Chicken and Basil Pizza

Yesterday, the Simmering Seoulmate and I were craving a nice homemade pizza. We had some red onion, red peppers and fresh basil left in the refrigerator, so we decided to combine them. The basil was a lucky find from a small grocery store at D-Cube in Sindorim. I’ve added it to pasta dishes and really enjoyed it. Fresh herbs are hard to come by in my area, so I’d hate to see them go to waste. We also found fennel! I can’t wait to make one of our favorite sausage and fennel pasta dishes soon.

I hope you are having a great month and enjoying some cooler weather. This pizza is easy and delicious. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 ball of pizza dough (I used this recipe from Bobby Flay which makes enough dough for 2 pizzas)
1/4 cup tomato sauce
2 cups shredded pizza cheese
2 chicken breasts cooked and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 red onion cut into thin slices

1 roasted red pepper finely chopped
handful of fresh basil

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 ̊F (200 ̊C). Roll out your dough and place it in your desired pan. Spread tomato sauce over the dough. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the pizza. Add red onion and roasted red pepper. Spoon the chicken over the pizza. Cook pizza for about 25 minutes. Add the fresh basil leaves after the pizza is removed from the oven.

Makes 1 pizza.

Twice "Baked" Potatoes

         Woooooo weee! Hello! It’s been a busy few weeks. I have been traveling to Hong Kong, catching up with work, and celebrating. The weather here is still hot, but is cool in the morning and at night. I’m looking forward to all things fall, as it’s one of my favourite times of the year.

          My trip to Hong Kong was absolutely amazing, with a minor setback (more of that later). I would 100% recommend travelling to Hong Kong if you can. The Simmering Seoulmate and I spend a wonderful five days in Hong Kong at the beginning of September. We saw amazing skyscrapers, walked around down by the harbor, sailed on a boat, rode the Peak Tram, visited the Big Buddha, and of course went to Disneyland! I wanted to do a whole post about the delicious dim sum and other Chinese food that we ate in Hong Kong, but unfortunately I came down with food poisoning the night after our big dim sum meal. But, don’t worry, I've still been cooking and have a recipe to share with you today.    

The Simmering Seoulmate and I found these enormous potatoes at our local mart. We have also made a trip to Costco recently and purchased a bunch of staples and a few other treats, like bacon and cheese! One night, he was craving twice baked potatoes so I whipped up a very indulgent version of them below which included both cheese and bacon, yummy!

So technically these are only once baked, because I was feeling lazy, but they were delicious all the same. I made the mistake of cutting the potatoes in half before microwaving them, don’t do that. The tops dried out and were a bit difficult to scoop the potatoes out of the skin.

Ingredients
2 enormous potatoes
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
3 sliced of bacon
3 tbsp milk
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
2 green onions chopped

Directions
Step 1 - Place your potatoes on a dish and stab them with a fork a few times. Microwave them for eternity, because that’s what it felt like waiting for these monsters to cook through. But, really microwave them for about 20 minutes. While the potatoes are being zapped, fry the bacon until crispy and cut up.

Step 2 – Preheat oven to 400ºF or 200 ºC. Scoop the potatoes out of the skin leaving about 1/2 a centimeter still attached and set skins aside. Add the milk, butter, salt, pepper and garlic powder to the potatoes and mash until there are no huge chunks.

Step 3 – Add the mashed potatoes and top with grated cheese, bacon pieces and green onions. Pop into the oven until the cheese is bubbly. About 10 minutes.

You can serve these with sour cream if you like, but we ate them as is. I hope you enjoy these as much as we did! Enjoy!

Makes four huge portions

Cinnamon Rolls

This weekend has been quite relaxing. Saturday afternoon was spent shopping and walking around on the cobblestone streets and enjoying the amazing weather around Isu station with the Simmering Seoulmate. The evening was spent having some pizza at Bonny’s Pub and enjoying a few drinks with friends. We came home quite early, which was nice for a change, as most nights that we go out, I am left spending Sunday exhausted. Since I was well rested and feeling great, I thought today would be a good day to try out some cinnamon rolls. I have wanted to make cinnamon rolls for quite some time now, but have been discouraged about the time and effort that goes into making them. I came across this recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction, which seemed like it was easy enough and looked yummy. I hope you try out this recipe on a lazy afternoon and I promise they are well worth the wait!

Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

Rolls:
2 and 3/4 cups flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 packet instant yeast
1/2 cup water
1/4 milk
2 and 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter 1 large egg

Filling:
3 tbsp unsalted room temperature butter
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk

Directions

1. Rolls: In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, and yeast and stir together well.

2. Pour water, milk, and butter into a microwave safe dish and heat for about a minute and a half stopping to stir every 30 seconds. Pour the mixture into the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Add the egg and stir until the dough form into a ball and come away from the sides of the bowl.

3. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 3 minutes. Then, set dough into a lightly oiled bowl and let rest for 10 minutes. Heat oven to 140ºF or 60 ºC, then turn off once heated.

4. Filling: After 10 minutes, roll the dough out onto a cookie sheet. Spread the butter across the dough. Mix together sugar in cinnamon and sprinkle over the dough.

5. Cut the dough into 8 even pieces. Roll each piece up and place in a lightly greased pie or cake pan.

6. In your warm oven (turned off), place the rolls inside and let rise for 90 minutes. After the rolls have risen to about double their size, cook for 25 minutes at 375ºF or 190 ºC. After about 10-15 minutes cover with foil so the tops don’t burn and finish cooking.

7. Glaze: While the rolls are cooking prepare the glaze. Combine powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk and stir until there are no lumps. Once rolls are finished, drizzle over rolls and serve warm.

Rolls can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 5 days. Enjoy!

*Recipe adapted from Sally’s BakingAddiction*