Pizza Crust

One of our favorite things is pizza. We make pizza fairly often. I have a dough recipe that I really like. It's flexible enough to make thin crusts or thick depending on what you need. When it's just the two of us I usually make a thick crust but if I am feeding a group I'll go with the thin.

The crust recipe comes from the More-With-Less Cookbook by edited by Doris Janzen Longacre. There are a lot of Mennonite recipes and cooks represented in this fabulous little book.

Combine in a large bowl:
1 cup warm water
1 package yeast

When dissolved, add:
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup flour

Beat until smooth, add:
2 cups additional flour or enough to make a stiff dough

Knead until elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in greased bowl and let rise until double, about 45 minutes. Form 2 balls. Pat and stretch to fill 1 or 2 greased pans. Let rise 10 minutes.



This pizza's all dressed with sauce, onions, cheese and sausage. You can be as creative as you dare with toppings.

Bake at 450 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Let pizza rest a bit before you cut into it.
Thick crust and runny cheese. We even kept a little of the sauce for dipping the crust in. Yum.

Coffee

We love coffee around here. There's not much better than a cup of french press coffee. We usually add some cinnamon, cardamon, and nutmeg to the grounds before they steep in the hot water. It makes the coffee a little reminiscent of chai especially when you add honey and milk to the brewed coffee. Yum.


And yes I realize that I probably should have wiped down my french press before snapping the shot, but we use our press a lot and and we've been using it this one for a couple of years. It's probably time to get a new one. I guess wearing it out is better than breaking it and I would definitely know something about getting glass and hot coffee all over my kitchen. Yup, I would.

Another neato thing we stumbled upon in our quest for amazing tea (another story for another time) was the double walled hand blown glasses. They are super fun to drink out of.

Yummy White Bread Rolls

Today I am making white bread rolls. I usually make this once a week. I make the rolls thin so that they can be toasted in the toaster for sandwiches or just toast. This time Josh requested that I also make some buns for hot dogs and here's how they turned out.


Here's the recipe I used. I often switch up the recipe. This time for instance I was out of milk so I used one without it. I got the recipe from the Pillsbury Complete Cookbook that we got for our wedding over nine years ago. I have adapted the recipe and here it is.

Ingredients:
5-6 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 pkg yeast
1/4 cup oil

Instructions:
In a large bowl combine 2 cups flour, sugar, salt, yeast. In a small bowl combine water and oil. Heat in the microwave for 3 minutes on high. Add warm liquid to flour mixture and mix with a mixer for about 3 minutes. Stir in 2 1/2 to 3 cups of flour until dough starts to pull form sides of bowl. On a floured surface knead 1/2 to 1 cup of flour until dough is smooth and elastic. Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with a towel to rise for about 45 to 60 minutes in a warm place.

After the rise, punch dough down. Divide dough in half until you get 16 little balls. To make round rolls roll them in a little flour and flatten into 4 inch circles. To make buns roll them in a little flour and roll out into 6 inch long buns and flatten. Place rolls on an ungreased baking sheet and let rise about 15 minutes.

Bake for about 15 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Remove from pan immediately and place on cooling rack.

numero uno

My new lunch box! I've recently gotten interested in making bento lunch boxes. I don't quite have the art down but I am having fun. Here's the box I got and a few pictures of my first attempts.

Here is a pretzel peanut butter and jelly sandwich on home made bread, sandwich cookies and a warhead.

This one wasn't initially intentional, but it turned into a paw print so I took a picture. It is a peanut butter and brown sugar sandwich on home made bread with home made cookies.

As I begin this blog it will be a smattering of things, but mostly related to the adventures in the kitchen of Jen and Josh.