Spiced Pear Flatbreads with Goat Cheese and Mustard Sauce

Making homemade pizza can be a really fun activity, especially when the toppings go gourmet! I pulled this recipe from Bon Appetit magazine, which was from Woodbury Kitchen in Baltimore, MD. I used Trader Joe's pizza dough (which is quite good), and added chicken thinly sliced (seasoned with a dash of cayenne pepper). While at Trader Joe's I picked up goat cheese with honey, which was amazingly delicious (had it for an appetizer with crackers while we made the pizza). I don't own a pizza stone (yet), so we used tinfoil to crisp the crust, which worked to our surprise. Enjoy!

Ingredients

MUSTARD CREAM

• 6 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
• 3 tablespoons whole grain Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon honey or agave syrup

TOPPING

• 2 firm but ripe Bosc pears, halved lengthwise, cored
• Olive oil
• Coarsely ground piment d'Espelette, Aleppo pepper, or cayenne pepper
• Fine sea salt
• 5 cups baby arugula (about 4 ounces)
• 8 ounces coarsely crumbled blue goat cheese (such as Bleuet or FireFly Farms Black and Blue)
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Preparation

MUSTARD CREAM

• Whisk all ingredients in small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill. Bring to room temperature before using.

TOPPING

• Cut pear halves vertically into very scant 1/4-inch-thick slices. Brush both sides with oil, then sprinkle with Espelette pepper. Arrange on sheet of foil.
• If using pizza stone, place in oven. (Alternatively, place heavy large baking sheet, upside down, in oven.) Preheat oven to 500°F for at least 45 minutes.
• Stretch and roll each dough ball to 9-inch round on lightly floured work surface. Place 1 dough round on floured pizza peel or rimless baking sheet. Brush dough with oil; sprinkle with sea salt and Espelette pepper. Scatter 1/4 of arugula over. Drizzle lightly with oil. Top with pear slices and 1/4 of cheese.
• Slide flatbread onto hot pizza stone or baking sheet. Bake until crust is golden brown and crisp and cheese is melted, rotating occasionally, 10 to 11 minutes. Repeat with remaining flatbreads.
  
  
• Transfer flatbreads to plates. Drizzle with mustard cream and serve.

Azzaria, AG Trunk Show in Cardiff-by-the-Sea

Today from 1-6pm the women's clothing boutique and demin bar, Azzaria, is hosting an AG Denim trunk show. In the Seaside Market shopping center, the event will be held in the courtyard in front of Azzaria (near Rimels and Zenbu). With raggae music and sangria, it should be a fun event for a Saturday afternoon! In addition to AG Denim, Azzaria carries a great selection of clothing and accessories.

Blue Motif Architecture, Kettner Nights

Paintings and Sculpture at Kettner Nights Little Italy at the Blue Motif Architecture Studio on the corner of Kettner and Juniper. Art, Music, and Refreshments.
Friday, May 14, 6:00-9:00p.m.
Neal Bociek, Cody Young, Zach Young, and Hilary Young

Hampton's House: 9 By Design

Tonight I caught up on one of my new favorite reality shows, 9 By Design on Bravo. I am fascinated by Courtney and Robert Novogratz and their design firm, Sixx Design (more on that in a later blog). In episode 4 Courtney guts the entire interior of an Amagansett ranch house, and completely saturates it in crisp white. Brightly colored pieces of furniture and decor pop from the stark surfaces, like a yellow stove and orange pool table. As expected, I immediately fell for the oversized horse photograph in the dining room. Stripped clean, this once outdated ranch is now quite the mod beach cottage!

The series continues....

With a ridiculously busy schedule lately, I haven't found the time or the mindset to be creative. Which has definitely taken its toll on me, I need my outlets! But, I did carve out some time this overcast afternoon to work on another layer of one of the canvases in my current series of oils. Slowly but surely it will get finished......

Westwood Wallpaper

Vivienne Westwood has crossed artistic fields by extending her savvy design skills from punk fashion to interiors with a new line of wallpaper for the UK company, Cole & Son. The graphic wallpaper pulls from her signature designs from her fashion collections, such as the Squiggle and Cut-Out-Lace. In vibrant colors in eccentric patterns, walls will sooned be lined with cutting edge style.

Proper Gastropub: Gin Cocktail

Saturday afternoon felt like a summer day, warm and sunny. and I decided to join some friends for sunset cocktails. We decided to meet on the rooftop bar at Proper Gastropub, in downtown San Diego's East Village. Proper, which is the other half of the wildly successful Wine Steals chain, set up shop in a storefront building inside Petco Park. What's a plus at Proper, is that in addition to the wide selection of food and beverages on their menu, they will also serve the menu from Wine Steals (which pleases most ladies). Yesterday, I had a delicious gin cocktail. Mixed with thyme and white grape with a little simple syrup, it was surprisingly refreshing and light. It was the perfect way to unwind from a sun soaked day.