Tapas Gone Wild! inside-out stuffed dates

I super love tapas. Everything about it totally suits my style. I always want about 47 different things on the menu, and unless I'm eating with that many people, pretty sure I'm not ordering that much food. Plus, I can't eat a lot of food at one time (a lingering side effect from years of stupid stomach issues), so the small plates totally work for me. And in 30 minutes when I'm hungry again? I can order another small plate. (this little issue is the bain of hubbs' existence. oh he of the I-can-just-eat-one-huge-meal-and-be-good-for-the-rest-of-the-day clan).

Anyway, my faves are usually the things that are shoved into a date. goat cheese stuffed, bacon wrapped dates?  BRING IT. And then, we hit a new tapas place and saw that they stuffed the dates with chorizo. Wait. WHAT!?! This is a brilliant idea. Except. No cheese? Bland. So, I reinstated the goat cheese. And then I was all "do I REALLY feel like shoving all this into a tiny little opening? that seems like work". And lo and behold, my newest "dip" was created. And I have no link to send you to cause this was all out of my brain!

I only have one pic, cause this dish took about 4 minutes to come together.

I used:
3 chorizo links (whole foods- so they're brat sized)
6 fresh dates (had to remove the pits myself, but if you do it with scissors you kinda feel like you're playing that game Operation and it's fun)- again we get these at whole foods in the produce section, they come in a tupperware thingie
a good hit of goat cheese
a good hit of cream cheese
a little honey if you find the chorizo has too much spice for you
grape tomatoes, cut in half
cotija cheese to grate over top

if you can find loose chorizo you don't have to slit the casing and empty it out, but whole foods only carries it in links, and I always feel the teensiest bit guilty when I ask them to take it out of the casings for me. Anyway, go ahead and empty those out into a hot cast iron skillet with some oil and brown it up. then throw in your chopped up dates, tomatoes, and your cheeses. Goat cheese is a really powerful flavor, but since I like a really creamy dip, I use cream cheese as well (also helps with that whole spicy thing for the toddler). It really is just putting a bit in and tasting it until it's delicious for you. I don't even add salt and pepper to this because the chorizo itself has so much flavor, as do the tortilla chips you eat it with.

Side note: Buy the in-house made tortilla chips from whole foods. IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Not in any restaurant ever in the US have I tasted chips like this. They're heavenly.

Anyway, heat everything up, then throw it in a bowl and grate cotija over it. Then dig in.

Seriously, the best.

And it's 100% ok to eat this "appetizer" as a main course. Because I said so. And I would never steer you wrong.

Loves!

Chorizo and Sweet Potato Pizza

So I looooooooooooooooooooooove pizza. and pizza in Washington? Super sucks. You can get it on nearly every corner in New Jersey and it's amazing, and you can get it by the slice. But here on the west coast? They didn't get the memo. Papa Murphy's seems to be a favorite, but if I'm gonna have to bake the pizza myself, I'm gonna go ahead and make my own damned pizza. Cause duh.

So I found the greatest recipe ever for pizza dough, and make a bunch of them and freeze them in separate baggies so that whenever we feel like pizza we just have to thaw out a dough and voila! Amazingness in no time at all.

The recipe is from the book "Made In Italy" by David Rocco. I highly recommend this book. So here's his pizza recipe.

2 1/2 tsps active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup white wine at room temp
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

stir yeast into water and let it dissolve, about 10 minutes
pour flour and salt onto smooth work surface and create a well in the middle
pour water and yeast mix into well a little at a time, using a fork to stir in more flour from the sides of the well
keep it up til the water is gone. then add in the olive oil and the wine.
knead the dough until it's smooth and a little spongy. it seems like the thing will never ever come together. but trust me, it will.
divide the dough into 6 equal parts and put a damp dish cloth over them and leave at room temp for about an hour.
Punch them down and roll them out to make the pizzas, or stick em in baggies and freeze!

For this particular pizza, I took some of my favorite things and threw them on a pizza. I just cooked up some diced sweet potatoes, chorizo (I crumbled it up), cut up some scallions and some heirloom cherry tomatoes, and topped with marscarpone. I just brushed the dough with olive oil before tossing all of the goodness right on there.

mmmmmm......pizza.