This past weekend, I was pulling open the curtains in our bedroom, and realized one of the panels was stuck to the window.  It was actually frozen to the window.  What?? How?? Where was the water coming from? I proceeded to feel around the window, only to discover the entire ledge at the bottom of the window was encased in ice.  The truly crazy part of this whole situation is the fact that our apartment building was built in 2007, and this is the kind of insulation we get?

So yeah, it’s definitely cold.  But I really shouldn’t complain, as my mother informed me yesterday morning that it was  -10 degrees in NY,  so this 25 degree weather we’re getting in DC is quite balmy in comparison.  I don’t mind the weather too much, it just leads me to spend most of my time holed up in my apartment.. being rather antisocial.  So instead of getting out I’m staying in, lighting candles, jacking up the heat, and making soup- chowder to be exact.  This was a first for me, and quite a success.  Brandon deemed it to be one of his favorite dishes I ever made.  I can’t take all the credit though, it’s a Ina dish of course.  But I did make a few small tweaks which I think add great flavor to this chowder, I strongly urge you to incorporate them.

East Hampton Clam Chowder from Barefoot Contessa Family Style

Serves 6-8

I followed Ina’s recipe to a T, but made the following additions:

• Begin the soup by sauteeing 2 slices of diced thick cut bacon for 5 minutes, until slightly crispy.  Then add in the onions and 1 T butter.  Due to the bacon fat, I omitted 3 T of butter.
• To finish the soup, add in 5 dashes of Tobasco and 2 T of Worcestershire sauce
• Serve with a sprinkling of parsley, adds great color and freshness

Things that are way overdue in my life right now: phoning an old work friend, dropping off my dry cleaning, making pizza from scratch.

Hurrah! I can cross the last item off!  It’s probably not the most important, but still, it happened.  And now I can focus on my other overdue things.

There were both good and not so good things about this pizza.

The Good:  the topping combos were money- the cheese blistered perfectly- we had leftovers for lunch today

The Bad: the dough was too chewy-we almost set our apartment on fire trying to crisp up the dough in the oven

For the dough, I followed Smitten Kitchen’s Really Simple Pizza recipe.  I’m positive the problem with the dough was not the recipe, but me.  And my yeast or my flour our my kneading technique.  One or all of the above was the reason my dough didn’t rise properly.  Nonetheless, I think I will be sticking to the No Knead Pizza Dough since that has produced much better dough for me.

Despite the dough mishap this pizza was still quite delicious.  I think that had a lot to do with the topping selections, and I’ll take credit for that!  Homemade dough or not, you should spend one night making this pizza at home.

Bacon, Gorgonzola, and Onion Pizza/ Artichoke, Kalamata, and Hot Pepper Pizza

Makes one 13 inch pie, topping portions cover 1/2 a pie

Make your dough (making can involve buying pre-made dough at the grocery store). Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  If you have a pizza stone, place it in the oven now to warm up (this will help crisp up the bottom of the pie!)

Saute 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 T butter, and 4 minced cloves of garlic of low heat for ten minutes.  Next, dice 2 slices of bacon and saute over medium heat for 5 minutes, until crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan and add in 1/4 cup of a thinly sliced red onion.  Saute for 5 minutes until it just begins to soften.  Take 2/3 cup defrosted artichoke hearts and ten kalamata olives, roughly chop.  Have on hand one 6 0z bag of shredded mozeralla.

The Assembly:  Roll out dough to a 1/4 inch thick.  Brush the garlic/oil/ butter mixture across the pizza.  First layer:  chopped artichokes on one side,  2.5 T crumbled gorgonzola on the other.  Second layer: mozzarella, liberally cover the pie with 6 0z of cheese.  Last layer: gorgonzola side gets bacon and red onion, artichoke side gets olives and red pepper flake to taste.  Lastly, generously grate some parm over the entire pie.

Pop the pizza into the oven for 11-13 minutes, until top is blistered and bubbly.  Enjoy immediately!