McDonald's + Olympics = New Game!

So I know I'm extremely behind in my blogging and actually have a lot to report back on, including my experiment with frying chicken wings and a meatball project collaboration with a few friends (a surprising learning experience!), but I just read an exciting piece of news: McDonald's has yet another Monopoly-esque promotion!

For those of you who know me (and/or have read my previous posts about McDonald's), you know that I am a huge sucker for anything involving "free" game pieces that involve the potential to win money, free food, etc. Imagine my surprise and joy when reading the McDonald's press release introducing their new OLYMPICS game! Like McDonald's, this promotion involves game pieces fixed to the packaging of select McDonald's products; unlike the Monopoly promotion, this one seems to also be promoting McDonald's new "healthy" image. For a limited time, purchase any item off of their "McDonald's Favorites Under 400 Calories" menu to be eligible for a chance to win various prizes, including electronics, money, free food, etc.

...it looks like I will be eating a whole lot of McDonald's until this promotion expires!!!

http://www.usawinsgold.com/#/EnterCode

The Pizza Project

So in all honesty, I'm not really a huge fan of pizza. I'm not a huge fan of tomato sauce, not that into the idea of eating slabs of dough (I don't really eat bread either), and not in love with cheese either, so there's really not much about pizza to get me excited. But there is an exception (isn't there always?). Certe happens to make a DELICIOUS "farmer's" pizza with shredded potatoes, corn, and cheese and it is P-H-E-N-O-M-E-N-A-L, enough to make me willing to trek up to midtown just for a slice. The problem is, though I may love this pizza, it doesn't really seem worth it to travel all the way to midtown east JUST for a slice of this pizza (clearly I'm not the type of person who treks across the Brooklyn Bridge for a slice of Grimaldi's), so I decided to try and make my own!

The inspiration to make my own pizza actually came from a brunch I hosted this past weekend, a fundraiser for an organization called Bear Givers. One of the dishes I made was a breakfast pizza, topping Whole Foods Organic Pizza Dough with bacon, sausage, hash browns, cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese, and an egg and milk mixture. The pizza was so simple (and thanks to this brunch, I now had a pizza pan and pizza slicer), so I figured, why not make more of my own pizzas? Plus this way, I'd be able to customize the pizzas to my own liking, so thus I began my pizza project!

For my first pizza (well, technically second if you count the breakfast pizza), I chose to do my own personal rendition of the Certe farmer's pizza. But first, I had to make the dough!

Following this pizza crust recipe, I prepared the dough. It was actually much more simple than expected and fairly straightforward - let yeast and brown sugar sit with warm water for 10 minutes, mix in salt and oil, followed by 2.5 cups of flour. 

Knead on a floured surface until the dough is "no longer sticky" - I decided I had reached the right point when I no longer felt my finger might get dough stuck on it, but I wouldn't necessarily call that point "not sticky." Then let it sit for an hour until it doubles...

 ...and voila - like magic! 

Pound out the dough and then begin rolling out to fit your pan. Personally I felt that this dough would've been better suited for 2 pizzas instead of just 1 - my dough was WAY too thick.

After the dough was placed into the pan, I let it rest for 15 minutes as per the recipe, but honestly I didn't see the dough rise whatsoever. So I just began sprinkling with toppings! I first coated the dough with a light layer of olive oil - no clue what effect it had - but next time I think I'm going to try to add some sort of sauce. What kind of sauce? I have no clue. I will let you know after I scout out Certe's pizza again...

My original plan was just to sprinkle some shredded hash browns, corn, chopped spring onion, and some mozzarella cheese, but then I found chopped onions and cheddar cheese in my fridge and couldn't resist. Naturally, I ended up with too thick of a layer of toppings but oh well, the dough was nearly 3 times as thick as the toppings anyways! Then I threw the pizza into the oven at 425 for about 25 minutes and...

My first (sort of) pizza!! I'll admit it didn't taste great - it was basically a slab of bread with some toppings baked on top, but it didn't taste bad either! Plus, the dough was a very nice texture - not too tough and still ever so wonderfully soft and chewy. And you know what? At least this pizza is much healthier than what you might get outside at a pizza place! 

Until next time...happy eating!