Saturday, October 17, 2009

What Do You Want on Your Pizza?


Even those of us with the best of intentions ("From now on, I will eat nothing but nutritious meals that I make myself with local, organic ingredients!") sometimes find ourselves in the position where a husband invites a buddy over to help him replace the radiator, and take-out pizza with beer seems the only acceptable compensation. More than a couple toppings can be expensive, though, so as you can see I jazzed my slice up with some arugula from my own fridge. Greens don't keep well for more than a week, so may as well use them while the using is good.

Do you ever put your own toppings on take-out pizza? Is this a sensible way to pinch pennies, or would you bother? And if you do it for culinary rather than monetary reasons, what is your favorite topping that run-of-the-mill pizza joints never seem to have?


Beat the eggs. Whip the cream. Show no mercy.


19 comments:

Karine said...

I think using your own topping for take-out pizza is a great idea. You can choose all the ingredients + controlling the amount of fat too! I find the fat on pizzas so disgusting.....

Cookin' Canuck said...

We do homemade pizza night every Friday night. I got over my fear of yeast and perfected a crust. My kids like standard toppings - pepperoni, black olives. My husband and I like to play around with prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, potatoes - whatever strikes our fancy. One of our favorites is pesto with shrimp and we grill the pizza. Heaven!

The Chickenless Chick said...

@Karine... I totally agree when it comes to take-out pizzas that don't use real olive oil. Ew!!!!

@Cookin' Canuck... never grilled pizza before, but keep meaning to try it. The smoky flavor you get from grilling sounds like heaven with gooey melty cheese and a nice crisp crust!

Unknown said...

Kimchi and turkey pepperoni! Yum!

Kelly said...

I love arugula on a pizza, Casey wasn't a fan so much but I think it's awesome. I also added proscuitto on a pizza a little while back. But as far as cost saving, that can be a bit expensive.

Ashlee Monk said...

My favorite. I mean absolute favorite pizza combination is those babay bell peppers sliced up all small, feta cheese, sundried tomatoes, and some spinach leaves if I have them. Then I top with extra sharp cheddar instead of mozzerella. So good....even better if the crust is thin thin thin.

Velva said...

I can't say that I have ever put additional toppings on take-out pizza-Not a bad idea. Just never occurred to me. When I make pizza at home I love using argula and goat cheese with fresh chopped tomato and olive oil.

Nice blog post!

gastroanthropologist said...

I occasionally buy a tomato and mascarpone bake-at-home pizza from a great grocery store nearby. I always top it with fresh arugula out of the oven! Sometimes I'll crack a raw egg on top of the pizza - they heat of it cooks it just perfectly. Think most take out or bake-at-home pizzas need a few extras.

Miranda said...

We make homemade pizza all the time. I made some yesterday. I made Chili pizza topped with cheddar cheese and jalapenos! Yum. I will be posting it soon!!

By the way, thanks for entering my giveaway.
Where in Orlando do you live? I live in Lake Mary.

Anonymous said...

Pear, prosciutto & gorgonzola are my favorite toppings to put on at home!

The Chickenless Chick said...

@ Miranda... I live downtown in a very nice location- far enough removed that it's shady and quiet, but close enough to walk to the exciting stuff if I need it :)

Thank you, everyone, for your comments. I've never met a raw ingredient I didn't like (see any of my posts involving Malabar spinach), so everything you've suggested sounds delicious to me. Hope this activity has gotten the creative juices flowing and maybe helped you decide what's for dinner!

Dani O said...

I add toppings to my frozen pizzas all the time. Usually I'm adding veggie crumbles (aka, fake hamburger meat), onions, or spinach. The only good veggie frozen pizzas are usually expensive and none of them have meat substitutes.

This is Dani O, btw. And I'm digging your blogage. :)

The Chickenless Chick said...

Hi Dani! Nice to see you. Thanks for the compliment and I am TOTALLY with you as far as lamenting grocery expenses :( But they can't take our creativity away, damn it!!

Paul said...

Beer and pizza was adequate compensation, thanks! My father is the king (in my opinion) of fixing a broken frozen (or takeout) pizza. He often makes what we lovingly term "garbage pizza", made up of pretty much all the leftovers in the fridge or cabinet. Could be mushrooms, peppers, apple slices, summer sausage, olives, pickles (seriously, try some baby gherkins sometime), and whatever cheese is about to turn green. His arrangements usually triple the weight of the original pizza (take THAT, pansy arugula garnish!).

BTW, apropos of nothing, my word verification is "dousher", which I find terribly hilarious.

The Chickenless Chick said...

Yes. Yes, that is hilarious.

Unknown said...

I wanted to add something useful like--I do not eat pizza how dare you--but then I was all distracted with laughter at the beat the eggs, whip the cream, show no mercy--I want to steal it even--I LOVE IT!
LOL

seriously--pizza EEEWW!

just kidding...I add feta.

The Chickenless Chick said...

Glad you like the sign-off :) Mmm, feta...

MaryMoh said...

Gosh....I hv to think so hard on this one...hmmm. I seldom eat pizza. Have not eaten 5x yet for this year. But if I hv to put my own topping, I think I'm going to put so much nice stuff on it. My char siu chicken definitely hv to be the main one and then topped with a lot of nice green salad. Not too sure if I want cheese...probably not. Is that pizza? I'll call that Chinese pizza....LOL

The Chickenless Chick said...

I know plenty of vegans who enjoy a good cheese-less pizza. But put chicken on it, and suddenly you've got your own invention! "Chinese Pizza" sounds perfect.