Homemade Pizza: A Surprisingly Easy Dinner Idea

No, don't get me wrong, I love me some Cottage Inn Cheeseburger pizza or a large, deep dish sausage and onion from Jet's, but let's be honest with ourselves -at around $15 a pie, that's a lot to spend on something that you don't get to keep.

Now normally I will make my own pizza using dough from the market. That's the little trick here - I go to Whole Foods or a local bakery that I know makes pizza, and ask for a ball of their dough. It usually runs no more that $2.50. Then all you have to do is add your own toppings and throw it in the oven.

Yesterday, however, was a special day because I took on the task of making my own dough...using my stand mixer's "knead" attachment :) I love that thing! I used a recipe from the Williams Sonoma cookbook:

2 1/3 c flour
3/4 c lukewarm water with 1 Tbs yeast dissolved into it for 10 minutes
1 tsp salt











It's that simple, really. You just put the flour and salt in the mixer, make a well in the middle, pour in the yeast after the 10 minutes and mix until the mixture starts to look like...well...dough. I added 1/2 tsp oregano and a sprinkling of garlic powder to mine to give some extra flavor. Then you take the dough out and knead it for about 10 minutes - until it's smooth and elastic-like. Next, set it in a large bowl that's lightly oiled, cover with saran wrap, and let rise for about 2 hours - by this time it should have doubled in size. What did I do during that 2 hours - went for a nice workout, you know, to burn off the calories :)


After the 2 hours were up, I took out the dough, punched it down, and rolled/stretched it into the crust. I poked holes all over with a fork and set it in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes to pre-bake. Then I took it out, added the tomato sauce (I really have fallen in love with Classico Spicy Tomato), cheese, and toppings...but I won't lie, that sounds much simpler than it actually was...


...because after cutting the ball of mozzarella I had leftover from last week, I sampled some (tgfp=thank gosh for picking) and realized it was no longer good. Now mozzarella balls cost $4 a piece, so I was already bummed it wasn't usable, but I was also too proud to go to the store and buy another one - so I improvised. I had some left-over sausage cream cheese mixture from Saturday - see last post - so I put that over half the pizza. Pepperoni went over the other half and the whole thing was sprinkled with caramelized onion because they makes anything taste a MILLION times better. What about cheese? I shredded some Seaside Cheddar from Whole Foods and sprinkled that on top along with some pecorino. The results were spectacular, but trust me, this totally could have gone the opposite way...


before

after

Dinner and a Movie (or Two)

When you think Saturday night, you wouldn't think "staying in" would be at the top of the list of uber fun things to do. But let me tell you, this Saturday night was one of the best I've ever had.

Three of my most favorite people came over for a night of cooking, laughing, and romantic comedies. We started by watching the USA play Ghana in the World Cup (something we might all like to forget), then we made jam thumbprint cookies, took a visit to the local Blockbuster (one of the most eventful ones I've ever had), and finally made a simple yet yummy dinner with biscuit dough. Where was the bf, you wonder? In the next room killing zombies with a friend. My girlfriends and I got a kick out of hearing their strategic attack calls during lulls in the movie :)

Below you will find the recipe for the biscuits and cookies.

Jam Thumbprint cookies:

For these I used a recipe by Ina Garten found here

• The great thing about these cookies is that there isn't any egg - meaning you can eat the dough!!! My friend and I, as the designated "pickers" of the bunch, took advantage of this convenience quite a few times :)
• I like using raspberry jam, but any jam you like is fine
• Note that the cookies don't spread in the oven, so you can place them pretty close together.
• Also, I refrigerated the cookies after forming them so they REALLY wouldn't spread all over the place.

Sausage Biscuit things:

Thanks to a friend's friend, I was introduced to this recipe which is going to be a staple at any party I host in the future. The great thing is, you can cut the biscuit dough in half and use mini muffin tins and then fill with different mixtures - for example: ham, cream cheese, and scallions or sauteed onion and goat cheese with sundried tomatoes.

• You just take store bought biscuits and press them into a cup form and then into a muffin tin
• Brown about 1 package of free sausage - along with a sprinkling of pepper and salt. Drain and put this in a bowl and let cool somewhat.
• Add 1 package of 1/3 fat cream cheese and mix together
• Press 1 spoonful of this mixture into the biscuit dough (which is easy since we already formed a bowl-shape)
• Put in a 350 degree oven for 12 minutes
• At 12 minutes, take them out of the oven and press the filling down (the biscuits have baked somewhat at this point and pushed the sausage mixture up - the idea here is to keep the filling from oozing over)
• Bake another 10 minutes until golden brown

Tips from the Cook:

1. When hosting a baking party, it's a good idea to pick your recipes beforehand - easy ones that involve lots of hands, so everyone has a job to do and feels included - even if one of these jobs is taste-tester :)
2. Divy up the ingredients before as well - this way one person doesn't have to buy everything and figure out pay-backs, etc. when friends are over. Also, it's kind of awkward to ask for money when you're all having a good time together!
3. Pair with a good movie - we watched Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and The Proposal - and some great conversation and you have a fun, relaxing, tasty evening. The last thing we decided before heading our separate ways was that baking night will be a monthly event for sure!

Restaurant Week and Random Updates

These lovely images were taken from here and here

Hello all!

Don't think I've forgotten you - I just have been actively stopping myself from baking because although my taste buds get happy, my waistline does not.

Tuesday I made a delish pasta salad but alas, forgot to take pictures! So I will just have to tell you it was tasty and you'll have to believe me.

from: http://www.infogirl.org/img/sept05/main_street_restaurants.jpg

I want you all to know that in Ann Arbor, for only a couple more days, is this awesome event called "Restaurant Week" where top restaurants open their doors with a pre-fixed price and semi-fixed menu. Typically, there are 3 options per course and they serve 2 or 3 courses, so this really is a deal. My boyfriend and I went out for a combined graduation/congratulations lunch at an amazing restaurant called The Real Seafood Company. Our first course was the soup course: I had gazpacho and he had New England Clam Chowder. For our entree we were served shrimp in an anise-spiked cream sauce and BBQ salmon. And for dessert we had their take on a strawberry cream puff: puff pastry triangles layers with homemade strawberry whipped cream and drizzled with a strawberry reduction sauce...yum yum yum! Three courses, plus their amazing, buttery bread cost $12/person. On average, we leave there having spent $40 or $50/person (the food is THAT good). So needless to say, we were both happy - especially my bf because he paid...thank you, honey!

Yesterday I tried this really awesome pub called Conor O'Neill's which had an added course of a selection of beers to taste. For this excursion, I went with my good friend and owner of the Patticake blog. We had their take on spinach/artichoke dip (which was tasty and o-so-cheddary), grilled Turkey Reubens, and strawberry rhubarb crumble for dessert.

Check out http://annarborrestaurantweek.com/ for a list of participating restaurants and their menus. Let me know how it goes if you visit one :)

Finally, look out for an amazing post Saturday evening (but most likely Sunday morning) because this weekend some girls are coming over for another BAKING DAY!!!! On the menu we have sausage biscuit things (yes, that's their formal name) and shortbread thumbprint cookies with raspberry jam. Get psyched!

Love,
Sheila

Just Peachy!

One of the nice things about having a friend close by is that when you feel sick, as I did yesterday, the other person can make you dinner. Last night my boyfriend made me a delicious meal of chicken sandwiches. He pounded, breaded, and fried a few chicken breasts, caramelized an onion, and made a sauce to put over them. Thank you, honey!!!

After dinner I felt much, much better and decided to show my appreciation by making him a peach pie. My boyfriend is originally from Maryland and loves anything peachy :)

Here's the recipe I use for basically all pies:

The Crust:

I used a store-bought one - it's easier and I really don't eat much of the crust anyway. If you want, you can make your own using any recipe you find, but really a plain ole pre-made one is just fine.

The Topping:

This is my FAVORITE part of any pie because I use a crumble topping. I have an insane love of crumble and my boyfriend always teases me because I pick it off the top of the pie when it has finished being baked. Anyway, what you do is put about 3/4 cup oats in a bowl with a sprinkle of cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add about 1/2 cup flour and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Mix this all together then cut in with a fork or your fingers a little less than 1/2 stick softened butter. You can add more oats if the mixture looks too buttery and more butter if...well, you get the picture. I also sprinkle in a little almond or vanilla extract - these extracts go really well with stone fruit or other fruits like apples.

The Fruit:

I peeled and cored 5 peaches and sliced them into different thicknesses - I personally like a little uneven texture when you bite into a pie. I then added about 1/4 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar, a tad vanilla, a sprinkling of salt, and a squirt lemon juice and let this sit for maybe 15 minutes to accumulate juices. In a sauce pan I added the juice of a half lemon and 1/2 tsp cornstarch - these I whisked together to eliminate any bumps. I warmed this till the mixture thickened a little, then added the juices from the fruit. Lastly, I added the fruit and mixed everything together. You can eliminate this last over-the-stove part if you don't want a gooey filling - but I myself love the gooey center/crumbly top combo.

So, I poured the fruit into the crust and baked the pie at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Before putting the pie pan in the oven I set it on a baking tray so any spillover wouldn't end up on the bottom of our oven.

You can serve this with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream or just plain.

A good friend came over and we coupled pie with a romantic comedy.