Roasted Garlic & Pesto Chicken Pizza

This has been the first full week of classes (well, full-ish, we did have Monday off) and let me tell you. I am exhausted.  I'll show you why:

Notice anything consistent about every day, oh say, maybe something like an 8 am class everyday. Yes. 8am. every. day. Might as well just shoot me now.  To say I'm not a morning person would the understatement of my life.  Add that to the fact that on two days I have 4 straight hours of class in the morning and you get a walking zombie by noon.

Oh yes, and let's not forget that the inevitable failure of my immune system (due to the fact that I'm now around a lot of other people) has of course kicked in.  Yeah.

All in all it hasn't been a bad week - I really enjoy all of my classes this semester and although I have to use toothpicks to keep my eyes from drooping, the topic of property really does interest me.

So really, all that to say that this was leftover week at our house.  Between both of us waking up much earlier than usual (oh yes, I had to drag Mike into this too - the joys of a one car household) and the severe exhaustion from trying to up my running mileage, there's just not a whole lot of Jessica-brain-power left over at the end of the day.

Let me introduce you to one of my favorite leftovers:

Yes, this post's namesake comes from this wonderful concoction pictured above.  I will warn you, people who are traditional I-want-marina-for-the-sauce-on-my-pizza eaters, like the husband, probably will not care too much for this type of pie. (Sorry to rat you out honey!) 

 However, if you like to play with your food or could care less what's on pizza so long as it's called pizza, you should be good to go.  Hope you enjoy and keep warm; spring is just around the corner (hopefully)!

Roasted Garlic Chicken Pesto Pizza

Ingredients:

1 recipe pizza crust (any kind will do; store bought is fine too!)

1/2 cup prepared pesto (store bough or homemade)

1 bulb of garlic

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked

8-12 oz Mozzarella cheese, depending on how cheesy you are

Parmesan cheese to taste

Directions:

To roast the garlic: Peel away the outer layers of the garlic bulb skin, leaving the skins of the individual cloves intact. Using a knife, cut off 1/4 to a 1/2 inch of the top of cloves, exposing the individual cloves of garlic. Place the garlic heads in a baking pan; muffin pans work well for this purpose. Drizzle a couple teaspoons of olive oil over each head, using your fingers to make sure the garlic head is well coated. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 400°F for 30-35 minutes, or until the cloves feel soft when pressed. Remove garlic gloves and smash with a fork.

Spread roasted garlic over pizza dough. Do this to taste. I used almost the whole (small) bulb, but we LOVE garlic. Spread the pesto on the pizza. Add the sliced, cooked chicken. Sprinkle with mozzarella. Top with fresh grated parmesan.

Bake on preheated pizza stone for 8 - 12 minutes.

Honey-Garlic BBQ sauce

Last week was comfort food week at the Coghill house seeing as I needed lots of comfort to get through this stinking paper.  But good news: I am finally in the editing phase which means the end is near! So to kick off our unofficial "comfort food" week, I made some bbq sauce.

Yep. It's pretty delicious (this is coming from the girl that doesn't really care for bbq sauce).  It's also fairly simple to make; it's one of those wonderful set it and forget it type things.  Also, it makes a lovely companion to things like pulled pork sandwiches (hint, hint).

In addition to making wonderful yummy food last week, I also have been religiously listening to My Hope Is In You.  If you haven't heard it, you should because it's great (forewarning though, the music video's kinda sad!).  It's been my great reminder that the end is near on the semester of law school!

Alright, enough yammering, here's the recipe.  Happy Monday to you all!

Honey-Garlic BBQ Sauce
adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients

            2 cups ketchup

            4 cloves crushed and peeled garlic

            1 cup water

            2 tablespoons hot sauce

            1/4 cup honey

            1 T garlic powder

            1 T onion powder

            2 tablespoons molasses

            2 tablespoons brown sugar

            1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

            1 teaspoon soy sauce

            1 teaspoon salt

            2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning

            1 pinch paprika

            1 pinch crushed red pepper

            1 pinch ground white pepper

            1 pinch ground black pepper

            1 tablespoons cornstarch

            1 tablespoon water

            1/2 cup butter

Directions

In a large saucepan over medium low heat, mix together everything but the last three
ingredients (2 T cornstarch, 1 T water, 1/2 butter). Allow the mixture to simmer approximately
30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In a small bowl, dissolve cornstarch in 1 tablespoon of water. Adjust amount of water as
needed to fully dissolve cornstarch. Stir into the sauce mixture. Continue simmering
approximately 2-3 minutes. Stir butter into the sauce mixture. Continue simmering mixture
approximately 5 more minutes, or until butter is melted and the sauce has begun to thicken.
Serve over meats prepared as desired.