Pineapple and Pancetta Pizza

pizza

This was a great, little twist on a classic combination. Thanks for stopping by!

pizza

And now for an extreme close-up 😉

Pineapple and Pancetta Pizza – adapted from Pink Pistachio

  • 1 ball pizza dough
  • 1 cup diced pineapple
  • 1 cup diced pancetta
  • fresh mozzarella
  • pizza sauce
  • parmesan cheese
  • oregano

Directions –

Preheat oven to 450 degrees, place rack on lowest position and place a pizza stone on top if you have one. Lightly work the dough to your desired diameter, top with sauce, cheese and other toppings. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

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Baked Beans

We had some friends over this weekend and what’s easier than hamburgers for the adults and hot dogs for the kids? We were in charge of those and they were in charge of some sides – but then I remembered this recipe for baked beans. M loves these and they are so easy to throw together. I made a half recipe’s worth of them or else we’d have over four pounds of these to eat up! It made the perfect amount and our friends were happy to take some home with them. Because of the scaled down amount, they only took about 40 minutes and it all fit nicely in a 11×7 inch baking dish. Having all that length is ideal so there is lots of space for the bacon and fried onion topping (yum!). The addition of crushed pineapple sounds weird but totally works in these – so unless you’re allergic or hate pineapple don’t leave it out. It’s also important to find a really good barbecue sauce and I have discovered Stubb’s recently and what I love is that I can read all the ingredients. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Baked Beans – 

  • 4 – 16 ounce cans of baked beans
  • 1 -20 ounce can of crushed pineapple, drained
  • 1 cup good BBQ sauce
  • 1 cup molasses
  • 2 TBSP yellow or brown mustard
  • 6 ounces of French’s fried onions
  • 5 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled
  • salt and pepper to taste
Directions –
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In large bowl mix together beans, pineapple, molasses, BBQ sauce, mustard, 1/4 of the bacon and 1/4 of the onions. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour beans in a 13×9 inch baking dish and sprinkle with remaining bacon and onions. Cook in oven for 1 hour or until the beans are brown and bubbly. Serve warm.

Strawberry Pineapple Crumble

Joy the Baker is a huge inspiration to the baker in me! She has so many recipes to choose from, but this is one of her more recent posts. I love pineapple and strawberries together, so this is right up my alley. I have never seen anything like this – usually crumbles are made with apples, pears, peaches or mixed berries. I was intrigued by this combo and knew that I needed to try it out.

Verdict: This was ah-mazing! Even my husband who wont eat dessert unless is chocolate covered agreed that it was tasty. That’s a winner in my book! Enjoy:)

Strawberry Pineapple Crumble – adapted from Joy the Baker

    • 1 pound strawberries, hulled and cut in half
    • 1 pound peeled and diced fresh pineapple
    • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
    • 3 teaspoons cornstarch
    • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
    • pinch of salt
    • 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
    • 1 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1/4 teaspoon salt
    • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
    • 1 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats
    • 1/4 cup brown sugar
Directions –
1Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Toss diced fruit together in an 8-inch square baking dish. In a small dish, whisk together 3 tablespoons sugar, cornstarch, 1/4 cup of flour and pinch of salt. Toss the mixture with the diced fruit. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together remaining flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add the cold butter cubes. Use your fingers to break up the cold butter cubes into the flour mixture. Add the oats and toss together until the butter bits are about the size of the oat flakes.
4. Pour the oat mixture over the prepared fruit. Place in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until juices from the fruit bubble up around the sides of the pan.
5. Remove the crumble from the oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. Crumble is delicious served warm with vanilla ice cream.
6. Crumble can we wrapped and refrigerated for up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave or wrapped in foil in a low oven.

Chocolate Fondue

Quick Post: This was the dessert that my SIL requested for her birthday. It’s super simple – only two ingredients for this fondue. Serve this with strawberries, bananas, pineapple, pound cake, pretzels, marshmallows – anything that goes well with chocolate but wont easily fall apart. Next time I will use a combination of bitter and semi-sweet chocolate, because the bittersweet was just too bitter!;)

Chocolate Fondue – 

  • 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (or which ever chocolate you prefer)
  • 3/4 cups of heavy cream, warm (plus more to thin the fondue as needed)
Directions –
1. Chop the chocolate and set aside in a bowl. Pour the warm cream over top and let it slowly melt the chocolate. Whisk until the cream and chocolate are incorporated. If you have a fondue pot – use it! Thin out the chocolate with more heavy cream as needed. Enjoy!

Grilled Teriyaki Sandwiches with Pineapple, Bacon and Swiss

One of the biggest stress relieving things I can do for myself is to come up with a weekly meal plan. There are only a few things that are more frustrating and stressful than not knowing what I’m going to make. This was a good week because I easily came up with five meals without really trying and that isn’t something that happens often. This was one of them:

Teriyaki Marinade – heavily adapted from Allrecipes

  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 2 TBSP honey
  • 1/2 cup low sodium soy
  • 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/3 tsp. grated fresh ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1.5 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast – pounded thin
  • these buns
  • 1 pineapple sliced 1/2″
  • 3 strips bacon
  • 3 slices baby swiss
  • romaine lettuce

Directions –

1. Combine first 7 ingredients in a microwave safe container. Heat the marinade for about 1 minute or until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside to cool.

2. Place pounded chicken in a Ziploc bag and pour marinade over top. Marinade for at least 12 hours.

3. Preheat grill to 350 -400 degrees. Grill the chicken for 15 – 20 minutes total. Once you’ve flipped the chicken to cook the other side, put the pineapple slices on the grill. After about 5 minutes, flip the pineapple slices over and place the bacon and cheese on the chicken to warm through.