Its time for pizza to make another appearance on this good old blog today. This time in a flavorful bacon and brussel sprout pizza. This pizza has a lovely crunchy and creaminess from the cheese. Enjoy!

Pizza Dough

Ingredients: (makes dough for 2 pizzas) 
1 envelope yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil 
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

Add your yeast, sugar, salt, water, and olive oil in your mixing bowl and stir. Using your dough hook, add your flour slowly and beat on medium until a ball of dough forms. Cover your dough ball with olive oil and leave in bowl covered with plastic wrap in a warm spot until it has doubled in size. Divide it into pieces and knead it lightly and let it sit for about 10 minutes before forming into pizza circles. 

Pizza Toppings: 
8 brussel sprouts
16 ounce package of bacon
1 garlic clove
3 ounces goat cheese
1/3 cup feta cheese
Olive oil for brushing
Black pepper
Balsamic glaze

Cook your bacon in a pan over medium heat until crispy. Remove from pan and drain off all but 1 tablespoon of the excess oil. Trim your brussel sprouts into small shavings. Add them to the remaining bacon grease in the pan and cook until wilted. Add 1 minced garlic clove and cook for 1 additional minute. Cut your bacon into small pieces. Brush your pizza crust with olive oil. Cover with brussel sprouts, bacon, goat cheese, and feta cheese. Crack some black pepper over your pizza. Drizzle your pizza with your balsamic glaze. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes and crust is golden. 

The other day I was in the mood for some cookies and I made the mistake of asking my toddler what type of cookies we should bake. His answer? Pumpkin cookies. Ok, pumpkin cookies are a random request for the first day of spring, but I'm fostering his new found skill of decision making. So we rolled with it and made some delicious pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. My favorite pumpkin chocolate chip recipe however only uses 6 tablespoons of pumpkin puree. So I am inevitably left with  2/3rds of a can of pumpkin every time I bake them. What to do, what to do. So I invented a new recipe that uses up all the leftover pumpkin! I know I'm not the only one who has left over portions of pumpkin laying around, so without further ado, I introduce to you: Pumpkin Pasta with Brown Butter and Sage. 

Ingredients;
1/2 stick of butter
1 small garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp dried french tarragon
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/2 box penne pasta (about 8 ounces) 
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup goat cheese
Salt & Pepper

Melt your butter in a frying pan on low heat. Just leave it there and don't mess with it. Let it bubble and get golden. As soon as you see the butter changing from yellow to golden, add your garlic, sage, and tarragon. 

While your butter browns, go ahead and boil your pasta in salted water for 8-10 minutes as the package directs. Strain the water from your pasta, reserving about 1/4 of a cup of the starchy water for later. While that pasta sits in your colander, use your warm pot to heat up your pumpkin puree and mix it with your goat cheese. Once those two are incorporated, add your pasta back to pot and mix. Then add your butter to the pot and mix. If the sauce is too thick, you can add a little of your reserved pasta water to loosen it up. Salt and pepper to taste. 

Due to the brown butter, pumpkin, herbs, and goat cheese, this is a very flavorful dish. It tastes as indulgent as a macaroni, but due to a lot of the sauce being made up from pumpkin, its much less sinful, and a little bit more sophisticated as well. This will serve 2-3 people. 

Enjoy!

Tonight I made a delicious salad that features two of our favorite Lavender Apple farm products! Lavender Honey and our farm pressed apple juice. It was sweet, savory, and a easy to put together. 

For the salad:
4 ounces fresh spinach
1 red apple, sliced
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
1/3 cup dried cranberries 

For the dressing:
1/2 cup apple juice
1/8 cup vegetable oil 
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon lavender honey (plain honey will also work, but why use that when lavender honey exists!) 
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

Mix the dressing together, combine salad ingredients, pour dressing over salad and serve immediately. Makes enough salad for 4. 

Its always wonderful to have a hearty goat cheese salad when we are all working so hard on our new years resolutions. The winter cranberries and autumn apples make this a wonderful treat for lunch or a great side at dinner.