Sunday, October 26, 2008

Friday Night Pizza


Friday night is Pizza Night in our household. We normally order a pizza, however, I've recently been unimpressed with the consistency of the pizza from various pizza shops in our area. Good one week, not good the next, overcooked, undercooked, cold, veggies not cooked just thrown on the pizza. You get the idea, I'm sure you find the same thing where you live.


This past Friday, I decided to make my own pizza. Don't get me wrong, I have tried in the past. The taste was excellent, however, I have stayed away from making pizza at home for a couple of reasons.

Number One: I have a hard time making dough. You are probably saying "What", she's crazy, it's the easiest thing to make. I agree, the recipes for making dough are easy, but I somehow mess it up. Some people have told me it's possible that the water I use to combine the yeast might be too hot. Some say that I may be kneading the dough wrong. Whatever the reason, I screw it up somehow.

Number Two: I can't stretch the dough to make it fit on my pizza pan. I've tried all size pizza pans. Sometimes I get big holes in the dough after trying to stretch it to make it fit. Sometimes I get it to fit perfectly, only for it to shrink on the pizza pan after baking.

So, you can understand now why I order pizza rather than make it at home. The taste is always great, it's just a struggle to get it to look right. Well, this past Friday I am proud to say, it was fantastic. Not to mention, if I must stay myself, it didn't look half bad. My husband commented, "Tell me again why we are buying pizza when the quality of yours is so much better and cheaper". Of course, that made me feel good.

Before I started I call and consulted with a couple of family members, who by the way make the best pizza. It's so good they really should open up a pizza shop. Their homemade dough the best ever. I guess I was the family member who missed the dough making gene when they were handed out. Anyway, back to my story...

I used dough purchased at the bakery and with a rolling pin, rolled out each side very slowly. I didn't pull the dough, I just kept pushing the rolling pin toward the outside edges of the dough. No holes yet. Things were looking good so far. Then I put some olive oil on my fingertips and gently pushed the dough along the outer rim of the pizza pan so that it would hold. I baked the dough without toppings for about 5 minutes in a 400 degree F oven. When I took the baked dough out of the oven, I put on all the toppings. I put the pizza back in the oven for another 10-12 minutes or until I saw it bubbling and edges were brown.


I was so proud of myself. My persistence paid off. Now I need to learn to make my own dough, but that's another blog.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Recipe Binder


I pride myself on being organized. Seriously, ask my family or friends. They actually make fun of me, but I'm a good sport and play along. They have gone so far as to move things on me to see if I would notice. Of course, I would notice and put everything back in it's proper place.


Anyway, back to my story. I lacked organizational skills when it came to keeping my recipes. Recipes that I find in magazines, get from family or friends and recipes I print from the Internet. I am embarrassed to say, they get thrown in one of my many cookbooks. They aren't even categorized by groups like entrees, desserts, breads, appetizers, etc. They are just randomly thrown in whatever cookbook that isn't already filled with papers. It worked for me, but it was a mess and took me forever to find a recipe.


I did have this bright idea (I get them occasionally) of scanning all my recipes onto my computer. I made a file on my computer desktop called "Recipe Box" and put in categories so each recipe could be filed properly. So, one weekend I got started. Everything was going great. I was scanning and throwing away the paper copy. Following weekend, I continued. It was great. I had about 30-40 more recipes to scan and our scanner started giving me problems. If I have to start and stop, I had the time and patience. After three hours of fighting with the scanner, I called it quits. I will try again another day. Well, needless to say, I tried everyday for a good couple of weeks. Every time I thought something was scanning in, I got the awful beeping noise "ERROR, ERROR, ERROR". So much for finishing. I gave up, so what if I had a few papers in my cookbooks, it would be better than before. I had gotten almost all of my recipes scanned in my "Recipe Box" folder. Whenever I needed a recipe, I could just go to the computer, pull it up and start cooking. I was so happy, I was no longer "Recipe File Challenged".


I boasted about how wonderful it was. If someone wanted one of my recipes, I would say "no problem, I have all my recipes on my computer, it will take only seconds for me to Email it to you". Silly me. Why did I think I was so smart. I knew something would go wrong and it did. Evidently, my scanning skills needed some work. When scanning I didn't actually notice that I was missing some of the recipe. Now, I'm in panic mode....remember, I went paperless and threw out all the hard copies of my recipes. I'm still trying to get some of my missing recipes back, but in the meantime came up with another solution to keeping recipes. I went out and bought a couple of 3-ring binders, clear protector sheets and binder tabs to categorize recipes. It doesn't cost much and sometimes you can find some really pretty binders to match you kitchen colors. It was actually fun.



I laid everything out on the living room floor one Sunday, turned on the TV (Lifetime Channel had some great movies on that day) and put the binders together. It's a good chance to actually sort out duplicate recipes or throw out recipes that you don't want. So, if you are "Recipe File Challenged" like me, try this. Think of it this way. On a cold Sunday, you can stay in your PJ's, turn on the TV, throw all your stuff on the living room floor and put your Recipe Binders together. You can have a productive, yet relaxing Sunday. Oh, one more thing. You have to reward yourself by getting "Take Out" rather than cook. After all, you've been busy all day, you need someone to cook for you today. By the way, the Recipe Binders makes a great gift too, especially as a shower gift or as a gift for a new home. Start someone off with a pretty binder and inserts, add a couple of your favorite recipes and trust me, they will love it. Maybe they'll even invite you to dinner some night..

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Spicy Spanish Rice


Spanish Rice from scratch you say! I know, I know, it's so easy to open up that box of Spanish Rice rather have to chop up ingredients. I have to admit, the boxed spanish rice is good and I still use it occasionally, however, making it from scratch doesn't really take that much time and it's so much better. There are alot of recipes for spanish rice out there, but I have my own recipe that I made up awhile ago. I remembered it the other day when I was trying to figure out what to make as a side-dish. I was getting bored with potatoes and had all the ingredients in my pantry to make the spanish rice so I got cooking immediately. I have to tell you, I did have to rename my recipe from Spanish Rice to "Spicy" Spanish Rice. Let me explain...I normally buy Stewed Tomatoes marked "Italian Recipe". Evidently, I somehow bought Stewed Tomatoes marked "Mexican Recipe" by mistake. The Mexican Recipe Stewed Tomatoes have jalapenos, garlic and cumin in it. Of course, I didn't realize my mistake until I tasted the sauce and almost fell over. I never noticed that the can was marked Mexican Recipe and I had already added the red pepper flakes to the sauce so it wasn't like I could take anything out. What' a girl to do? Even though my husband doesn't really like spicy food, I really didn't want to throw it out only to start again. I decided not to tell him about my mistake and see if he noticed anything different. He did notice, but everything turned out well. Once the initial shock of flames coming out of your mouth subsides, it actually is quite good. Although my husband would prefer a potato with dinner, he did go back for a second helping of the rice so I figured that was a good thing. I updated my recipe now to use Mexican Recipe Stewed Tomatoes going forward. So, when you are bored with old standby side-dishes, try this recipe, I am sure you will agree, it's better than the boxed stuff. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

  • 3 Slices of Bacon, chopped
  • 1 Red or Green Pepper, chopped
  • 1 Medium Onion, chopped
  • 1 15 oz. Can Stewed Tomatoes, Mexican Recipe
  • 1 15 oz Can Tomato Sauce
  • 1 Teaspoon Dried Oregano
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
  • 2 Cups Uncooked Minute Rice
  • Shredded Taco or Mexican Cheese (optional)
  • Salt and Pepper

Cut bacon in to bite size pieces and cook on medium heat in large skillet until crisp. While the bacon is cooking, chop red pepper and onion. Once the bacon is cooked, remove from the pan onto a paper towel to drain and set aside.

Next, add red or green pepper and onion to pan. Then cook until tender. Add stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, oregano, garlic powder and red pepper flakes to skillet. Stir together. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Stirring occasionally, let sauce mixture come to boil on medium heat for 10 minutes. Stir in uncooked rice and bacon to sauce. Reduce heat to low letting rice and bacon simmer in sauce for 10 additional minutes. Continue to stir occasionally to prevent sticking.
Remove from heat, add shredded cheese, if desired, and set aside until ready to serve.