Chicken and Artichoke Pizza with Capers and a Stuffed Crust

This has been my first and final attempt at a home-crafted "stuffed crust." It was not even my intention to make it that way, but I had lots of extra dough on hand as well as a deli drawer filled with countless cheeses. So I thought, "how hard can it be?" For me, it worked about as well as trying to write an essay with a pen that just ran out of ink.

Hence, this simultaneously became, "The Ugliest Pizza Ever." I was thinking of making that the title of this post, but opted not to so you can just see for yourself.

Be real. It looks delightfully tasty. You can be nice and say that the crust and general shape of it are "not that bad." Or you can be real and just admit that this is the Quasimodo of all pizzas. Either way, the whole thing got eaten.

Before I get to the ingredients and pizza assembly process, let me just brief you on what not to do when making a stuffed crust. I would provide "how-to" tips and tricks all about making a fantastic stuffed crust, but I'm not aware of any such information.

First, I made a ring of dough by piecing the leftovers together, Frankenstein-style. Then I topped it with havarti and mozzarella cheeses, folded it over to enclose the cheese, and pressed the edges with a fork to seal the deal.

Next, I attached the round of dough I had cut out for the original pizza to the cheese-filled ring.  Using more dough bits, I covered and reinforced any thin sections of dough so it would be as sturdy as possible for the transfer to the awaiting pizza stone.

Well then came the collapse. Right there in my kitchen, on top of a 500 degree pizza stone. I intended to quickly peel the stuffed-crust dough from the countertop and gingerly transfer it to the stone for a quick pre-bake. I may as well have hired the Hulk, removed his opposable thumbs, put a blindfold on him and asked him to do the job for me. It was that bad. Between expletive versions of, "Crap, crap, freaking crap!," trying to rescue my dough from a miserable burning death by pizza stone, and contemplating scrapping the whole project, I did not manage to get a snapshot of the whole ordeal.

I carried on anyway, reassuring myself that no one other than my husband and myself would see this mutilated za. It would be our little secret. I wasn't even going to blog about it! But I guess I got over my shame, or something like that.

Halfway into  putting together a pizza that could be mistaken for a salad and sweating blood in an attempt to open the jars of artichokes and capers, I received a text from my husband. "On my way home, Chaos is coming over for dinner." Crap, crap, freaking crap! I usually pride myself on my tasty, beautiful pizza creations. Now his friend is going to know the truth and he's going to tell everybody and no one will eat pizza from me again!

Okay, it didn't end up that way. The pizza was actually really good even though we had to eat it with forks and knives. And from the camera angles I used, you can pretty much tell it's a pizza!

Ingredients (for the pizza toppings, not for a stuffed crust too):

• 1 or 1-1/2 cups pizza sauce
• Roughly 8oz. marinated artichoke hearts
• Roughly 1/4 cup capers
• 1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded into small pieces
• About 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions:

• Prepare your pizza dough and set it aside. God be with you if you want to attempt a stuffed crust because I'm not about to offer any help on that.
• Place a pizza stone into the oven and turn the temperature to 500 degrees.
• When the stone is hot, remove it from the oven and place the prepared dough on top of it. You can do a quick pre-bake (just 3 or 4 minutes) which will give you a slightly crispier crust, or you can just go ahead and start with the toppings.
• First, spread the sauce on top of the dough, working it all the way to the edges. 
• Sprinkle your artichokes and chicken on next, followed by the shredded cheese, and last, the capers. Capers are rather salty, so only put as many on there as you can handle of their salt level.
• Bake the whole thing until the cheese is melted and the edges of the crust turn golden-brown. If you've pre-baked you will do your final bake for about 5-7 minutes. If not, it will take a bit longer (about 10-12 minutes). 
• Remove it from the oven and let it cool for a few minutes before cutting. 

The toppings on this gourmet delight are rather water-saturated, and in the 500 degree oven, they get super hot and stay super hot for a longer than average time. So just wait a minute.

Maybe Seth Meyers can more clearly relay that message to you:

Okay, 'nuff clowning around.

Go have yourself a fine-dining experience that includes this homemade, cheese-covered delicacy.

New Running Buddy

It's a dog! Well, she's a puppy at the moment, and also, not a runner (yet). My husband and I adopted Sadie, a little pit mix, just a few weeks ago. But it didn't take long for me to realize that I want this "puppy stage" to end as quickly as possible and just have a normal, functioning dog that doesn't act a fool when she sees a rock on the ground.

I know it will be a while before this can happen, much less, before she can run for more than 30 seconds before discovering another rock. But I decided to take her down to the community track last week and begin some conditioning exercises anyway.

Just a little running by my side on the straightaways is all I had in mind.

But apparently, Sadie had other motives. Either that or the worst ADD I have ever seen. In short, she would run when she thought she was chasing someone. Those were full-on sprints. There was a lot of, "Come on, Sadie...just run a little more until we get to the finish line!" and I would proceed to nearly drag her against her barely-moving little paws for the final 5 meters to the end of the straightaway. I think we did 3 laps total (mostly walking), then headed home.

I don't know if this counted as a "workout" for either of us (maybe more so the dog than me, just because it tired her out for a good long nap later on), but at some point in the future there will be human/dog workouts going on.

Doggie-selfie fail

All tuckered out from too much shoe-chewing

I don't want to set myself up for total failure though. If by some stroke of fate Sadie does not want to be my running buddy (highly unlikely), I guess I cannot force her. But I do know that she loves the outdoors, and along with me, my husband, and my husband's sister Jenny, Sadie completed a long day of hiking in LA last weekend.

No running buddy? No problem. My hiking buddy you shall be! 

Oh no!

Ladies and gents, this is not the end of an era.

Yes, that is my beloved pizza stone broken in 2 pieces.

Also, I believe it is the result of improper heating. I know, I know. For every single recipe I post I say, "put the pizza stone into a cold oven and then turn it on." I sorta broke my own rule.

Trying to be a multi-tasker, I thought I could make my Friday night pizza and start prepping some cookies for Super Bowl Sunday at the same time. The cookies needed to cook at 350, the pizza at 500. So I thought, "what's the harm in making my cookies, and then putting the stone in a 350 oven, and then turning it to 500?" Well, if you didn't notice the picture above, that is the harm.

I could blame this mishap on overuse of the stone. Or maybe I cleaned it improperly once or twice. Or maybe it was a piece of junk all along. Regardless, this has been a devastating loss for my pizza creations. This pizza stone has retired to my local trash can and it is time to hunt for a new one!

On a happy note, I did manage to completely cook a delightful pizza on the stone before tossing it out. While the oven was somewhere between 350 and 500 I heard a low "pop" from the oven and wondered, "What the heck is going on in there?" only to find two pieces of stone where there once was one. With no other alternative to cook the awaiting pizza, I simply slid the two broken pieces together and forced it to work for just one last za. And praise Jesus it worked because it was just all too delicious a pizza to have missed out on. That pizza's story will be told in the near future as well!

Running Lately + Yoga

Do you ever feel like you just ran like the wind, finished up like a total champ, but then come to find out that you really didn't go much faster than your normal pace? I had one of those runs. Felt like the world played a dirty trick on me!

Here on my latest long run I completed a healthy 4.87 miles in just over 41 minutes. I made an extra effort to get up the hills and took advantage of the flat and downhill sections. I could have sworn that my pace was closer to an 8:15 mile.

Nope. 8:27 was it. Lately my pace has been right there around an 8:30 mile for most runs, so I wasn't far off from the usual. Now I'm not a regular racer, but I do want to work on getting faster. And although I have a strong, fit body I really have to work at it if I want to be fast. And that work is hard.

From what I remember from my cross country and track days, the way to get faster is to practice running fast. Seems simple enough, but that's definitely an "easier said than done" concept. Then I remember back to the 1-mile fast-as-you-can-go repeats with only about a minute of rest in between, and the 400-meter sprints where another repeat would start every 2 minutes, and the ladder workouts. Those workouts hurt a lot, but they worked. More on speed work later. 

On a different note, yoga and flexibility. I've been slacking off in the stretching department lately and I can really feel the effects of it. Having tight muscles, a sore back, and rickety-feeling hips is no fun. My plan is to start doing more yoga on a somewhat regular schedule so I can increase my flexibility, and also, it's good for the soul, ya know. 

But there's one small problem. Along with spiders, car accidents, and breaking a tooth, yoga is one of my greatest fears in life. I have a hard time approaching it as exercise because it is so different from my usual cardio workouts. To me, exercise means high-intesnity, high-energy, sweat-inducing challenges combined with loud music. Yes, yoga can be those things (but the music is quieter), and I always appreciate the opportunity to go barefoot. But the thought of incorporating balance, flexibility, and mental focus all into one workout session is so highly daunting to me that I usually just go for a run so I don't have to think about it. 

Well the other day I had some time to spare and hopped onto DoYogaWithMe to finally face a yoga class. I found a 45 minute class called "Power Yoga with Twists" and completed the first 20 minutes of it. I've completed full yoga classes before, but perhaps I've been out of practice for too long now, thus explaining my completion of less than half of this recent session.

Then after perusing the Women's Health website for mere minutes this morning, I stumbled across this yoga article which I think addressed my yoga issues perfectly right now: Yoga for Everyday Athletes. 

The article addresses how regular exercisers can do themselves harm through the sports or workouts in which they participate:

Whether you're a new runner, total gym rat, or summer-only tennis fanatic, a yoga instructor can tell. That's because workouts that emphasize running, lifting, and swinging movements leave the telltale signs of tight hamstrings, quads, and shoulders—the trifecta of treacherous spots in fit females.

Hence, the WH yoga workout suggested sequences 6 different moves that help stretch, loosen, and balance the muscles which can lead to stronger workouts in the future.

I think the universe directed me to this article intentionally.  

And although I prefer a traditional yoga class or a video to follow instead of pictures that I should observe and follow, I think I can incorporate these six moves into my fitness routine. Not to mention, I'm already familiar with half of them. 

Downward-Facing Dog

High Lunge

Twisted Lunge

Dolphin

Pigeon

Legs up the Wall

Click over the the full article for full instructions. Each move is explained along with the benefits it provides...as if you didn't already know that yoga can be beneficial. Now go have a happy time running and stretching!