Full Disclosure

A friend asked me this week whether I ever come home from a long day of work and decided to order pizza.  Apparently my blog has given the (completely false) impression that I cook dinner every night. The truth is I would like to cook dinner every night but I don’t. The weekends are usually the designated for eating out but even during the week there are times when I am too busy or too tired to cook much of anything.  On those nights we 1) order pizza, 2) assemble dinner (salads are a good example of these non-cooking meals), or 3) have breakfast for dinner (which Jason usually makes).

Take this week, for example:

Monday: We made homemade pizza (because it was a holiday and neither of us had to work)

Tuesday: a quick and easy salad with rolls
Wednesday: book club (Jason went out for dinner and I made a super easy appetizer—see recipe below)
Thursday: cereal (because I had to go Baltimore for the day and got home late and Jason had a networking thing after work)
Friday: Pancakes (courtesy of Jason because it was too cold to go anywhere)

So there you go…full disclosure :)

The one real thing I cooked this week was an easy appetizer of puffy pastry with soppresata and Gruyere from my BFF’s new cookbook How Easy Is That? The answer to that question is incredibly so.

Puff Pastry with Soppresata and Gruyere
From Ina Garten

Ingredients:
1 package of frozen puff pastry, defrosted overnight in the fridge
2 TBL Dijon mustard
12 slices of soppressata salami
4 ounces Gruyere cheese, shredded
1 egg

1.Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Place on sheet of puff pastry onto parchment lined sheet pan. Lightly roll pastry until it is a 10 inch square.
2.Spread Dijon mustard over puff pastry leaving a 1 inch border. Layer soppressata over the mustard and then top with shredded Gruyere cheese.
3.Beat egg with one TBL of water to create an egg wash. Brush the one inch border of the puff pastry with egg wash.
4.Roll the other sheet of pastry into a 10 inch square. Lay it directly on top of the first square, lining up the edges. Brush the top with the egg wash and cut three large slits for steam to escape. Chill for 15 minutes.
5.Trim the edges of the pastry with a sharp knife (or pizza cutter). Bake in the center of the oven for 20-25 minutes until puffed and brown. Allow to cool for a few minutes, cut into square, and serve.