Sauceless Pizza

After and extremely trying day at work, my biggest questions is : What am I gonna make for dinner and what goes good with a glass of white wine?

Basically, my day sucked yesterday and well, family issues definitely didn't help make it any better. All I could really think about towards 4pm is what am I gonna have for dinner and what kind of white wine I should get. I was browsing online for recipes of comfort food. Let me tell you, comfort food ain't so comforting for the person making it~! Comfort food takes A LOT of time and tons of ingredients that are not readily available in my kitchen nor at most chain grocery stores.

Once again, my old friend Fresh & Easy came through for me. They usually have a pretty good selection of wine so I went there in search of a good bottle of white and hoping that wandering down the isles would give me some inspiration.

When I think of white wine I always always think of cheese. Might be the whole white thing. I think of cheese, green grapes and some sarong wearing, wash board abs pool boy fanning me with a giant banana leaf and feeding me grapes. I kid I kid. I only think of cheese and green grapes. So, what better way to eat cheese than having it warm and melty on pizzas? Ready made fresh pizza dough is awesome~! I remember a Food Network show I saw awhile back that had something called a sauceless pizza. I was intrigued by the idea. I mean, how do you have a pizza without sauces? The best part of the pizza is the sauce~!

Anyway, I digress. Sauceless pizza pretty much means what it is, sauceless. The way I see it, sauceless is just another excuse for me to load up on cheese...mmmmm....cheese.

So this is what I put on my sauceless pizza. Ricotta and mozzerella cheese; fresh grape tomatoes, sliced; a handful of torn arugula leaves; sprinkling of garlic infused olive oil and then a generous amount of fresh cracked black pepper and some salt. Bake in the oven at 450 degrees for 20 minutes.

And.........

It. Was. Awesome. And paired with a glass or two.....or three....of Chardonnay....yummmmm. *sigh* <----content sigh *grin*

Chicken Adobo

It's been awhile since I've had time to cook. It has been a busy month. Weddings, birthdays, MBA school info sessions....man I'm tired. So what events did I miss blogging? Did I mention I got a puppy? She takes up most of my free time, especially during the weekdays. I'm thinking that sometime in the near futre, I'll give some doggie treat recipes a try. Also, me and the bf celebrated our one year anniversary. Can't believe it's only been a year. The way we argue, you'd think that we've been together for a looooong time. =P

So, the bf went on a motorcycle ride with his buddies this past Sunday and was gone for the better part of the day. With roughly 6 hours of free time, what did I do? I decided to cook of course~!

I drove myself to a nearby 99 Ranch (it's an asian supermarket for those of you who don't life in the San Gabriel Valley area or don't have any asian friends) without much of an idea as to what I was going to make. I only knew that I'd wanted to get some green grapes for the bf cuz he's had this thing for crunchy green grapes for awhile and well, green grapes at stores like Ralphs and Fresh & Easy just aren't as crunchy. When it comes to fruits, hands down, asian supermarkets' got it right.

As I was wandering down the overly crowded aisles at 99 Ranch, I remembered that I had some recipes on my phone. Chicken Adobo was the first recipe I came across so there you have it. It's fate~!

Well not really, it's mostly cuz chicken adobo's easy to make and require less ingredients.

The recipe calls for a 3 lbs whole chicken quartered, 1 cup of soy sauce, 1 1/4 cup white vinegar, 2 bay leaves, black peppercorn, 1 glove of garlic and a few slices of ginger. Instead of getting a whole chicken, I opted for some drummettes and wings instead. Not a fan of having to dissect a raw chicken. And instead of white vinegar, I used cidar vinegar because that's what I had on hand and figured that added bit of sweetness might be a nice touch. It'll make the sourness less harsh. So I pretty much just put all the ingredients in a pot and brought it to a boil. I let it boil for about 10 minutes, all the while stirring and basting the chicken to make sure they get a nice brown tint to it from the soy sauce. After about 10 min of boiling, I turned the heat down to a simmer and just let it sit there for a good 30 minutes to an hour, occasionally stirring so nothing sticks.

It might not seem like there would be much liquid to properly cook the chicken, but the chicken itself has a lot of moisture so there wasn't any problem there. I have this thing with adding onions to a lot of my dishes. I have no idea why except I like that added veggies that goes into a meat dish. Makes me feel a little less guilty about consuming all that meatage. =P So I sliced up a medium onion and tossed it into the pot to cook along with the chicken. If you're a purest when it comes to cooking, nix the onion part cuz I don't think that's very filipino.

Not quite sure if the bf liked the dish or not since he didn't eat much of it but I certainly liked it. I'm a fan of anything sour. I'm thinking next up, a jicama recipe. I found some at the 99 Ranch market and totally brought back memories of my childhood in Thailand. Suggestions anyone?