Lobster and Corn Chowder

Stuffed Pizza with Meatballs and Italian Sausage

At Home we often make Pizza in many creative ways, I like to get the kids involved in both the creative process and assembling the Pizza. I make the dough from scratch hours ahead of time kneading it by hand (I don’t have one of those fancy bread machines or Cuisine Arts) and letting it rise for two hours, punching it down and forming the dough balls and allowing those to rise another 2 hours. However store bought dough will do just fine, I recommend the second proof before using it.

Sunday morning after finishing up our Blueberry Pancakes with softened butter and syrup that’s so sticky sweet the plates needs to be run under hot water before going to the dishwasher my daughter and I began bouncing ideas around about what kind of pizza we would have for lunch before we headed off to a late afternoon family gathering. She wanted a mac and cheese pizza which sounds  yummy but the only option available was making the boxed stuff to put it together and that quickly was ruled out. Another favorite is BBQ Chicken Pizza using Sweet Baby Rays for the base, adding thinly sliced onions, topping it with sharp cheddar and roasted chicken which I usually keep on hand in the freezer. But it was time for something new. A pizza so unique we could call it our own. We then remembered our all time favorite meal we had the night before. That was it!  Ana quickly opened the door to the refrigerator with great enthusiasm, quickly pulled out the Meatballs and Sausage and said “this will make an incredible pizza daddy”. And it was final!

I got to work on the dough and she began shredding the block mozzarella cheese that was so soft   it deformed in her hand as she pushed it through the grates. After kneading the dough, proofing it, forming into 2 balls and proofing another two hours we were ready to get started on our wonderful creation.

I stretched the dough using my thick wooden dowel style rolling pin into two 14 inch rounds. I then laid down the sausage and meatballs after chopping them into large bite-able pieces. Ana topped that with about a pound of whole milk mozzarella and I put the top of the crust on rolling up the sides to assure it would be air tight and would not leak. After topping that with lots of Parmesan Cheese I cut some small holes on the top so it could breath while it cooked and we put it in the oven.

Hot out of the oven

After much anticipation and beautiful aromas permeating the air like Sunday dinner at Gram-mas house it was time to take it out of the oven. We needed to let it rest for 10 minutes so I guarded the kitchen like watchman on duty to assure no one would be overly tempted by the  thick and crispy crust and perfectly toasted Parmesan cheese.

Slice of Meatball and Italian Sausage Stuffed Pizza

Finally it was time to eat and not one of the eight pieces I cut it into lasted more than 10 minutes between the four of us. To our delight it was worth all of the anticipation and a we all agreed was a new favorite.

New England Style Fish Chowder

Making Chowder is often overly complicated by people looking to put there own unique spin on an otherwise perfect, classic time tested New England favorite. When working on Cape Cod I have seen all kinds of unusual things done to Chowder such as putting wine, chicken stock, concentrated broth base, dry mustard, condensed milk, and the list goes on. The recipe I provide here should take about 45 minutes to prepare and is made the “Old Fashion Way” with only a few quality ingredients.
Start by thoroughly washing 2.5 lbs. red bliss potatoes
Dice potatoes into half inch cubes
Dice one med size Vidalia Onion into 1/4 inch
Dice one celery stalk into 1/4 inch
Mince 4 slices of bacon into 1/8 inch
Sauté onions, celery, bacon in one stick of butter until soft
Crush two cloves of garlic and cook briefly
Add 1/2 cup flour and stir continually until flour is incorporated
Add 1 quart half and half and one quart whole milk
Add potatoes to the pot and simmer until potatoes are cooked
Add salt and pepper to taste and a pinch of dried thyme
Add two pounds of either Cod, Haddock or Pollock the bigger pieces the better
Allow the fish to simmer at a low heat until just cooked being careful not to stir too much as to break up the fish