Pizza

We make homemade pizza almost every week because it's the only meal where nobody complains :)  I've tried lots and lots of recipes.  Many turn out good, but this has always been my go to dough.  It rolls out nice and thin and cooks up crispy, which is the way we like it.  I do cook my pizzas on a pizza stone, which I really like.  My Pizza stone has traveled all over the world with me and I cook lots of things with it.  I roll my dough out in cornmeal, rather than flour, because I think it helps add a nice bit of crunch to the crust.  I currently have a convection oven, which is amazing, so my pizza cooks up in about 7 minutes and the top is nice and golden.  If you are having trouble getting the top nice and golden and cooked right just turn on your broiler :)  I've tried homemade sauce and store bought, but usually I just revert to store bought because it's easier.  The kids have fun with the toppings because there are endless choices.  My two favorite pizza are my BBQ chicken and Thai Pizza.  Someday I'll post those recipes!  And definetly remember to cook at 500 degrees.  I know that seems way high, and it is, we have set the smoke alarm off many times when cheese melts off into the oven, but it really is the right way to cook a pizza!

Here is the recipe, courtesy of Tyler Florence from www.foodnetwork.com.

• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 cups, plus more for dusting (I usually don't use all the flour)

Directions

In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the yeast, sugar, and warm water; stir gently to dissolve. Let the mixture stand until the yeast comes alive and starts to foam, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Turn the mixer on low and add the salt and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the flour, a little at a time, mixing at the lowest speed until all the flour has been incorporated. When the dough starts to come together, increase the speed to medium; stop the machine periodically to scrape the dough off the hook. Get a feel for the dough by squeezing a small amount together: if it's crumbly, add more water; if it's sticky, add more flour - 1 tablespoon at a time. Mix until the dough gathers into a ball, this should take about 5 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and fold it over itself a few times; kneading until it's smooth and elastic. Form the dough into a round and place in a lightly oiled bowl, turn it over to coat. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let it rise in a warm spot (i.e. over a gas pilot light) until doubled in size, about 1 hour. This is a good time to stick a pizza stone in the oven and preheat them to 500 degrees F.

Once the dough is domed and spongy, turn it out onto a lightly floured counter. Roll and stretch the dough into a cylinder and divide into 3 equal pieces. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes so it will be easier to roll out.

Roll or pat out a piece of dough into a 12 inch circle, about 1/8-inch thick. Dust a pizza paddle with flour and slide it under the pizza dough. Brush the crust with a thin layer of olive oil, and top with your favorite flavors. Slide the pizza onto the hot stone in the oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the crust is golden and crisp. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Pavlova

I've wanted to make this recipe for a long time just because I think it sounds cool to say "I had Pavlova for dessert tonight." Apparently it is some type of New Zealand recipe named after a famous ballerina.  So tonight I made it.  This dessert is really so simple and easy.  While the kids loved the dessert, it probably wasn't my most favorite dessert dish, but really good and definetly worth making at least once in your life.  The original recipe I got from allrecipes.com, but I made a few changes after reading several other Pavlova recipes.

4 egg whites

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 pint fresh strawberries

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Draw a 9 inch circle on the parchment. An easy way to do this is to draw around the outside of a 9 inch pan with a pencil.
2. In a large bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. Add 3/4 cup of the sugar gradually, while continuing to whip. Make sure sugar is completely dissolved. Mix together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar with the cornstarch; lightly fold into meringue with white vinegar and vanilla.
3. Spread a layer of meringue to fit circle on parchment, approximately 1/4 inch thick. With remainder of mixture, pipe or spoon swirls around the edges to form a shallow bowl shape.
4. Bake at 250 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 1 hour. Turn off oven, but leave meringue in oven for an additional 30 minutes. When cool, the meringue should be hard on the outside, and slightly moist on the inside.
5. In a large bowl, combine the cream and half a cup of confectioners sugar, and whip until thickened. Decorate with fruit of your choice; strawberries are excellent.

Chicken Mole

Another great, quick, chicken dinner recipe.  I've had Chicken Mole twice my whole life; once while on a cruise in Mexico at some swanky restaurant, and once in Salt Lake at the Red Iguana.  This recipe isn't the traditional sauce, but really close, yummy, and way easier.  My kids and hubby all liked this dish.

2 T. vegetable oil
4 pounds chicken
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 cups salsa
1 cup chicken broth
2 T. chili powder
3 T. creamy peanut butter

Heat oil in large skillet and add chicken.  Cook for a few minutes, just until the outside gets browned.  Don't worry about cooking all the way through you will put the chicken back in later.  Remove the chicken from skillet and add the onion and garlic.  Saute for 2-3 minutes or until tender.  Stir in salsa, broth, chili powder, peanut butter, and cocoa.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and add chicken.  Cook for 20-25 minutes or until done.  Serve with rice!

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt

This is so simple and DELICIOUS!! Really, go make it right now.  I got this recipe off the Design Mom blog, but she found it at 101 Cookbooks.com.

3 cups greek yogurt

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla (optional)

Mix together the yogurt, sugar, and vanilla (if using).  Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.  Refrigerate 1hour.  Freeze in ice cream maker according to the manufacture's instructions.  I like to serve this frozen yogurt with lots of fresh raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, or any kind of fruit that you like :)

* the vanilla is optional.  It makes the frozen yogurt really sweet.  Some of the recipe suggestions were to leave out the vanilla and only add 2/3 cup sugar.  So, decide how sweet you like your ice cream and then adjust accordingly.

Key Lime Pie Ice Cream

For some reason I've been making a lot of homemade ice cream lately.  This recipe is delicious and so simple.

1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup Key Lime juice (you can use fresh key limes, or I just used Nellie and Joe's Key Lime Juice in a bottle)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 prepared graham cracker crust

Combine first four ingredients.  Pour into freezer can of an ice-cream freezer and freeze according to manufacture's instructions.  When done stir in graham cracker crumbs from pie crust, reserving some crumbs to garnish.  Put ice cream into a freezer-safe container, cover and freeze for 1-2 hours or until firm.  Serve sprinkling each serving with graham crackers (also can garnish with lime wedge).

Voodoo Chicken Salad

Supposedly, this is the Rumbi Island Grill Voodoo Chicken Salad Recipe, but I've never actually had the salad in the restaurant so I can't say if it tastes like it or not.  But, what I can say that this recipe is really good.  It is a nice simple salad, with a great dressing.  The dressing has a nice kick and lots of flavor!

Salad:
3 cups lettuce mix
2 T. feta cheese
2 T. diced tomatoes
1/4 cup tortilla strips
1/2 cup voodoo dressing
1/2 cup chicken breast, diced

Voodoo Dressing: (I halved this dressing, it makes a lot)
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup chili paste
2 T. crushed red pepper
3/4 cup lite mayo
1 1/2 cup sesame oil
1 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 cup minced garlic
1/3 cup pureed ginger

Place all ingredients into blender and mix.

(this is a picture of the salad before I put the dressing on)

Sweet Corn Cake

A long time ago we ate at the Cheesecake factory and I had a wonderful meal with some kind of cornbread that was so soft and sweet and delicious.  I have been on the hunt to find a similar recipe ever since then. Recently, after eating there again with my in-laws, I rededicated myself to finding the recipe, but this time I looked not at recipes for corn bread, but rather corn cake.  I found this sweet corn cake recipe on allrecipes and it was a huge hit.  I served this with burritos full of chicken, black beans, corn, saffron rice, cilantro, cheese, salsa, and fresh squeezed limes.  It was delicious

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup masa harina (if you can't find corn flour, you can use regular flour or just plain corn meal)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

1. In a medium bowl beat butter until it is creamy. Add the Mexican corn flour and water and beat until well mixed.
2. Using a food processor, process thawed corn, but leave chunky. Stir into the butter mixture.
3. In a separate bowl, mix cornmeal, sugar, cream, salt, and baking powder. Add to corn flour mixture and stir to combine. Pour batter into an ungreased 8x8 inch baking pan. Smooth batter and cover with aluminum foil. Place pan into a 9x13 inch baking dish that is filled a third of the way with water.
4. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven F (175 degrees C) oven for 50 to 60 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Use an ice cream scoop for easy removal from pan.

Technically corn flour and corn meal are the same product, but corn flour is ground to a smoother flour-like texture.

Berry Sorbet

Ingredients

• 1 cup SPLENDA® Granular (I used regular sugar)
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries, thawed
• 1 1/2 cups frozen blackberries, thawed
• 1/2 cup frozen raspberries, thawed
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (optional)

Directions

1. In a large measuring cup, dissolve Splenda in water.
2. In a food processor or blender, puree berries until smooth, adding sweetened water gradually. Pour in cream, and pulse until blended.
3. Pour mixture into ice cream machine and let freeze until mixture is very thick. Eat some right away! Then freeze the rest.

Recipe courtesy of www.allrecipes.com

Raspberry Sour Cream Pie

We have an abundance of raspberries right now and I wanted to make something other than plain raspberry pie.  I found this recipe at www.allrecipes.com, and it turned out really nice.  I think you could substitute any kind of fruit (peaches, like peaches and cream, would be great also).

• 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/3 cups sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 cups raspberries
•  
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I left out the walnuts because my family doesn't care for nuts)
• 1/4 cup butter, chilled

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and lemon colored. Whisk in sour cream and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix sugar, flour and salt together. Stir into egg mixture. Gently fold in raspberries. Divide into 2 unbaked pie crusts.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the center begins to set. Sprinkle with topping and return to oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until topping is golden brown. Allow to cool before serving.
4. To make the topping: In a medium bowl, mix together brown sugar, flour and chopped nuts. Cut in butter until crumbly.

Garlic Cheese Biscuits

Before making this recipe I wasn't a biscuit fan.  I tend to prefer nice buttery rolls to biscuits, but this recipe surprised me and is now a staple in my recipe box.  I don't know if it was my new convection oven or what, but theses came out so nice and crisp on the outside and soft and moist on the inside with LOTS of flavor.  Biscuits really are so easy and simple, I think I whipped these together in under 5 minutes and then baked them for 10.  I would serve these with a grilled steak/fish/chicken and a fresh green salad for a nice summers dinner.  Recipes courtesy of www.allrecipes.com.

• 2 cups biscuit baking mix
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons margarine, melted
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet, or line with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine baking mix, Cheddar cheese, and garlic powder. Stir in milk. Drop batter by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Brush biscuits with melted margarine, and sprinkle with parsley and garlic salt. Bake for 5 more minutes, or until lightly browned on the bottom.

Hot and Cold Sesame Noodles

This is a nice, easy Asian dish.  It would work well as a side with a grilled piece of chicken/pork/fish.  This is a Rachel Ray recipe that I saved from a long time ago.  Shawn didn't love the cabbage in it, but I thought it was good.  I also think it would be good loaded with vegetables, like diced cucumber, carrots, peppers, etc.  You could even put in some peanuts for a nice crunch.

ingredients

• 1/2 pound spaghetti
• 1/4 cup Tamari dark soy, eyeball it
• 1/4 rounded cup smooth peanut butter, softened in microwave 15 seconds on high
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon dark sesame oil, eyeball it
• 2 tablespoons hot sauce  ( I actually used 2 tsp. of sriracha hot sauce instead)
• 2 cups shredded cabbage and carrot mix, available in produce department
• 1 cup bean sprouts or pea shoots, any variety, available in produce department
• 3 scallions, chopped on an angle
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Directions

Cook pasta to al dente, with a bite to it, then cold shock it to stop the cooking process by running it under cold water in colander. Drain the pasta very well.

In the bottom of a large bowl, whisk together soy, peanut butter, vinegar, oil, sesame oil, and hot sauce. Add noodles and veggies and toss to combine the noodles and coat them evenly with sauce. Sprinkle scallions and sesame seeds throughout the salad and serve.

Naan

This recipe it sooooo delicious, we had it last night and Shawn and I already want it again (Brooke you need to try this).  Shawn and I like Greek/Mediterranean food.  It is usually pretty fresh, healthy stuff with lots of flavor.  I found this recipe for Naan and really wanted to try it, but traditionally in Greek Cuisine these are served with lamb and Taziki sauce (for those of you who have had a Gyro, they are the same thing).  While Shawn likes lamb, I haven't conquered my fear of cooking it. I've promise Shawn one year for Christmas I'll make a big roasted lamb, but until then I'll just stick with chicken:)

Here is the Naan recipe.  The dough is really simple, like any yeast dough, but it does take time rolling each one out.  But, I PROMISE, it is totally worth it.  It is like having homemade tortillas, they are pain to make, but sooo worth it.

NAAN
1/2 cup warm water
2 tsp. yeast (make sure to always use good yeast, it makes a difference)
1 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1 large egg

In a large bowl, stir together the water, yeast and sugar.  Let stand for 5 minutes or until foam so you know the yeast is working.  Stir in flour, salt, canola oil, yogurt, and egg.  Mix together and knead until smooth.  Cover with towel and let rise until doubled in size, about an hour.

Divide dough into 8 pieces and roll out into thin circle.  Cook each Naan in a nice hot skillet drizzled with oil and a dab of butter.  Cook about 2-4 minutes until golden and the surface has blister looking things, then flip is over and cook the other side.


You can serve these many ways, but I decided to mix my Greek Food with Mexican.  So I made some taco spiced chicken (I'll post that recipe someday because it's good), and served it with the Naan, Guacamole (Shawn's homemade, I'll have to post that also someday), lettuce, Colby/jack cheese, and my own Mexican Cilantro Taziki Sauce.  I actually make up my own sauce.  I have a recipe for a lime/cilantro vinaigrette, so I made that and added about 1/2 cup plain yogurt to it to thicken it up.  The base of Taziki sauce is yogurt, so I made it the base of my vinaigrette, and I think it turned out delicious.  Here is the Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette Recipe (from www.ourbestbites.com).

Cilantro-Lime Viaigrette
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 2-3 limes)
1/4 cup white wine vinegar or rice vinegar
4 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. sugar
3/4 cup canola oil (the recipe actually calls for 1 cup, but I decreased it because I knew I wanted to add the yogurt and wanted a thicker texture)
1/2 cup roughly chopped cilantro

Mix all ingredients in blender, except oil.  Blend together and gradually add oil.  This vinaigrette can be served with salad greens, on any type of Mexican dish, or use it ask a marinade.

ENJOY!

Lettuce Wraps

I know that there are lots of PF Change lettuce wrap copy cat recipes out there.  I have tried many of them, and while I have liked all of them, this one is the easiest with lots of good flavor.
10 whole lettuce leafs (iceberg or bib lettuce)
1 lb. ground chicken/turkey/beef (PF Changs uses ground chicken)
1 white onion, chopped
2 T. garlic minced
1 small can water chestnuts, chopped
3 green onions, sliced thin
1/4 cup hoisin sauce (or you can make your own, recipe below)
1 T. soy sauce
2 T. rice wine vinegar
1 T. chili paste (or 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes)  You can decrease this depending on your tastes
1 T. sesame oil

Homemade Hoisin
While I have Hoisin sauce in my fridge because we like cooking Asian Cuisine, most people don't.  So here is a substitute.
5 T. soy sauce
2 T. bean curd paste (Or you can substitute peanut butter because if you don't has Hoisin, you probably don't have bean curd paste :)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 T. honey
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp hot sauce
(you can adjust the hot sauce and pepper to your taste.)

Cook the ground meet until brown with the white onion and garlic.  Add soy sauce, vinegar, Hoisin sauce, chili paste, sesame oil, water chestnuts and green onions.  Cook until green onions start to wilt and then serve.

Enjoy!

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Another allrecipes.com favorite.  My kids like meatballs, but it's fun to try something different other than marinara sauce.  I like to use homemade meatballs, but you can always use those frozen pre-made ones.  I always add chopped sweet peppers to any sweet and sour type meals, I don't know why, but I do and it taste good.  Of course my kids pick them out, but I don't care.  I like to make this recipe in my crock pot in the morning, and then at dinner time the house smells wonderful and dinner is ready :)

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 egg
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 cup dry bread crumbs
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine beef, egg, onion, bread crumbs, salt and pepper. Roll into meatballs about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in size.
2. In a large skillet over medium heat, saute the meatballs until browned on all sides.
3. In a separate medium bowl, mix together the water, vinegar, ketchup, cornstarch, sugar and soy sauce. Pour over the meatballs, and allow sauce to thicken. Continue to heat until the sauce just starts to bubble.