Even better than how good they taste is how easy they are to make. Cutting the carrots into pieces is the most time-consuming part, and if you make a big batch, they’ll keep in the fridge for weeks.

If you like these, but aren’t so big on the spices, you might also want to try these marinated carrots from my grandmother Pat. They’re another great refrigerator staple to keep around in the summer.

Spicy Carrot Pickles
These quick pickles are a takeoff on this recipe from Bon Appetit, but with different spices. In terms of the spices, I really just used whatever I found in my cabinet, and encourage you to do the same. I think the carrots, garlic, lemon, and vinegar are about the only things essential for this recipe.

6-8 medium carrots (or about 5 large ones), cut into thin sticks, about 2″ long, or whatever shape you like, such as quarter or coins
peel from one lemon (removed in strips)
4 large cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
3″ piece of ginger, cut into thin sticks

1 cup water
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon chili flakes (or more if desired; with 1 teaspoon my pickles had a very mild kick, but the chili flakes I have on hand right now are pretty mild themselves)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon dried savory
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Pack carrots, lemon peel, garlic and ginger into a one quart jar.

Combine water, vinegar, sugar, salt, and spices in a microwave safe container. Bring to a boil in the microwave, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar and salt.

Pour the brine and all the spices over the carrots (they should be covered). Let cool, close tightly, and refrigerate at least overnight. Pickles will keep for several weeks in the fridge. However, they will get spicier with time.

From the archives, first posted April 21, 2009.  This is one of our most popular posts and one of my favorite appetizers.  Easy and always a crowd pleaser, it’s a great one to have in your back pocket as we approach the holiday season.

We first had bacon-wrapped dates at a tapas place we like in Menlo Park, Iberia.  The service can be spotty, but the food is delicious, and the sangria is deadly.  They stuff their bacon-wrapped dates with Spanish-style chorizo.  It makes a great combination of spicy, sweet, and salty.  Here, we subbed the chorizo for Campo de Montalban cheese (similar to manchego) and an almond.  I tossed the almonds with olive oil, salt, cayenne pepper, and smoked paprika to add that spicy note, and I like the addition of the creaminess of the cheese.  It’s a great fusion of flavors, and a wonderful appetizer.

You might also like:

• Cheese Date Biscuits
• Cheese Straws

Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Dates

We’ve tried these with Medjool dates, but they are a bit too sweet and moist. We like them better with more readily available (and cheaper) California dates.

20 pitted dates
20 blanched almonds
10 pieces of bacon
1/4 c cheese, such as manchego, Campo de Montalban, or goat cheese, in small chunks
cayenne pepper
smoked paprika
olive oil
salt

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Optional: Toss almonds with a bit of olive oil, salt, cayenne pepper, and paprika. Don’t shirk on the spices; you want the flavor to come through in the final product. Toast for a few minutes, until barely beginning to brown. Let cool.

Stuff the dates with one almond and a few small chunks of the cheese. (You can probably just use the holes in each end of the date instead of cutting slits in them.)  Wrap each date in a half slice of bacon, and secure the ends with toothpicks.

Place the dates on a broiler pan.  Bake at 350 for about 5 minutes, turn, and bake for another 5 minutes or so, until the bacon is crispy.  Serve warm.

As anyone that knows us knows, we like to make pizza … a lot … mostly as a result of my parents’ wood-fired pizza oven in Raleigh.  While we miss that dearly, we’ve found that a very hot oven or, even better, a grill make decent substitutes.  I’ve posted a bunch on pizza in the past, but I decided it might be time to put everything together in one place.  I’m probably the only one that has this problem, but when I look back and try to find a combination of toppings I’ve tried before, I end up having to sift through a bunch of posts to find out which one it is.  In the future, I’ll try to keep this up-to-date so all our favorite pizza dough recipes and topping ideas are synthesized in one place.  Enjoy!  And I’d love to get more ideas in the comments!

Grilled Pizza

We use the recipe from Mugnaini pizza dough, which you can get from that link, enough for 6-8 pizzas. I’ve got the ingredients list below, but I’ll let you read her instructions, and I’ll pick up on what I did after making the dough.

Mom thinks that having nice flour really makes a difference in how easy the dough is to work with. She recommends Giusto’s High Performance Pizza Flour, which you can buy online (another trick she learned from Mugnaini cooking school — do you see a trend here? I promise they aren’t paying me anything!). But it also works fine with regular or bread flour.

4 c flour
1 t salt
1 1/2 c warm water
2 t yeast dissolved in 1/4 c warm water

Making the dough: Follow the instructions for making the dough you can find here, all the way through. You will then end up with 6 or 8 balls of dough. (Basically you are going to mix everything together and knead, let it rise for 2.5-3 hours, cut it into balls, and let it rest another 20 minutes. I find I usually have to knead it a bit longer than she says to make sure it’s smooth and elastic, which makes it easier to work with, and to incorporate a bit more flour.)

Par-baking: If I’m going to grill the pizzas, or if I’m making pizza for a big crowd, I then par-bake the dough. It’s very convenient since making crusts is the most time consuming part, and this way it can be done ahead and the crusts can be stacked on top of each other to save space.

To start, turn the oven on as high as it will go (for me that’s 525) and place a pizza stone in the oven.

Roll or stretch out the crusts. (I’m hoping to persuade my mom to do a more detailed instructional post with me on this one. Throwing around pizza dough like the professionals is much harder than it looks, and she’s much better at it than I am! You can leave her comments here to urge her to participate in this effort. )

Once the oven is hot, slide the rolled/stretched out dough onto the pizza stone. Let it bake just a couple minutes, flip it, bake it a couple minutes more, and pull it out of the oven. The idea here is to only barely bake the dough, making it a lot easier to work with when you put it on the grill. This is also nice for entertaining because you can take care of all the messy dough-making before people come over. The crusts can even be frozen for a few weeks after they are par-baked as well.

Grilling: To grill the pizza, first start a medium-high to high fire in the grill (we used charcoal, which I think adds to the flavor). Top the par-baked crusts however you like. Slip the crust directly onto the grill rack and cover. Grill about 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the crust is done but not burned on the bottom. (Keep an eye on them. They may cook more quickly/slowly depending on your fire, and honestly, we didn’t time it, so we’re going on our memory from a few weeks ago here.)

Some of our favorite toppings:

Creme Fraiche and Smoked Salmon
(or as my uncle David nicknamed it, “The Stinky Frenchman”)
adapted from Mugnaini
Top pizza with creme fraiche, lemon zest, and dill; bake. As soon as it comes out of the oven, top with smoked salmon, cut into strips.

Wilted Spinach, Fontina, and Truffle Oil
adapted from Mugnaini
Top pizza with barely wilted spinach and fontina. After baking, drizzle with truffle oil.

Blue Cheese and Caramelized Onion
adapted from Mugnaini
Caramelize onions by slicing them and cooking them over pretty low heat until they turn golden and sweet. Top pizza with chopped thyme, caramelized onions, and maytag blue cheese.

Prosciutto and Roasted Red Pepper
adapted from Myth, San Francisco
I know honey sounds kind of strange to put on a pizza, but don’t be too sparing. It nicely cuts the saltiness of the prosciutto and gorgonzola.
Make a sauce by roasting red pepper and then pureeing it. You can mix this with a bit of creme fraiche for a creamier texture. (We are not on agreement over which was more like the one at Myth.) Top this with prosciutto, crumbled gorgonzola, chopped chives, parmesan cheese, and a generous drizzle of honey.

Potato Pizza
Chop some fresh herbs (e.g. basil, parsley, oregano, etc.) and garlic together. Add salt and pepper to the herb/garlic mixture and make into a paste. Let sit for at least a half hour or so if possible to let the flavors meld. Spread the crust with crème fraîche. Top with the potatoes in a single layer. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with the herbs and a bit of extra salt. (Remember how much salt potatoes need and don’t be too cautious!) Bake a few minutes in as hot an oven as possible, until lightly browned.

White Pizza
Combine 1 T chopped fresh basil, 1 T dried oregano, 6 minced cloves of garlic, and 1/2 t ground black pepper. (This make enough for more than one pizza.) Spread dough with olive oil then herbs. Top with shredded mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced fontina cheese, and grated parmesan cheese. We often add chopped prosciutto and/or pine nut, too. Possibly my favorite kind of pizza!

Pesto Chicken
Top with pesto sauce, grilled chicken, feta cheese, pine nuts, and parmesan. Bacon is also a good addition.

The original pizza posts:
Daring Bakers: Pizza
Grilled Pizza … and an apology
Wood Fired Appetizer Pizzas