Cinnamon Apricot Muffin-Tops

My favorite way to procrastinate, or kill time in general, is either by cooking or reading. I've had plenty of free time lately, and the cold weather had made me especially excited to bake so that I can warm up the house while using the ovens. Today I was looking for something reasonably healthy that also only required the ingredients I had in my house. I've been making scones from Bisquick for years but today I wanted something moister and fluffier. Usually I just throw things in a bowl until it comes close to the right consistency, but today, for you, I measured. (You're welcome!)

• 2/3 cup chopped dried apricots
• 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
• 2 1/2 tblspn brown sugar
• 2 1/2 cups bisquick
• 1/2 cup vanilla nonfat yogurt
• 1/4 cup water, milk, or soy milk

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and spray a nonstick cookie sheet.
2. Mix wet ingredients separately from dry ingredients, then mix them all together.
3. It will be really sticky, so I recommend using a plastic mixing spoon and a silicone spatula to drop approximately 1/3 cup (just eyeball it) evenly spaced apart.
4. Bake for about 8 minutes, until they are slightly brown on the bottom and starting to brown on top.
5. I recommend these warm with some butter and/or jam.

Saturday Night Special -- Pizza!

I loooove pizza. I especially love it with a ton of different ingredients and when it's super hot. Unfortunately, when you order something like that from a pizzeria it gets more expensive the more ingredients you add, and by the time you get it home it's barely warm. The cheapest, easiest, and most delicious solution to the problem is to make the pizza at home. Most grocery stores sell pizza dough in the refrigerator section. I bought my dough from Trader Joe's before I had even planned on making pizza. With a price tag of under two dollars for a whole pizza's worth of dough I just couldn't refuse.

Next I had the yummy task of picking out toppings. As I meandered through the grocery store I realized I could make this as expensive (goat cheese, fresh basil) or inexpensive (turkey pepperoni, tomatoes) as I wanted. I went with an inexpensive but delicious mix of toppings: red sauce, mozzarella, diced tomatoes, turkey pepperoni, artichoke hearts and onions on half.

The pizza dough came with directions, so there was no guessing on how to prepare the dough. While the dough was rising on the counter for 20 minutes I was able to chop the onion and tomato and grate the mozzarella. Unfortunately it's now winter in Minnesota, and apparently the dough is meant to rise in a warm room for 20 minutes, not a barely tolerable energy saving apartment. Between the scarcely risen dough and the fact I rolled it out almost 6 inches larger than directed we ended up with a super thin crispy crust. I also rolled the dough in corn meal instead of flour, a trick that I learned from my mom. Another way to ensure crispy crunchy crust is to make sure the oven is preheated to the correct temperature before baking it off. Our final result wasn't the perfect, but it was cheap, easy, and piping hot. For extra flavor we added some Presto Pesto (you can use italian herbs) and red chili flakes for spice.

• 1 12" pizza crust (Some dough needs time to rise before you roll it out, so plan ahead!)
  
• 1 lb mozzarella cheese, grated
• 24-30 turkey pepperoni
• 1 roma tomato, diced
  
• 1/4 small white onion, sliced thinly
• 4-6 oz artichoke hearts, quartered and strained
  
• 2 cups red sauce (we used leftover Muir Glen pasta sauce)
• olive oil
• corn meal
  

1. Preheat the directions according to the directions on the pizza dough.
   
2. Roll out pizza dough, using corn meal intstead of flour to prevent sticking.
3. Move the dough to a prepared cookie sheet. Trust me. If you don't move it now, you'll never get it on with all the toppings on too!
4. Spread the sauce evenly, slightly thinner to the center and slightly thicker to the edges.
5. Place your toppings on the pizza. I like to do pepperoni and artichoke hearts first, then cheese, then tomatoes and onions on top.
6. Since I only put onions on half the pizza I put one pepperoni on top on the special half so that I can tell the two halves apart.
7. Drizzle pizza with olive oil. It only needs a little bit and this makes sure the pizza doesn't dry out. Also, it will add a fabulous shine and help the cheese brown.
8. Bake the pizza. Our oven took about 9 minutes, some will go as quickly as 6.
9. Garnish to taste. Try basil, parmesean, chili flakes, or even pesto.