Homemade Pizza-- Yum!!

Man it's been a long time since I posted here.
I had a great time making pizza with my Peach last night!!!
When she asked if she could help, my heart did these wonderful flipflops and I couldn't stop smiling. I love playing in the kitchen with my (grand)kiddos!

Peachies Pizza Dough 1 (yeah, there are several variations on it...)

In my opinion, the best way to get a yummy pizza crust is to bake on a stone (or quarry tiles) in a very hot oven. Put the pizza stone on the rack in the middle of the oven (I usually take out the other rack) when you turn the oven on. Cold stone, cold oven. Preheat the oven temperature (and the stone) to at least 425F. This is going to take a good half an hour in most home ovens.

If you don't have a stone, use a baking sheet, keep the temperature high but don't preheat the sheet in the oven. I've tried it, and it's very hard to keep the dough from sticking if you don't grease, and burning if you do.

• In a small bowl, dissolve 1 - .25 oz. package of yeast in 1 cup warm (110F) water. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.
• Combine 2 cups bread flour, 1/2 teas. salt, and 2 teas. granulated sugar (I use unprocessed, but not turbinado) in the food processor bowl.
  
• Add 2 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil to the yeast mixture.
  
• Place the cover on the food processor and add a bit of the yeast mixture to the flour mix. I use the Pulse feature until I've added all the yeast and oil, and then run the processor for 10 - 15 seconds. If the dough is still sticky and unmanageable, add bread flour by scant tablespoonfuls, pulsing after each addition, until the dough is sticking to itself and makes a ball in the center of the bowl. You should not have to add more than 4 tablespoons.
  
• Turn the dough out on to a floured surface and with floured hands, knead a few times until dough is smooth and pretty. The Peach was really good at this!
• Cover and rise until expanded, about 30 minutes.
• Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Roll or stretch into your favorite pizza crust shape. Handle as little as possible. Whether you place this dough on a stone or a baking sheet, cover your peel, parchment paper, or baking sheet with a thin layer of cornmeal, before putting the dough on, to keep in from sticking. Cover with toppings and bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Sometimes the top of the crust doesn't want to get really brown before the topping ingredients need to come out of the oven. If you find you have a problem with that, brushing with olive oil before baking may be helpful.
Have fun!

Good Food for Hard Times

I don't know how this economy is going for you, but things are a little tight out here on the west coast. One of the first things we did to tighten our belts was to cook in a lot more often. Judging from the blogs I follow, most of you are doing the same thing too.
The next thing we did was to start baking, rather than buying, nearly all our bread. It's been SO much fun. We do it the lazy way, using the bread machine to work the dough and the oven to bake it. The Hamilton Beach breadmaker I was blessed to inherit from my sister does a good job mixing, kneading, and raising the dough, but is horrible for baking in.
Finally- I've become a refrigerator tyrant. We try really hard to use it all-- leftovers, scraps, whatever's in the fridge is game (sometimes almost literally ;-) for the next meal. So far, mostly good... a few failures, which I'm choosing to call lessons, have occurred, but by and large it's made me a much more creative and confident cook.
We utilize pasta about twice as much as we did before; which is to say almost daily. Yesterday at lunch I made a One-dish (one skillet in this case) with Lemon Pappardelle and canned tuna from Trader Joe's.

Pappardelle and Tuna --- Quick and Yummy

Cook the Pappardelle according to package direction, or make your own (Check out the video on Food2- www.food2.com - with Adam Roberts!)

Meanwhile, drain two cans of Trader Joe's albacore tuna in olive oil and reserve about 2 Tbl to heat in a skillet. Enter chopped fresh onion and fresh garlic chopped to the skillet to taste. (no- I'm sorry, I can't tell you how much. I don't know what your kids will eat or, most importantly, what you've got in the pantry, which is what this is about). After sauteing for a bit, I added some
roasted red pepper also from TJ's and a can of their artichoke hearts, drained (not marinated) to heat with the onion and garlic for a minute or so. I added about a tablespoon of lemon juice and, the tuna, after giving it a quick dice. Add freshly ground black pepper (in this instance, it was a blend of white and black) and one lemon sliced and put a lid on the skillet for a couple of minutes whilst the pasta drains.
Pasta in a bowl, the contents of the skillet on the pasta, a bit of grated parmesan or.... a bit of lemon zest and --- yum!
Hugs!

In Wine there is Wisdom...

Started my Sunday morning with a forwarded email message. I don't like forwarded messages, and I rarely read them. But, in this case, the sender was someone who rarely does that, and he personalized the subject line (in a very flattering way, no less), so I bit.
Here's the message...

"In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria."

In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. coli) - bacteria found in feces.

In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop. However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine and beer (or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering or fermenting.

Remember: Water = Poop, Wine = Health

Therefore, it is better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of shit. There is no need to thank me for this valuable information.

Happy Sunday!!!

blogging-- or not

Really- I need to do this more often or not at all.
2008- may it hold more happiness than 2007-

Comfort Food....

I am not responsible for the caloric or nutritional content of the following:

For Justin, with hugs and kisses to my almost birthday boy!

TATER TOT CASSEROLE

• 1 -1.5 lbs lean ground beef or ground sirloin
• 1 pkg (bag) frozen peas or mixed vegetables
• 1/4 c. dried minced onion, or half cup of chopped fresh onion
• 1 - 1 1/2 cans cream of mushroom soup or cream of celery soup (don't use low salt for this recipe)
• 3/4 - 1 pkg frozen tater tots

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

You can use either a rectangular baking dish or a round casserole, but which one you select determines preparation (see below).

Rectangular: press 1.5 lbs of uncooked ground beef into the bottom of the dish and sprinkle with black pepper and garlic granules, or a salt-free seasoning mix like Emeril's, or?? Add a layer of the frozen veggies, utilizing the entire package. Sprinkle with onion and pour the undiluted soup over, smoothing to make sure it's in every nook and cranny.

For the round (3 qt) casserole, it works better to barely cook the ground beef with the onions first; place in the bottom of the casserole, then add the veggies and soup.

Either way, top with the tatertots, lengthwise on the rectangular dish, upright if in the casserole. Some people add shredded or grated cheese at this point. I never have.

Sometimes I like to add a little Worchestershire sauce to the soup concentrate before I pour it on.

Bake at 375 for about one hour. You'll know it's done when the soup is bubbling up through the crispy tater tots. Happy! Happy!

MEXICAN LASAGNA (or ENCHILADAS SOMBRERO)

Ingredients must include:

• 1 - 1.5 lbs of ground beef or turkey
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
  
• 8 -10 corn tortillas
• Canned enchilada sauce like La Victoria (about 3 cups)
• 3 - 4 cups grated cheese or Mexican cheese blend

Preheat the oven to 375.
Brown the ground meat in a skillet with onions, garlic, diced green chilies, leftover salsa, whatever sounds good... While the meat's browning, cut or tear the tortillas into slices or wedges. Stir the mushroom soup into the ground meat mixture, and remove from heat.

Lightly grease the bottom of your casserole or baking dish and cover the bottom with a light layer of enchilada sauce, followed by a layer of tortilla. Then add a layer of the cooked beef followed by a layer of grated cheese. The next layer is tortillas again, this time followed by enchilada sauce, ground beef, , cheese, tortillas, enchilada sauce and grated cheese. Substituting sour cream for the middle layer of cheese is awfully yummy, too.

Lower oven temp to 350 and bake for 45 mins - 60 minutes depending on what type of dish you're using.

Happy Birthday Justin!!!!

I'm SO praying you don't read my blog! Well.... at least not often, and not today.
It's my baby's (my oldest baby) birthday next week, and his beautiful roomies have planned a surprise party for him tomorrow. I'm bringing a version of pollo asado to grill, along with some yummy tortillas from Iowa Meats. If you've been there, you know. If not, go! you need the butt rub...
Anyhooo~
Here's what I did...

Blended the juice from

• 6 valencia oranges
• 3 lemons
• 6 limes

with half a large bermuda onion, 3 cloves garlic, a tablespoon or so of Cholula Original Seasoning, and a handful of cilantro. Poured it over 14 lbs of chicken thighs to marinate in zip bags for about 24 hours.

I'll let you know how it turns out...

The rest of the shrimp

became the filling for crepes.

Using your favorite crepe recipe (mine came out a little heavy this time, not sure why) fill with

Shrimp & Spinach (are you noticing a pattern here? I'm on a mission to use stuff while it's still fresh)

Heat approximately 4 tablespoons of your favorite combination of EVOO and butter (eliminating completely one or the other if you wish) in pan over medium heat (size-wise, you're going to have a little more than a quart of filling when you're finished; judge accordingly). Toss in about 1/2 cup of diced onion and saute until almost transparent; then add 1 cup of diced water chestnuts and 2 cloves diced garlic. Continue sauteing until onion is tender and transparent.

Turn heat to low and add 3/4 lb of coarsely chopped cooked jumbo shrimp, tails removed, and approximately 2 cups of fresh baby spinach leaves, cleaned and stems removed. Add 2 tablespoons of dry white wine and one tablespoon of half and half. Season with sea salt, white pepper and fresh or dried rosemary to taste, adding approximately 1 tablespoon of lemon juice as the mixture reduces (about 2 minutes)

Remove from heat and toss in 1/3 lb of crumbled feta cheese. Roll in crepes and garnish with bits of feta & spinach and a fresh or sun-dried tomato strip.