Blue Cheese Pão de Queijo with Bacon

We've been getting on the kids' case about speaking too much English. We have a rule; at home we only speak Portuguese. Christian and I are not great at inforcing rules apparently because both Enzo and Maria are speaking way more English than Portuguese these days. Christian, the only one in the house who's first language is English, is the one who is the most disciplined about speaking Portuguese.  

We're your average mixed ethnicity family. We switch back and forth between two languages, we celebrate American holidays and wish we could celebrate all Brazilian holidays - for the 4 day weekends that are always coming up in Brazil. I'm not a purist, not with language, not with culture, and definitely not with food. I like mixing and experimenting and trying new variations.

Kerrygold, sent me a 3-pound wheel of their Cashel Blue cheese for me to use in a recipe.

Since cheese and crackers are my staple snack I have been eating away at this wheel like no one's business. This semi-soft cheese is creamy to perfection. I wanted to use this cheese in something besides a salad or the traditional pairing with steak or figs. Since, like I said, I'm not a purist I decided to try mixing the Kerrygold Cashel Blue with a pão de queijo recipe. 

If you've been to a Brazilian steakhouse you've probably had a pão de queijo or two. Pão de queijo literally means cheese bread and they're becoming more and more popular in the U.S because they are gluten-free, made with tapioca flour. I have a recipe that I like to make using my muffin tin. There are some great recipe out there as well like the one from The Kitchn and the one from Simply Recipes. 

For the blue cheese variation I experimented with an older recipe I had and modified it a bit. The chashel blue really brings the dough together. Not only does it add a mild blue cheese taste to the batter, it also makes the batter way creamy. As for the bacon, well you know... it's bacon one of the few foods you can never go wrong with.

Blue Cheese Pão de Queijo with Bacon

Yields: 5 dozen

8 slices of thick cut bacon

1 kilo (2.2-pounds) sour cassava flour or tapioca flour

1 + 1/2 cups warm water

1 cup milk

3 eggs

1/2 cup olive oil

1 cup Kerrygold Cashel Blue Farmhouse Cheese 

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

salt to taste

*Preheat oven to 350

Cook the bacon until very crispy.Crumble the bacon and set aside. Reserve the bacon grease for later.

Mix the flour and 1 cup warm water. Break any large lumps with your fingers. If you've never worked wit tapioca flour before it may feel a little strange. It resembles corn starch and you will want to get the flour to feel smooth and chalky.

Measure out 1/2 cup of bacon grease. On a small saucepan heat up the bacon grease and the milk and bring to a boil. Then pour on top of the flour and water mixture.

Knead the dough until all the milk and bacon grease is well incorporated into the flour. 

Add the eggs, olive oil, Kerrygold Cashel Blue Farmhouse Cheese, parmesan cheese and salt and knead the dough until smooth. 

Add the crumbled bacon and fold it into the dough.

Roll little balls of dough on your hands and place on a cookie sheet 1 dozen at a time.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm 

White Sauce Pizza with Bacon and Summer Squash

Pizza is one of the few foods we eat every week around here, usually near the end of the week. My husband makes the dough, and then while it rises I'll prep the rest of the ingredients, usually whatever veggies we have lying around. Pizza is great because it's versatile and it's easy to make everyone happy. We always make one just cheese pizza for the kids and another one with lots of toppings for the adults and sometimes a dessert pizza (bananas, cinnamon, sugar or guava paste and cheese) for everyone. This week we took the white sauce route, it's hard to go wrong with white sauce. 

Although I'm lactose intolerant I still have dairy products on a regular basis. Lactose intolerance affects people in different ways, and I'll be talking more about this on my blog. Suffice to say that depending on the type and amount of cheese I eat I'm usually fine. The same applies to yogurt. As for milk if it's used in moderation, like in white sauce on a pizza, then I'm o.k. Finding ways to use dairy in my cooking is essential because I know it's an easy way to get the calcium I need and also because, lets be real, cheese and crackers are my staple snack. Christian is a milk addict and the kids have showed no signs of lactose intolerance so milk, cheese, and yogurt are things we always have in our fridge.

I'm a huge fan of white sauce for lasagna and pasta but had never actually put in on pizza so I decided to try something new.

White Sauce Pizza with Bacon and Summer Squash
(printable version)

Pizza Dough

makes about 2 medium pizzas

1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon sugar

2-3 teaspoon dry yeast

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoon olive oil

2-3 cups all-purpose flour

1. Put one cup warm water in a large mixing bowl, and add the yeast, sugar, salt and oil to the water and mix.

2. Gradually add the flour, mixing with a large spoon until it is too stiff to mix, then gradually add the rest of the flour and knead for a few minutes. I usually make my pizza dough a little bit sticker than bread dough because this makes it easier to spread out.

3. Let the dough rise for about half an hour, or as long as it takes to make the white sauce and to prep the other ingredients.

White Sauce

enough for two pizzas

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

2 cups milk (Option: if you want you can use 2 cups of lactose free milk)

dash of nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Melt the butter in a sauce pan.

2. Add the flour, stirring until slightly browned, for roughly 1-3 minutes.

3. Gradually add the milk, whisking to thoroughly blend the milk and the flour/butter mixture. Cook over a low temperature until the sauce begins to thicken.

4. Add salt and a dash of nutmeg. Don't omit the nutmeg, it really makes a good white sauce a lot better. Some Parmesan cheese can also help to add a nice flavor to your white sauce. Aged, natural cheeses like Parmesan contain a small amount of lactose, making this recipe lactose intolerance friendly.

Toppings

I will usually cook toppings before hand slightly because I like to make sure everything is well cooked, especially if I am using onions. I also cook spinach, chard, and kale as well because otherwise there's always too little once it's cooked down. For this white sauce pizza this is what I included. The amounts are all somewhat subjective, depending on how you like your pizza.

5 slices of bacon (chopped up and cooked before hand on the stove or in the oven)

10 mushrooms sliced

1 small summer squash sliced

2 large green onions, diced

fresh oregano

2-3 cups shredded cheese, Mozzarella, Monterey Jack, Cheddar, or some mix of the three

1. Saute the summer squash, mushrooms, and green onions on a large skillet on medium until not quite done, about 3-4 minutes. Put to the side.

Assemble Pizzas

Oil a pizza pan, cookie sheets, pizza stone or whatever you want to cook your pizza on. I sometimes use the leftover bacon grease which is super tasty. Press down the dough and kneed it once or twice and then divide the dough into two lumps. Press the dough into the well oiled cookie sheet, spreading it out and pressing it down until you have spread it out to the size of the pan. I find this to be much easier that rolling it out and then trying to transfer it to the pan.

1. Spread out the white sauce on the pizza. Sprinkle on the oregano.

2. Sprinkle on the cheese and then top with the veggies and bacon. You can do it in the reverse order (veggies and bacon then cheese) but with a lot of veggies this cooks them a bit more and makes the crust less soggy.

3. Bake for 12-18 minutes at 400 degrees.

Although the baking time may change depending on how much toppings and how thick the crust it. I usually take it out once the crust is starting to turn golden and the cheese is getting crusty in places, which is a better judge.

It seems like a lot of steps but with practice it all happens quite easily. I can usually have two pizzas done in less than an hour from when I first started.

This post was written while participating in my partnership with the National Dairy Council, but as always my opinions are my own.

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Basically the most beautiful table setting I have ever seen in my life.

History Repeats Itself, Especially Parenting History

At the end of the day I'm like, "what just happened?" There are quiet moments. There are even moments of connection. Enzo and Maria sleep on the same bed. It's a full size bed packed with stuffed animals. Every Most nights I go and lay down with them and sing a couple songs and make several mental notes - change sheets, change pillow cases, remove all these stuffed animals. And then lights off. And then, just like that the day is over. Sort of. My parenting Enzo and Maria day is over;  Eliza and I still hang out at night, nursing you know.

Most of my day is not filled with sweet moments. Its filled with short sentences. "You, brush teeth." "You, potty, wipe, flush." "You, diaper. Blow out."

My days are also filled with work. In fact that's what most of my day is filled with.

I feel like I'm back in school. You know how with school you study, study, study and there's still more studying to be done. You're basically never done. My job is like that. I'm not complaining, I'm just stating the facts. I work a lot. Christian works a lot. I hate how much my 7 year old works. I feel like he works way too much. I'm not a fan of schools starting at 8:20 and going until 2:20, I'm just not. I wish school was half day every day. He's just gone so much of the day and then there's homework. And just like that the day is over.

We were all sick last week and it was miserable, minus the part where Enzo was too sick to go to school but not too sick to enjoy himself at home. He just played with blocks and Legos and read all day long.

Then I started having problems nursing. I won't go into details. I will say that I am doing everything possible to not wean this baby just yet. She seems totally uninterested in food, except for eating paper. I should just leave random food on the floor and let her graze, or I could stop vacuuming.

Funny how history repeats itself, especially parenting history. I swear I was writing about the same things just a couple years ago when Maria was a baby - sleep deprivation, nursing issues, baby putting everything in her mouth. Also, all of our babies look exactly the same so there's that eery element mixed in there.

But you know, it doesn't get old. It's like when a friend has a baby and you're all like "awwwww, so cute" even though your other friend also just had a baby and you had the same reaction and you will forever have the same reaction every time you see a baby. It's like me pickng up Enzo and rocking him even though he's almost to my shoulder. For me they will always be babies and it will just not get old.

As for the pictures above, what does it illustrate? Just a glimpse of a moment in time; something that happens quit often - the kids wanting a snack after they've brushed teeth, after they're tucked in bed, and me caving. I cave a lot these days.