"You never cease to amaze me." This is an exact quote from Mike after he ate this week's Chopped meal. He really thought he was going to stump me when he selected hot dogs as one of the mystery ingredients. Obviously, after 14 years of marriage he doesn't know me that well yet.
This week I made Hot Dog Pizza and Kit Kat Cheesecake. I decided that I could turn hot dogs into Italian sausages. After all, Italian sausages are just processed meat with spices added. So, that was my plan. I could tell Mike was dreading my pizza all week long. Every time I mentioned it, he got this look of dread on his face. But, I reminded him that if he chose an ingredient, he had to eat the meal I prepared with it. So, there was no backing out of this one. Plus, I was confident I would succeed.
However, I first started with the cheesecake. After baking and cooling, it needed to be refrigerated for at least 3 hours. So, I made it around mid-afternoon. It was super, super easy. Cheesecakes can be very intimidating, especially after you see all the selections at Cheesecake Factory. But, you can make a simple cheesecake that is still super yummy. I've made big, elaborate cheesecakes before and they are just too big for my family. After all, the boys have never even had cheesecake so if they didn't like it then it would be up to Mike and I to eat it all. And, neither one of us needs that responsibility. So, I opted for this smaller cheesecake using a prepared graham cracker crust. The original recipe specified toffee bars. So, I substituted Kit Kats.
Can you believe these are the only ingredients I needed for the cheesecake? So, if you are feeling like cheesecake but don't want to go to a lot of work, I'd highly recommend this recipe (click on "Kit Kat Cheesecake" above to follow a link to the recipe). Seriously, so easy. The only change I made to the recipe was that I did not put Kit Kats on top of the cheesecake. I was afraid they might melt in the oven and I didn't have enough. The cheesecake was perfect without the Kit Kats on top.
After a few hours, it was time to start the pizza. I make my own sauce and dough, but before I started that I wanted to make my hot dog sausages. Once made, I was just going to let them sit in the fridge until I needed them. I first cut up 6 of the 8 hot dogs in the package and tried to cut them on a slant.
Now, it was time to transform them. I sautéed half of the cut-up hot dogs at a time with olive oil, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder and fennel seed. They smelled so good!
Benjamin's contribution to this meal was taste-testing my sausages. We had our Chopped meal on Monday night this week instead of Sunday and Benjamin had a lot of homework and baseball practice. So, I was without my sous chef. He loved the sausages and gave them a thumbs-up. They were very tasty.
As I mentioned, I make my own dough and sauce. I use recipes that Jonathan received from a cooking birthday party. Both recipes are super, super easy and delicious. The sauce is by far better than any pizza sauce you can buy in a store. Here are the ingredients that I use for the sauce.
I usually have all of these items in my pantry and when you add up the cost, it is super inexpensive. You just mix everything together and you have pizza sauce. It was now time to assemble the pizza. Here's what a hot dog pizza looks like.
Looks like sausage, doesn't it? However, we like lots of toppings on our pizza. So, I added diced pepperoni and on half of the pizza I also added diced green pepper and onion. After about 20 minutes in the oven, we had pizza.
Now was the time of truth. Does hot dog pizza actually taste good. YES, very much so!! Now, if I had just sliced up the hot dogs and added it to the pizza it probably wouldn't have tasted very good. But, transforming the hot dogs into Italian sausages was definitely the key for success. As for the cheesecake - yum!! The boys aren't big cheesecake fans we discovered. Benjamin ate the graham cracker crust and picked out the pieces of Kit Kats. Jake had a few bites, and Jonathan asked if I could make it without cream cheese next time. However, Mike is a huge fan of cheesecake and thought it was delectable. Another Chopped home run!!!
Next week's mystery ingredients: Pickles and Crunchy Granola Bars. Sounds terrible, right? Well, I found an entrée recipe that uses pickles and has received great reviews so I'm optimistic once again. Mike seems to think I need less than a week to plan and prepare the meal. He's suggested that he pick the ingredients on Sunday morning that I have to use for a meal that evening. I might soon be up to that challenge.
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