Cheesy Garlic Fingers! (Bacon Optional)

Something I realized about where I live - is that there are several pizza and kebab restaurants and not one of them sells cheesy garlic fingers.
Garlic fingers (if you're not familiar) is more or less pizza dough with loads of garlic butter on top and cheese - and of course - bacon is optional.

I'm from Canada and there's always some sort of combo of pizza and garlic fingers  - which is handy for the vegetarians (bacon aside of course) who might not eat the communal pizza!

So as a spur of the last moment decision - I decided to try to make some.
I don't know how I haven't EVER tried to make my own - but it suddenly became necessary that I try.

What you need:

• Pizza dough (I use this recipe in my bread machine!)
• I also added liquid garlic to the dough mixture so it'd be nice and garlic-y!
• Liquid garlic or very finely minced garlic (or both really)
• Dried parsley and chives
• A lot of butter - about a quarter cup!
• A lot of shredded cheese! (I just used a pizza blend.)
• Optional: Already cooked and crumbled bacon.
• I have discovered cooking the bacon in the oven! Less mess and fairly quick at 200*C for 15 minutes on the middle rack with baking paper underneath for even less mess! :)

1. Pre-heat your oven to 225*C and roll out your pizza dough onto a lined baking sheet.
2. Melt your butter, minced garlic, dried parsley and chives in the microwave in a microwave-safe bowl.
3. Brush/drown your rolled out dough with your garlic butter mixture, sprinkle cheese generously all over and top with crumbled up bacon.
4. Bake for about 10 minutes until cheese is bubbling and dough edges are golden brown.

Now, you're probably wondering what kind of sauce goes best with cheesy garlic fingers?

According to my Californian friend - Dominos serves theirs with some sort of tomato sauce. Probably pizza sauce.  Probably not as amazing as Donair sauce...oh donair.

A donair is a Canadian invention of sorts - delicious all year round, cures hangovers (so I hear) and in general is amazing.  And the official food of Halifax, Nova Scotia I read online!

Read more about the beauty of a donair here.

But what goes best with donair is its side kick - the sauce.
Which looks like plain ol' white whatever - but is amazing and apparently so freaking easy to make - I'm disappointed and thrilled!
Disappointed because no amount of gym hours is going to save me....thrilled because it's easy as pie!

Vinegar, condensed (sweetened) milk and garlic powder - OMG.  That's it!  Whisk and chill.  So delicious.  Also amazing on pizza too since you're probably having that too, right?

And guess what? You don't need to live in Canada to make it.
All the ingredients are readily (usually) available in most stores!
I found the recipe here!

These are great for potlucks, birthday parties, having guests over or just for yourself!

Of course I had to make pizza as well...

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed getting fat with me making your own garlic fingers!  ;)

D.

Parma Chicken!

If you're looking for what appears to be a fairly classy-looking meal that won't break the bank - then I present to you "Parma Chicken"!
This is something I made at cooking school recently and decided I had to try it at home with my own twist on things.

What you need:

• Chicken breasts
• Prosciutto or any other kind of similar smoked ham strips (a nice smokey bacon could work too)
• Pesto (home-made or from a jar)
• Sun dried tomatoes sliced
• Caramelized onion chutney (or whatever flavour you fancy)
• salt and pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 200*C (400*F).

Spray your deep baking dish with cooking spray.

If your chicken breasts are thick - then take a sharp knife and make a small but deep cut and go length-wise so you don't make a hole on both sides of the meat - this helps to create a pocket in the chicken breast.  Do this to all the breasts and then fill with pesto and sun dried tomato pieces.

If you can fit in chutney - great!  If not - spread some on top of the chicken breast and then wrap a slice of prosciutto or bacon around it.

I served it with potato pancakes - which were supposed to be croquettes originally but I lacked chilling time for the mashed potatoes - so I improvised! :)

Alternative - which is what I did because my breast meat wasn't thick enough - lie your chicken breast flat, spread pesto and sun dried tomato pieces and chutney, roll quickly and wrap with a slice of prosciutto.
Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top and bake for 20 minutes or so - until chicken breast is cooked through completely.

Enjoy!
D.