Homemade Pizza Crust

Mr. Monkey thinks I'm crazy that I love cold pizza.  He wants his pizza leftovers warmed up and doesn't get the hype.  Maybe it's a throwback to when I was a teenager or even when I was in college, but I think a good pizza should taste great hot and cold.  Some pizza tastes fine hot, but as soon as it gets cold it's nasty.  Cold pizza makes a great breakfast, and if Mr. Monkey doesn't finish off his portion of the leftovers, then I'm going to have them for breakfast tomorrow! Hah!

You may wonder with all of this pizza talk why I'm including the recipe for the crust, but not the pizza itself.  Mainly it's because I was just giving this a trial run and didn't really pay any mind to quantities.  I also plan on making this again, so when I do I'll pay attention and post the recipe for the pizza as a whole.  I've got some ideas including redoing the roasted chicken pizza that you see above, a BBQ pork pizza, and maybe a cajun seafood pizza.  If you want a full recipe right away, then click here.

Homemade Pizza Crust

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast 
• 3 1/2 cups flour (bread flour or all purpose flour)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp dried rosemary (optional)

Directions:

1. Mix yeast and warm water in a large bowl.  Let sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is dissolved.  Stir the remaining yeast if not fully dissolved after 5 minutes.
2. Stir together the flour, olive oil, salt, and sugar until the dough is smooth and elastic.  If the dough seems too wet, then add flour.  If you're going to use the rosemary for extra flavor, then make sure to add it with the other ingredients.
3. Coat a bowl lightly with olive oil and place the ball of dough in the bowl.  Roll it around to get covered in the oil, and then cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
4. Let the bowl sit in a warm place for at least 2 hours.  Allowing it to sit longer will improve the taste.
5. While the dough is rising, lightly dust a large cookie sheet (round or rectangular) with flour or corn meal.  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  It should be allowed to heat up for at least 30 minutes to an hour before you bake the pizza.
6. Remove the plastic wrap from the bowl, and punch the dough down to deflate it.  Remove it from the bowl and divide in half. 
7. Take one ball of dough and flatten it with your hands on a lightly floured workspace.  Starting from the center, press the dough to 1/2 inch thickness.  Turn and stretch the dough until will not stretch any further.  Let the dough rest about 5 minutes.
8. Repeat step 7 until the dough is the desired size.  If you are worried about the dough tearing, then you can press it out once, and then place it in the pan to further press and stretch it.
9. Move the dough from the workspace to the pan.  Brush the top with a little bit of olive oil before you add your sauce and toppings.
10. After adding your toppings, bake for 15 minutes or until the cheese (if you added it) is golden and the crust is browned.

Makes 2 12 inch pizzas.

Acorn Squash for Breakfast!

That wee little sock monkey is encouraging you to try something new!  What is that?  Acorn Squash for breakfast, that's what!  Acorn squash has a slightly sweet taste on it's own, and the texture can be pretty smooth (especially if you puree it).  It takes a little bit to bake it, but when it's done you can either eat it all on its own, or mix with something else.  You could even make muffins and bread as you would with pumpkin!

Steel-cut Oatmeal with Acorn Squash mixed in!

Basic Acorn Squash

Ingredients:

• 1 large acorn squash - should feel heavy and firm to the touch 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.
3. Place acorn squash in center of the pan, and place pan in the oven.
4. Bake for 45 minutes, turning the squash at least twice during baking time to ensure even cooking.
5. Squash will be done when you can easily slide a paring knife into the side.
6. Remove squash from oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before attempting to handle it.
7. When squash is cool enough to handle (but not cold), slice in half.  Scoop out the seeds and stringy pulp.
8. Remove the meat from the skin.  There will be harder woody parts inside where the ridges of the squash were, so be sure to remove those too.
9. Either puree the squash or mash with a large spoon. 

From here you can add honey, brown sugar, butter, or cinnamon if you so desire and eat it on its own.  You can also mix it with oatmeal, or use it in place of pumpkin in a pumpkin recipe.

Serves 2 to 4 depending on serving size.

"Squashed" Egg Scramble

Remember how I mentioned saving the pulpy part of the squash we scooped out when making the Stuffed One & Eight Ball Squash?  Well this is where we get to use it!  This can be a lunch or dinner meal, but I recommend it for breakfast.  I sometimes find that I want more of a savory breakfast than the traditional sweet breakfast.  This was hot and filling, and it used up the extra squash and spinach I had from making last night's dinner.  I use crushed red pepper and cajun seasoning for a good spicy heat, but you can substitute those for flavorful herbs if you prefer.

"Squashed" Egg Scramble

Ingredients:

• The left over squash pulp from 2 one or eight ball squashes
• About a cup of fresh baby spinach
• 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter (1 tbsp may be sufficient) 
• 1 tbsp crushed red pepper
• 2 tsp cajun seasoning
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese 

Directions:

1. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium-low to medium heat. 
2. Add squash to melted butter and saute until tender. Use a spatula to break apart the larger chunks if you didn't chop them before this point.
3. Add the spinach and stir until wilted.
4. Season with salt and pepper to your taste.
5. Whisk eggs, cream, cheese, red pepper, and cajun seasoning together until well beaten.
6. Push the squash and spinach mixture more towards the center of the pan, and pour in the egg mixture.
7. Lift, push, and scramble the mixture in the pan to get it all cooked. 
8. This will be ready when eggs are cooked to your liking and everything is hot.

Serves 1 to 2 depending on how hungry you are and if you want to share!

Cure for a Bad Day: Chocolate Waffles

This recipe was originally posted at Paris Pastry and is a wonderful way to fight off a bad day.  Honestly there's nothing for me to really change up here, the recipe is awesome all on its own.  If you are skeptical about this because you don't like super sweet breakfast fare, then you'll be pleasantly surprised that these waffles aren't super sugary.  Whipping the egg whites makes them light and fluffy, and even though I didn't have anything with them I still was full after eating a couple.

Chocolate Waffles

Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 ¼ cups whole milk
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder. In another bowl combine the melted butter, whole milk and egg yolks, whisk to combine. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and mix until smooth.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip egg whites until stiff peaks form (or if you're like me, whip them by hand). Add the brown sugar and continue whopping until stiff. Lightly fold the whipped egg whites into the batter.  The batter will be bubbly and thick looking.
3. Heat waffle iron and spray with nonstick cooking spray. For each waffle, pour the amount recommended by the manufacturer and bake as directed. (around 4 tablespoons per waffle, baked for 3 minutes). 

Yielded 8 1/2 waffle squares on my waffle iron

Chocolate Cinnamon Muffins

 My boyfriend and I are doing what we can to save money due to job situations.  Saturdays used to involve us going out for breakfast before we got groceries, but we've since decided to have breakfast in house.  I still wanted Saturday breakfast to be somewhat special, so I decided to bake something simple using whatever I had.  I found this recipe for a chocolate chocolate chip muffin, but I didn't have nearly enough chocolate chips.  Undaunted, I used cinnamon instead which resulted in a warm, spicy chocolate muffin that went over well for breakfast.

As a side note, I did this both with and without cupcake wrappers.  The muffins without seemed be a bit more moist, but this may just be my imagination.  Either way, if you do not have any wrappers you'll be perfectly fine.

Chocolate Cinnamon Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips (optional)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup + 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Line 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake wrappers, or lightly spray the cups with cooking spray.
3. Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, sugar, and cinnamon into a large bowl. 
4. Whisk the dry goods together until well incorporated, and then add the chocolate chips. 
5. Whisk the milk, oil, egg, and vanilla extract together in a separate bowl or large measuring cup.
6. Pour the liquid into the bowl with the dry goods and stir until mixed.  Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure the dry ingredients get fully combined with the liquid.  The batter may be lumpy which is OK.
7. Spoon the batter into the cups filling each around 2/3rds of the way full.  If you have any leftover batter, then use it to top off the cups until they are all even.
8. Bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins are dark, full, and springy.  You can also put a toothpick in the center of each to test to see if they are done.  If the toothpick comes out clean, then they are cooked all the way.
9. Allow to cool for 2 to 3 minutes prior to serving.

Yields 12 muffins.  I'll leave it up to you to determine how many is a serving. ;)

Chicken And Sage Sausage - The Great Seasonings Quest

I like the idea of making my own sausage.  For one, I can control what's in it.  Also, I can use whatever meat I want.  We like using ground chicken since it's leaner than pork; however, most chicken sausage is pretty costly and hard to find.  Turkey sausage is more common, but it can still be fairly expensive when you look at the per unit ounce price of the pre-made sausage vs a pound of ground meat.  Also it tends to not be seasoned to my liking.  Picky?  Perhaps, but I don't like the idea that I either have to get something I don't like the flavor of or pay extra for something that's hardly exotic.

My digging through the Kitchen Simplicity blog lead me to this recipe for Chicken and Sage Sausage Patties.  I tried it exactly per the recipe, but found it didn't have enough flavor to suit me or my boyfriend.  I grew up eating hot and spicy pork sausage; and while I realized I would never capture that pork flavor in chicken, I did want to at least get some of the flavorful seasonings I enjoyed.  So here's what I have so far.  It needs work as I'm not 100% satisfied with the seasonings, but it's getting there.  I may try with turkey to see if that helps.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground chicken
• 2 tbsp green onion, finely chopped
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• 2 tsp dried sage
• 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
• 1/2 tbsp smoke flavor
• 1 tsp cajun seasoning (I use this in place of the salt as most of it has salt in it)
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp crushed red pepper

I may end up either doubling the cajun seasoning or adding a touch of sea salt and cayenne pepper.  I could also add more sage, or perhaps add thyme.  If you try this, and change up the seasonings, then let me know how it was!

Directions:

1. Mix all of the seasonings, onion, garlic, and mustard with the ground chicken in a large bowl.  You may be able to do it with a fork, but you might find it easier to mix it with your hands like you would a meatloaf.  Mix until the seasonings are well blended into the ground meat.  You want to make sure you don't have large clumps of seasoning as it will make the sausage taste different from patty to patty.
2. Once mixed use a tablespoon to scoop out the meat into balls and flatten into patties.  You can place these on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper until you are ready to cook them.  If you do refrigerate the sausage, then leave it out for about 30 minutes to make sure it cooks evenly.  You can also freeze them up to six weeks if you make sure to have parchment paper between the patties so they do not stick.  Allow to thaw overnight in the fridge, and sit out for 30 minutes prior to cooking.
3. When you are ready to cook the sausage keep the heat around medium to medium high.  If you are not using a no-stick pan, then you will want a bit of oil to keep the patties from sticking too bad.
4. Cook around 3 minutes per side or more depending on the thickness of the patty.

This can make around 10 sausage patties depending on the size of the patty. That's 5 servings total at 2 patties per serving.

Let's Eat Quiche!

Up until recently I was a bit intimidated by the thought of cooking a quiche.  I loved eating quiche, but I always thought it was a very involved recipe that called for dozens of eggs and such.  I had pie shells in the freezer that I wanted to use, so I decided to be brave and look up a recipe for quiche.  I then felt silly.  Quiche take a little bit of time, but it's supremely easy. 

Basic Quiche - The Essentials
Ingredients:

• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup cream or milk
• 1 9 inch deep dish pie shell
• 1/2 cup cheese of your choice
• Your favorite seasonings

So that's the essentials for the quiche.  The cheese itself may even be considered optional if that's not your thing.  The following are suggestions for ingredients you can add to give your quiche more flavor and to make it more hearty.  Of course this isn't the end all of what you can add!  I didn't mention hamburger under the meat section, but you can easily make a cheeseburger quiche if you wanted.  You could avoid meat, and just bulk up on veggies.  The great thing about quiche is that you can make it to be breakfast or lunch/dinner.

Advanced Quiche  aka "More than just eggs & cheese"
Optional Ingredients:

•    Meat!
• 4 to 6 slices of lean, cooked bacon crumbled
• 2 slices of lean ham
• 1 to 2 links of bratwurst style sausage
• 1/2 pound smoked sausage
• 1 chicken breast, cooked and diced
• Veggies!
• 1 mushroom of your choosing, sliced or diced
• 2 to 3 green onions, sliced
• 1 small bell pepper, diced
• 1 small hot pepper of any sort, diced, seeds included
• Sun dried tomatoes
• 1/2 cup zucchini

 I have my ingredients... let's cook this!
Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Place your pie shell on a cookie sheet to make it easier to handle, and also to help with cleanup in case it bubbles up.
2. Whisk the eggs, cream, cheese, and seasonings together in a bowl and put to the side.
3. Add the meat and/or veggies you chose to the pie shell.
4. Pour the egg mixture into the pie shell ensuring to cover everything.
5. Sprinkle a bit of cheese over the top if desired.
6. Cook for 15 minutes at 400 degrees, and then reduce the heat to 350 degrees F. Cook for 35 minutes until the top is nicely browned.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
8. The quiche refrigerates nicely (be sure to cover it), and can be reheated in the microwave for about 2 minutes.

Serves 4

Chocolatey Chocolate Chip Scones!

I love to cook, but sometimes I cook to soothe anxiety or perk me up from a bit of depression.  Cooking takes my mind off of whatever stimulus has it in a funk.  It refocuses and re-centers me.  Having a recipe I find turn out awesome brings me a lot of joy, especially when it's one that is practical.

Yesterday I was in a gloomy spot, and I realized I needed to do something quickly to fix the problem or else my whole day would be consumed by it.  I decided that I should bake something, and I should use the cocoa powder.  I didn't want to make a cake so soon after finally getting done with the last one, and suddenly I thought of scones!  After digging around a bit, I found this recipe from the Paris Pastry blog.  It seemed simple enough, and I had everything the recipe required in stock.  The scones were super yummy, and they were fun to make since the last little bit involved some hands on (or hands IN) TLC.

Chocolatey Chocolate Chip Scones

Ingredients:

• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• ½ cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ sticks tablespoons butter, cold, cut into small cubes
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 large whole egg
• ½ cup + 1 tbsp heavy cream (Might want to keep the container handy, I had to use approximately 1/4 a cup extra because this wasn't enough)
• Also have 1 large egg yolk (or 1 tbsp egg substitute) and 1 tbsp heavy cream to brush over the scones prior to baking.
• Granulated sugar to sprinkle over the brushed scones prior to baking

Directions:

1. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Whisk the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl until well combined. 
3. Add the butter and either use a blender with a pastry attachment, or hand cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a stiff spatula.  The mixture will coarse and crumbly with a few larger butter clumps. 
4. Fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Whisk the whole egg and heavy cream together in a separate container. Stir into the flour mixture until the dough just comes together. Make sure to get all the dry crumbs under the forming dough, and add more cream as necessary.  If you need to add more cream, then add it a little bit at a time so the dough doesn't get runny.
6. Lightly flour a surface (a clean counter top will do), and pull the dough out onto the surface.  Gently knead it into a rectangle (3x18 inches, 1 inch thick works), and either use a knife or a pastry cutter to cut the dough into triangles.
7. Place the triangles onto the lined cookie sheet, and place the scones into the refrigerator for around 30 to 45 minutes.  You may want to cover the sheet with plastic wrap if you're worried about odor.
8. When it is nearly time to take the scones out of the fridge, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
9. Whisk the egg yolk and heavy cream together and brush over the top of the scones.
10. Sprinkle the sugar on the scones after brushing them with the egg and cream mixture.
11. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through to make sure the sugar turns a nice golden color all over.  A toothpick or cake tester inserted into the scones should come out clean (unless you hit a chocolate chip).
12. Remove from the oven, and cool on a wire rack.  Try not to devour them all immediately.

Should make 10 or so scones, but your mileage may vary according to how large or small you cut them! :)

Snacks and breakfast!

I'll post the recipe tomorrow morning!