Saturday, November 15, 2008

It's What's For Dinner

Well, OK, it was what was for dinner on Thursday, but I just now got around to getting the photos off my camera.

I like to make my own pizza. It's a lot cheaper than ordering out, and is super easy to do. I use my bread maker for the dough, and wing it on the sauce. Here we go:

Bread Maker Pizza Dough

3 cups all-purpose flour
8 oz. warm water
2 tbl olive oil (or vegetable oil)
1-1/2 tsp dry active yeast
1/2 tsp salt


Place all liquids in the bread maker. Throw in the salt. Slowly pour in the flour. Create a small well in the center for the yeast. Add yeast. Set bread maker to the dough cycle (should take about 1.5 hours.) When cycle is complete, preheat oven to 400 deg. Spray a 9x13 cookie sheet with cooking spray. Dump dough out on the cookie sheet. Flatten and spread out to fit the pan, making an edge with the dough (see photo.) Pop into the oven for 2-3 minutes.



Remove crust from oven and top with pizza sauce, about 12-16 oz. of cheese (I personally love all mozzarella with a sprinkling of fresh parmesan), plus any other toppings you like such as sausage, peppers, onions, olives, bacon, mushrooms, chicken, etc. Here I put 1/2 Italian sausage and 1/2 meatball (both precooked - had some odds and ends leftover in the freezer.) Bake for about 15-18 minutes till brown around the edges and all the cheese in the center is melted.




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As for my pizza sauce, here's one I use frequently:

1 8 oz can of tomato sauce
seasonings to taste (e.g., Italian seasoning, garlic powder or minced garlic, onion powder/diced onion, basil, pepper, and a bit of sugar to take the tartness out.)


Also, since there is a nice crusty edge on this pizza, you can dip the crusts in either leftover marinara, pizza sauce, olive oil, or my kids' favorite: melted butter with some garlic powder.

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Then for dessert I tried a new recipe out called S'more Muffins. Relatively easy to make, but does require buttermilk. If you don't have any on hand (like who does?) or don't remember to pick it up at the store, you can take regular milk and add a splash of vinegar or lemon juice to it, let it sit for a few minutes, and that'll turn it into "substitute buttermilk".

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup ground graham cracker crumbs (I threw whole crackers into the blender and hit pulse!)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1-1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1-1/4 cup miniature marshmallows, divided

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. In another bowl, combine the egg, milk, and oil. Mix well. Stir wet stuff into the dry ingredients just until moistened (i.e., it will be lumpy). Fold in chocolate chips and 1 cup marshmallows. Line muffin cups with paper liners or go daring and go without. Either way, spray with cooking spray. Fill cups 3/4 of the way full, top each with 2 miniature marshmallows, and pop into oven for 14 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes before removing from the pan. Serve warm if possible. Yummy!!



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