The Easiest Pizza you'll ever make…. and the BEST tasting!

We only turn the stove on during the weekends when energy prices are low.  I usually pick whichever day is least busy (Saturday or Sunday) and turn the stove on early in the afternoon and have it on until well after dinner.  I bake batches of whatever I think we might need throughout the week - muffins, breads, something special if company is coming, and ALWAYS pizza.  

If a weekend passes without pizza, the kids can't figure out what they did to deserve such deprivation!  

I have been using this recipe for years, and it has never failed.  It is quick, simple, and is truly better than any pizza you can order or pick up at a grocery store.  

Pizza Dough

1 1/4 cups lukewarm water (not too hot or you'll kill your yeast!)

1 tsp sugar

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (one package if you use individual packages)

Put warm water in large bowl, and dissolve sugar in it.  Sprinkle yeast on top and it will get kind of foamy looking.  If it doesn't get foamy, your yeast is dead - start over.

Once your yeast is proofed, add:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup milk (you can use water)

3-4 cups flour

This is where you will start adding flour.  Use no more than 4cups, starting with two.  I add two cups (I'm going to be honest here, I haven't measured flour with this recipe for years because I've been doing it so long) and mix in with a wooden spoon.  When the dough is difficult to stir with the spoon, take the spoon out and start kneading by hand.  I knead IN the bowl so I don't make a mess in the kitchen and have less dishes when it's done.  Add flour until the dough isn't totally sticking to your hands.  You may need to rub the flour in your hands before mixing it in to help remove the dough. This kneading process shouldn't take more than a few minutes.  You want the dough to be well mixed and retain a ball shape - once that happens, just leave it.  A tip I read at the beginning of my bread making adventures is "the wetter the better" - so don't go crazy with the flour trying to get a dough that isn't sticky at all.  

2 tbsp olive oil

Leave the dough in the bowl and drizzle olive oil around the sides.  Roll the dough in the oil until it's coated and cover with wet cloth or saran wrap.

If your kitchen is FREEZING like mine, you may need to proof your dough somewhere other than the counter.  Sometimes I turn the oven on for 5 minutes and turn it back off - putting the dough in and giving it a warm place to sit for half an hour.  When I'm already baking I proof my dough where the heat vents out from my oven.  This can take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour.  If you're busy - you can leave it proof on the counter for up to 2 hours, or put it in the fridge and take it out when you'd like to use it.  

When the dough is doubled in size, rip off a piece to make your pizza.  I make two large thin crust square pizzas that fill a cookie sheet with this recipe.  You can make your dough as thin or thick as you'd like.  I roll mine out with an oiled rolling pin directly onto the parchment paper I will bake it on.  Once rolled out, move it to cookie sheet and begin to assemble sauce, cheese and toppings.

Bake at 450 for 15 minutes.  Let rest for 5 minutes before cutting and ENJOY!

Want to make your own sauce?  It's easy, delicious and you know what's in it!

I still have canned tomatoes from the summer of 2011, but if you don't have any you can use fresh or canned whole tomatoes.

It's as simple as pulsing tomatoes in a food processor until it's as liquid-y as it's going to get.  Add fresh herbs and spices, or dried (I only had dry for this batch) and stick to the classic Italian herbs - basil, oregano, parsley.  I put the sauce right back in the jar I got the tomatoes from and will have enough  left over for pasta during the week.  

Other Pizza Making Tips

- Buy cheese when it's dirt cheap and freeze it!  I always have a few bricks of mozzarella in the freezer, and take it out on the morning of pizza making day.

- Let your kids join in the fun and make their own personal pizzas!  They can get creative, and they always love eating something they've made on their own.  I love hearing my kids brag about what a good job they did and how they can't believe how good it is!

- Have fun with toppings!  I'm going to be honest - I go through phases of what I want on my pizza pie.  I'm in a major garlic and hot pepper phase, that's all I want.  I sliced HUGE chunks of garlic and lined my whole pizza with it, topping that off with mounds of hot pepper.  I also enjoy doing a veggie mix of broccoli, peppers, fresh tomato slices, asparagus, and anything else I can find in my fridge.  

Happy Baking!

Cheesecake Brownie Bars

I've tried several of these recipes - where you mix brownie and cheesecake together and bake them magically into a bar that is both chocolatey and creamy.  They've never turned out.

I'm not a professional baker, but I bake a lot so when a recipe doesn't work, I automatically assume it wasn't my fault (insert laughter here).  

Whether or not it was my fault, I've FINALLY come up an excellent recipe that even I, the lowly home baker, can manage to pull off. 

Preheat oven to 350

Brownie Batter

3/4 cup butter

1/4 cup semi-sweet or bitter chocolate chips

Melt butter and chocolate in saucepan on low heat.  If you don't trust yourself not to burn the chocolate, use a double boiler.  

Add:

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs (be sure the mixture is cool enough not to make scrambled eggs)

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup 0% greek yogurt, or sour cream

Mix well

Add:

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup dutch process cocoa

1/2 tsp baking powder

I like making as few dishes as possible.  When adding dry ingredients to wet, I simply add the flour first and then add the baking soda, baking powder or salt on top - and mix it a little before incorporating it fully into the batter.  It always works for me, so take that Martha Stewart.  Full disclosure, I love Martha Stewart. 

Cream Cheese Batter

8 oz cream cheese (one brick), softened

4 tbsp sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

Be sure your cream cheese is really soft before beginning.  If you forgot to take it out in enough time, just cut into cubes and pop in the preheated oven for five minutes or so.  Be sure to use an oven safe bowl.  Once it's out, use an oven mitt to hold the bowl and mash with a fork until creamy and smooth.  

Once cream cheese is soft and creamy - add sugar, egg and vanilla.

Line a 9X9 or 7X11 baking dish with parchment paper, or grease well with butter.  Add blobs of brownie mixture and do not spread.  Fill the remaining spaces with your cream cheese mixture.  If your brownie blobs run into each other - don't sweat it, it will still be delicious - just less swirly looking.  Use a butter knife to cut the brownie and cheesecake batters together, creating a swirl effect.  You want your bars to have even amounts of cream cheese and brownie so keep that in mind while swirling. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes, let cool for at least an hour and ENJOY!  The leftovers should be refrigerated…. if you have leftovers.  

The next time I make this, I will prepare ahead of time and purchase a tray of raspberries to make a raspberry compote to accompany.  Raspberry compote is delicious on ice cream, lemon sorbet, lemon cheesecake, well… any cheesecake, and lots of other things.  It's an easy way to add pizazz to a recipe without a lot of work.  If you have raspberries, give it a try:

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil.  Add 1 cup of sugar, and a pint of raspberries.  Boil for 20-25 minutes on medium high heat until it reaches desired consistency.  

Happy Baking!

ButterNut Squash Soup (Vegan)

ButterNut Squash Soup

That's not a typo - this is butternut squash and nut soup.  So delicious and almost impossible to mess up.   Local squash is plentiful and readily available so get creative and add some squash to your life!

I had my soup on it's own, and a tiny bowl really did the trick.  My hubby mixed his with an organic sprouted rice & quinoa mix from TruRoots.  This is so thick, it would be amazing on pasta as well.  

ButterNut Squash Soup

1 medium butternut squash

Coconut Oil

Vegetable stock (roughly 4 cups)

1 onion (you could use 4-5 shallots)

Garlic (I used 3 big cloves)

Almond (or any nut) butter

Seasonings to taste

The chickens loved the seeds I scooped out of the squash!  

Peel and cube butternut squash, and brown in 2tbsp coconut oil.  You will need the pan to be quite hot. Once there is a beautiful caramel colour on a few sides of each cube add 1-2 cups vegetable stock, lower the heat to low/medium and put a lid on pan to steam squash.  While squash is cooking sweat your onions in a tsp coconut oil.  When the squash is cooked (soft) remove it from the heat, and place cooked onions on it.  Use the onion pan to caramelize your garlic adding a tsp more coconut oil if needed.  Just squish each clove a little before putting in hot pan to brown each side.  Put a lid on and turn heat off after brown to soften the garlic up a bit.  Once the garlic is done put it on the squash and onions and leave pan to cool completely.  

Once everything is cool, put everything in a blender with enough vegetable stock to get it moving.  I put the blender on and did the dishes to let it really blend like crazy.  If you blend the squash hot, you will blow the lid off your blender and have squash on your ceiling.  Just wait until it's cooled.  

When I was transferring the mixture to a soup pot I thought to myself... oh crap, I just made baby food. Have no fear, you will have delicious soup - not baby food.  That being said, if you hate cooking - just start with a dozen jars of baby food and mix in some onions and garlic.  

Turn the pot of squash mixture to low and when it's warmed up add 1/2 cup of nut butter.  I used almond, but I'm sure any nut butter would do.  This is when you can decide how thick you'd like the soup to be.  I like soup that the spoon can stand up in, so I only added a cup of veggie stock.  When it's at your desired consistency - have a taste.  You might like it as is.   

I added, a pinch of salt and pepper.  Tasted it.  Added 2tbsp nutritional yeast.  Tasted it.  Added a teaspoon of cumin.  Tasted it.  Added 2 tsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice.  Tasted it.  Perfecto!  You could add all sorts of fresh herbs and spices depending on what you have on hand and what you plan to serve it with.  If you're going to use it to top pasta, consider pan browning fresh rosemary and mixing it in.  

I knew I wanted soup and my hubby wanted squash so I spent a few minutes putting this together and now we both have a lovely, healthy soup in the fridge for the next few lunches and dinners.  I didn't have a recipe, I just went with what I had on hand and ended up with something delightful!  Get creative with cooking, trust your tastebuds and make something fresh and tasty for dinner tonight.  

Rosie's Haystack Brownies

Originally posted to the Lent Experiment 12/19/10

Sometimes I go out and eat something yummy - want to replicate it at home and can't find a recipe!  I came up with this recipe all by my lonesome and I have to say, it's everything a sugar addict could hope for.

Begin with the brownie base:

• 1 cup melted butter
• 2 cups organic white sugar
• 1 tsp pure organic vanilla
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup organic cocoa
• 2 cups organic all purpose flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugar. This works well with a mixer, but you can do it by hand.
3. After the creaming stage, do switch to a spoon for mixing. Brownies tend to get tough if worked too much.
4. Add the vanilla and eggs and mix just until smooth.
5. Pour in cocoa and flour. Again, mix until smooth and lumps are broken up. But, don't go to wild on the mixing.
6. Bake for 20 minutes in 11 X 7 pan lined with parchment paper. You are taking these out of the oven 10 minutes premature and they will not be fully baked.

Prepare the macaroons while the brownies are baking....

• 4 ounces (115 grams) semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (chocolate chips work)
• 3 large (90 grams) egg whites
• 1/4 cup (25 grams) organic cocoa powder (regular or Dutch-processed)
• 3/4 cup (150 grams) organic white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pure organic vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups (220 grams) sweetened flaked coconut

1. Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract. Stir in the coconut and melted chocolate, making sure the coconut is well coated.
3. Carefully spread macaroon mixture over the brownies being careful not to lift the brownie and mix it with the macaroon. Place in the 350 oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool COMPLETELY before cutting. It will be hard to resist, but if you try to cut them too soon the macaroons will be sloppy. Let it set!
4. That's it. These are absolutely decadent and delightful! Enjoy!

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