Monday, April 23, 2007

Hmm... peanut butter on pizza?

The Alpacas behind us have grown very hungry since spring has hit and they ran out of grass in their pen! Farmer Jon and family were out over the weekend and they now have lush green muchies on the ground again... and guess what? They are able to come right up to our fence now! Woo! Max was a little unsure of these big guys sticking their heads over the fence to sniff him out, but he seems to be having fun watching them.

Jeff thinks we should talk the neighbors into letting us open the fence into our backyard... I mean, who needs to cut the grass when you could just let these guys go nuts and have a buffet?

Since we're getting back into the groove we wanted dinner tonight to be fun, different and of course, very enjoyable. Since I had plenty of time last week to catch up on new magazines, I found this recipe for a Thai Chicken Pizza and I just couldn't wait any longer to give it a go. The original recipe calls for prepared pizza dough, but I just made my favorite whole wheat dough recipe that really comes together without much effort. While it also did call for a 20 ounce piece of dough, the recipe we used makes about 16 ounces and we left it at that - it was still enough to easily stretch out to the requested size. Once we stretched the dough out, it went into a very hot oven to give the crust a chance to crisp up as it really only needs to go back in to melt the cheese. A Thai peanut sauce takes the place of pizza sauce in the recipe - it is a combination of creamy natural peanut butter, water, soy sauce, rice vinegar, fresh ginger and a clove of garlic. After the nutty crisp crust has been coated, a generous mixture of sautéed chunks of chicken breast, sweet red bell peppers and thin sliced green onions are scattered on top. A shower of shredded mozzarella cheese seals the deal and it slides back into the oven to finish cooking.
I loved how the salty peanut sauce off-set the mild toppings and was able to stand out under the cheese and with a crispy thin crust, we were in pizza heaven! I think you could take one or two more steps to dress it up even further - I think I'll try the leftovers with a small handful of chopped peanuts and maybe some thin slices of Thai basil on top!


9 comments:

  1. Those alpacas are the cutest. I'd want them nibbling on my grass, too. Hope you are feeling better. That pizza looks delicious. Jancd

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  2. OK I have to know if that is a white pomaranian?? I have a black one who's name is Max.

    alisajean@sbcglobal.net

    By the way, I love your blog!!! I get worried about you when you don't post!

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  3. I think Jeff has the right idea! :) I hate mowing our acre of lawn - no riding mower for us - so mabye I need to look into Alpacas!

    The pizza looks yummy. As much as I love a traditional plain cheese pizza, I love all of the different gourmet pizzas that stray from the norm...........

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  4. I am so glad to see your review of this recipe. It is the first thing that I picked to make out of the new EW and I think it will hit the dinner table on Friday night. Glad you liked it!

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  5. Those are the most adorable little neighbors to have... I can only wonder what is going through Max's head!

    Hope Jeff feels better soon, yuck.

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  6. Matt's a huge fan of Thai food; I'll have to see if he's interested in this one.

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  7. Beautiful! Did you know this post of yours was highlighted on Slashfood?

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  8. Jancd - I'm sure Jeff will be hand feeding them soon!

    Anon - Max is actually an American Eskimoe dog!

    Alysha - I just couldn't do our yard with a push mower... although, at least I would take a day off from exercising if I did!

    Zackaboo - Hope you let me know what you think of the pizza!

    s'kat - I only wish I could hear what he thinks!

    Stephanie - Give it a go!

    Gemma - Thanks for letting me know!

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  9. I have a recipe for a very similiar pizza. The difference is that you actually grill the pizza dough on one side, then flip it and while the other side is cooking you add your ingredients. Instead of peanut sauce I use Hoisin or plum sauce. [As an aside, look at labels for both of these, I have found that the sugar content can almost double depending on the brand!]

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