It’s that time of the year again when it’s socially acceptable to dress up like anything imaginable and mooch for candy. Depending on where you’re at in the U.S., age limits and curfews dictate how long the freeloading mayhem lasts.
But around here, it seems like we find reasons to dress up even when it’s not Halloween. Interactive kids’ exhibits in National Parks are excellent opportunities for black-mail photos. Dreaded school projects make for hair-raising, and blood-pressure rising, adventures. (The oldest minion once made a costume for his junior high German class, which counted as a test grade.) Or there’s just the everyday run-amuck foolishness. Even the fuzz balls get in on the action.
Saratoga NHP 
Petersburg Nat’l Battlefield 
Bitty Capone 
Hail Caesar 
Here’s that test grade! 
How punny! 
Despite all of our screwy antics, there’s one person who loves the tricks ‘n’ treats season more than our candy-begging bums! My Mom! For years she spent hours crafting and creating homemade treats for the neighborhood kids. Gooey popcorn balls studded with candy pumpkins. Plastic gloves complete with candy corn nails, popcorn, and spider rings. Decorated cookies shaped like fingers, oozing red frosting. Don’t worry, though, Pop still made sure to buy a big bag of the good candy to put into reserves. LOL!
Halloween decorating ranks higher than Christmas at Mom and Pop’s house. You name it, Mom’s hung it…plastic skeletons, stretchy stringy spider webs, flying witches tacked up onto trees, luminaries lining the driveways… But one year, Mom turned trick-or-treating at their house into a whole experience! She even enlisted the Minions to help her.
Instead of just doling out the goods, Mom was going to make the mooching masses work for them. How? By going through her haunted house-garage. Son A was put in charge of the details, which meant the gorier the better. He even made sure to include an employee restroom and costume changing room just in case.
For hours, an otherwise average garage was transformed into a twisting maze of horrors. Trash-bag “corpses” were crafted and carefully hung. Tarps created make-shift walls and passageways. Flashing lights sat in strategically placed corners. The ghoul’s box was carefully placed in a crucial corner for maximum shock factor. Directions included! Final sound checks were made. It was a fiendish sight to behold!
When the witching hour began, the resident ghouls were painted and placed in their assigned positions. And at the exit, a warty-faced witch chugging potions and elixirs, guarded over the garden hose bin turned candy cauldron.
Living in a small town U.S.A. with approximately 600 people means the turn-out was pretty small. But those who attended and survived to tell the tale gave the haunted house 5-star reviews! Here’s how it went down…
On that dark note, let’s exit to this post’s featured recipe…Stuffed Crust Bacon Chicken Garlic Pizza. Years ago, I set out to recreate Papa Murphy’s take-n-bake chicken garlic pizza. This recipe is the culmination of years of research-n-development and a lot of Friday night pizza pies.
For garlic lovers, this pizza doesn’t disappoint. The creamy white sauce is loaded with 10 cloves. Minced garlic cooks down with the chicken. And to finish it off, a garlic butter gets brushed on the stuffed-cheese crust before baking. This pie could fend off the whole Cullen clan of vampires! (Of course, feel free to adjust to your garlic preferences.)
To get those stuffed-cheese crust corners, use mozzarella cheese sticks. Using either a homemade or store-bought pizza crust, roll the crust about an inch over the pan’s edge. Line the edges with cheese sticks, brush a line of water nearby to seal the cheese in, then fold and press the dough over the sticks.
But let’s not forget the bacon! Fry it up crisp, but reserve about a tablespoon of the bacon fat to cook the diced chicken and garlic in. Everything seems to be better with bacon!
On that note, I’ll exit stage right! Happy haunting!
Stuffed Crust Bacon Chicken Garlic Pizza
This pie has it all! Tender chicken, crispy bacon, a cheese-stuffed crust and a creamy garlic sauce. Who needs delivery now?
- Prep Time: About 30 Minutes
- Cook Time: 12 to 16 Minutes
- Total Time: 28 minute
- Yield: One 14-inch Pizza (About 8 to 10 slices depending on cut size) 1x
Ingredients
1 Pizza crust, store-bought or your favorite homemade recipe*
8–1 ounce mozzarella cheese sticks
For the Garlic Sauce:
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp. salt (kosher, table or sea)
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
10 cloves garlic, minced
For Toppings:
5 slices thick cut bacon, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size chunks
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. black pepper
3 green onions, sliced
1 medium tomato, diced
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
Instructions
Preheat oven to 475 degrees F. Brush a pizza pan with olive oil. Set aside.
To Prepare Garlic Sauce:
In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour to create a roux to thicken the sauce. Let cook until light brown. Whisk in milk, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Add salt, cayenne and minced garlic. Turn heat to low and let cook for about 10 minutes or until thickened, stirring frequently.
To Prepare the Bacon & Chicken:
In a frying pan over medium heat, cook bacon until crispy. Remove bacon to a paper towel to drain the excess grease. Reserve about 1 tbsp. of bacon grease in frying pan. Add chicken chunks and cook until almost no pink remains. Add minced garlic and black pepper to chicken and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Do not let garlic burn. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
Putting it All Together:
On a lightly floured board, roll pizza dough out to about a 1/4-inch thickness. Center the pizza pan over the rolled dough to ensure about 1-inch of dough will hang over the pan’s edges. If not, roll dough out more. Place dough onto pan and line edges with the mozzarella cheese sticks. Using water and a brush, wipe a slight line of water next to the cheese sticks. Fold the overhanging dough over the cheese sticks and press down on the watered dough line to seal the cheese sticks in the dough. Use a fork to prick the center of the pizza crust all over.
Spread the Garlic Sauce over the pizza crust. Top with cooked chicken and garlic. Sprinkle bacon, green onions, and tomato over the chicken. Top with shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.
Combine melted butter and garlic powder. Brush over the crust’s edges. Bake for 12 to 16 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown. Slice and serve.
Notes
*I consistently have great results using Tyler Florence’s recipe. His recipe calls for 00 flour, but I substitute with all-purpose flour. You will have enough dough to make 3 pizza crusts from this.
IMNPB
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