Pioneer Woman Recipe Reviews: Pizza & Chocolate Sheet Cake

It's a Saturday morning and I actually find myself alone in the house.  For a home schooling mother of 5, this is such a rarity.  My big kids are gone having spent the night with friends, my husband is at a Saturday morning men's Bible study and offered to take our 4 year old along to give me the morning to myself.  The condition was for me to relax, so I've decided that I need to finally blog about my latest Pioneer Woman cooking.  I have to be honest, my heart isn't in it, but I feel like I need to "knock it out"  so that I can move on to a 53rd viewing of Pride and Prejudice or maybe Cranford---I haven't quite decided.  So, here goes....

About a week ago, I went to one of the book's most intriguing recipes to me: Potato and Leek Pizza.
Yes, you read that right.  Potato and Leek Pizza!  I had my doubts too, but it turns out that Pioneer Woman knows a thing or two about "yum".  I used her pizza crust recipe to start things off.  I've decided that  recipe is fairly user friendly.  It rolls out much, much more easily than the pre-made dough I usually buy at Winco.  Her recipe uses a few simple ingredients--I'm all about that!  It has:

1 tsp dry yeast
4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

So, once you have your foundation ready you get to work on the fun stuff.  The Potato and Leek Pizza calls for 3 leeks, bacon, olive oil, salt, freshly ground black pepper, fresh mozzarella, parmesan and goat's cheese.  (I used feta in place of the goat's cheese 'cause I'm no connoisseur and it's all the same to me.)  And the final ingredient: thinly sliced red or Yukon gold potatoes (I used russet because that is all I had and I wasn't about to wait for another trip to the grocery store.)

I'd say the toughest part is washing the leeks and getting all the grit out.  Once that is done, it's smooth sailing.  You fry the bacon, then you fry the sliced leeks in the bacon grease---this I think was key to the whole taste bud experience.

I also made another version that Pioneer Woman offered in her book of Tomato Basil Pizza.  With pre-made pesto, this was incredibly easy and very good as well.

I put both pizzas on my pizza screens to bake.  This, it turns out, was a big mistake.  With all the fresh tomatoes and juicy leeks and potatoes involved, there was a lot of liquid.  A lot.  This liquid caused everything to bubble and spit and leak and drip onto the bottom of our ovens causing massive, massive smoke.  This, in turn, caused massive, massive chaos as we sprinted to open doors and windows and don our oxygen masks.  But it was a great bonding time as the kids were drawn in to "help" with their use of instagram and comments like: "Mom's cooking again."  "I can't breathe!!" and "The neighbors are watching!!" and "Are you sure you know what you're doing??"

But the whole thing eventually worked out making the real title: Smoked Potato and Leek Pizza.  It was absolutely delicious!  I have never used fresh mozzarella in my own cooking before.  *Gasp*  But I've told you before, I'm not a gourmet, nor a connoisseur of anything except cheap and easy.  But so wonderful was my experience with this delightful product that I found myself placing another double pack in my cart last time I was at Costco.  Do it!  Use the fresh stuff!  What a difference!

The whole family loved both pizzas.  It was probably evenly split as to whether it was the Potato & Leek or the Tomato-Basil that was favored, but everyone agreed that they were both heavenly.  I give both recipes 5 stars.

To add to the deliciousness of our lives that week, I also tried the Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe.  OH. MY. GOODNESS.  It was a buttery, chocolaty, rich-but-not-rich, decadent piece of art.   I no longer care about pumpkin pies, peppermint bark, ginger cookies, etc.  I would be satisfied to make just this one dessert for the holidays and go to a quiet corner and celebrate.

Try these recipes at the risk of setting you back a week on your diet, but also know that there is always next week. To everything there is a season, and this is your season for pizza and chocolate cake.