Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Homemade Pizza

This is definitely a favorite at our house. It makes an appearance at least once every week or two. Plus, it's super fast. Faster then going to Lil' Caesar's even. :)

Recipe:
First, put yeast, honey, and warm water into bowl. If using regular yeast, let sit for a couple of minutes (or until it bubbles). Mix garlic salt and oil in. I also like to mix in some oregano, basil, marjoram, and parsley. No exact measurements, probably 1/2 t. of each if I had to guess. Next mix in the flour I used whole wheat today, and it wasn't half bad. White is definitely tastier though. in 1/2 c. increments until you it is no longer sticky. Knead for a couple of minutes.

Roll out crust. (This crust recipe makes enough for 1 large pizza.) As you can see in the below pictures, I made mini pizzas. I only made a half recipe for those 2 minis.

Now top with tomato sauce, cheese, pepperoni, etc.
Pop into the oven at 500 degrees (you want it pipping hot (not pre-heating) when the pizzas go in. I usually use a pizza stone I got at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and it is awesome! You want to stick that stone into the oven as it's preheating so it's super hot when you put the crust on it. Cook for 8 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Enjoy!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

German Pancakes

We LOVE these at our house!

Ingredients:
4-6 tablespoons of butter
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
Syrup
Powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:
1. Heat your oven to 450*. As it is warming up, put your butter in a 9x13 inch pan and put in the oven to melt the butter and heat up the pan.
2. While the butter is melting, mix the rest of the ingredients and beat with a wisk until mixture is very smooth and liquidy. Some people like to blend it in the blender, but I just use a wisk.
3. Pour the egg mixture over the melted butter.
4. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
5. Pour syrup and powdered sugar on the top and enjoy!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Homemade Whole Wheat Bread

Homemade bread is something I've always wanted to make, but intimidated me. After working up the courage I decided to give it a go. After trying a few recipes out, but not loving any of them I got the Lion House Baking Cookbook. The recipe from there is by far by fav.

Ingredients:
1 T. active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup oatmeal
2 T. molasses
3 T. dry milk
3 T. shortening (or softened butter)
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flower
3/4 T. salt
1 cup white flour

Heidi's take on the ingredients:
  • The recipe orginally called for 1 t. yeast. The loaves I made were kinda small, so I changed it to 1 T. This helped a lot (and was much more consistent with all other recipes of homemade bread I could find.)
  • I've never used molasses, just honey.
  • I've never used shortening, just butter. (I've never actually tried it with margarine... Don't think it would make that big of a difference though. Basically you're just adding some fat to the dough.)
  • DO NOT skip on the dry milk. It makes a big difference!
First, pour your yeast and warm water into a bowl. Also add the honey. This adds some sugar which helps activate the yeast and gives it something to "eat." If you are using regular instant yeast, you'll want to let it sit for a few minutes. This is what the "yeast mixture" will look like after first being stirred together.
After 5-10 minutes, a foamy, bubbly mixture should start to float to the top of the yeast mixture. This means it's "alive" and ready to go. This is a picture of what it should look like.

Mix the oatmeal, dry milk, and salt into the yeast/water mixture. Next add all the white flour, and half the whole wheat flour. Mix together into a doughy ball. At this point, your spoon is probably useless. I end up just using my hands from here on out. Now, listen up. It is not necessary to use the entire amount of flour. The less flour you use the more fluffy and airy (and better tasting) your bread will be. Add the rest of the flour in about 1/4-1/2 c. amounts at a time. Basically you want to add only enough flour until you feel you can handle it.

Knead the ball for 2-5 minutes. This will let all the air bubbles are all out and start to activate the gluten in the wheat. Put dough back into a greased bowl, spray with cooking spray, cover, and let sit to raise (about double in size). Hint: if you want to raise the bread quicker, fill the bottom of your sink with warm water. Put bowl in water. It will cut the amount of time needed to raise in half (25-30 minutes).

After it has doubled in size, take dough out of the bowl and knead again for a minute or two, getting out all the bubbles and air inside. Form into a small loaf shaped size and place into a greased bread pan. Grease, cover and let raise until double in size. Hint: it's extremely important for you to grease the top of the bread at this point. If you don't, when you go to take the covering off the top of the bread, it will stick and you will have to start over and let it re-raise. Learned this the hard way.

Hint #2-You can raise the bread faster in the bread pan by turning your oven on to "warm." It should take about 25-30 minutes to raise.
Remove cover and bake bread at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Bread should have a light brown crust and should sound "hollow" when tapped on.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Quick Banana Bread

For some reason, we always have a hard time eating all of the bananas in our bunch. There are usually a few that end up sitting on the counter, turn black, and then meet their fate with the garbage can. Not anymore... I have found the perfect solution for those nasty, overripe bananas!


Ingredients:
1/2 cup melted butter
3 overly ripe bananas
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chopped nuts, optional

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 1 (8 1/2" by 4 1/2") loaf pan of 10 mini (3 1/2" by 2 1/2") pans.

2. Melt butter and set aside to cool.

3. In mixing bowl, mash bananas well. Beat in the sugar and the eggs.

4. Combine flour, salt, and soda in a separate bowl. Add gradually to the sugar mixture.

5. Pour in melted butter and mix well. Stir in nuts, if desired.

6. Pour into prepared loaf pans. Bake 55 to 60 minutes for large loaf or 30 minutes for miniature loaves, or until well-browned and center is set.

Ashley's insights:
  • Mashing bananas to a pulp is a freaking good stress reliever! I may need to make this more often... :o)
  • I used a 9" by 6" bake pan and just sprayed PAM in it instead of shortening/flour.
  • Also, this pan was too small for all of the batter (even though it is bigger than the loaf pan the recipe said to use). I was also able to bake 6 muffins along side the loaf of bread.
  • I used crushed almonds, instead of walnuts, for the nuts because that is what I had in the pantry... turned out just as good!
  • My loaf was plenty done after about 45 minutes, so watch it while its baking.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Meatball Sammies

These are delicious, easy, and fill your house with a wondrous smell.

Ingredients:
Meatballs (I used frozen)
1 can Tomato Sauce
1 can Canned Tomatoes
1/2 can Tomato Paste
Brown Sugar
Marjoram
Parsley
Basil
Oregano
Hogie Buns
Mozzarella Cheese

First pour tomatoes (you could also use a jar of spaghetti sauce), spices, and brown sugar into crockpot. Mix together.

Next mix in the meatballs. Cover with lid and let cook. Set crockpot on low for 6-8 hours (or on high for 2-4 hours) or until meatballs are cooked through, and sauce is hot and bubbly.

Grab your hoagies and mozzarella cheese and enjoy!!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Spinach Lasagna

Ingredients:
2 eggs, beaten
1 container (16 oz) Cottage Cheese
1 package (10 oz) frozen spinach, thawed and well drained
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, divided
1 jar (26 oz) spaghetti sauce, divided
9 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained (*** I just buy the oven ready kind***)
1 lb hamburger

Directions:
1. Heat your oven to 350* F.
2. Brown your hamburger in a skillet. I will usually season it with italian seasoning or garlic powder. Set aside.
3. Mix eggs, cottage cheese, spinach, 2 cups of mozzarella cheese, and 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese in a medium bowl.
4. Layer 1 cup of spaghetti sauce, 3 lasagna noodles, and some of the spinach cheese mixture in a 13x9 inch baking dish. Top with a layer of meat. Repeat the layering process of noodles, sauce, spinach cheese mix, and meat. Top with the remaining sauce and then the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese.

5. Bake for 45 minutes or until heated all the way through. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Chicken Spaghetti Casserole

12 oz Spaghetti
Cream Of Chicken
Cream Of Mushroom
1 Cup Of Sour Cream
1/2 Cup Of Milk
1/2 Tsp. Garlic Powder
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1/4 Tsp. Pepper
2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
2-3 Celery Ribs, Chopped
1 Med. Onion
5 Cups Cooked Chicken
Crushed Corn Flakes

Soooo Easy..

Cook spaghetti noodles according to package.
While noodles are cooking, cook chicken.

Then while both are cooking, I throw together everything else into a big bowl.
Mix together.

Then drain pasta.
Add pasta and chicken to your bowl mixture.
Stir together until combined.

Place in baking dish.
And top with crushed corn flakes.

Bake @ 350 degrees.
45-50 minutes.


Delicious!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Sunday Chicken

This recipe is yummy and super EASY!

Ingredients:
4-6 chicken breasts
Pam butter spray
2 cans of cream of chicken soup
1 envelope of dry onion soup/dip mix
8 ounces of sour cream
Rice

Directions:
Place your chicken in a greased crock pot. Mix the soup and onion mix together and pour over the chicken. Cook for 4-6 hours on low heat. One hour before you plan on eating, stir in the sour cream. Serve over cooked rice.

See... I told you it was easy! :o)

Friday, June 4, 2010

Homemade Mac & Cheese

I don't know about you, but I've never been a very big fan of boxed pasta. It always seems WAY to salty to me and just isn't to my taste. So, instead I came up with this, which takes almost the same amount of time to make, and in my opinion, tastes extremely better.

*This recipe makes enough to serve 2-3 adults or 5-6 children.

Ingredients:
2 T. Butter
2 T. Flour
1 3/4 C. Milk
1/2-1 lb. cheese (or velveeta)
1/2-1 lb. noodles
Salt/Pepper to Taste

First make sure you put water on to boil for the noodles. Turn another pot on to medium heat and melt the butter.
While waiting for the butter to melt, grate the cheese (or cut the velveeta into small chunks.) Tip on the cheese: velveeta will produce a more velvety, smooth texture then the grated cheese.

Once butter has melted whisk in the flour until blended.

Pour milk into the flour mixture, turn up to medium-high heat, and whisk (important to keep it constantly moving or it could scorch) until it thickens and begins to boil. Be careful to watch it once it boils. It will boil over in a matter of seconds if you're not careful. (Learned this the hard way, multiple times.

Reduce heat to low and stir in cheese. Stir until melted. Turn heat off.

Once noodles are done stir them into cheesy goodness.

Enjoy!