Girls Night In

So, after shuffling the man out the door armed with Queso dip and an assortment of brats and such to tailgate with other man beasts and watch football, LIVE!!, the panda and I decided on our Girls Night In.
The menu would be Thin Crust Tortilla Pizzas and a frozen treat of some kind for dessert.  After indulging in laundry and Twilight movies (ugh! too many questions, "Mommy, I thought vampires couldn't go out in the daylight", "Mommy, why is he sparkly?", "Mommy, they are just stupid teenagers, all of them." I could barely concentrate on Taylor Lautner's six pack!), but I digress.  Off to the Patch for primo toppings and chilly delights.

We perused the fresh produce aisle but found nothing within our tastes or budget.  ($4.29 for 1 artichoke???  It better season, clean and cook itself for that kinda money!)  We browsed the self-serve bins of nuts and dried fruits and picked up some raw pumpkins seeds, dried pineapple and coconut rolled dates.  We pondered the granola and grains, but passed this time, though the intensely yellow saffron rice caught my eye for just a moment. 

We cruised by the dairy and soy-based products and pre-packaged meats and headed for the meat counter.  We cocked our heads in wonder at the tiny, I mean teensy, lamb rib chops.  They were hors'deouvre size and I did the mental calculations on how many lambs would have to die for that kind of dinner party.  Holy grape leaves, Batman!

Panda wanted sausage for her pizza.  We found hot and mild Italian and also a chicken Florentine "Mommy, what's Florentine?" "It's with spinach."  She crinkled her nose and thought a moment.  "It might be good, but let's get the mild Italian." One good size link (about a 1/4 pound) was $1.62.  Now, for the Olive Bar.  You know, you tend to forget how expensive the olive bar is when you are dipping into those bowls of bitter, salty indulgence, bedazzled by the size and color and utter deliciousness of all the olives and roasted tomatoes and peppers and mushrooms.  Decadence comes about $6 for a little more than half a pound, but is an irresistible treat for my pizza choice.

We look at all the cheese from exotic lands like Wisconsin and England in the bargain cheese bin where they package up the little bits and sell them for under $5.  Nothing for us there, but it is fun to look at them all.  Panda is still liking the blue cheese, but draws the line at crumbles.  When confronted with a cellophane wrapped wedge of the moldy stuff she recoils.  "Grosss!"

Down to the freezer aisle, to see what we can find for our dessert and we find all kinds of coconut milk and soy "ice creams".  That sounds icky, so we are excited to spy Ciao Bella Blood Orange sorbet on sale for $3.99 a pint.  We also purchase a pint of the CB coconut to compliment.   At the checkout, Panda grabs some Bug Bites, little chocolate squares with an insect trading card inside.  Yay.  Can't wait to enjoy the chocolate while discussing what and where one might find the particular beetle showcased this time.  (bleah, but on-target fun for a tweenager.)

So, how to make a Thin Crust Tortilla Pizza.  Heat your oven to 375 degrees.  You will need 2 large tortillas per pizza.  Typically, a 10 inch TCT pizza feeds one person.  Put the first tortilla down on an ungreased baking sheet.  Sprinkle with a little cheese, panda used mozzarella and I used Parmesan.  Place the other tortilla on top.  This will stick them together and give your crust a little more body and crunch.  Put on toppings.  Panda chose a basil marinara sauce, sausage, pepperoni and shredded mozzarella.  I chose no sauce, fresh mozzarella, sausage, roasted tomatoes and assorted olives, drizzled with a bit of the olive oil from the olive bar container.  Into the oven for around 7-10 minutes.  Watch them carefully as the tortillas toast up and brown quickly and they just arent' very good "blackened".

 Here's how they looked out of the oven and they were so good.  The great thing about this method of pizza is that the ingredients don't get "lost" in the dough.  We had made homemade pizza using Publix pre-made pizza dough a few weekends ago.  Due to the chef's poor dough wrangling skills, the crust was uneven and way too puffy in some places, making it a chore just to chew.  The tortilla crust is not only delicious, but easy and consistent and at a couple bucks for a bag of 10 that last in your fridge for weeks, it's the way to go!

Now, onto dessert.  We put a scoop each of the blood orange and coconut sorbets into dessert bowls, sprinkled with the dried pineapple chunks and enjoyed the intense tartness plus the sweet creaminess and the chewy pineappleness all together.  We watched "Marigold" one of my favorite Bollywood movies and had a lovely girls night in, until I started to show off my dance moves and then it was time for Panda to grab her cat and kindle and retreat to her room.  Ah well, she missed out.