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Posts tagged ‘quick and easy’

Jun 8

Pesto Pizza

Here’s a quick and easy favorite that my friend Shannon Cummins introduced me to a few years back.

It takes…

1 pre-baked pizza crust

¼ cup pesto (more or less)

1 cup chopped cooked chicken

4 oz crumbled feta

1 chopped Roma tomato

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

Salt and pepper to taste.

Optional – Chopped Portobello mushrooms, olives, onions…this is pizza. You get the idea.

Spread the pizza crust with the pesto. You can make your own or buy it in a jar. (This fall I will be making and freezing pesto again, so check back if you want to see how it’s made – and frozen in bags like you see in the picture above.)

It smells delicious to open a bag of pesto! Next comes the chicken.

Then sprinkle on the feta.

Top with well drained tomatoes.

Add the cheddar and then sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 12 minutes.

Blog Outtake: I was baking one regular and two small pizzas when I took these photos. Apparently my cookie stone was offended by the idea of hosting pizza and it spit one off the edge as I took them out of the oven. It was LOVELY to have a piping hot pile of feta, chicken, tomatoes and cheddar in the hinge of my oven door, not to mention what it did to the oven mitt I was using in a futile effort to clean it up. I thought about taking a picture, but I wasn’t quite in the right frame of mind, and you really wouldn’t want to see something that ugly anyway, right? I spent a good portion of yesterday morning trying to pick the last bits of hardened cheese out of the fabric cording that seals the oven door but I’m afraid our renters may still be able to find evidence of the wreck that happened with pesto pizza if they look closely.

May 22

Chicken and Corn Enchi-Sagna


When we’re getting ready to move I start to operate under a self-imposed grocery buying moratorium and use up what’s in the cabinets. The creativity that emerges usually doesn’t result in anyone saying, “Ooooh, make sure you write this one down!” but a few nights ago we hit on a keeper – a cross between enchiladas and lasagna.

I had a handful of rotisserie chicken in the fridge and Mr. Nobody left the bag of tortillas unsealed, so they weren’t supple enough for most ordinary applications. I also happened to have enough diced canned tomatoes to feed a small army, and corn enough for a platoon. All of this coupled with the vague recollection of a recipe in one of my Cooking Light cookbooks sparked an idea.


I chopped the onion finely, and sautéed it with minced garlic (out of a jar) in about a TBSP of olive oil.



I cut the tortillas into strips that would act like lasagna noodles. (Note that spelling and see my rant below!) I also cut a few slices of pepper jack cheese into thin strips and dug out a handful of shredded cheddar.


By that time the garlic and onion were heated through and softened. I added the shredded chicken and stirred periodically until it was hot.


Then I dumped in well drained cans of corn and diced tomatoes.



One and a half cups of chicken broth combined with about half of that can of spicy El Pato salsa made the sauce that would be poured hot over the top of all the layers. I put it on the back burner on medium heat while I finished working on the rest of the dish.



Half of the tortilla strips went down in a disorganized layer.


Then I dumped half of the corn, tomato and chicken mixture in and spread it around.


Then half of the pepper jack cheese on top of that.


The rest of the tortilla strips were followed by the rest of the chicken mixture.


The sauce was poured over the top.


Cheddar cheese got sprinkled on last.


It was baked in a 450 degree oven for about 15 minutes until the tortillas were golden brown at the edges and the cheese was thoroughly melted.


We served it with a dollop of sour cream and garnished it with surprised smiles – cabinet cleaning wasn’t so bad this time! In fact, it was good!

Okay, done with the food….now, back to that spelling issue! Did you notice how noodle is spelled with an “l-e” at the end, yet pretzel and tassel are spelled with “e-l”? Admittedly, I stink at spelling but that sort of thing makes me want a refund on my native tongue! If English was run by Adobe, Apple or Microsoft there would have been an update by now!

BUT, Since it’s up to me…here’s my new rule to remember this:

“L” before “e” in
Noodle, Poodle and Puddle 
Causes me no fuddle,

While “e” before “l” in 
Pretzel and tassel 
Causes me great hass-l-e!

P.S. You will be relieved to hear that I just bought a book on how to take pictures of food. If there is any honesty dust-jacket description, then eventually the photos will improve.