Butternut Squash and Gorgonzola Pizza

• Crust
• ¾ cup warm water
• 2½ teaspoon yeast
• ¼ cup honey
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ½ teaspoons salt
• 1½- 2 cups white whole wheat flour (or unbleached all purpose)
•  
• Topping
• 2 cups butternut squash puree
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 spring rosemary
• ½ cup blue cheese
• 3-4 ounces mozzarella cheese

1. In a bowl of a stand mixer, combine the water, yeast, and honey- stir with a wooden spoon until yeast is dissolved. Let sit until yeast begins to activate, 5-10 minutes. Once yeast is ready, add in oil, salt, and 1 cup of flour. Turn your mixer on low with the dough hook on and let mix, scrapping down the sides as needed. From here on out, add 2-4 tablespoons of flour at a time, letting the dough mix for a bit until adding more flour. When the dough starts to come together, continue to let the mixer run for 1-2 minutes and adding more flour until your dough has pulled away from the sides of the mixer. Remove from the mixer and place in a warm spot. Brush with oil and let rise for 1 hour.
2. If needing to make butternut squash puree, slice a butternut squash in half, remove the seeds, and place cut side down in a roasting pan. Fill with a ¼” of water and roast butternut squash at 425˚ until tender, 40-50 minutes depending on size. Remove and scoop out the squash. Alternatively, peel and cube butternut squash. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add butternut squash. Boil until tender and mash. In a food processor, pulse garlic and rosemary until broken into small pieces. Add the butternut squash and puree until smooth.
3. Once your dough has double in size, preheat your oven to 500˚. Return to your dough and punch it down. Let rise for 20 more minutes. Roll the dough out onto a surface covered in cornmeal (I used a large wood cutting board put some of you may have a pizza peel.) Roll it out to the size of your pizza stone.
4. Spread the squash puree over the pizza dough and top with mozzarella cheese and blue cheese.
5. Carefully transfer pizza to the stone and bake until cheese is bubbling and crust is golden, 12-15 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before slicing.

**** You can substitute pre-made pizza crust/dough if you'd like *****

adapted from www.naturallyella.com

Rosemary Herbed Pork Chops in an Onion Cream Sauce with Parmesan Roasted Turnips

Rosemary Pork Chops in an Onion Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

• pork chops - 4 tender thick cut (I used bone-in pork chops and also a smaller boneless tender cut for myself)
• olive oil- 2 tablespoons
• rosemary - 1.5 tablespoons freshly chopped
• Seasoning - 2 teaspoons of a mix of dried onion, sea salt, garlic, crushed red peppers, orange peel and paprika.)
• mini pearl onions - 1 cup whole unpeeled 
• white wine - 1 cup (1/2 for roasting and 1/2 for sauce) can substitute chicken broth if needed for dietary reasons 
• water - 1/2 cup 
• salt and pepper to taste
• butter - 1 tablespoon

Instructions:

Step 1: Pre-heatoven to 190 Celsius or 375 F.
Step 2: Rub your pork chops with olive oil on both sides. Season pork chops with fresh rosemary, Kick N Chicken Seasoning (or make your own with dried onion, sea salt, garlic, crushed red peppers, orange peel and paprika.)
Step 3: Heat up an oven proof skillet or pan to a medium high heat stove top burner and sear for just a minute or two on both sides of seasoned pork chops.
Step 4: Place your pork chops in a ovenproof pan, add 1/2 cup of wine and unpeeled mini-onions. Bake your pork chops uncovered for about 25-30 minutes or until the internal temperature of at least 145 degrees F or 160 F if you like well done, depending on how thick your pork chops are. (now I know that our moms have taught us that you need to cook pork until it is lifeless and resembles shoe leather and then just a few minutes more, just to be safe.) However, new guidelines for USDA Pork  is safe at this temperature as long as you leave it rest for about 5 minutes after cooking.
Step 5: Remove your pork chops for the pan and rest covered for 5 minutes. (Do not wash the pan that you cooked the pork chops in) Instead place the pan you cooked your pork chops in over a burner on top of the stove and turn on medium heat. Add wine to deglaze the pan.  Add water. Chop up a few of the caramelized mini onions and add to the wine sauce. Allow the wine sauce to reduce to about 1/2. Season with salt and pepper. Turn off the burner and add a tablespoon of butter to finish the shallot wine sauce.
Step 6: Serve pork chops with a drizzle of shallot wine sauce on top. Enjoy!

Roasted Turnips with Parmesan

Ingredients

• 2 pounds turnips (about 4 medium), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch wedges
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan (1/2 ounce)

Directions

1. Step 1

   Preheat oven to 475 degrees. On a rimmed baking sheet, combine turnips, cayenne, nutmeg, and oil. Season with salt and pepper and toss well to coat. Arrange turnips in a single layer and roast until golden on both sides, 25 minutes, flipping halfway through- sprinkle with parmesan and bake 5 more minutes.

Adapted from www.marthastewart.com

Potato and Rosemary Pizza

Potato Rosemary Garlic Pizza

1 pkg of pizza dough (I used the Garlic and Herb dough from Trader Joes)
1 large Yukon Gold potato, very thinly sliced
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, slightly smashed but still intact
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves
1/2 cup finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
Rosemary sprigs for garnish

Preheat oven to 375 F. Toss potatoes with 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 teaspoon salt in a large bowl. Arrange potatoes in one layer on a baking tray. Bake in oven until edges begin to turn golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Increase oven temperature to 475 F.

Lightly brush pizza crust with olive oil. Rub all over with smashed garlic cloves. Lightly sprinkle with salt. Arrange one layer mozzarella cheese over crust. Top with one layer of potatoes. Sprinkle with one tablespoon rosemary leaves over crust. Top with grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

Bake on pizza stone or on a tray on lowest rack in oven until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbly, about 15 minutes. Before serving, sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper. Garnish with fresh rosemary leaves and drizzle with more olive oil.