It has been rough, overall, for a while now. Lately, I have crumbled with surprisingly (even to me) little exertion. Yesterday, I felt like I had enough life in me to play around in the kitchen. I decided to make a homemade roasted eggplant pizza. (it was so delicious, I'm tacking the recipe on at the end of this post) Once the pizza dough was rising, I started to think of what else I could make with yeast, so I dove back in to make cinnamon buns. Believe me, I know that it is the last thing I need. For some reason, I just felt like cooking...and, I really do enjoy it.
By my standards, it was a lot of in and out of bed, and back and forth to the kitchen, for the different stages of these two recipes. I knew batter..I mean better, but did it anyway. By the time the pizza came out of the oven, I was way beyond my breaking point. I was insanely sick last night and this morning. It was absolutely horrible. I have so many symptoms, many that cannot be helped with my son "Patches", or any other medication. Anyway, one of my most miserable symptoms is that creepy, eerie feeling like my muscles are decomposing from the inside out. It is the worst. I had to put the TV on this morning, just for a distraction. Otherwise, I think I would have snapped. Bad, bad day today.
Since I love cooking so much, I've been spending a lot of time in bed looking up new recipes for Easter. Ryan is having Easter at his house this year, but I would still like to cook, cook, cook. I called Ry earlier and started out by telling him all the different dishes that I would like to make. As I was talking, I was thinking to myself how sick I was today...from COOKING. By the end of the call, I basically told Ryan that I take it all back, I'll make one thing. (Erica...remember taking Poor Ryan to Wawa...or was it Wendy's???) I giveth and taketh away... In the end, I knew that what I would like..no, make that, love to do, and what I could do are two completely different things.
I'm going to have to cut this short. It is hard typing when feeling as sick as I do...my brain isn't working and I am backspacing every other word to retype and retype again. Also, I have been having a newer issue called transient paralysis. It sounds worse than it is. Basically, my hands freeze up from time to time. It is momentary, but for some reason it is worse than ever right now. It is too hard typing with my hands freezing up.
Thank God for copy/paste...
Eggplant Pizza....SO DELICIOUS!!
- 1 large eggplant (1 1/4 pound)
- About 3 tablespoons olive oil
For dough- 1 (1/4-ounce) package fast-acting yeast
- 2/3 cup warm water (110-115°F.)
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 ounces grated mozzarella (3/4 cup)
- 3/4 ounces grated Asiago or Parmesan (1/4 cup)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes..it's spicy with the red pepper flakes, but we like spicy food. You can adjust to your taste.
preparation
Broil eggplant:
Cut eggplant into 1/3-inch-thick rounds and arrange in 1 layer on a foil-lined large baking sheet. Lightly brush both sides with oil and season with salt. Broil 2 to 3 inches from heat until golden brown and tender, 3 to 8 minutes on each side.
Cut eggplant into 1/3-inch-thick rounds and arrange in 1 layer on a foil-lined large baking sheet. Lightly brush both sides with oil and season with salt. Broil 2 to 3 inches from heat until golden brown and tender, 3 to 8 minutes on each side.
Make dough:
Dissolve yeast in warm water. Blend flour and salt in a food processor. Add oil and blend. With motor running, add yeast mixture all at once, blending until dough forms a ball. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface 5 minutes. Put in an oiled large bowl and turn to coat. Let rise, covered with plastic wrap, in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. While dough is rising, put a pizza stone on lowest rack of oven (remove other racks) and preheat oven to 500°F.
Dissolve yeast in warm water. Blend flour and salt in a food processor. Add oil and blend. With motor running, add yeast mixture all at once, blending until dough forms a ball. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface 5 minutes. Put in an oiled large bowl and turn to coat. Let rise, covered with plastic wrap, in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. While dough is rising, put a pizza stone on lowest rack of oven (remove other racks) and preheat oven to 500°F.
Dust dough with flour on a floured surface, then shape and stretch into a 12- to 13-inch round. Sprinkle a baker's peel generously with flour and carefully transfer dough to it. Jerk peel; if dough sticks, lift it and sprinkle flour underneath.
Assemble pizza:
Toss together cheeses and sprinkle 1/4 over dough. Cover with eggplant, overlapping it, and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Heat oil in a small skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then cook garlic and red pepper, stirring, until just fragrant, 30 to 40 seconds. Spoon evenly over eggplant.
Toss together cheeses and sprinkle 1/4 over dough. Cover with eggplant, overlapping it, and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Heat oil in a small skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then cook garlic and red pepper, stirring, until just fragrant, 30 to 40 seconds. Spoon evenly over eggplant.
Line up far edge of peel with far edge of stone and tilt peel, jerking it gently. When edge of pizza touches stone, quickly pull back peel to transfer to stone (do not move pizza) and bake until dough is crisp and browned, 12 to 15 minutes. Slide peel under pizza to remove from oven.
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