Pizza Lucé Baked Potato Pizza

Most residents of the Twin Cities area are well familiar with Pizza Luce. Having grown up there, I regretfully only ate there for the first time a few years ago, just in time for me to move to Missouri and be one more thing to be homesick about.

For those of you not from the Twin Cities (sorry to hear that), Pizza Lucé is known for its innovative and award winning gourmet pizzas, sandwiches, appetizers, and desserts, many of which are available in vegetarian, vegan, or gluten free options. My favorite by far is their Baked Potato Pizza, which uses mashed potatoes in place of sauce and is topped with cheese, tomato, broccoli, bacon, and sour cream for dipping.

Since I didn't get to visit Minnesota for Christmas, I've had a serious craving for it. So I decided to try to make my own. Here's how I did it:


Ingredients:
Pizza crust - pre-made or homemade
1 1/2 - 2 cups mashed potatoes - I used the instant kind, but feel free to mash them yourselves if you really want to
2 cups of cheese - cheddar is best, but it can be any kind. I used a mixture of mozzarella and cheddar
2 or 3 strips of crispy bacon
1 head of broccoli
1 roma tomato
Sour cream for topping

Directions:
While the oven is preheating to 425 degrees (or whatever the temperature is in the directions on your crust) and the water for the mashed potatoes is boiling, chop the tomato and broccoli.

If you're using the same mashed potatoes I did, you need 1 1/2 cups of water, 1/2 cup of milk, and 2 Tbsp of butter. Combine into a 2qt saucepan and bring it to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in the potato mix. It should be ready after a minute or so.

Spread the mashed potatoes over the crust like a sauce.

It can be tricky because it's so thick, but make sure it's spread evenly to the edges of the crust.

Sprinkle on the cheese. This can also be done after the other toppings, which I believe is what Pizza Lucé does.

Add your tomato and broccoli

Crumble the bacon and sprinkle it all over

Bake 8-12 minutes at 425 (or whatever the instructions are on your crust), or until cheese is melted.

Cover in sour cream, and try not to wake the neighbors by screaming "OMG THAT'S SO GOOD!"

Ingredients:
Pizza crust of your choice
1 1/2-2 cups mashed potatoes - mashed yourself or prepared as directed on package
2 cups cheese
1 tomato (chopped)
1 head of broccoli (chopped)
2-3 strips crispy bacon
Sour cream for dipping

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees (or as directed on package). Chop tomato and broccoli. Cook mashed potatoes as directed or mash them yourself. Cook bacon to be extra crispy.
2. Spread mashed potatoes evenly across crust. Evenly top with cheese, tomato, broccoli, and bacon.
3. Cook 8-12 minutes (or as directed on package), or until cheese is melted

Chicken Enchiladas

Part of the reason I wanted to learn how to cook is the notion that I can eat my favorite foods whenever I want, exactly how I like them...which I guess is one of the most basic ideas behind being an adult. You have the freedom to eat ice cream, candy, and Lucky Charms for dinner (or all three meals), and no one can tell you not to. The dietitian can, but you don't have to listen to them. What do they know anyway? Or if you decide to set your sights a little higher, you can eat truly delicious meals when you want them.

Me? I love enchiladas.

I've been wanting to cook them for a long time, but this last semester really kicked my ass. At least twice I bought chicken and it went bad before I got a chance to make them.

You need:

1lb chicken (shredded)
2 cups shredded cheese
2 10oz cans of enchilada sauce (red or green)*
6-8 flour tortillas

*obviously you can make your own enchilada sauce, and it would taste much better than canned. I'll go into this later, but most of what I cook uses shortcuts like this. You can make just about anything from scratch, but it's not always feasible. As an example, if you were to make pasta, you can roll your own dough, cut the noodles, grow and crush your own tomatoes, grow and dry your own spices, and grind your own meat - and no doubt it would taste amazing - but the average person isn't going to do all that. Of course you can always boil dry pasta and add Ragu to it too. My recipes will always be a balance of the two, usually making things from scratch when it's easy enough. Which means never using canned pasta sauce...



The first step is to cook the chicken. I added 1/2 cup of water so it wouldn't dry out. Also at this time, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

I covered it to keep as much moisture in as possible. Moist chicken makes it easier to pull apart.

Once it's cooked, it's time to shred. Use two forks to pull it apart piece by piece.

Action shot!

There it is all shredded. It takes a little while.

Now add 1 cup of the cheese and 3/4 cups of the enchilada sauce and mix it well.

Put about 3 tablespoons of the chicken onto the tortillas.

Roll it up and place it seam down in a 13x9" baking dish that's been lightly sprayed with some cooking spray.

Repeat until the dish is full.

Pour the rest of the sauce over the top and cover with the rest of the cheese.

It's ready to go in.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and filling is heated through.

It looks delicious, and smells even better.

I topped it with sour cream to make it extra unhealthy, and man was it good.

Easy enchiladas whenever you want them. Because You're an adult.



Ingredients:
1lb shredded chicken (or ground beef)
2 cups shredded cheese
2 10oz cans of enchilada sauce (red or green)
6-8 tortillas

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly spray 13x9" baking dish
2. Mix cooked shredded chicken (or ground beef) with 3/4 cups of sauce and 1 cup of cheese
3. Spoon about 3 Tbsp of filling onto tortillas. Roll up and place seam side down in the baking dish
4. Pour remaining sauce over tortillas and top with remaining cheese. Bake 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted and filling is heated through

Godzilla vs. ChocoGodzilla

I've been a fan of Godzilla my entire life. Since I did something special for Captain America for his new movie, how could I not do something special for Godzilla?...I mean...a Godzilla movie that actually looks good...

I was in Target for something completely different when I got the idea for this, and ended up leaving with $40 of stuff I didn't intend on buying. Typical Target, right?

Here's how I made a giant Godzilla out of Rice Krispy Treats

If you've never made Rice Krispy Treats like I hadn't, it's so easy a child can do it. And they do. Like...all the time. 

You need:

1/4 cup of butter (1/2 a stick)

11oz bag of mini marshmallows

6 cups of Rice Krispes

I doubled the recipe and used Cocoa Pebbles instead, so here are my ingredients:

1/2 cup of butter (full stick)

2 bags of mini marshmallows

Full box of Cocoa Pebbles

Green food coloring

Green frosting

Oreos

Mini Oreos

Toy Godzilla (to model, and to fight)

First, melt the butter

Once all the butter is melted, add the marshmallows. I added them one bag at a time so they all had a chance to melt.

Godzilla helped to melt them with his atomic breath

Once the marshmallows are melted, they need to heat for an additional two minutes, which was the perfect time to add the green food coloring

I kept adding it until it was green enough to my liking

After the marshmallows were melted and heated for two extra minutes, it's time to add the Cocoa Pebbles

Mix until all the cereal is well coated in marshmallow

Looks toxically delicious

It's like an alien egg or something

Uh oh, maybe it was...Godzilla is freaked out by it

It looks so cool though

Using the toy as a model, it's time to build this bad boy. Here are the legs

Jump ahead to when I already made the tail, torso, and arms, because my hands were really really really sticky and I didn't want to shoot a photo of them

Don't see the arms? Yeah, that's because the thing started falling apart faster than a Minnesota sports team on a playoff run. The rest was a race against time and gravity, especially once I made the head.

For the spikes on the back, I cut Oreos and Mini Oreos in half, and glued them in place using the green frosting.

I also used bamboo skewers to prop up the sagging head and body

I used bits of marshmallow for the eyes, teeth, and claws, and once I was ready to finish, I hurried to attach the arms and take the photos before the whole thing fell apart.

Jaw...falling...starting to look like...King Kong...

Here's a better view of the Oreo spines

Ben, get your hand out of the shot...stop fixing his tail...

Ah, crap! Now that he's fully assembled ChocoGodzilla is attacking the city! Godzilla! Stop him!

Atomic breath!

As usual, Godzilla is the victor

But seriously, this happened within 10 minutes of taking the photos. My cat Harvey tried attacking it because he thought it was moving on its own.

If you do this on your own, make sure you have refrigerator space to keep it cool so it doesn't fall apart so quickly.

It's okay, Godzilla, we forgive you for the debacle in 1998...as long as the new one is good...

See you next time!

And go see the new Godzilla movie, out today!