11.10.11

Pizza!

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Ok... what else are you supposed to do with cheese like that? Seriously.... pizza just had to happen.
It just had to.
My tummy demanded it.

How did I make the pizza, you ask? Well, I'm so glad you asked because I have instructions right here for you! Unfortunately, I was really hungry when I made this, so I wasn't really measuring... anything.... I was just piling, piling, piling yummy things. So this recipe is pretty approximate. But I think that's ok, because then you can make your pizza just like you want it.

I started with a regular batch of bread (see previous post on bread dough) that had risen once already. I pinched off about half of a batch to make the pizza crust with.
I used the other half to make more pizzas for my freezer.




Morgan really, really thought that the pizza needed thrown.
So I let him throw it.
He didn't drop it.
I was impressed.


Really important step. Don't skip it. It's lots of fun.
Also, it is really important that you put lots and lots of corn meal under this piece of dough.
If you do not, it will stick. Then you will finish your beautiful pizza and go to put it on your pizza rock or cookie sheet in the oven, and it will resist any movement from its place of residence and as you wrestle it into the oven it will mutilate and turn into a weird scrambled pizza thing.
Go ahead, ask me how I know.


Using the same fingers that you made dents in the dough with, spread that olive oil evenly all over your piece of dough. Use your fingers. Do it.



I added salt, oregano, rosemary, basil, sage, garlic powder, and cracked pepper. I added extra rosemary because I like it, and I'm the cook, so I get to add what I like. It's a good life.
When you are done spreading, poke the dough all over with a fork. This will prevent it from bubbling up while it bakes and looking like a pizza mountain range with toppings sliding off every which way.

Go ahead, ask. Don't you want to know how I know all that can go wrong with a pizza?


This is where the afore-mentioned cheese comes in. Lots and lots of cheese, whatever kind you like. I recommend some mild melty cheese like mozzarella or mexican melty cheese (queso fresco), but please include some sharp cheddar on top. Just please do. It's really good.
I also put lots and lots of onions, some sliced garlic, some thin sliced ham, and some more cheese and onions and garlic.
And a little more cheese.
Some onion on top.
Just a bit more garlic. And onions. And cheese.
If I were to write a song about my favorite things, food-wise, those would be in it.

Bake in a 450 degree oven, and make sure to put a large handful of corn meal under it on the pizza rock or cookie sheet so that it will come back off of said cooking platform. Remember the afore-mentioned weird scrambled pizza thing.

Bake until it looks done. Basically, the onions will be slightly browned and the bread with be golden.


It is really good. Pizza is really hard to beat, when it is good pizza.
And isn't that guy cute?

And yes, I did make pizza a couple weeks ago, and made all of the mistakes that I have warned you against. It was a strange scrambled pizza mountain range. But it, too, tasted good. Which, in the end, is what matters after all.

But how it looks does help.

6.10.11

Autumn is (sort of) here

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Well, as I said in my previous post, fall is coming slowly to Oklahoma City. What is the problem with this, you might ask?
Well, I really like fall. Especially fall leaves.
I love their crunchiness when I jump on them.
I love their brilliant colors peeking up at me from the corners of the street as I walk to school.
I love chasing them as they somersault down the alley, barely touching the ground as they go, a little piece of skipping happiness, coloring in the dreary cold city world.



But the trees are stubbornly refusing to produce more than the random handful of colored leaves so far. So I decided to hurry things along a little. Morgan and I pulled out my favorite bright fall-colored fabric and our old milk jug (for plastic to make them stiff) and made some fall leaves!

I loved them so much that I decided to wear them on my ears.
Forever.
Ok, maybe not forever, but for as long as I can claim that it is fall.



I liked them so much that I put them up on my long-neglected Etsy site, here:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/83330431/brilliant-fall-leaf-earrings

I'll bet you didn't even know that I had an Etsy site, did you?
Well, I did.
Do.
I do have one.
I just haven't posted anything on it for a while. But I'm planning on that changing, I have some cool ideas. Maybe they will sell, I hope so. We'll see. But at least I have fun making them. And wearing them.

Pretty autumn leaves. Happiness in my heart-place. 

1.10.11

Chai Spice Granola

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This is the confusing time of year. The time of year where one day feels like fall, bordering on winter, and then the next day feels like Oklahoma didn't get the memo that it doesn't lie directly on the equator. You never know if the next day you need to wear a sundress or a scarf. It's weird. Weird Oklahoma.

On a recent fall-ish sort of day, I decided to make granola. But you know me... I get bored easily. Boring old same-same granola didn't sound like any fun to me. So I thought I'd try something different. The result was delightful. Crunchy, crispy, clumpy granola with a spicy bite to it. Sooo good with homemade yoghurt. Just ask my mom. She tried some.

It literally tastes like chai tea.... in granola form.
Yeah.
Awesome.
So awesome you want to make yourself right now, right?
Ok, ok, stop begging. I'll give you the recipe.


Keep in mind that this is granola, and therefore, things don't have to be exactly like in my recipe. If you want walnuts, then add walnuts. If you don't want/have sesame seeds, don't add them. Anything that is crunchy and that you want in your granola, then by all means, add it in.  Oats are kind of important though. Don't leave out the oats.




By this time, the house smells really good. Really, really good. By the time the granola is finally done, I want to eat it all
all
all.


Chai Granola (print recipe)

Ingredients:
4c oats
1c almonds
1/4 c sesame seeds
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 c vegetable oil
4 Tbsp sesame oil (or just more vegetable oil)
1/4 c honey
2 Tbs sugar
2 tsp vanilla

1/2c raisins

Mix the ingredients from oats to pepper in a large mixing bowl. Remember that you are in charge here, if you want more or less of anything, go for it. I like extra ginger and pepper, it makes the granola more spicy. I also have a real hard time not adding more cinnamon and nutmeg. I like spiciness in my granola. Pretty much, I just think of the oats as the things which hold the yummy spices. If I could make granola just out of spices, I probably would.

In a small sauce pan, mix the oils, honey, and sugar. Bring to a boil and simmer for a little while, whisking constantly, until it is all frothy. It will make this bubbly froth stuff. That's when you add the vanilla. Then pour the frothy stuff all over the dry mix, and stir the two together really well. Mix, mix, mix, until all the oats have that yummy sweet honey stuff on them.

Spread the granola out on a cookie sheet, no more than 1/4- 1/2 inch thick. Bake this in the oven at 300F for about 15 minutes, or until it looks golden brown.

Take out the cookie sheet and set it out to cool. Do not mix granola up at this point unless you do not want clumpy granola. But I like clumpy granola. Then, when it is dry (it will be hard), scrape it up off the cookie sheet with a spatula, break it into the size of clumps you want, and add the raisins. The reason I add the raisins now is because I have had too many bad experiences with the raising burning into little charcoal balls in the oven long before the rest of the granola is crispy.

Pour all of your granola into a cute jar. Seriously, if you are going to cook you really need a bunch of cute jars. It's important. Go buy them at thrift stores for fifty cents apiece. Or ask your mother-in-law to get them at garage sales for you. That works for me.