Amazing Pizza Crust

I tried this recipe a few weeks ago and it is becoming our Friday night dinner. I am loving this recipe! It is SO easy!

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast (converts to 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast in a jar)
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 1/ 2 cups bread flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons white sugar

Directions

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine 2 1/ 2 cups bread flour, olive oil, salt, white sugar and the yeast mixture; stir well to combine. Beat well until a stiff dough has formed. Cover and rise until doubled in volume, about 45-60 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Form dough into a round and roll out into a pizza crust shape. If it is too sticky add up to 1/2 cup more flour. Spread onto pizza pan and pre bake about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cover with your favorite sauce and toppings and bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Weeknight Chicken Fajitas- YUM!

I had a lot of these ingredients on hand so I decided to give this Weeknight Chicken Fajitas from Kraftfoods  a try. It was really good and we will surely be making it again!

1 tsp. oil

1 lb.  boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips

1/4 cup KRAFT Italian Dressing

3 cups  pre-cut mixed fresh stir-fry vegetables (carrots, red and green peppers, onions, broccoli, snow peas) (I used peppers and onions and edamame) 

2 tsp. chili powder

8   flour tortillas (6 inch)

1 cup KRAFT Shredded Cheddar Cheese

HEAT oil in nonstick skillet on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 5 min. or until done, stirring occasionally.

STIR in dressing, vegetables and chili powder; cook 5 min. or until vegetables are crisp-tender, stirring occasionally.

TOP tortillas with chicken mixture and cheese; roll up. (we rolled them like burritos so the sauce wouldn't drip out) 

a flop!

Cook's Illustrated had a recipe for a lemon cream cheese coffee cake and it looked like a good opportunity to keep working with the new-to-us Kitchen Aid Pro. I am not sure what happened, but things didn't turn out quite like the photo in the magazine. After waiting an hour for the cake to cool down, I turned it over to take it out of the tube pan, whereupon it immediately dropped and flopped!

It tastes okay (anything with sweetened cream cheese stands a really good chance of tasting good), but the texture of the cake is odd. More like a super-moist muffin than a cake. I usually climb back on the horse right after making a dud, but I dunno if this one is worth trying again. Oh well, learning to cook well involves eating a lot of your own mistakes...and I am a little tired of eating this one!

David takes all responsibility for this kitchen disaster; Jill played no part beyond wide eyes, "oh my"'s, "what happened?!?!?!" and "you'll do better next time."

Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls

Saw this recipe for Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls on one of my favorite blogs, moneysavingmom.com and decided to give it a try. I recently got a bread maker so I was excited about this one. It was super easy and they were delicious! I will surely be making these again!

Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls

Dough:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm milk
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 egg, lightly beaten plus 2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups flour (Add a bit more if dough seems too wet after first few minutes of kneading in the bread machine.)
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Filling (I doubled this since we like our filling, oh yes we do!):
2 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup brown sugar mixed with 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Icing:
1 teaspoon milk
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
4 tablespoons (or less) butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla

Put the dough ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed and run on the dough cycle. After the dough cycle is finished, roll the dough into a large rectangle and spread it with 2 Tablespoons melted butter and 2/3 cup brown sugar mixed with 1 Tablespoon cinnamon.

Roll up and cut into 10-15 rolls and place in two greased round cake pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes or until browned. Spread the icing on as soon as they come out of the oven.

You can also cover the unbaked rolls with plastic wrap, stick them in the refrigerator overnight, and then bake in the morning. We made two pans ate one and froze the other.

Savory Puff Pastry Pie

Cook’s Country (Feb/March 2010 had an interesting recipe for something they called “Michigan Pasties” which looked interesting, though the name was a little ribald for my taste. We tried the recipe as is; they were just okay. They would have been better, but they burned a bit. I should have checked them five minutes before the minimum stated cooking time. But they had potential and inspiration struck when I thought of several left-behind puff pastries from a holiday dinner. So here is my variation that is much superior to the original.

ingredients

2 Puff Pastry sheets
1 onion chopped fine
1/2 lb ground pork sausage
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 cup ap flour
2 cups leftover beef roast*
1 cup leftover roast gravy
salt and pepper
1 egg beaten

*We had leftover braised brisket, and it was incredibly good. However, I believe this would work well with chuck roast or any other good pot roast.

directions

1. Shred the meat if it is not yet.

2. Saute the onions until softened. Add the ground pork and cook till just done. Add spices and cook till aromatic. Stir in flour and cook about 30 seconds. Add gravy, meat and any vegetables that were in the pot roast; cook until quite thick. Set aside to cool.

3. Heat oven to 450. Line sheet pan with parchment paper.

4. Spread out puff pastry on a flour-dusted board (be certain to take it out of freezer 20-30 minutes before attempting to unfold it) and roll it out to approximately 10″x20″. Cut in half to make two 10″x10″ sheets. Spoon about 1/4 of meat mixture on center of each piece, leaving about a 1″ border. Moisten edges with egg wash. Fold and crimp edges. Brush tops with egg wash and slash several times to let steam out.

5. Bake 20-25 minutes. Let cool five-ten minutes before serving.

variation

1/2 lb ground pork sausage
1/2 onion chopped
1/4 cup mozzarella or monterey cheese
1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk

1. Cook onions till softened. Add the ground pork and cook till no longer pink. Stir in flour and cook till juices are absorbed and flour becomes a thick paste. Pour in milk and cook till thickened (it will be quite thick).

2. Remove from heat and cool to room temp. Stir in cheese.

Use this as an alternate meat mix.

and the result

This is an outstanding meal to use up leftovers! We will be making this many times in the future. This went great with a salad.