A Hit and a Near Miss

First, the hit! I used the pizza dough I made a few weeks ago (and stuck in the freezer) to make one killer pizza :) Even after freezing, I was able to roll it out thin so it was nice and crispy after baking on my pizza stone.


All of the prep work for this pizza can be done ahead of time (my preferred way to do things). I happened to have a lot of shallots thanks to a farm haul from friends of the family (thanks david & al!), so I made some caramelized shallots one night when I had a little extra time. Another night I was roasting veggies and threw in an extra head of garlic to have some roasted garlic. The mushrooms and spinach can also be cooked up ahead of time as well.


The roasted garlic got mixed with some creamy goat cheese, and the rest of the ingredients topped the pie, resulting in a fabulous dinner! I was totally in love with the flavors in this pizza, and will definitely be making this again soon :)


Woodsy Pizza
(or Pizza w/Caramelized Shallots, Roasted Garlic Goat Cheese, Mushrooms and Spinach)
Recipe by Shannon


Pizza Dough (I used 1/4 of Jenna's recipe made with all white whole wheat flour)
2-3oz goat cheese
~2c thinly sliced shallots (or sweet onion)
2-3T EVOO, divided
2t balsamic vinegar
4-5 cloves of roasted garlic
4oz sliced mushrooms (I used a mix of Shiitakes and Baby Bellas)
few lg handfuls of baby spinach (I used ~3oz, or half of a 6oz bag)

For the Caramelized Shallots, I heated ~2T olive oil in a heavy skillet on med-hi. Add the shallots and stir to coat. Cook for a few minutes, then lower the heat to med-low add balsamic vinegar and season with salt and fresh ground pepper. Cook for ~20min, until the shallots have become soft and delicious- err, caramelized. Remove from heat and let cool. Can be done ahead.

Combine roasted garlic cloves with goat cheese and mix well. Store in fridge until assembling the pizza.

For the mushrooms and spinach, I heated a 1-2t EVOO in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add in the mushrooms, stir to coat, and cover for a few minutes to get them cooking. Remove the cover, stir, and continue cooking mushrooms until the water (from covering) has evaporated and they have started to get brown on their edges. Add in spinach, and cook until it has just begun to wilt, stirring as needed. Remove from heat and let cool. This can also be done ahead of time and stored in the fridge.

Preheat oven to 450deg (I keep my pizza stone in the oven while preheating). Roll out dough to the size of your stone. Have the rest of the ingredients out and ready to go. Once the stone has heated, transfer dough to hot stone (careful!). Cover with goat cheese mixture, top with caramelized shallots, then the mushroom/spinach mixture. Bake for 10-15min, until the crust is golden brown. Try to let it cool before handling/inhaling!!

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My (near) miss was my entry into Katie's Artisana contest! I've seen a bunch of sweet entries, but the first thing that came to my mind were Avocado Pancakes and I couldn't resist giving them a tri. I won't share my recipe for the pancakes as they failed (I barely got one to roll up), I suggest you try Heather's or Gourmet's. Not sure what went wrong with the batter, but on my sole pancake, I slathered on some Laughing Cow (cheddar or gruyere would also work, or you could leave it out all together) and thought a black bean-corn salsa would be perfect so I rolled it all up. Yum, for sure! The scramble made from the failed pancakes was also good :) An excellent idea for brunch, should you use a tested recipe for the pancakes ;)

Avocado Pancakes w/Black Bean & Corn Salsa