Shrimp and Salsa Verde Cornbread Pizza

Shrimp, salsa verde, and cheddar cheese on a cornbread pizza crust

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The inspiration for this pizza came from a dish of grilled shrimp my son made over the summer.  It was spicy and served on corn tortillas and I did not have 100% of the effort involved in making it so of course it was good!  He got the recipe out of a cookbook at our library--one of our family summer reading activities.  We re-created it alongside cornbread in the fall.  When I had leftover cooked shrimp from our New Year's Ever Appetizerpalooza [not to be confused with #AppetizerWeek, that's next week] I decided to try shrimp on a pizza.

This is not my first shrimp recipe--I snuck a Roasted Shrimp, Celery, Grape, and Potato Salad in here last fall--nor is this my first seafood pizza.  Check out my Visual Pizza Recipe Index or the links at the bottom for additional seafood pizzas for your Friday Night Pizza Night.
Even though this wasn't my first rodeo, this recipe was not without dithering.  I was torn, trying to think of a way to duplicate a grits crust.  Or even a cornmeal crust.  Finally I just decided to Keep It Simple.

Keep It Simple, Sillybilly (KISS) is the title of one of my early blog posts before I clued in to making a recipe more searchable by using the actual recipe name in the title.  Revolutionary!  KISS is a recipe post for Beau Monde dip, another vehicle to transfer Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share vegetables into my mouth--and those of my family.

What could be more simple than taking my tried and true cornbread recipe and baking it in a 10 inch skillet instead of my usual 7 inch skillet?  Perfect.  The thickness is less than a deep dish pizza, but more substantial than a thin crust pizza.  You can eat this with a fork, or pick it up with your hands.

With precooked shrimp, pre baked cornbread, and put up (or store bought) salsa verde, this pizza assembles and bakes very quickly.  Perfect for a last minute pizza or easily one where you don't have yeast or don't feel like fussing with dough.  Mix it up, pour it in, bake, prep the toppings, top, and go.

Tangerine Ricotta Muffins (Monday Muffins)

Lightly sweet, brightly creamy, these tangerine ricotta muffins are a lovely winter muffin

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When I saw these muffins I knew I wanted to try making them using one of the citrus fruits from the Band Fruit Fundraiser stash.  I also had ricotta that I wanted to use up so I could try and make my own like Annemarie does.  However, I made one of the classic blunders (no, not the "never get involved in a land war in Asia one" nor the "never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line" one):  I didn't read the entire recipe first.

So at 6:20 am, when I stumbled into the kitchen with the intent of making Tangerine Ricotta Muffins for my kids' breakfast, I was caught unawares with "1 stick of butter, softened" as an ingredient.

Oops!  I hadn't set out any butter to soften and I didn't really want to nuke one because good grief an entire stick of butter in a pan of muffins?  My kids eat 2 or 3 muffins a piece!  I didn't want them to consume 1/4 stick of butter just with breakfast--and that was before I read "1 cup of sugar".

If you've seen my other muffin recipes (muffin recipe index to your right), you know that I serve them to my kids as part of breakfast or after school snacks--not dessert--so my muffins are usually whole grain and contain less sugar and fat than what I see in many bakery muffins.

I set that recipe aside for a future dessert, because it looks so delicious and I think my family will love it for a special treat.  Instead, I took my ricotta cheese, my tangerines, and my muffin-making skills and made these muffins.  The kids loved them hot with a bit of buttery spread. I liked mine later, room temperature, with my tea.  The next day my son grabbed some to take on the road to his sled hockey tournament and my daughter spread hers with strawberry jam.  Next time, I'm thinking white whole wheat flour, honey, and tangelos . . .

For other recipes using tangerines, please see my Tangerine/Tangelo Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. For more muffin recipes, look to the Recipe Index by Category on the right sidebar -----> under Muffins. Wanna know how to Use This Blog? Click here.

Butternut Squash and Prosciutto Pizza

Cubes of roasted butternut squash and strips of salty prosciutto turn a simple cheese-and-red-sauce pie into a warming winter pizza

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I'm finally starting to work on the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve in the cold corner of my breakfast nook (down to 50 degrees Fahrenheit during the recent Polar Vortex).  This is where I stash the more shelf stable of the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share vegetables during my weekly Vegetable Triage, and I appreciate how a cool, dark place can store fresh local vegetables for me to enjoy when I've run out of fresh greens and the more perishable farm share produce.
I've had some winter squash last as long as 3-4 months, but I prefer not to play fast and loose with my SWSR.  The vegetables I've canned (tomatoes, tomatillos, tomato salsa, tomato sauce, salsa verde, green tomatoes, tomato jam . . . did I mention I canned a whole bunch of tomatoes?) and frozen (corn, carrots, leeks, zucchini, yellow squash, roasted peppers, Hatch chiles, celery, . . . and I am sure something else) will stay in good condition longer than the winter squash, so winter squash is next on the chopping block.  Literally!

This pizza is a subtle way of including winter squash into our meals, and though my kids picked the squash off their slices, my spouse and I enjoyed it.  [In fact, instead of saving the extra roasted squash that didn't make it onto the pizza, I stood over the stove with a fork and snarfed up squash while chatting with my spouse.]  Yum!  There's something about roasting that brings out the sweetness of vegetables--be they mushrooms or squash or potatoes. Coming up in the next few weeks I've got roasted squash in hummus and roasted sweet potatoes in salsa . . . but for today, because my family likes our Friday Night Pizza Nights, please enjoy a pizza!

For other ideas on how to use butternut squash, please see my Butternut/Buttercup Squash Recipes Collection and my Winter Squash Recipe Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. For other pizza ideas please see my Friday Night Pizza Night board in Pinterest, and my Visual Pizza Recipe Index. For how to Use This Blog, please click here.