Pizza

My mom makes great homemade pizza, so a couple of weeks ago, I decided to get the dough recipe from her and try my hand at it.  The recipe is crazy simple (providing you have a stand mixer) and the result is very tasty.

Pizza Dough Ingredients:

• 3 cups unbleached flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 packet of active dry yeast

Directions:

1. Mix the 3 cups unbleached flour and 1 tsp salt in mixer
2. Microwave 1 cup of water for 30 seconds
3. Add 1 tsp sugar and 1 package of active dry yeast to the water
4. Let the water sit for several minutes.  You’ll know it’s ready because a slew of bubbles will form on the surface of the water.
5. Add the water to the flour mixture and blend (using a dough hook if at all possible) on low for 5 minutes.  At this point, you can also add any herbs or other spices that you want in the dough.  When doing a traditional tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese pizza, putting some oregano and garlic powder in the dough is good.  After 5 minutes, if the dough still looks like a bunch of smaller separate pieces, add a Tbsp of water and blend for another minute or two.  If it’s sticky to the touch, add another Tbsp of flour and blend another minute or two.
6. Spray the inside of a bowl with cooking spray and put the dough in the bowl.  Cover with saran wrap so that it’s air tight.  Make sure to use a bowl that’s at least twice as big as the dough. 
7. Wait about 45 minutes and the dough should have almost doubled in size.  This amount of dough will make 2 medium sized pizzas, so if you only need one, you can wrap the other half in plastic wrap and freeze it until you’re ready to use it.  Roll the dough out fairly thin (it should rise in the oven), cover with sauce and toppings, then bake at 400 degrees until the crust is golden brown.

Pizza toppings:

You can always make a traditional pizza using mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce, and your favorite toppings.  You can also use olive oil or even ranch dressing as a base.  My mom makes a delicious olive oil based pizza with slices of tomato, slices of mozzarella cheese, and basil leaves as toppings.

I’ve made pizza with this recipe three times so far and the best by far was tonight’s incarnation.  I used ranch dressing as the base and on one pizza I put slices of potato (pre-cooked for a couple of minutes earlier in the day) along with crumbled bacon and cheddar cheese.  On the other pizza was also ranch dressing, but topped with chicken, crumbled bacon and mozzarella cheese.  It was so good I would have paid money for it.

Here is my potato pizza prior to baking:

I wish I had a picture of it after baking, but it looked so good, we ate it before I thought to snap a picture.

Chocolate Chess Pie with Pecans

I found this recipe while searching AllRecipes.com for a good pie recipe.  Since finding this recipe, I’ve made it three times. 

Ingredients:

• 1 (9 inch) pie shell
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 tablespoons cocoa
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Mix together sugar, cocoa, and melted butter.
3. Stir in evaporated milk, beaten eggs, vanilla, and chopped pecans.
4. Pour mixture into unbaked pie shell.
5. Bake for 10 minutes.
6. Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for 30 minutes.

Outcome:

The first time I made this, it was a complete disaster.  The nuts had formed a perfect shell across the top, but the filling was runny:

At first, I couldn’t figure out what I’d done wrong.  Two days later, it dawned on me…when I was supposed to change the temperature from 400 to 325, I accidentally turned the oven off.  Turns out, pies don’t cook very well when you just leave them sitting in a slowly cooling oven for a half hour.

The second (and third) attempts were much better:

I left the pie in the oven past the 30 minutes stated in the recipe (about 10 minutes extra in my case), so don’t be afraid to do the same.  It’s a little hard to tell when the pie is firm enough since the nuts form a hard shell pretty early on.  I was erring on the side of caution and I waited until the filling had actually risen up a little and caused separation in the nutty shell.  This might have been overkill, but I had no complaints about the final result.  

This pie was good when it was still warm, but it was even better after it’d had a chance to cool completely in the fridge.  It’s fairly rich, but not sickenly sweet.  With such a quick prep time and delicious result, I won’t be waiting for a special occasion to make this pie again.

Hummus and Pita Chips

When I bought some cumin, there was a recipe for hummus on the side, so I couldn’t resist.  I’d already gotten the idea to make homemade pita chips the week before, so that sealed the deal.  This recipe is courtesy of McCormick.

Hummus

Ingredients:

• 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Drain chickpeas, reserving 1/4 cup of the liquid.
2. Place chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, cumin, red pepper and salt in food processor; cover. Process until smooth, scraping down sides as necessary.
3. Add reserved liquid; process until smooth.

Substitutions:

The recipe on the side of the bottle was a little different than the one listed on the McCormick website, probably just amended for the amount of space available.  The website says you can use crushed red pepper instead of ground.  The website also says to drizzle with a Tbsp of olive oil once it’s all blended, which wasn’t in the short version.

Outcome:

Quite tasty.  The short version of the recipe said to add the reserved liquid until you’d reached the desired consistency, but I used every drop and wished I’d reserved a little more.  Overall, this is a very simple recipe for a very tasty dip.

Pita Chips

This is so simple that it’s more of an idea than a recipe.  All you really do is get some pita bread, brush it with olive oil, sprinkle it with a little garlic powder and some grated parmesan cheese (the kind in the green can), cut it up with a pizza cutter and stick the pieces in the oven until they’re crispy, about 10 minutes at 350 degrees.  Keep an eye on them so they don’t get overdone, but there’s not a lot you can do wrong here. 

I read one “recipe” for these that said you could use butter flavored cooking spray instead of olive oil, which would have been even easier.  I might try that next time.

Overall outcome:

Pita chips and the hummus go great together.  I only made a half a package of the pita bread (3 big pieces) and that was about right for one batch of the hummus.  This combination is a great snack either for just having on reserve in the fridge or for a get together.  It’s easy to make and is a delicious, healthy alternative to a lot of other dips.

Mexican Cheese Soup

This recipe is one I found in my Rival Slow Cooker cook book.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. Velveeta
• 1 lb. ground beef, cooked and drained
• 1 can of whole kernel corn
• 1 can of kidney beans
• 1 can of Rotel
• I can of tomatoes
• 1 envelope of taco seasoning

Directions:

As with many great crock pot recipes, the directions are as follows: dump everything in the crock pot, then put it on low for a long time (in this case, 4-5 hours)

Verdict:

This is one of my new favorite chili/soups.  I didn’t even need a spoon, I ate my whole bowl with tortilla chips.  The Velveeta didn’t disperse evenly on it’s own, so you’re going to have to stir it a couple of times along the way, and maybe even cut it into little chunks instead of throwing it in there as a huge block like I did.  In any case, this tasted a little bit like a soup version of tex/mex cheese dip, the kind that you stand by the bowl continually thinking…just one more chip.  I will definitely be making this again.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

This recipe was in a recent issue of All You magazine.  It’s the easiest and perhaps one of the tastiest recipes I’ve come across since I started this cooking adventure.

Ingredients:

I was going to rave about how this recipe only required three ingredients, but I suppose I have to include buns and call it 4 ingredients.  Either way, it’s pretty simple.

• Pork Roast (about 2-3 pounds)
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• BBQ Sauce
• Sandwich buns

Directions:

1. Put the roast in the the crock pot
2. Add 3/4 cup of vinegar
3. Cook on low for 6-8 hours
4. Pull the meat apart with a fork
5. Add the BBQ sauce
6. Leave in the crock pot for about another half hour
7. Put the meat on the bun and enjoy!

Substitutions:

You can use boneless chicken instead of pork and it works just as well.  I just looked up this recipe online and found several similar recipes where you use a can of beer or even root beer instead of vinegar.  I might try one of those next time and see how it changes the flavor.

Final Product:

If I made this for company, I would try to have some potato salad and baked beans on hand, but when it’s just the two of us, sometimes we just stick with chips and call it a night.  This recipe is part of our regular rotation and it never fails to delight.

Use It or Lose It

Today has been a busy day!  This morning about 8:00 I stuck a pork roast into the crock pot to start it on it’s way to becoming pulled pork sandwiches (extremely easy recipe to be posted soon).  I’d already earmarked today as a grocery shopping day, so I went through what recipes I wanted to make this week and compiled a list of all the ingredients.  Once Emily was fed and happy, we headed off the the grocery store and stocked up.

Emily had fallen asleep at the grocery store, but she work up not too long after we got home.  After feeding her again, she didn’t want to hang out on her playmat for long, so I strapped her into the sling and decided I still had enough energy left to make some hummus.  I’d seen this recipe on the side of some cumin I bought and it looked extremely easy.  I had everything but the chick peas so I bought those at the store along with some pita bread to make into chips.  I’ll make those two into a post later on, just suffice it to say they’re both pretty simple.

By the time I was done with the hummus, Emily was conked out in the sling, so I took her out, swaddled her up, and put her in the swing.  I decided she’d probably be asleep for a while longer, so I pulled out my mixer and decided to try a peanut butter cookie recipe that was in my recent issue of All You.  I managed to make a full batch of those while Emily was sleeping.  There were way more cookies in a full batch of those than I thought there would be, so now I’ve got more peanut butter cookies than I can shake a stick at. 

In the midst of all this, I managed to clean up as I went and while each batch of cookies was baking, so not only do I have dinner, dessert, and a snack made, I don’t have a complete mess in the kitchen.  This is probably the most productive day of cooking I’ve ever had that wasn’t a lead up to a major event.  If only I had this much energy every day!

Pumpkin Chili

I got this recipe from a friend of mine from college named Donna.  When I went shopping for the ingredients, I had trouble finding pumpkin.  I went to three different grocery stores and none of them had it.  Two of them were out and the third didn’t even have a place on the shelf for it.  When I mentioned it to my grandma, she happened to have a can, so that took care of that. 

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1 medium green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
• 2 jalapeños, ribs and seeds removed, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with their liquid
• 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin purée
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans, drained

Directions:

1. Heat oil in large pot over medium high heat. Add onions, bell peppers, jalapeños and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes, or until tender.
2. Add turkey and cook until browned.
3. Add tomatoes, pumpkin, 1 cup water, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat to low, then add beans.
5. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes more.
6. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and garnish with cilantro.

Substitutions:

When my friend posted this (I would link to it, but it’s behind facebook), she noted that she leaves out the jalapenos and adds a can of rotel instead.  I should have done this, but I forgot to check her substitutions when I made out my grocery list, so I ended up just leaving out the jalapenos instead.  Also, I despise cilantro, so I left that out, and I forgot about the sour cream, so maybe next time I’ll add that.

Verdict:

This chili came out very good.  If I didn’t know there was pumpkin in it, I would have never known.  I think between the turkey meat and the can of pumpkin, this is probably a pretty healthy chili recipe.  I’ve already bought the stuff to make this again (even the pumpkin, which was back in stock) since we liked it so much.  The only changes I’ll make are to add a can of rotel (like I meant to do the first time) and put in two cans of kidney beans instead of one.