PIZZA!

Makin pizza tonight, so I thought I would share our favorite pizza dough recipe with you ladies as I make it!

You can of course use any toppings, but I'm going to make the amazingly yummy peach pizza Sarah, Seth, Jeff and I had before the Meet and Greet in Minneapolis, it was out of this world and perfect for summer!!

• peaches!! depending on the side, however many you like- sliced
• goat cheese
  
• herbs de provence
• prosciutto

• 1 package active dry or fresh yeast
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 cup warm water, 105 to 115 degrees
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional for brushing
• Toppings of your choice

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast and honey in 1/4-cup warm water.

In a mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the flour and the salt. Add the oil, the yeast mixture, and the remaining 3/4 cup of water and mix on low speed until the dough comes cleanly away from the sides of the bowl and clusters around the dough hook, about 5 minutes. (The pizza dough can also be made in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse once or twice, add the remaining ingredients, and process until the dough begins to form a ball.)

Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and knead by hand 2 or 3 minutes longer. The dough should be smooth and firm. Cover the dough with a clean, damp towel and let it rise in a warm spot for about 30 minutes. (When ready, the dough will stretch as it is lightly pulled).

Divide the dough into 4 balls, about 6 ounces each. Work each ball by pulling down the sides and tucking under the bottom of the ball. Repeat 4 or 5 times. Then on a smooth, unfloured surface, roll the ball under the palm of your hand until the top of the dough is smooth and firm, about 1 minute. Cover the dough with a damp towel and let rest 15 to 20 minutes. At this point, the balls can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 2 days.

Place a pizza stone on the middle rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

To prepare each pizza, dip the ball of dough into flour, shake off the excess flour, place the dough on a clean, lightly floured surface, and start to stretch the dough. Press down on the center, spreading the dough into an 8-inch circle, with the outer border a little thicker than the inner circle. If you find this difficult to do, use a small rolling pin to roll out the dough. Lightly brush the inner circle of the dough with oil and arrange the topping of your choice over the inner circle (ie. peaches, cheese, prosciutto and herbs).

Using a lightly floured baker's peel or a rimless flat baking tray, slide the pizza onto the baking stone and bake until the pizza crust is nicely browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Remember that the oven is very hot and be careful as you place the pizza into and out of the oven. Transfer the pizza to a firm surface and cut into slices with a pizza cutter or very sharp knife. Serve immediately.

Even better for summer, try grilling it!!

Yummers :-P

Sauteed Summer Corn with Peppers

4 ears corn, taken off the cob
EVOO
1/2 onion chopped
4 cloves garlic chopped finely
2 TBspoons butter
1 yellow pepper diced
6 leaves of basil roughly chopped
salt and pepper

heat EVOO over medium heat, add onions and garlic, saute 3 minutes.....add yellow peppers, sautes another 2 minutes.... add butter and let it melt, then add corn, salt and pepper.Saute until the startchiness of the corn is gone, about 7 minutes. Turn the heat off after a few minutes add the basil.
Serve warm or room temperature!

Patrick says if we move the blog to wordpress.com we can have tabs for various kinds of recipes. Wordpress allows for better organization...what do you think?

Easy Married Pasta

So I made the first dinner for my husband...easy and GOOD!

serves 2

summer squash- diced very small- 3 small squash
3 italian sausage, out of the casing
1/2 onion chopped fine
2 cloves garlic
Olive Oil
1/2 head of Radicchio- chopped
salt and pepper
red pepper flakes
crushed walnuts

Saute onions and garlic in OO
add sausage- saute unit sausage is cooked
add squash, red pepper flakes- when squash is tender, add salt and pepper, radicchio and walnuts
turn heat off
serves over pasta with parm. cheese.

YUMMY!

Oatmeal Toasting Bread...

Here goes...

This may be a bit ambitious for my first posting, but I made this bread yesterday and it DOES make the most amazing toast!! It takes all day so do it when you're gonna be house bound for a while...

The recipe calls for removing a 10 oz. portion of the dough and freezing it in order to start another batch of bread at a later date... you can take the 10oz. out or just leave it in and your loaves/rolls will be a bit larger.

**Also, FYI, this makes a lot of bread, I had to separate the dough into two bowls so I had enough room for it to ferment.

Oatmeal Toasting Bread

4 cups (32 fluid oz) very hot water (or milk)
2½ cups (11 oz/311 g) old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup (2 oz/62g) oat bran
1/2 cup (3½ oz/96 g) packed golden brown sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick/2 oz) butter
1 Tablespoon (3/8 oz/11 g) instant yeast (1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp.if using active dry yeast)
6 to 7 cups bread flour (6 cups = 1 lb, 15 oz/871 g) (plus more for kneading)
1 Tablespoon (5/8 oz/20 g) salt
10 ounces 'old' dough (white/oatmeal/whatever will work; if frozen, defrost first at room temperature or overnight in refrigerator) ** only if you have already made this bread and saved some for next time, ignore for now...

Combine oats, oat bran, brown sugar, and butter in a very large bowl. Add hot water and stir until combined. Let sit until about 80°F, about 30 minutes.

Combine yeast with 2 cups of flour and stir into oat mixture. Continue stirring in flour one cup at a time until a soft dough forms. Transfer dough to a well floured surface and knead for about 8 minutes. Cover dough with the bowl and let rest for 20 minutes.

Knead in salt & old dough for 5 minutes or until they are completely mixed in. Sprinkle flour in the dough bowl, place the dough in it, liberally dust it with flour, and cover it with a damp tea towel.

Ferment (first rise): Approximately 1½ hours if dough is at an optimal 70 to 75°F. When the dough is ready, you should be able to push your finger deep into it and leave an indentation that does not spring back.

Divide and shape into three loaves, after taking out about 10 ounces to make 'old dough' for your next batch of bread, if desired. (If not, your loaves will just be slightly larger.) 'Old dough' can be wrapped in plastic, put in a zipper bag, and frozen until you are ready to use it.

There are dozens of ways to shape your dough into loaves. I form mine into "logs," per instructions below:

"When shaping your loaves, the most important thing to remember is to be gentle with the dough. Your goal is to form an even loaf with a taut skin, while leaving some larger air holes inside.

Very lightly flour the work surface. Start by forming an envelope: Place the dough on the table. Press and flatten it gently with your fingertips to form a rectangle with a short side facing you, leaving a lot of air bubbles in the dough. Fold the top edge down over the middle of the rectangle, then fold the bottom edge up. Give the dough a quarter turn and repeat the process, folding the top edge down and the bottom edge up again and overlapping the edges slightly in the middle so the dough looks like an envelope. Pat the seam to seal it. Now you have a smaller, tighter rectangle.

Form a cylinder: Starting from the top edge of the rectangle, fold the top third of the dough over itself with one hand. With the heel of your other hand, gently press the seam to seal it. Fold the dough one third of the way down again and work from one end to the other to seal the seam. Try to keep the skin of the dough smooth and tight but not so tight that the skin tears.

Repeat this process one or two more times, until the loaf is a nice round log. Seal the final seam completely with the heel of your hand. Ideally your seam should be straight and tight with no openings or flaps of dough hanging out; with patience, this will become natural. If any dough is protruding from the ends of the log, poke it back in with your finger.

The plain log shape can be placed in a loaf or left on a cloth for a free-form second rise. From the log shape, you can make other cylindrical shapes."

Place logs seam side down in greased loaf pans. Brush tops of loaves with water and sprinkle with oats, if desired.

Or, if you want a heavy, even covering of oats on your loaves, you can brush them with water and then roll them gently in a plate of oats as shown in the above photos. Then place seam side down in greased loaf tins and cover with a damp tea towel.

Proof (second rise): Approximately 1 hour if dough is 70 to 75°F. The loaves are ready for baking when you make a slight indentation with your finger in the dough and it does not spring back. Note: this dough will not rise a whole lot while baking, so you want your loaves to be nearly finished size before you put them in the oven.

Bake at 375° for 35 minutes or until golden brown and bottoms sound hollow if tapped. Remove from pans and let cool on a wire rack. Try to wait at least 40 minutes before cutting into a loaf. Store at room temperature or freeze.

Note: This dough also makes fantastic dinner rolls and burger buns. Just shape into whatever size you like and reduce baking time accordingly. Rolls and buns can be formed into individual balls and spaced far enough apart on a baking sheet so they aren't touching, or you can place them close together in any size pan and make 'pull-apart rolls.'



Let me know if you try this... especially if you love it like crazy like I do :-)
Damn, this blogging thing is a cinch!

...and then there was a blog

here we go. break out your index cards and your favorite martha stewart books. we are about to get WILD in the kitchen.