I often feel like I’m a mess of contradicitons. As I get to know myself a bit more with every weird thing I do, I realize I don’t make any sense most of the time.
Here are a few examples:
- I think I’m super organized, only to find out my organization skills are nonsense to everyone else.
- I overthink the little things like “what message does my outfit send to complete strangers?” but give little to no thought at all to big life decisions like, “I’m just going to take a year off and volunteer in National Parks.”
- I hate socializing (AKA talking to people) but man, do I love entertaining.
I have always been antisocial. I’m such good company, why would I ever need anyone else?! That’s what we introverts like to tell ourselves. We tend to keep this truth to ourselves, though (like everything else). Proclaiming it to others never results in much more than a pity laugh.
Anyway, when I was growing up my mom would occasionally have people over. However, she did not simply, “have people over.” She went all out. Every. Single. Time. Preparations lasted for days, maybe even weeks. It didn’t matter if it was the high school boys cross country team of the queen of England, my mom would settle for nothing less than awe-inspiring.
I used to roll my eyes and think, “why in the world would you willingly let all these people into your house?” This was back in my I-hate-everything-except-running-and-my-boyfriend phase. I thought everything about it was completely over the top, pointless, and a huge waste of time.
And then I grew up and realized crap, I am my mother after all.
My mom had it right all along. There is nothing better than making people feel at home in your own home. It’s such a privilege to remind people how awesome they are by making them a ton of food. Through this self-discovery, I also realized there is something I dislike far more than socializing- Leaving my house. Socializing isn’t half bad when I don’t have to go anywhere to do it.
When I ensnare friends and family with the promise of snacks, everyone is happy.
So since I am my mother’s daughter, I couldn’t just make a pizza on Friday night when friends stopped by. I had to make something involving lemony feta spread and thinly-sliced sweet potatoes and zucchini. Along with like, 13 other snack options.
A quick note: I also ate some of this feta pizza with sweet potato and zucchini completely alone. Just as delicious.
feta pizza with sweet potato and zucchini
Ingredients
- 1 cup feta cheese
- juice from one lemon (about 1.5 tbsp)
- 2 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
- 5 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 whole wheat pizza dough (I use Trader Joe's)
- flour, for dusting
- 1 medium sweet potato, thinly sliced
- 1 medium zucchini, thinly sliced
- 1.5 tsp garlic powder, divided
- salt and pepper
- Coarse sea salt (optional)
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
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In a food processor, combine feta, garlic, and lemon juice. Pulse until smooth. Add 3 tbsp olive oil and pulse until combined. Season with salt and pepper.
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In a medium bowl, toss sweet potato and zucchini slices in 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp garlic powder, and a dash of pepper.
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On a long, floured piece of parchment paper, stretch out pizza dough into an oval. Spread feta onto dough, stopping about 1/2 inch from the sides. Alternate between laying sweet potato and zucchini slices in an oval pattern on top of the feta. They should be slightly overlapping.
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Continue layering veggies in smaller ovals until the surface is covered. Fold the exposed edges of dough over to create a crust. Transfer to baking sheet, parchment paper and all.
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Mix the remaining tbsp of olive oil with 1/2 tsp garlic and 1/2 tsp salt. Brush onto the crust then bake for 20 minutes. Brush oil-garlic mixture on crust again when the pizza comes out of the oven and sprinkle with sea salt. slice into rectangles and serve warm.
