Other experiments and notes from last night...


I tried making a caramelized onion and white mushroom truffle oil white pizza, and a barbecue shrimp and caramelized onion pizza. I think I've decided that I want to experiment with a few more pizza dough recipes. I can't tell if I let the yeast in warm water stay too long [discovered midway through that I needed to borrow a cup of flour from our grad school neighboor] or if I just need another recipe. As far as toppings go, I liked both. I used a mixture of mozarella and havarti cheese on the mushroom one. And I used Annie's barbecue sauce on the shrimp one. I sauteed the shrimp separately in oil and cajun spice until they were just slightly undercooked, before putting them on the pizza. I would remake both. However, I would probably sautee the mushrooms in oil, rather than use the mushrooms from below

I'd also remake the veggie pot pie that I made, with a few modifications. I caramelized onions in one pan. Meanwhile, in another pot, I sauteed mushrooms in butter and oil, and then added white wine. I cooked until it was somewhat reduced. I pulled out some of the mushrooms for the pizza (though in the future, I would've pulled them out before the wine). I then threw in some sticks of thyme, what little left of a rosemary sprig (about 1/4 of an inch) I had on hand, as well as chopped zucchini, carrots, spinach, corn, green pepper, and vegetarian Quorn-brand chicken tenders. In the future, I'd hope that I'd remember to throw in diced potatoes as well. I added some skim milk and more white wine until the vegetables seemed almost cooked. I then added some flour to thicken the sauce. I dumped the mixture into a glass pie pan. I rolled out a whole wheat pie crust from Whole Foods' frozen section, cut out a few holes, and placed the crust on top. I then baked until the crust was ready--the rest of the mixture was warm and cooked so I didn't worry about the timing.
My pie pan had been fairly packed to the brim with veggies. It was delicious but to make it more like a traditional pot pie, I'd probably cut the veggies into two pie containers and increase the amount of liquid in each in the future...