Hump Day!

Some how Wednesday gives me the sense of having gotten a good chunk of the weekdays, yet still having enough time to get the things done I need to before the weekend (which is usually a misguided feeling, but I’m okay with that).

I’m taking a swing away from craft today for the main part of the post. Last night I whipped up some pizza for dinner and it was so easy and so fresh and delicious, I thought I would share that with you.

Having some little mini pizza crusts in the frig is a nice way to have a quick meal on hand without being completely processed. Sure if you can, make up some pizza crusts yourself for the best of quality. I just happened to have these though, and so I figured I might as well use them up. Mini pizzas are a great way to use up just about any veggie from your local farmer’s market (and co op). A lot of times I will just buy whatever and then look at it and say “hmm, well, now what?” This week I got a great bundle of wild garlic, oregano, zucchini, tomatoes, smoked mozzarella. (some from the co op, not all at the farmer’s market). Hmm, what to do. Pizza!

Sauce:
1 T butter
1/4 c. minced onion, garlic, wild garlic, shallots, whatever oniony kind of things you have
1 T chopped fresh herb
Fresh pepper
Sea Salt to taste
1 small can tomato sauce
1/4 c. red wine
1 T. unbleached all purpose flour

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees at this point

Heat up the butter with a little dash of olive oil in a sauce pan. Once it is all melted down, add your oniony parts and sauté until fragrant. Turn up the heat to medium high and add your salt, pepper, and herbs. Stir vigorously until the herbs turn dark green. Add the wine and let it simmer down. Once most of the wine has evaporated and simmered down, add the tomato sauce. Stir well and sprinkle the flour over the top of the sauce mixing constantly. This way you won’t get lumps in your sauce, just add the flour a little bit at a time. Lower the heat to, well, “low” and let it simmer and thicken up while you make the rest of your pizza.

Honestly I use this sauce for just about everything, in omelettes, for spaghetti, pasta bakes, on hot sandwiches. So I always make more than I need and store the rest in a mason jar in the frig.

Pizza:
Veggies
Cheese
Galic
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

I take a garlic press, load it up (especially if my garlic is older and sprouting), and press it right onto the dough. I take a fork and smear it around on the crust with a little olive oil. Then give a nice coat of salt and pepper. Slice your veggies nice and thin and layer it on. Then spoon on your sauce. Then layer on some thin tomato slices. Sprinkle your cheese or place your slices of cheese on the top. More salt and pepper.

Put on a pan and bake in the oven for 20-30 mins (until sauce is bubbling and the cheese is browned).

The great thing about this little pizza is that you can make it with or without cheese, with whatever veggies have on hand, and even without the sauce, just the garlic paste on the crust and some veggies sprinkled with olive oil and salt and pepper.

Once I figure out a good pizza crust dough for freezing I will post that. For right now, any little premade pizza crust works just fine and they stay good for quite some time.

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I also wanted to share a couple of things I came across in this morning’s blog reading.

This project is a little old, but pretty amazing all the same. I would love to organize something like this for my town. They “sowed and distributed several hundred seed pots for planting in gardens across New York City.” Artist Leah Gauthier explains her project here in a wonderful interview and I really relate to her feeling on food and cooking and gardening. They didn’t just distribute and sow seeds, they distributed and sowed endangered, rare, and heirloom seeds. So she wasn’t just promoting growing your own food, she was promoting growing unique and interesting food, promoting going against the grain of monoculture agriculture. Ah, I love it. Good job! I don’t know you personally Leah, but I think what you are doing is just great! Keep it up! You can see pictures from the Sow In project here, and info on the seeds they distributed here. I first saw this posted about on whipup.net (wonderful site and if you haven’t been over there yet, hop to it!)

A great article over at Meet Me At Mikes on How to Market Your Craft Blog, I should definitely take some of these suggestions! A good read for anyone with a blog, not just craft. (via)

And then there is also a great contest going on for a new sewing machine going on over at Craftzine.

Have a great day everyone! I’ll see you next on Saturday, finally with that interview I’ve been promising!

Oh and Craft Leftovers Monthly is only on sale until Tomorrow night (Thursday, June 12th) so make sure to swing by and pick up your 1 month or 3 month subscription! Thank you so much to everyone who has renewed/ordered for the first time. Your support helps so much to put food on the table and keep the bills paid.

Keep it Crafty!
Kristin