Leftover Pizza

One of my favorite ways to "resource manage" is to make Leftover Pizza. It's a great way to use up any any odds and ends of veggies, cheese, and (pizza-appropriate) meats. I generally roast the vegetables with some salt and olive oil first (not only does it make the veggies taste extra good, but it keeps the pizza from being too wet), and we try to always have some pizza dough stashed in the freezer, ready to go. Our favorite is Portland Pie Company's whole wheat dough, made in Portland, ME and carried by our local Hannie's (Hannaford).

Yum.

Resource Management

(Poster from WWII)

I wanted to take a second to introduce one of my favorite phrases: Resource Management. While it suggests a passion for forestry or fish hatcheries, I use it in a domestic sense and it's first cousins with Home Economics. (Take a second to really think about that term...Home Economics. Those lame mandatory middle school classes certainly didn't do this important subject any justice, which is a shame, as I think running an efficient home is as hard today as it ever was.)

Anyways, Resource Management. It's all about figuring out a way to use what you have on hand...whether it's for a meal, a home improvement project, or a Halloween costume. Call it Yankee ingenuity, vestiges of the Great Depression, or even a desire to emulate MacGyver, but I also call it fun. I enjoy the puzzle of "how am I going to make this work?" and it's one of the few areas where I actually possess some creative ability. Stay tuned for some of my Resource Management triumphs! (I'll leave out my failures...who wants to hear about that!?)

Molten Chocolate Cakes

I was craving something rich and chocolaty the other day and even though our cupboards were pretty bare, I knew there had to be something I could make using the basics I had on hand (eggs, flour, sugar, etc.) So I took to the interweb, and of course my girl Martha Stewart had this sweet little recipe for me.

I omitted the espresso powder (didn't have any), but threw in a little vanilla extract for kicks. I served them in the ramekins, right out of the oven, with a scoop of french vanilla ice cream.

Gotta say, these were delicious, like a brownie sundae gone gourmet. The combo of the warm chocolate cake, gooey center, and melting ice cream was exactly the fix I needed. I think Steven liked it, too, as his disappeared in about 1 minute flat. :)

Try this recipe for a quick, decadent, homemade treat!