Layered Pizza Dip

FOUND IT: This recipe was in the Appleton Post Crescent, and is also similar to one my aunt shared with me at one point.

This is a great, flexible party dip - feel free to change the ingredients to include your favorite pizza toppings, make it vegetarian, or whatever works for you.

I also saved some of the leftovers from this and had it on top of a sliced, grilled zucchini the next day.

Ingredients:

• One 8 oz package of light cream cheese, softened.
• 1/2 tbsp (or more to taste) dried oregano
• 1/2 cup pizza sauce (I use one of these pouches, which is about perfect)
• 1 small red bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 1/2 cup pepperoni, diced (I got this from the deli but the slices were too thin and kind of melted away.)
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (I used all mozzarella, but it's flexible)

Spread the softened cream cheese on the bottom of a nine inch pie plate, and sprinkle the oregano over that. Spread the pizza sauce over the cream cheese, then sprinkle the chopped bell pepper and pepperoni over that. Top with the cheese, and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes. Serve with crackers.

Pizza Quiche

FOUND IT: I more or less invented this, although I used the egg/milk/salt combination and crust baking time from this recipe.

I was eating a quiche on Saturday morning and, though I'm not sure why, I ended up thinking about the possibility of a pizza quiche. My initial experiment was pretty simple, but I think the concept would work with pretty much anything you'd put on a pizza (provided it's chopped small enough and pre-cooked if necessary).

Ingredients:

• 1 premade pie crust
• 3/4 cup milk
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 tbsp pizza seasoning (I use Penzey's)
• Roughly 10 small slices of pepperoni, chopped
• 1/2-3/4 cup pizza sauce (I eyeballed this, so I don't have an exact measurement)
• 1 cup shredded cheese (I mixed Havarti and Mozzarella)

Roll out the pie crust into a pie plate, poke a lot of holes in the bottom with a fork, and bake it at 400 for 10 minutes. Reset the oven to 350 once it's out.

While the crust is baking, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, pepper and pizza seasoning. Once the crust is out of the oven sprinkle the pepperoni (or whatever toppings you're using) onto the crust, then pour the egg mixture over that. Your pepperoni or other toppings may float to the top, just do the best you can to keep them spread out.

Bake this at 350 for 25 minutes. At that point, take it out and carefully spoon and spread the pizza sauce on top. Cover the sauce with the shredded cheese and bake for 20 more minutes. Let it cool for five minutes or so before serving.