College, Food, Football

Football Feedings 2012 Week 03: Mean Green Pizza

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It wasn’t my turn to cook but it’s always my turn to eat.  This weekend Kansas State took on North Texas so my lady decided to whip up some Mean Green Pizza.  The common thread so far this year has been adding an extra kick or spice to regular bar food eats.  Mean Green Pizza does not disappoint with the same kind of a kick.  But it also has an extra twist.  In this case we’ll call it a stuff.  Wash that down with a tasty St. Feuillien Triple and we got ourselves another Football Feedings.

Mean Green Pizza

 

 

Ingredients

  • 1 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
  • 1 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1/8 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 tablespoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon dried basil
  • 1 tablespoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 4 slices HEB jalapeno bacon
  • 5 pieces of string cheese
  • 1 can HEB spicy pepperoni pizza sauce
  • 2 thinly sliced chicken breast pieces, cooked in bacon grease with a little garlic powder and black pepper
  • 1 green pepper
  • Baby spinach
  • 2 jalapenos
  • Mozzarella cheese

Cooking Instructions

  1. Mix yeast, warm water, and white sugar together in a large bowl. Set aside for five minutes, or until mixture becomes foamy.
  2. Stir olive oil, salt, herbs, garlic powder, onion powder, cheese, and 3 cups flour into the yeast mixture. Gradually mix in the next three cups of flour. Dough will be stiff.
  3. Knead dough for 5 to 10 minutes, or until it is smooth and rubbery. Place in an oiled bowl, and turn to cover the surface of the dough with oil. Cover with a damp linen dish towel. Allow to rise for one hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.
  4. Punch dough down to release all the air.  Allow to rise until doubled in size, about a 30 minutes.
  5. Spread the dough on a pizza pan, with two inches of dough over the pan edge.
  6. Place the string cheese around the edge of the pan, giving about an inch between each cheese.
  7. Place the bacon on the string cheese around the pan.
  8. Wrap the excess dough from the outside edge over the cheese and bacon, pinching down into the dough in the pan.
  9. Spread the sauce on the dough.
  10. Add a thin layer of cheese.
  11. Add the chicken, spinach, jalapenos, and green peppers in order
  12. Add a top layer of cheese
  13. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 35 minutes. Remove loaves from pan(s), and let cool on wire racks for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

Since I didn’t have the fine opportunity to cook, I had the fine opportunity to watch some football.  I held off until the pizza was done before dipping into the St. Feuillien and I’m glad I did.  Like I said earlier, the common thread so far this season was a nice kick to our barfood reproduction.  This week’s food is no different.  But the extra bump that we added was a stuffed crust.  With string cheese AND bacon.  Yup, more bacon this week.  It wasn’t a total meat fest.  We also had some nice green vegetables (and a green jalapeno kick) to fill out the pie.

The pie was tasty.  The chicken and cheese that compliment the green machine helped make it go down easy, while signaling the nose to start running due to the spice.  That’s where the St Feullien Triple came in.  Typically with a pizza you need a Belgian Double or some sort of sessionable pilsner to wash it down but because of the extra kick, I upgraded the double to a triple.  And I’m glad I did.  The sweet yet crisp taste of the St. Freullien helped push down, and counteract, some of more spicy portions of the Mean Green Pizza.  The package was tight and I finished the whole pie off at a concert I went to later on in the night.

So being the Kansas State fan that I am as well as recognizing that North Texas is their opponent, the only I could do to the Mean Green pizza is one of our famous slogans:  “Eat ‘Em Up! Eat ‘Em Up! K S U!”  And that’s exactly what I did.  I ate the whole thing up.  Kansas State at the whole thing up against North Texas over the weekend.  Too bad they didn’t have a St. Feuillien to wash down the victory.  But hey, it’s Football Feedings.   It’s always a good time no matter what you wash it down with.