Theme Night Tailgate-NFL Championship Games

The Senator missed a good day of eating and football. The crab soup was delish. It’s basic chowder where you can swap the clams or white fish with crab meat. After all, Baltimore was playing New England, plus I can eat my weight in crabs.

 To make the soup:

1.   In a large soup pot cook 4 or 5 strips of bacon (for veggie option just heat some oil), once bacon is  cooked remove and save to garnish later
2. Add 1 chopped onion and 1 stalk of cut celery until they begin to soften  
3.  Add 3 potatoes that have been cubed, 3 cups of liquid (clam juice, water, or fish stock). I prefer 1 cup of clam juice and 2 cups water and salt and pepper, bring to a boil then simmer until the potatoes are soft
4. Add 2 cups half and half (you can adjust fat content with skim milk or 2% milk) and some fresh thyme and 2 lbs of fish of your choice (for me it’s CRAB CRAB CRAB). Let the flavors blend and let everything get hot (about 5-10 minutes) 
5.  Cool and let sit overnight (or 5-6 hours),soup is better the next day anyway 
6.   Reheat on a medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of butter until melted and everything is hot
7. Serve with either bacon topping (that you used earlier). I prefer some Old Bay and oyster crackers.

Crab Chowdah

Now on to the pizza…on a recent trip to Pebble Beach we stopped at the artichoke farm and picked up some fresh baby artichokes, Brussels sprouts and garlic which was good timing for fresh veggies and pizza.Perfect for a New York/San Fran match up.

I made a simple pizza dough (makes 2  12 inch-ish pizzas):

1. In 1 cup of warm water dissolve 1 packet of dry active yeast until it gets bubbly then add 2 tablespoons of oil
2. In a large bowl add 2 cups flour (I use all purpose) , 1 teaspoon of salt and the yeasty water and mix together. If you’re ambitious, take the mixture out of the bowl and knead until it’s a fully incorporated ball and add extra flour as needed. OR if you’re like me, put in your mixture with the dough hook until forms a ball, again adding flour until the dough looks right
3. Lightly oil a bowl and put in the dough and cover at room temp for about 1-2 hours until it doubles in size. Punch it down every once in a while.
4. Split the dough in 2 and roll them out flat

To cook pizzas, heat oven w/a pizza stone in it to 500° and cook pizza for 10-12 minutes.

Toppings:

I sautéed some of the baby artichokes in garlic with baby bellas, pepperoni and of course fresh mozzarella

Before

Cook up little guy, you're going to taste great

As good as any MNPC place...ok maybe that's a stretch but close

On the lighter side, I went simple cheese and fresh basil on top right when it comes out of the oven.

nice and simple

12 minutes is a long time to wait

I love a good air bubble in my crust

Enjoy!

If you make any recipes let me know how you like it and share pics. If you can’t post here email me at gramercygirblog@gmail.com or tweet me @gramercy_girl