Naan Pizza

This pizza is very similar to the flat bread pizza recipe I recently posted. Only difference is the type of bread. I used Naan which is a type of flat bread from India and can be found in Trader Joes and commercial grocery stores. I found my bread at Von’s which is a popular grocery store chain in southern California.

For this recipe I used pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, pepperoni and cooked sweet Italian sausage. Pop it in the toaster oven long enough for the cheese to start bubbling and the bread to brown and its ready.  So quick and easy.  They are the perfect size and you can add a side of mixed greens for a small salad to make it a complete meal. When you use some of your favorite ingredients it truly hits the spot and it is oh so yum…

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My lastest shots…

these are some of my latest photos:

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Potlucks are for dessert…

So yea like this past Monday; my department had a potluck for a colleague who had decided to leave us for an opportunity to start his own business. I happen to think this  is so awesome and brave. After thumbing through my over indulgent collection of cookbooks; I found a turtle bar recipe that I thought, “oh, this might be quick and easy.” But of course seeing how I can never be happy with finding one thing; I kept looking. So I began searching the Internet for another option. I came upon a little recipe by the people at Nestle toll-house. It seemed quick and easy and I recalled eating this dessert recently; so I knew it would be a yummy treat. The treat had a name, “Mini cheesecake cookie cups”; topped with cherry or strawberry pie filling. There is a reason this recipe is number four on the Nestle top rated recipe list. I think chocolate chip cookie is the yummy surprise. Most people that aren’t that familiar with the dessert cups; would usually assume oh its a little cheesecake but when they bite into it they suddenly realize it’s not the typical gram cracker bottom. Their tongue wakes up and they start realizing it’s a chocolate chip cookie in there!

Such simple ingredients! Cream cheese, vanilla extract, sweetened condensed milk and eggs. To make the chocolate chip cookie bottom; simply use the Nestle toll-house ready-made cookie dough and bake it in the bottom of the muffin cup.

Mix up the rest of the ingredients, pour it over the baked cookie, bake it again and top with filling, woo-la your done.

I decided to make 12 cookie cups with cherry and the other 12 with strawberry. The recipe makes exactly 24 cheesecakes; which I thought was great! Sometimes I get recipes and it says 24 butI tend to end up with 30 cupcakes. This was very exact. If I wanted to figure out how to make more; I found a website called allrecipes.com that allows you to adjust the recipe to your desired amount. Oh how I enjoy the Internet.

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Portos Bakery

Last weekend I finally had the opportunity to eat at the Cuban cafe known as Portos. In April I had ordered a cake from them for my daughter’s party. So I was eager to enjoy some of the food that I had heard so much about.

Located off of West Magnolia and Hollywood way in Burbank; it was quite a jaunt for me. Since it was Saturday it was also an opportunity to spend some time with the kids and go on a little adventure. Afterwords we grabbed our desserts and headed to a really nice park in the area to enjoy our pastries and let the kids run around.

The menu is full of options and reasonably priced. My husband and I opted for the traditional Cuban sandwich and the kids got a grilled cheese sandwich, Cuban style of course. I ordered a side salad that came with a cilantro dressing.

The Cuban sandwich was served with crispy banana chips.  It was pretty crowded throughout the cafe. When we entered the cafe we encountered three different lines. One for ordering specific cakes and goodies. One for the pastries but because they were so busy they let us order off the food menu. Then of course there was the cafe food line.  Each time I have came to Portos it’s been bustling with people. Once we were ready to sit down, we were lucky enough to be seated quickly by the cafe hostess. We placed our number on the table and waited for our food to arrive. As we were waiting, I noticed how airy  and open the dining area seemed. Above was a gigantic skylight that lets in all this wonderful sun light. There are also were some pretty interesting paintings on the wall. I enjoyed my food; even my picky eaters (the kids) gobbled down their grilled cheese sandwiches.

Of course we couldn’t pass up the pastries… We dabbled in a variety of items. One of which was the Cuban cake. My daughter requested the traditional brownie and my son had a little bit of my cheese roll. He’s not big on desserts. My husband well let’s just say he had a sampling of a few things. None of which survived the trip home.

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