Sweet potato latkes topped with goodness

So, while searching for a yummy cranberry sauce recipe for Thanksgiving, I stumbled across Carla Hall's sweet potato latkes and cranberry chutney recipe. So I made the chutney and thought nothing of it.

Until the other night. When I had a ton of chutney, some sweet potatoes I didn't use for Thanksgiving, and some brie just laying around. And I was feeling particularly lazy, so didn't defrost any meat for dinner. And I was wondering how on earth I was going to somehow turn that into an entire meal. And then, brilliance struck.

I had eggplant. And brie. And pancetta. And so, I made some stackers.

I followed her directions for the latkes. Then I sauteed some eggplant in my trusty cast iron skillet in evoo, salt and pepper. Then I topped that with brie. I stuck that in the oven under broil until the cheese got all melty and bubbly. While it was broiling, I crisped some pancetta in the skillet. I topped the stack with that, and a nice big dollop of the chutney.

I honestly had no idea how this would turn out. But it was incredible. Shockingly amazing. All the salty, sweet, creamy, crispy deliciousness.

You should make this for sure!

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.