Lately: Fall 2015

Oh my gosh y'all. It's been forever, 2 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days since I did a Sunday post. In fact, my last "Lately" post was February 1st. Holy Superbowl Sunday Batman! I've got lots of pictures to share, you know, cause I haven't in a million years. Let's dive right in-

Oh, and if you don't like pictures of things like puppies and Chihuahuas, you may want to skip this post :)

Chicken Guacamole Taquitos

I have a confession:

I've been hitting the guacamole hard this summer. Hard. It's been a serious craving for a good 2 months, and a couple times a week I find myself picking up yet another 2 avocados. 2 avocados makes a perfect amount of guacamole for me to eat in about 3 days (I know I've uttered that sentence before!). I've been snacking on the guac with tortilla chips, stuffing it into burritos, and baking it into these tasty little taquitos. 

2014: By The Numbers

Good morning friends!

I know I said I wouldn't be blogging much this week due to being out of town, but...

Thanks to insomnia, I'm the only one up and I have a feeling it's going to be that way for awhile. I've got a delicious cup of coffee, a gorgeous view over the top of the laptop of Lake of Egypt in Illinois, and I'm wide awake. Therefore, time to blog! I've got a couple of fun, year-end posts to share to wrap up 2014. I actually started this post in January of 2014, to keep track of all the events that took place this year, and right now I'm putting the finishing touches on it. Just for y'all :)

Let's jump right in, shall we?

Chicken Soup with Shells and Kale

Chicken soup with celery, carrots, onions, savory broth, chewy shells, and antioxidant rich kale? This is food that is bound to make you feel better when you are sick. Comfort food at its best. 

I'm trying to get better! This cold is stubbornly hanging on. I could have sworn I was better when I woke up Saturday morning, I felt like I was at 90%. How did I manage to screw that up? I went to the gym. I felt weak and fatigued during my workout, and worse, I felt like I'd lost some lung capacity. Granted, later that night, I realized I still had a lot of fluid in my chest. Hence, the feeling of reduced lung capacity. I felt tired upon returning home, only to wake up on Sunday with a serious case of illness related exhaustion. One step forward, two steps back. This is my norm, I hate taking time out of life to be sick. I'm feeling a bit better this morning, but I still feel the crud in my chest and have the slightest twinge of a stuffy nose. Frustrating.

Sundays do happen to be one of my most favorite days to recover from a cold, however. Let me rephrase that- Sundays in the fall. Why? Football! Yes, the hubby and I watched quite a bit of football yesterday, as he has caught my cold. My fantasy team that I deemed to be duds at the beginning of the season after a margarita-fueled draft have turned out to be... not so dud-ly. Much to our hosting site's surprise (I got a D for my draft), my team has been greatly over-performing. The combination I most doubted at the beginning of the year (Aaron Rodgers and Randall Cobb) have turned out to be my bread and butter. It just took them some time to settle into their roles. Of course, with Aaron Rodgers and Jay Cutler on a bye this week, I was forced to play Ben Roethlisberger.  I say forced because-

1. My other 2 quarterbacks were on a bye (duh).

2. He had a record breaking week last week, which typically means a less than stellar week after for Big Ben.

Much to my surprise, I woke up this morning and was pleasantly startled to find his final numbers to be stellar. In other lineup wonderfulness, I had to play Jeremy Hill. One of the 2 Cincinnati running backs, one who is usually sharing carries. Turns out, he wasn't sharing yesterday. And he. went. OFF. Talk about a good week to go off, since he was only in my lineup because Matt Forte also had a bye. The cherry on the top of my delicious fantasy sundae? Jeremy Maclin. Whatever Kool-Aid that kid has been drinking, I wish he'd share with my bench! 

All right, enough about fantasy football. I know many of you probably came to read about food and have found yourself wondering why you are reading about football. Moving on. 

Cold and flu season is in full swing around these parts. When we got back from Mexico, I picked up a rotisserie chicken at the deli the night after we got back. I didn't feel like cooking and I sure didn't feel like going out. A deli chicken is one of the best solutions for that problem. We had plenty of leftovers after dinner, and I made fresh broth out of the bones. It was the perfect setup for chicken soup, which is exactly what I did the next night. I added mini shells (for fun) and lots of kale (for good health). If I cut the kale small enough and make sure it's cooked enough, the hubby will eat it. Indeed, he enjoyed the soup. And it probably went a long ways towards making us better :)

I've still got a little bit of this soup leftover, perhaps it will be the nail in the coffin of this cold? I certainly hope so. 

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Happy Monday!

Ingredients (serves 6-8):

2 cups dried pasta shells

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

9 cups chicken broth (use low-sodium if using commercial)

1 tbsp kosher salt

2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

3 cups kale, chopped

2 cups chicken, cooked and chopped

2 tbsp fresh parsley, minced

Directions:

1. In a large pot, bring 5-6 cups water to boil. When boiling, add shells. Cook until al dente, about 8-9 minutes. Drain, toss with a little olive oil, and set aside.

2. Heat olive oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. When warm, add onion, carrot, and celery. Sauté 5-7 minutes, or until vegetables have softened. Add garlic, sauté for 30 seconds. 

3. Add chicken broth, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes. 

4. Add kale, chicken, and parsley. Allow soup to heat for 3-5 minutes, or until chicken is hot and kale has cooked down. Ladle into bowls, and serve immediately. 

Print Recipe

Looking for other soup recipes to keep you warm? Try these!

Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili

Winter Minestrone

Chicken Soup with Egg Noodles

Linked to: Treasure Box Tuesday, Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party

Baked Jalapeño Poppers with Raspberry Dipping Sauce

I have two things to discuss with you today- jalapeños and football.

Remember how I said I was super-scared for when all my jalapeños were going to come in? Because 2 of my bell pepper plants turned out to be jalapeño plants? 

Well... they're heeeeere. 

Luckily, luckily I came up with a fabulous solution to my problem- jalapeño poppers! I decided to serve them up for our draft party last weekend. I'd put some serious thought into these poppers when I met my friend for lunch at the local cantina last week. She suggested making a raspberry sauce to dip them in. The thought had never crossed my mind. I'd never tried jalapeño poppers with raspberry sauce before, although I vaguely think I'd at least heard of the combination. Never one to turn down the possibility of eating those succulent red berries, I decided to foray ahead. 

The morning of our draft party, I ambled out to the jalapeño plants and proceeded to harvest approximately 20 of them. A word of advice when handling these peppers? Wash your hands afterwards. Immediately. I have on occasion removed all the seeds and membranes, only to forget to wash my hands. This inevitably leads to me touching either my face or the hubby's. You want someone to jump six feet in the air and run down the hall to the bathroom yelling? Put a jalapeño hand on someone's face. That'll do it. Wash your hands my friends, just do it. After the harvest, I stuffed the pepper halves with a mixture of cream cheese and bacon. Dip the poppers in a little panko, place them on the baking sheet, and get them in a nice, hot oven. In 15-20 minutes, you'll have melty, bacon-y peppers with a nice crisp topping. Super simple. 

And the raspberry sauce? Raspberries and sugar. That's all you need. It's the perfect foil to the savory, spicy peppers. 

When I was younger, I avoided any combination of savory and fruit. In fact, I avoided lots of combinations that sounded weird. As I got into my late 20's however, it's almost like my tastebuds became bored. All I wanted was new and different combinations that I'd never tried before. Combinations like strawberry and gorgonzola, chicken and waffles, and smoked duck with pickled blackberries were revelations to me. I know a lot of combinations (or dishes) I post on here are unconventional, but that's what makes life fun. I know it may be tempting to stay in your comfort zone, sticking to "normal" food ideas, but what if, just for today, you tried something you've never tried before? You might just like it. You might just love it. Life is short people, and the world is so very big. Try some raspberry sauce on your creamy, bacon-y jalapeño popper :)

All right, I've talked jalapeños. Let's talk football. The NFL kicked off last night, and with it an ominous foreshadowing of my fantasy year. As I was setting my roster yesterday morning, it occurred to me that this year's strategy of drinking a pitcher of margaritas pre-draft did not a good team make. Let the ribbing begin as I tell all of you that I drafted not only Aaron Rodgers, but Randall Cobb. I'm not necessarily against taking a quarterback with a corresponding wide receiver, in fact, I was most successful with Peyton Manning and Wes Welker last year. But that's Peyton Manning. Man who is more machine than human. Last night's combination of Rodgers/Cobb, well, sucked. The 12th man was in Rodger's head like white on rice. Granted, I always give my fantasy teams a couple of weeks before I start to panic and begin rowing for shore, but anxiety is already setting in this year. After the first game. 

Oh brother.

It's Friday! Does everyone have fun plans for the weekend? The hubby and I have dedicated ourselves to housework this weekend, as we are leaving for Minnesota super-early on Wednesday morning for my aunt's 80th birthday. We'll be bringing my parents home with us from Minnesota, so we need to get stuff done NOW. Hopefully your weekend will be more enjoyable than mine :)

Ingredients (makes 20 jalapeños or 40 halves):

2 (6 oz) packages of fresh raspberries

1/8 cup granulated sugar

2 (8 oz) blocks of cream cheese, softened

5 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled

20 jalapeños, seeds and membranes removed, halved

1 1/2 cups panko

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400º.

2. Prepare the raspberry sauce- in a small saucepan, combine raspberries and sugar over medium-low heat. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until raspberries have broken apart. Remove from heat. Place a sieve over a small bowl and push raspberry mixture throw the sieve. Discard the raspberry seeds caught in the sieve. Set sauce aside to cool.

3. In a medium size bowl, combine cream cheese and bacon. Place panko in a small bowl. Fill a jalapeño half with a tablespoon of cream cheese mixture, then dip jalapeño half in panko. Place on baking sheet. Repeat with all jalapeños.

4. Bake jalapeños in pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until panko has browned. Serve immediately with raspberry sauce.

Printable Recipe

Looking for other jalapeño recipes? Try these!

Easy Homemade Salsa

Chipotle Shrimp Tacos with Lime Sour Crema

Mango-Avocado Salsa

Linked to: Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party, Treasure Box Tuesdays

"Mangling" Margaritas

Maybe I should have saved this post for a Friday? Perhaps :)

This post is brought to you by happy accident. Happy accidents are actually a part of my process. When you are still learning all there is to know about food, mistakes happen. A lot. Sometimes the mistakes are really, really bad- like my incursion into French Onion Soup. The soup wasn't even edible. It literally tasted like feet. But sometimes, sometimes the mistakes are good. Like when I accidentally grabbed mango margarita mix at the grocery store this weekend instead of my go-to original mix. 

You see, we had our fantasy football draft over the weekend. The hubby and I had invited our couple friends over who participate in the league with us. By sheer luck (for Jessica, mwhahaha!), our agreed upon menu had a decidedly Mexican flair. Taco dip with salsa, jalapeño poppers, and sliders. I thought margaritas would go gang-busters with the food. And margaritas are something I have down to a science. In fact, when the hubby and I first started dating (maybe even just before we started dating) he learned just how good at making margaritas I am. Before there was ever an "us", he was rooming with one of my college friends. I just happened to be at my friends house that weekend for "Girl's Night". Aka batches of margaritas and horror movies all night. The hubby was supposed to be out with his friends, when he came home in the middle of our inebriated terror-fest. Always one to be polite, I offered him a margarita. To my shock and horror, he downed it in a couple of gulps. Uh, my marg's are pretty strong. Really strong. You don't mess with a sorority girl and her tequila. Well, that margarita went down the hatch. And then another. And then another. Not long after that, they really caught up with him. He spent the entire night sleeping with his head on the toilet. Lesson learned.

Returning from my tangent, I could make a margarita in my sleep. Lots of tequila, a shot of Cointreau, one lager-style beer, and just enough margarita mix to give some color. And, oh yes, lots of ice and salt. I'm an on-the-rocks girl. So here I am, mixing drinks for our guests, when I do the first taste test. That first spoonful I put in my mouth shocked the hell out of me. Instead of tasting like something I've been making for many years, I was gifted with a sweet, fruity flavor. Once I got over my consternation with the exotic flavor, I realized I liked it. I liked it a lot. A quick read of the bottle I bought solved the conundrum. I bought mango mix. 

If you're like me, you're probably thinking that mango mix and lager beer have no business going together. You would be wrong. If you've never added beer to your margarita, I recommend trying it immediately. Adding a beer really mellows out the overly sweet quality of a margarita mix. Once the sweet is turned down, you can taste the tequila. You can taste the hint of orange from the Cointreau. And more importantly, you can drink more than one without getting a sour stomach. And surprisingly (or maybe not surprisingly) the beer helped tone down the sugary sweetness of the mango mix. The margarita ended up being sweet, but not sickeningly so. It's precisely that saccharine quality that usually turns me off from mango cocktails. Problem solved! I used Yuengling lager for this batch, but my go-to's for margaritas are anything light. Coors Light, Bud Light, Miller Light, PBR, etc. Obviously a stronger beer will add more flavor to your cocktail, and that's not always what I'm after. 

And speaking of football, the season kicks off tonight! The hubby and I are ready, I'm making pizza and- dare I say? Margaritas! :)

Happy Thursday friends!

Ingredients (makes a 60-oz pitcher):

3 cups ice

2 1/2 cups tequila

4 oz Cointreau

1 1/2 cups mango margarita mix

1 (12 oz) Yuengling lager

lime wedges and coarse salt (garnish)

Directions:

1. Fill a large pitcher with ice. Add tequila, Cointreau, mango mix, and Yuengling. Stir to mix. Taste test, and adjust to taste.

2. Run lime wedge around rim of glass. Dip glass in coarse salt. Fill glass with ice, and pour margarita over ice. Garnish with lime, and serve immediately. 

Printable Recipe

Love this recipe? Try these!

Fresh Mint Lemonade

Raspberry Peach Lime-Lemonade

Strawberry Lime Basil Sparklers

Linked to: Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party, Treasure Box Tuesdays

Classic Chocolate Cupcakes

with whip cream frosting and sprinkles

I warned you it would happen, and it did. It's September. Waaaaah! As we leave summer in the rearview mirror, what better way to distract ourselves than chocolate? I love a classic chocolate cupcake. There are a couple of things that a chocolate cupcake must be:

1. Moist- above all, a classic chocolate cupcake must be moist. I slightly changed my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe (which always turn out perfect!) by decreasing the vanilla extract and adding a bunch of cocoa. These cakes didn't fail me, turning out perfectly luscious.

2. Chocolatey- To start, I added a half cup of cocoa to the batter. One taste was enough to let me know I needed MORE chocolate. 3/4 cup cocoa was optimal.

3. Delicious Frosting- I hate frosting. I'll rephrase that- I hate most frostings. I hate how commercial frostings are overly sweet and excessively grainy. I also have great disdain for piling a pound of frosting on a cake. Yuck. I made my absolute favorite frosting to go on these cakes. Homemade and whipped into submission, this frosting tastes like whip cream, not commercial frosting.

And I won't add this as a requirement to a classic chocolate cupcake, but I love me some sprinkles! Really and truly, I sprinkled these cupcakes because I made them for the kids. I'll just keep telling myself that :)

I made these for our family Labor Day Cookout, and they were a hit. The kids were clamoring for cupcakes before dinner (as usual!) and I must admit, they got a few bites. My niece, the little resident sweet tooth, had 2 1/2 while I was there. Sweets never go untouched with our crowd.

Annnnnnnd, I think y'all really need to see how much the cupcakes were enjoyed-

My niece, hamming it up for the camera. I could barely get the boys to smile for the camera, but my niece? She loves the camera. If I want a picture of someone devouring a cupcake, my niece will be the first one to shove that confection in her face. And enjoy the heck out of it while she's doing it!

Boy were they mad when they realized I took a picture :)

The other ham in the family. Could this be where my niece gets it from? Haha.

Did everyone have a fun holiday weekend? We had our family barbecue on Saturday due to everyone's buy schedules. The hubby and I had a fantasy draft on Sunday afternoon that went semi-distastrously. Our league is scattered over the country, with half the faction living on the West Coast and the rest of us stretching from Northern Kentucky to Cincinnati. After some serious finagling with schedules, we found time to do an online draft. The only problem? Our friend's account wouldn't let her draft a single player. The option was simply greyed out. The other gigantic problem? We couldn't stop the draft once it started. We all had to go on auto-pick and wait for it to end to start over.  Talk about taking the air out of your tires. We thought we had our friend up and running, only to come up with the same problem when we re-started. We came up with a work-around (eventually) but a draft that should have taken an hour and half ended up delayed and stretched over a 7 hour period. Now that I think about, we just had our friends over for 7 hours. The draft may have wrapped around the 5 and a half hour mark :)

Regardless, we now have our fantasy teams, so bring on the season!

Have a great week everyone!

Ingredients (makes 12 cupcakes):

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 egg whites

1/4 cup Greek yogurt, plain

1 cup almond milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

Whip Cream Frosting

sprinkles (garnish)

Directions:

1. Line a cupcake pan with liners. Preheat oven to 350º.

2. In a small mixing bowl, combine flour through baking soda. Whisk to mix. Set aside.

3. In a large microwave-safe mixing bowl, melt the butter. When melted, add sugar. Whisk until no lumps remain. Mixture will be very grainy. Mix in egg whites. Mix in yogurt, milk, and vanilla until batter is smooth. Batter will be very thick. Distribute evenly among cupcake pan. Bake in preheated oven, 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean with moist crumbs. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before frosting.

4. Prepare frosting. Frost and sprinkle cupcakes to taste. Store in an airtight container.

Printable Recipe

Looking for other cupcake recipes? Try these!

Chocolate Malt Cupcakes with Malted Buttercream

Mixed Berry Cupcakes

Spiced Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Linked to: Treasure Box Tuesday, Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party

Udon with Thai Pickled Cabbage and Grilled Chicken

Ohhhhhhh. 

This cold pasta salad is gooooood. So good. I'm a big, big fan of pasta salad. I have a friend that can't stand the taste and texture of cold pasta, and I'm afraid I can't relate. I can't even relate a little bit. I could eat cold pasta salad for breakfast, lunch, dinner, 4th meal, and beyond. The taste? Yum. The texture? Hits the spot. I can sympathize with my friend though, because there are plenty of yummy foodie things that I can't stand. Rosemary, for one. Beets. Liver. The hubby's green juice he makes in the morning. It's funny how one person's filet mignon can be another person's, well, liver and onions. 

Let's talk Thai Pickled Cabbage. I saw the recipe on one of the blogs I follow, Sidewalk Shoes, and I knew I just had to try it. Pam made it sound right up my alley. And it twas'. We've got lots of access to cabbage right now, with it being proliferous at the farmer's markets. Plus, the hubby's uncle grew some. I thinly sliced a whole head, and got it into that delicious pickling liquid as soon as I could. I ended up letting it pickle for 2 weeks, mainly because that's how long it took me to get to it! That 2 weeks did that cabbage good. Upon opening that jar, I was hit with sweet, salty, and earthy scents wafting up at me. And wow, does this cabbage ever have flavor. It adds so much to the salad. If you decide to make this dish, do not (under any circumstances) skip the pickled cabbage. 

When I first made the cabbage, I wasn't sure what I was going to use it for. I finally decided on a pasta dish, and since the pickled cabbage is cold, I deduced that the dish should be cold as well. I picked up a package of udon at the grocery store, a thick Japanese buckwheat noodle. All that was left to do was add a chopped, grilled chicken breast and some shredded carrot. Oh yeah, and make some sauce. I ended up making a saltier sauce to balance out the sweet and spicy of the pickled cabbage. It worked perfectly, the taste ended up an exercise in balanced Asian fusion. I sat down with a plate for lunch one day, and after a few slurps, it seemed the pasta had disappeared. Almost embarrassingly fast.

Oh, how I heart Asian food!

Happy Friday of a long holiday weekend! What does everyone have on tap? The hubby and I are nutty coocoo, and we are running another race tomorrow. I'll be running my first 10K. Funny how I ran a 7-miler before I ever ran a 10K. I'm excited, and a little nervous. The course is a little hillier than I'm used to, but hills are good for you. I really need to run more of them, I just get so comfortable at my little training spot. I haven't made a goal, because I'm not sure of what it should be.  The hubby and I ran hard last weekend, resulting in a little fatigue this week. We ran twice, and both felt hard. We did some cross-training at the gym yesterday, and today is just yoga. I'm going into the race with fresh legs, but I'm still unsure. Especially with a hilly course. I'd like to come in at 1 hour, but again, I'm not sure if that's realistic with the hills. I guess we'll see, won't we? We've also got a family cookout later after the race. I'll be preparing cupcakes today, yay for baking! I'm going with classic chocolate cupcakes, with vanilla frosting and sprinkles. Perfect for the kids.  After the cookout? The hubby and I will be parked on our couch, either asleep or awake cheering on the Ducks. I can't believe the Ducks are playing at 10:30 Eastern time. It'll be a miracle if we are able to stay awake for that. Then, there's Sunday...

Sunday is draft day! 

Yep, it's that time of year again for fantasy football! I can't wait to pick my team, because as of this very moment, I have not one clue of the direction I'm going. And I love that. One of our couple friends participates in the league with us, so they'll be here with us and we are making a tail-gate worthy spread. My girlfriend is making a taco dip and salsa, and I'm planning on whipping up bacon and cream cheese-filled jalapeños. And of course, there will be beer. No draft is complete with a cold brew!

Happy Labor Day Weekend friends!

Ingredients (serves 4-6):

Thai Pickled Cabbage-

1/2 cup lime juice

3 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp kosher salt

1 tbsp sugar

2 tsp ground ginger

1 garlic clove, minced

1 head cabbage, thinly sliced

1 small jalapeño pepper, thinly sliced

Salad-

10 oz udon noodles, prepared according to package directions

1 cup carrot, shredded

1 chicken breast, grilled and chopped

Sauce-

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp hoisin sauce

2 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp honey

sesame seeds, thinly sliced scallions (optional-garnish)

Directions:

1. Prepare pickled cabbage- in a large mason jar, combine lime juice through garlic. Put lid on jar, and shake thoroughly. Open jar, and shove cabbage and jalapeños in. Cover, and shake. Place in fridge for 2 weeks, shaking every once in a while. 

2. In a large bowl, combine noodles, carrot, and chicken. Drain cabbage, and add to bowl. 

3. Prepare dressing- in a small bowl combine soy sauce through honey. Whisk to combine. Drizzle dressing over salad, toss to combine. Top with sesame seeds and scallions, if using. Serve immediately.

Printable Recipe

Thai Pickled Cabbage recipe adapted from Sidewalk Shoes.

Love this recipe? Try these!

Grilled Chicken Chow Mein

Hoisin Chicken with Spicy Cucumber Salad

Szechuan Green Beans with Ground Pork

Linked to: Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party, Treasure Box Tuesday

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

I cannot believe it's almost the end of August. Wasn't it just yesterday I was planting seedlings, heading back outdoors to run, and dreaming up new popsicle flavors? That's the tough part of having a favorite season, it goes so fast. However, there's something that begins at the end of summer that (in my mind) is almost a consolation prize for summer being over...

FOOTBALL.

Oh yes. We love football in this house. Our fantasy football draft is on Sunday! I love me some fantasy football. We play in a small, 8-team family league that's just for fun. We are no "The League" here. We are goofy, we take kickers when want, and no team is complete with 3 defenses... I'm just kidding about the defenses, but we don't take ourselves seriously. Most girls aren't that interested in fantasy football, but I think that's a travesty. I've found I'm more into football since I started playing fantasy. It gives you a reason, a purpose to watch games and it's made me expand to watching other teams that I usually wouldn't watch, just to root on a player. Girls, I highly recommend playing. I swear, you'll want to watch some football on Sunday. With some beer and a piece of this pizza in your hand, right??

This pizza is perfect for football season. We first started making it years ago, actually a couple months after we got engaged. The hubby and I went to Whistler, BC with my brother and his girlfriend, for some much needed skiing and relaxation. We always stay in our timeshare in which every room has its own little kitchen, and it was on this fateful trip that Buffalo Chicken pizza was born. In those days, the pizza was modest. Made with a can of Pillsbury pizza dough, a chicken breast, a bag of shredded mozzarella cheese, and a bottle of buffalo sauce. Simple and to the point. The recipe has definitely evolved over the years into the magnificent work of art that it is today. It's homemade dough, all the way now. By happy mistake, I left my pizza dough rising in the fridge for 3 days. It turned out to be the best dough I've made. It was perfectly elastic, yet held it's shape. All I did was put the pizza dough on my board, and used my hands to knead it into the perfect circle. Not too thin. No tears (tears, like cuts, not tears that I cried!). It was pizza dough nirvana. 

I may just let all my dough's rest for 3 days now :)

So... the draft. I'll be the first to admit I paid no attention to the offseason. None. I found the hijinks of Donald Sterling and the Clippers more newsworthy than the NFL's offseason. HA! I'm just kidding, but seriously, I don't know what's going on. No clue who my first draft pick with be, no running-back must-haves, and really, I'm not up to date on the injuries. I've got some studying to do. That probably won't happen. I say I'll study every year, only to never actually realize the goal. I fly by the seat of my pants every year, and take whoever sounds good at the moment. My strategy is bona-fide, I've even won a couple of years. It's most likely the road I will take again this year. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. As far as fantasy players goes, I fall somewhere between Taco and Ruxin. I'm into it enough to care and tinker with my roster every week, not so into it I over-think everything (You "League" fans will appreciate that reference!).

There's one more awesome thing that comes with football season every year... College football! No fantasy football there, just good, old-fashioned, teeth-gritting love of the alma mater. Our first game is on Saturday, and the hubby and I can't wait. 

Make this pizza! And, GO DUCKS!

Ingredients (makes 1 large pizza):

Basic Pizza Dough

buffalo sauce

1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

5 mozzarella bocconcini balls, halved

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles

Directions:

1. Prepare pizza dough through Step 4.

2. For Step 5 of making the Pizza Dough, spread buffalo sauce over the unbaked dough. Sprinkle the pizza with chicken and celery. Place mozzarella balls haphazardly over the pizza. Sprinkle the shredded mozzarella and blue cheese evenly over the pizza. Drizzle a small amount of buffalo sauce (1-2 tbsp) over the pizza. 

3. Bake under broiler for 5-7 minutes, or until mozzarella is melted and crust has begun to brown in spots. 

4. Slice and serve!

Printable Recipe

Looking for other buffalo sauce recipes? Try these!

Buffalo Shrimp with Creamy Blue Cheese Slaw

Buffalo Ranch Popcorn

Buffalo Chicken Mozzarella Melts

Linked to: Treasure Box Tuesdays, Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party