SHAVED ASPARAGUS PIZZA

When someone tells you that they're going to make you shaved asparagus pizza, you better believe that they like you, because shaving asparagus is kind of awkward. I even considered using a mandolin like Smitten Kitchen suggested, but then she also mentioned it being more difficult than a vegetable peeler. Luckily, I had a Y-shaped peeler like the one suggested because using the other type at Sean's house on Monday night proved extremely difficult.

But however long it takes you to figure out how exactly to shave your asparagus (follow her instructions, they're quite useful), it is SO worth it. I cannot even begin to describe just how wonderful this pizza is. Yes, I'm already a sucker for roast asparagus but add a homemade thin crust pizza to the mix and it's golden. To let you in on a little secret, I'm a sucker for a really good thin crust pizza. I like my crust thin and I mean really thin. But not cardboard thin like Casa de Mama. As creepy and weird and funny as that commercial is, that pizza is crap and I'm a little ashamed to even admit that I ate it. *shudder* That day brings back bad memories.

Anyway, here I am making my shaved asparagus pizza, recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. Asparagus all shaved:Parmesan grated and fresh mozzarella cubed:
Dough (half whole wheat/half AP flour) after rising for nearly two hours:Punching it down:
Rolled out and ready with the cheese:Asparagus piled on top. Note: the asparagus was dressed with salt, pepper and EVOO.After 10 minutes in the oven at 500F:My two slices:
There was a tad too much mozzarella for my liking. I probably should have grated it and not cubed it as suggested. I probably should have realized that not being a crazy cheese fan to begin with, I should have used less than the 1/2 pound as directed by Deb at SK. Ah well. The asparagus more than made up for it.

After devouring my two slices of pizza, I still had plenty of dough leftover (I made a double batch) so I used my remaining dough (that I actually halved to make a REALLY thin crust) for Deb's Lemony Zucchini Goat Cheese pizza. I knew it just had to be made when I had all the ingredients on hand.

Here's the dough with the lemon goat cheese already spread and me placing the zucchini rounds on the pizza:
All done:
Ready for the oven:Yum:Let's take a closer look:
Yummy! This one was just as nice as the shaved asparagus pizza with the lemony goat cheese giving the pizza a really fresh taste. You have got to be a lemon lover in order to eat this. My mom is not so I didn't even bother offering her a slice. I decided to be greedy and save it all for myself.

POMEGRANATE LEMON CUPCAKES

I wanted to start the year off right so I decided to make a batch of cupcakes for my family to take to my aunt's new year's dinner. It's a tradition that we go to her house for dinner on new year's day but I had other plans but wanted to whip up a batch of cupcakes anyway. I settled on pomegranate cupcakes seeing as we had a couple of white pomegranates in the fridge about 24-hours away from the compost bin.

After frosting and decorating, this is what I came out with...24 standards, 12 of which I frosted:and the other 12 I left unfrosted for my mom and 20 minis for my relatives:Here's a standard aerial close-up:and a mini in profile:Pomegranate lemon cupcakes with pomegranate frosting, topped with white sugar dust and pink sanding sugar. There are actual white pomegranate arils in the cupcakes that held their shape during baking.

The frosting was a little too tart for me. Instead of using some kind of pomegranate juice, I ended up using pomegranate molasses, perhaps a little bit too much, but Sean said he'd probably like them so I'm going to give the rest of them to him and his family.

I also used white pomegranate instead of the regular red pomegranate because that's what I had in my house but if I ever made these cupcakes again, which I probably would, altering the frosting (perhaps cream cheese would be better?) I would use red pomegranate seeds for the batter instead.

Anyhoo, great way to start off baking in 2010!