Betty Crocker’s Jack-o-lantern Pizza

Prep Time:20 min
Start to Finish:40 min
Makes:8 servings

1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup Old El Paso® salsa (any variety)
3/4 Green Giant® Niblets® frozen whole kernel corn
1/4 cup water
2 cups Original Bisquick® mix
1/3 cup very hot water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cups shredded Colby-Monterey Jack or Cheddar cheese (8 ounces)
Toppings, such as orange and green bell pepper strips, sliced ripe olives and cherry tomato wedges, if desired

1. Move oven rack to lowest position. Heat oven to 450ºF. Grease 12-inch pizza pan. Cook beef in 10-inch skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until brown; drain. Stir in salsa, corn and 1/4 cup water. Heat to boiling; remove from heat.

2. Mix Bisquick, 1/3 cup hot water and the oil until soft dough forms; beat vigorously 20 strokes. Let stand 5 minutes. Press dough in pizza pan, using fingers dipped in Bisquick; pinch edge to form 1/2-inch rim. Spread beef mixture over dough. Sprinkle with cheese.

3. Bake 11 to 15 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted. Arrange Toppings on pizza to form jack-o’-lanterns.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft) Bake about 15 minutes.

Substitution - No pizza pan? Just press the dough into a 13-inch circle on a greased cookie sheet, using fingers dipped in Bisquick, and pinch the edge to form a 1/2-inch rim.

Serve With - Cut orange gelatin into Halloween shapes with cookie cutters to make the perfect accompaniment to this pizza.

Nutrition Information:
1 Serving: Calories 375 (Calories from Fat 205 ); Total Fat 23 g (Saturated Fat 10 g); Cholesterol 60 mg; Sodium 770 mg; Total Carbohydrate 23 g (Dietary Fiber 1 g); Protein 20 g Percent Daily Value*: Vitamin A 12 %; Vitamin C 4 %; Calcium 20 %; Iron 12 % Exchanges: 1 Starch; 1 Vegetable; 2 High-Fat Meat; 1 1/2 Fat
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Senseo® Single Serve Coffeemaker

My new, red Senseo single-serve coffeemaker is the sexiest small appliance I now own. I’m sorry, little Shop-Vac; I thought you were sexy before. I still love you, but now you’re just… cute. (Handy, and cute.)

But the Senseo is seriously hot! It makes something I love - coffee - almost faster than you can say it, and much more efficiently (and fun) than the old drip-drip-dripper.

Are my coffee choices limited?

I’ve admired these in Target for quite a while, but something silly bothered me about them, and I never did any research to disprove what I assumed: that you can only use Senseo coffee with Senseo coffeemakers. Now I know better; it’s not true!

I’m not a coffee elitist -probably not even a true connoisseur. But the idea of being restricted to one brand or one type of coffee really put me off. Furthermore, I had a coffeemaker, so I couldn’t see a reason to buy another one, especially when money is tight (stay-at-home mom and all.)

A few weeks ago, I found myself with a broken coffeemaker and, thus, the need to replace it. Remembering my admiration of the Senseo, I finally did a little digging and was 1) pleasantly surprised to learn that the Senseo coffeemakers are not brand-proprietary when it comes to coffee, and 2) overjoyed to find a huge selection of compatible coffee pods. In fact, I quickly learned that there is a whole online world devoted to single-serve coffee (SSC) in general. It was easy to find retailers, reviews and lovers of single-serve coffee and everything that it entails.

Home and ready to brew!

Freshly informed and with my product selection made, I trotted off to Target with fingers crossed that I’d find a Senseo of the red persuasion, and there was one (and only one.) It came with a package of Senseo coffee pods, and I grabbed a package of their cappuccino as well.

Setup was easy - as per the instructions, I ran the machine through a cycle with water only… then it was time for the first cup. I filled the water reservoir to the appropriate line and placed a coffee pod in the podholder. (The Senseo comes with two podholders. More on that later.) I turned on the machine to heat the water, which took all of about oh… 45 seconds or so. Then I hit the brew button, and probably 20 or 30 seconds later, my hot, fresh, coffee with lovely frothy top was ready for consumption. And how did it taste?

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