Hawaiian Pizza

The holidays have ended and we have a half ham hanging out in our fridge begging to be eaten. Not a fan of straight-up ham, I scoured the internet today in search of recipes in which to use the leftovers. The problem is that a lot of leftover ham recipes look disgusting or bring back painful memories. Ham salad is not my friend.

While searching the internet I came across a Von's ad telling me ideas to do with my leftovers. What a great idea! I searched the site and came across Hawaiian Pizza. The recipe seemed easy enough so I went to the store (and felt bad because Von's wasn't on the way so I didn't go there), got the ingredients and set to work. Our pizza didn't cook perfectly and for the second time I opened a can of Pillsbury Pizza Dough with a hole in it. I totally should've gone for the store brand. But, the pizza turned out edible and a "pretty good" from the toughest critics.

Next time I will:
Better drain the pineapple and make sure they aren't extra wet
Bake the pizza at 450 (instead of 400), despite my pan being non-stick it doesn't qualify as dark
Make sure the cheese is melted

Hawaiian Pizza
1/2 cup pizza sauce (I used the pre-made kind near the Boboli display)
2 C mozzarella cheese
1 C diced ham
1 can chopped pineapples in their own juice
1 pizza crust
Crushed Red Pepper (optional)

Directions:
-Pre-heat the oven to 450
-Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Spread the refrigerated dough in a rectangle on the prepared sheet.
-Spread pizza sauce (you may want a little more) on the dough leaving a half inch or less edge.
-Reserve 1/4 cup of cheese. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the sauce. Add the ham and pineapple chunks on top. Sprinkle with the reserved cheese.
-Bake according to the can directions 13-17 minutes until crust is golden and cheese is melted
-Slide off the pan to a wood board and let sit a few minutes before cutting, serve.

New Product: Amy's Frozen Indian Dinner

Last week I had to make dinner for myself. I found out while at Target. I'm still a little squeamish about their grocery area, so I decided to try a frozen dinner. I chose Amy's Indian. I like Indian food but hardly eat it. One time I had a cheese dish similar to this one at an Indian take-away restaurant. I didn't think this would be the same, but I could hope!

As it turns out, Amy's take on Indian food is not at all bad. Of course the portions are small but the flavors are there. I would get this again if I needed a quick and relatively healthy dinner.

Mom's Beef Stew

Mom's Beef stew is just what I crave when the weather starts to turn wintery and cold. This year I jumped the gun a little and made it in the fall and it was still great. While this stew doesn't take a ton of hands on time, it does sit in the oven for five hours so you have to be home. It occurs to me, however, that this could be made in the slow cooker. I haven't tried it, but I think that it would work fine. I doubled the recipe last time I made it and had way too much (and it was almost too big for the pot). Start with one recipe on your first try, it serves 4-6 hearty portions on top of delicious mashed potatoes.

Mom's Beef Stew (1 hour prep, 5 hours cooking)
Ingredients
2 lbs beef stew meat
1/2 c white or rye bread, ~1 slice, broken into small pieces
1 c chopped celery
1 t. Lawry's Seasoning Salt
1/2 T sugar
3 T tapioca
1 2lb can whole tomatoes
3 onions cut into bite sized pieces
6 carrots cut into bite sized pieces
1 t lemon juice
1 t Worcestershire sauce
dash allspice
1/4 t. pepper
1/2 t. paprika
1/2 t. garlic salt
48oz (or less) V8 tomato juice
Mashed potatoes, for serving

Combine all ingredients in a large oven-safe pot with lid (such as a corningware casserolle or le crueset pot or dutch oven). Cover, bake 5 hours at 300 degrees. Serve warm over mashed potatoes.