and a big, fat pizza pie!

A couple of weeks ago, I began working as a baker for a local catering company. I'm not the most enthusiastic baker in the world, I actually don't care for cookies very much. As with most food related things, I'm comfortable with baking, it's just tedious. I enjoy making things pretty, which baking lends itself to, and there's a certain amount of creativity there. At any rate, I spend my days baking tons of cookies, a few pies, and the occasional cake. There are worst ways to make a buck.

Anywho, after a long first week, I wanted nothing better than to come home and stuff my face with pizza and nurse a glass of Shiraz. I've taken to buying boxed wines, I'll let you know how that's going in another post.

While frozen pizza does have it's convieniences and can be tasty, I'm a scratch girl. It's healthier and you get exactly what you want on your pizza. I was also craving garlic in a big way (when am I not, really?). The pizza began forming on my 30 minute commute pack to the ol' homestead. I stopped by the store and grabbed a bulb of garlic and some mozzerella cheese. Once home, I reached for my quick and easy pizza dough recipe, it has seriously changed the way I eat pizza! I started by mincing 4 garlic cloves and sauteeing them in a little butter. I threw that down atop the pizza dough, then quickly sauteed the canned tomatoes in the same pan to catch left over garlic flavoring, tossed some sugar and italian seasonings in, gave it a quick stir, then it too went on the crust. I mixed my cheeses then they crowed my lovely pie. After 14ish minutes in a 450 oven, my pizza was cooked to perfection. It took only 25 minutes, start to finish!

Can we say tasty? It married beautifully with my Shiraz. My belly was all kinds of happy!

Pizza dough in a flash!

2.5 cups all purpose flour
1 packet (1 Tbs) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 Tbs oil (preferably a good olive)
1 tsp sugar
a couple of pinches of salt


Mix the yeast, water and sugar in a small bowl. Add half a cup of the flour, and mix until it's smooth. Add the remaining flour, and knead until the dough is a nice, smooth ball...maybe 2 minutes. Let the dough rest while you get the rest of the ingredients for your pizza together. The oven should be at 450. I always like to put a nice thin sprinkling of cornmeal on my baking sheet or pizza stone. It helps the pizza slide off and I like the texture. After you've added your tasty-goodies to the top of the rolled out dough, it only takes about 15 minutes for it to bake to perfection. ****Caution**** When the oven temp is this hot, DO NOT walk away! Keep careful watch over the pizza!!

Humpday Hunger Happenings

Tonight was the first night in a while that I didn't have anything scheduled, so I took advantage of the free time to make a colorful, healthy(ish), yumalicious meal.

Menu:

Roasted Red Pepper/Spinach Pizza (whole wheat crust)
Garden salad tossed with bacon bits and flax seeds (Ranch Dressing, of course)
Coconut Rice pudding

The meal may sound kinda fancy, but it's actually super simple and quick to make (40 minutes or less)

Pizza:

Preheat: 450

For the Crust:

1 tbs. dry active yeast (1 packet)
1 cup warm water (not boiling!)
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 tbs. vegetable oil (I use olive oil)
2 1/2 cups flour (go half whole wheat, half all purpose if you'd like)

For some reason, people feel like good homemade pizza has to be this all-day, excessively complicated undertaking. When you use this recipe, you can actually make, from scratch, a pizza more quickly than you can cook a frozen one!

1.) Dissolve yeast in water. Add sugar, salt, and oil. Whisk until will mixed.
2.) Add flour and mix until dough pulls away from sides.
3.) Dump dough onto floured surface and knead 2-4 minutes.**
4.) Grease pan, and sprinkle the bottom lightly with cornmeal. Roll out dough until it is large enough to fit your pan. Place rolled out dough into pan.

Toppings:

About 1 cup pasta sauce
2 cups fresh spinach, roughly chopped
1/2 cup or so roasted red peppers, from a jar, drained and roughly chopped
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

I just use the cheapest pasta sauce I can find. Nothing fancy there, it's good and saves time. For extra kick, you can sprinkle Italian seasonings onto the crust, pre-sauce. Pour the sauce on, and spread it out. I layered the veggies and cheese, just to get everything mixed up and evenly distributed.

Bake: 10-12 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and cheese is well melted. Enjoy! Notes: ** You can let the dough rise for up to 30 minutes, if you'd like. It's a good way to give yourself some time to do other things (like make a salad) since the cooking time is so short**
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Coconut Rice Pudding

What you need:

2 cups Arborio rice (the kind usually used for risotto...it makes for a very creamy pudding! You can use regular rice, as well)
1- 14.5 oz can coconut milk (unsweetened)
1/2 cup or so sugar (to your taste)
1 1/2 cup milk (evaporated milk works great here)
1/2 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. almond extract
2 egg yolks

What you do:

1.) Warm milks, water, extracts, and sugar in medium sized sauce pan until warm but not boiling.
2.) Add rice. Cook 25-35 minutes, or until the rice is done to your liking.
3.) Put egg yolks in a small bowl, and add about 1/4 cup of the rice cooking liquid to the yolks and whisk with a fork until well incorporated.
4.) Add egg mixture to rice pan and mix well. Allow to cook 5 more minutes, pudding should be somewhat set.
5.) If you have tons of liquid still in the pan, cook a bit longer and be prepared to remove the excess and cook more rice in a smaller pot with it. (Don't add more rice to the original pot or you'll end up with some crunchy rice and some gummy rice in the same spoonful).
You can serve the pudding immediately, or you can serve it chilled. If you'd like, you can also melt some chocolate or carob into the pudding for an added layer of flavor!