A Cold Snap, Summer Dreaming, and A Hot Oven Equals Pizza!!!

As I get ready to post this, the tempurtare has plummeted and we 'welcome' our January cold snap!  -36 Celsius and it is still expected to drop!!    We are still in the midst of a nasty January cold snap.  When I woke up it was a chilly -32 Celsius (with the wind chill)....BRRRRR!!  Yesterday was indeed cold and the chili really helped warm me up, especially after venturing out into the cold to go swimming at the pool.  As of this evening things have warmed up slightly, well enough for the snow to start falling...it is only -15 Celsius....but with the wind it feels like -26 Celsius.  Yup! Gotta LOVE winter because it makes you look forward to summer and to things like this:

My favourite summer spot

Summer sunset

The Boy getting in my shot

Instead of dreaming about summer to warm up, another way to help warm things up a bit is to make pizza!!  I have been wanting to make some spinach and ricotta calzones or pizza of some sort.  Tonight is homemade pizza night and this is the perfect time to try this one out!  I used the pizza dough recipe from my Mo Pizza post.  For this particular pizza night, I used 3 cups whole wheat flour and 7 cups white.  Yes, I made the full double batch of dough.  Once the dough is made it can be frozen in single crust servings for use later.  You can even roll out the dough into single serve pizza crusts, layer between parchment paper and freeze for quick pizza dinners! (Attention issues really helps with the multi tasking)

While the pizza dough was rising, I gathered the toppings and set about getting them ready.

Make some pizza sauce by mixing together in a bowl:

• 1/2 a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes (left over from another recipe)
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp oregano
• healthy pinch Italian seasoning

Shred the cheeses (yes, there was more than one):

• Provolone
• Mozzarella
• Parmesan
• Ricotta (well, that didn't need shredding but I took it out of the fridge!)

 Sliced up some other items:

• Pepperoni
• Green peppers
• Onion
• Mushrooms
• Tomatoes

Assembled the spinach/ricotta mixture:

• Thawed and squeezed out 1 10 oz package of frozen, chopped spinach.
• Mixed in 1 500g container of light ricotta (approximately 1/2 pound)
• Grated in some nutmeg
• Tossed in a handful of Parmesan
• Tossed in a handful of provolone
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Okay then, now that the dough has had an hour to rise, it is time for some pizza and calzone assembly.

Because I am just that nerdy, I weighed out the dough.  Tonight I went with 3 balls of dough weighing in at 300 grams each and 6 portions of dough weighing 100 grams each.

I find the 100 gram portions perfect for single serve or small pizzas and the 300 gram portions make a nice size pizza for dinner. (I am aiming for leftovers for lunches here but as the Boy is always hungry I will be happy if it lasts throughout the evening!)

First I assembled some spinach/ricotta calzones for lunches by rolling out the 100gram portions and spooning more filling than I think can fit and sealing them all up.  I actually went with 4 calzones so I could test out 2 mini size pizzas.

Just fold in half and seal!

The 2 mini sized pizzas were a perfect base for the rest of the spinach/ricotta mixture, a couple of tomato slices and a bit more cheese!

One mini spinach/ricotta and the calzones

I then rolled out the 300 gram portions.

Sauce it up!

Pepp it up!

The other stuff!

Get cheesey!

Bake it up!

Pile o' pizza for snacks and lunches!!

Gotta love food that is already prepared and ready to eat...especially when it is homemade!  In the meantime, keep warm and eat well!















Ahhh, homemade pizza!  So worth the effort!