BFF Ham and Asparagus Pizza

My very best friend forever (BFF) Charlie had a birthday this week! He finally caught up with slave! Wanted to create something for him. Now at least once a week he and I will go out, sit, and talk over coffee until maybe 2 AM! During the NHRA season on Sunday, I can count on him coming over to watch the drag races.(The kind with WHEELS not Heels!) Never guessed that we used to drag race, did ya? Had a wonderful car that was so much fun. After the racetrack was sold for a housing development, slave restored the car into a show piece with special ordered paint and new interior.

Now as for the pizza! Charlie loves the farm and all kinds of vegetables, especially asparagus, and his wife wont buy or cook it! So slave planned this ham and asparagus pizza just to surprise him!

Ingredients
1 ready to bake thin pizza crust
1 pound fresh asparagus
1 tbs Olive oil (or less)
Kosher salt
8 ounces shredded mozzarella
Cup of sliced mushrooms washed, drained patted dry

3 slices Ham luncheon meat roughly cut into 1 inch squares

¾ cup of pizza sauce

Directions
Adjust oven rack to the middle of the oven. Place a pizza stone in the oven to heat,

Note: the package of the crust will tell you what to set the oven at. This particular one had: 400 degrees F.

This crust was almost precooked so adjustments had to be made.

Wash the produce in water bath with ½ cup of white vinegar in it for about 5 minutes, then rinse well.

Asparagus will snap just where it is supposed to, so snap the woody part off. Slice up some onion. Line a baking sheet with foil. Spread out 6 of the spears and about ¼ cup of the thin slices of onion. Cut up about 1 cup of the rest of the asparagus into 1 inch pieces and spread on tray then spray all of the vegetables with cooking spray. It just takes a little not the whole can.

Slide this tray into the heated oven right on top of the pizza stone.
Let that bake for 10 minutes while you cut up ½ cup of mushrooms into a fine dice.
Lightly dust a pizza “peel” with flour, (a bit of cornmeal also works) place the dough on the center.

A “peel” is like flat shovel. It is used to move the pizza into, and out of, the oven. Slave uses a flat pan for that purpose.

When the 10 minutes are up, pull the tray from the oven.

Spread no more than 4 or 5 tablespoons of sauce on the dough. Just enough to turn it red, but not a thick coating! Top with ½ cup of the mozzarella, this can be thicker. Sprinkle on the mushroom, onions, cut up ham, and asparagus pieces. Then arrange the 6 whole spears of asparagus fanned out from the center the pizza, like spokes on a wheel. Tips to the inside. Place them so that when sliced each piece gets a spear down the center.

Make sure that the pizza will slide off of the peel, give it a SMALL, slight, shake to make sure. Open the oven door and slide it onto that hot pizza stone in the oven.

Bake until golden and crisp and the cheese has melted, about 10 minutes.

Note if the crust that you buy takes longer to cook, like 20 minutes, you might want to skip the step of roasting the vegetables first. This all depends on what the crust says, Remember: with pizza, everything but crust is already cooked.

Let the pizza set for at least 2 minutes before cutting.
Run the pizza cutter right down the center between the stalks.

Note:

You can personalize any store bought sauce with a touch of red pepper flakes if you like a spicier taste, even a dash of hot sauce. If your sauce is a bit too “sharp”, or vinegar-y, grate some carrot into it. That not only makes it sweeter, it makes it look like you worked hours on it!

slave is so very fortunate to have a great friend like Charlie. I can count on him anytime or anywhere. Even if any mention of “BDSM” or even “Gay” makes his eyes glaze over and he gets uncomfortable. I know he will always be there for me. Beside he has taught me so much about auto repairs!

Serving can take many forms. slaves can have many different looks and attitudes. What counts is being true and being honest to oneself. Service to all others just falls into place. Charlie knows that I self identify as a slave and never questions. Sometimes I think it is because he genuinely does not want to know. slave does nothing to hide it nor does he want to make his best friend uncomfortable by constantly bringing it up. It just is. That is fine with both of us. slave is very proud of having a friend like Charlie! slave is also very happy to have finally found its place:

My place is to serve my Master Indy!

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes by Dan White http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F315Y4I/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM via @amazon