any ancient architecture you know?

 After pulling everything apart, we started to dig a base for the fire pit.  Jaime did some sort of geometric measuring to find the center, then we delved in.  I've never been one for measuring.  Then we took a break to eat lunch.  Jaime took a nap.


Whilst Jaime was napping, I pieced together the pit.  This was not an easy job because some of the pieces were glued together from the former structure.  It ain't perfect, but I don't care.  By the way, I did check out Rochester's city codes for fire pits.  Check out your own city's just to make sure.


Once it got dark, we built ourselves a fire.  I hardly waited for the flames to be lit to make myself a nice s'more.

What do you think?  Fire pit success?