Pizza Party!

I LOVE to share food with others, and even better if we can cook together! Anita and I made 2 types of pizza tonight, and had a lot of fun doing it.

While Anita rolled out the dough, the boys 'helped' out in the background.


Pizza # 1:
Quatro Stagione (For Seasons) Pizza

Ingredients
Artichokes
Olives
Mushrooms
Prosciutto
Mozzarella
Pizza sauce
Directions
Layer the pizza with sauce, cheese, artichokes, olives and mushrooms, and bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 450 F. Once the pizza is removed from the oven, top with proscuitto.

Pizza # 2:
Caramelized Onion and Bacon Pizza

Ingredients
6 strips of bacon crumbled
3 onions sliced into rings
1/2 tsp butter
1/4 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp thyme
pinch of saffron (we were feeling decadent)
salt and pepper to taste
mozzarella cheese
pizza sauce

Directions
1. In a hot skillet, fry bacon until crispy. Drain on paper towels.
2. Drain bacon fat, but leave browned bits in pan. Melt butter.
3. Add onions, thyme and rosemary and cook until they turn brown and become caramelized (the key is not to stir them too much)
4. Remove from heat and let cool for a bit.
5. Top pizza dough with sauce cheese, onions and bacon (we also added artichokes) and bake for 20 minutes at 450 F

*If you are baking 2 pizzas at once in the oven, rotate between upper and lower rack halfway though.

Et voila!

Pizza Dough

Anita and Ivan are coming for dinner and we're going to make homemade pizzas together.
Anita's picking up ingredients, so I thought I'd make the dough ahead of time so all we have to do is roll it out and prepare and assemble our toppings.
Kneading dough is quite the workout. I think I will take up bread-making while on maternity leave to help me lose the baby weight!

Here's a simple recipe for pizza dough found in my Good Housekeeping cookbook.


Ingredients
1 1/4 cups warm water
1 package active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
4 cups all-purpose flour

Directions
1. Combine 1/4 cup warm water, yeast and sugar in large bowl. Stir to dissolve and let stand until foamy (5 mins).
Stir in remaining cup warm water, oil, salt, and 1/2 cups flour until smooth.
Gradually add 2 cups all purpose flour and stir until dough comes away from the side of the bowl.
2. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (10 mins). Work in enough of the remaining 1/2 cup flour to keep dough from sticking. Shape dough into ball and place in greased large bowl, turning dough to grease top.
3. Cover dough with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until doubled in volume (1 hour).

Cornbread

I love the US deep south. After my trip to Savannah, I fell in love with y'all. I love grits, biscuits and gravy, pecan pie and sweet peach tea.

I made a simple chili (still needs work, not worth flogging) and some cornbread on the side.

It was a wonderful combination!

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• **1/3 cup olive oil

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). **Spray or lightly grease a foil loaf pan
• In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and olive oil until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
• Bake in preheated oven for ** 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

**The recipe calls for vegetable oil and a 9-inch round cake pan. I had neither. I also baked it for longer. The original recipe said bake 20 to 25 minutes, but mine wasn't quite ready yet.

"Golden Sweet Cornbread"<http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Golden-Sweet-Cornbread/Detail.aspx>February 2009.

Bread Pretzels

Whenever I think of bread pretzels, I think of Amanda. We used to commute to work together and on the way home, there was a Pretzel Maker right outside our train stop. We'd often stop in and share some pretzel bites and warm jalapeno cheese dip for our trip home. This recipe is close to my heart and since I was feeling ambitious and a little nostalgic last night, I decided to make some for my home church.


This recipe makes 6 large bread pretzels, but this time I cut 4 of the ropes into thirds and made 2 large pretzels and 12 small ones.

Ingredients
1/2 package yeast
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cups warm water
2 cups flour
1 cup warm water
1 tbsp baking soda
1 tbsp melted butter

Directions
1. Dissolve yeast in warm water (slightly higher than room temperature from the tap is good), brown sugar and salt until the yeast starts to activate. (5 minutes or so) Stir in the flour and knead for 8 mins until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl and cover to rise for 1 hour.

2. Combine 1 cup water in a bowl with baking soda.

3. When dough has risen, cut into 6 pieces. Roll each piece into pencil-thin 3 ft ropes. (Sometimes the ropes seem to shrink back. To combat this, start rolling the first 3 ropes and let them 'relax' while you roll the next 3 ropes. Re-roll the first 3 ropes and you'll find that they'll stretch out much easier.) Dip the ropes into the water with baking soda and twist into a pretzel shape. Place on a parchment covered cookie sheet and let stand for 15-20 minutes to rise some more.

4. Bake at 450 F for 8-10 minutes. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with kosher salt or cinnamon sugar or any other toppings you prefer.