I bring you the first of many posts inspired by Chopped and the sauce I've been putting on everything this week (like this).

Last weekend, one of my good friends sent me a text basically begging me to take part in a monthly cooking challenge where we made up our own mystery baskets and prepared an original recipe.  You know if food is involved I'm usually game.  The timing for this idea couldn't have come at a better time, because our first basket was inspired by this contest, which we both conveniently forgot to enter.  So, our secret ingredients were:  

• Shredded Italian cheese 
• Red pepper
• Greek yogurt 
• Chicken

I didn't want to go full on Italian, which these ingredients were basically begging me to do.  Then I realized I hadn't celebrated Pizza Night in months.  At that point, pizza felt like the obvious decision.  A south of the border twist on a pizza.   

Recently, one of my friends introduced me to the magic that is Penzeys Spices.  Now, these spices were definitely more than I'd normally spend, but I picked some unique spices that I thought would be worth the price tag for top notch quality.  I could not pass up the chance to use my chipotle pepper spice in this recipe.  I'm actually obsessed with it.  I don't know how I seasoned food without this spice in my life.  Seriously.  It's da bomb.  The spicy, smokey flavor of the chipotle seasoning matches perfectly with the sweetness of the roasted red pepper.  It's the perfect match.  I've been eating this sauce on everything since it's inception.  The recipe I'm going to give you makes way more than you need for a pizza (which is totally the point, because leftovers are great for EVERYTHING).  This sauce not only works with this pizza, but it's great as a salad dressing, egg sandwich topper, or even as a substitute for mayo in a turkey wrap.  

So, there's a requirement for pizza night and that requirement is eat your pizza with a glass of wine.  So you should probably get on that right now.  Besides, I used a store bought pizza crust this time so this recipe is super quick.  So get cooking.  And after you make your pizza, tell me about your favorite pizza toppings!  I like spicy toppings, like chipotle seasoned chicken!

*Disclaimer:  one day in the future, my pizzas will be normal shaped.  For now, weird shapes are more fun.

Serves 4 (recipe makes two small pizzas or 1 large pizza)

I've been watching a lot of Chopped lately.  Food Network has been airing the leftovers series.  I think it's funny when the contestants find out they are cooking with leftovers.  They get mad and say things like, "I never eat leftovers," or "Leftovers are gross."  That makes me sad.  Leftovers are a beautiful thing.   I get excited about leftovers.  Yum.

{DISCLAIMER:  I was in no way compensated for mentioning Libby's Pumpkin.  Libby's is solely mentioned in this post because the use of Libby's Pumpkin was a requirement for the recipe contest I entered this pizza in}

Pizza Sunday is one of my favorite holidays.  Fall is one of my favorite seasons.  Pumpkin is one of my favorite foods.  I think you get where I'm going here...based upon all of these things, this pizza recipe is a no brainer.  I'm going full on fall, diving right in with this pizza that has two wonderful fall things:  pumpkin and kale.

What is Pizza Sunday, you ask?  Well great question.  My roommate during undergrad once told me that she and her family always ate pizza on Sunday for dinner (clearly a brilliant idea).  We attempted it for a while, but being the busy college students we were, our schedules never seemed to fall in alignment and Pizza Sunday never became the consistent thing I had hoped it would.  Then, another group of my friends started making crust from scratch every Sunday.  Yet again, schedule conflicts, as I always seemed to sign up for work shifts at the Italian Restaurant on campus and never made it more than a few times.  But for the sake of nostalgia, Sunday will always be "Pizza Sunday."  #PizzaNight will be a recurring theme a few Sunday's each month on this blog.  I hope you're as excited as I am.

Now for this pizza.  I entered it into a recipe contest.  Yep.  the town about 12 miles east of Peoria is called Morton.  Morton, IL is known for this totally awesome thing:  its annual Pumpkin Festival.  This festival literally sounds like the best thing ever.  They have everything you could ever want to eat with pumpkin, a pancake breakfast, a pie eating contest, a 10K race, and of course the recipe contest sponsored by Libby's Pumpkin.  I can't wait to try ALL THE PUMPKIN THINGS.  Like honestly, my mouth is watering now.  I'm mentally planning out what to try, without spending all of my money.

So the recipe contest.  I entered the adult savory competition.  The only requirement for the recipe contest was to use 1 cup of Libby's Pumpkin Puree.  A little background on me and recipe contests.  I'm not used to losing.  Before this weekend, I have only ever NOT placed in a recipe contest 1 time.  I'm published in Rachael Ray's cookbook, won the Miami University Dining Healthy Recipe competition, and a few other very small contests.  I've even been hand selected to audition for Master Chef with Gordon Ramsay for the past 2 years (however I will not be accepting the invitation this year due to my busy schedule).  So NOT placing tonight was a bit of a shock.  I'm not complaining.  Food is completely subjective.  A dish could be amazing but be disliked by many people.  As a cook, you have to stand behind your dish, and let me tell you, this pizza is AWESOME (aka I stand by my dish).  Actually, since when does something with bacon on top lose?  Apparently today.  The winning recipe was Chicken and Waffles.  In my opinion, it didn't look that great, but I'm clearly biased!  At the end of the day, not placing kind of did me a favor (I think...).  It saved me the hassle of re-making this pizza next weekend.  It saved me the stress of presenting my dish in front of hundreds of people and 3 celeb judges on a big stage next week.  Most importantly, it clearly saves me the calories I would have consumed by tasting pieces of cheese and bits of bacon while cooking again (I kid, I kid).  Now I get to enjoy the festival next weekend without the stress of making my pizza.  So thank you Chicken and Waffles, it looks like you did me a favor.  

Like I said before, my pizza is AWESOME.  My crust recipe is amazing.  I've finally developed the perfect thin, whole wheat pizza crust recipe.  A recipe I'm proud of.  The crust is thin, crispy and slightly nutty.  The pumpkin puree mixed with sage, honey and ricotta is the perfect amount of creamy and sweet, with the honey bringing out the natural sweetness in the pumpkin.  The creaminess of the mozzarella, mixed with the saltiness of the parmesan and fontina contrast the sweet pumpkin nicely.  Smokey and salty bacon adds a depth of flavor that is irreplaceable and makes this pizza a total winner (Everything is better with bacon right?  Even this Jew thinks so...).  Finally, not only does the kale provide you with your daily dose of nutrients, but it rounds out the pizza with a little crispness in texture and earthy flavor.  It's to die for.  This pizza is perfection, and I hope you'll agree.  

Sometimes in life, you don't win everything so I'm okay with it.  Actually it worked out because this morning, I ran a half marathon and placed second in my age group.  So I still won something this weekend.  Even if its not what I had originally planned on winning.

Keep scrolling, the recipe is below this picture.  Happy eating everybody!  

I know what you're thinking... I think.  The title of this post sounds weird.  But, I'm not that creative, and that's exactly what this post is about.  My neighbor worked for a spice company this summer and left the job with a myriad of culinary goodies, including--you guessed it--YEAST.  I don't know about you, but I'm not a baker.  I'm a cook, who dabbles and experiments, and does my best to make delicious baked goods.  I've mastered the quick bread, I've made boxed cake, and sometimes my cookies come out so it's safe to say that yeast is scary.  Have a really incredible food science background from my undergraduate education is wonderful.  I understand how to use yeast and why it works the way it does, but I've never really done much with it.  After experimenting this weekend with the Fleishmann's Yeast my neighbor gave me, I don't find it as intimidating.  Actually, I'm excited to experiment with more bread recipes--maybe even bring back the childhood memories I have of my father and I in the kitchen, making Jewish Challah bread.  BUT... that's another post.

Last night, I celebrated Pizza Night.  In college, I'd either celebrate Pizza Sunday with my roommate or some friends.  The dough would always be homemade and the pizzas were always delicious.  I had to bring back those memories--the smell of the fresh baked dough, the bubbly cheese, and the creative aspect of choosing your own toppings.  My pizza crust recipe is an adaptation on Alton Brown's pizza crust recipe.  The only things I did differently was use 1 cup all-purpose flour and 1 cup wheat flour to make a whole wheat pizza dough.  In addition, I added cornmeal to the bottom of the crust for extra texture.  You can find my version of this recipe here.

I set out to make my own pizza dough.  Something I had done before, but since it's unfamiliar, I was a little afraid it wouldn't work.  When I'm unfamiliar with cooking something, I follow a recipe to the T and then still, I get worried.  I'm not sure why.  Either way, Alton Brown's recipe worked out GREAT.  
The thing I love about homemade pizza is the #DoItYourself nature of a great pizza.  Pick your toppings, and bake!  My neighbor Carsen came over and we created our own pizzas.  One was a traditional tomato and motz pizza and the other was our more creative, assorted roasted veggie pizza with olive oil and garlic.  Both were delicious.  With pizza, the sky IS THE LIMIT.  Seriously, be creative.  I want to know what types of pizzas you make!  Comment below...

The final step with these pizzas is simple.  Bake the pizza off in a 500 F oven for about 7 minutes, or until your pizza is golden brown at the edges and the cheese is bubbly.  I hope you have a pizza stone, because I think it makes all the difference.  Your crust will be nice and crispy.  When making homemade pizza, a stone is really a must.  It's worth the investment, I swear.  And just a word to the wise, I set my smoke alarm off during this process, so be careful!

This was scary.  I've never baked bread by myself before.  That last statement makes me sound slightly childish, but it's true.  The only time I've truly made bread from scratch was with my father.  Of all the strange things I've cooked and baked, I'm not sure why I've never attempted bread on my own.  Either way, I was nervous as I got started this afternoon.  I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked, but I did successfully make a loaf of bread!  I adapted a recipe from Fleishmann's and made it my own.  I added an egg wash on the top of the bread to add additional texture and a golden brown crunch to the top.  And it wouldn't be flaxseed bread with out a little flaxseed topping!  Click HERE to see my recipe.  Below are some pictures I took throughout the process that may or may not help you.  I forgot to take one at each step of the process but use these as you choose to.  My recipe is also at the bottom of this post if you scroll all the way down.  By no means am I a bread expert (YET), but it wasn't that difficult.  It just required patience, which is something I'm working on.  It's safe to say that I will be making my own breads again in the near future.  Stay tuned!