Pita Bread Pizzas

Pitas are easy to make at home and then you can make any kind of small pizza you want.  Lets start with the pita.

 Here is what you need:
6 1/2 cups of flour
2 tablespoons of yeast
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of olive oil

Sprinkle yeast and sugar on 2 3/4 cups of warm water and stir and let rest for 10 min.

Add salt and oil and mix.  Slowly add in flour and mix with dough hook until is makes a sticky ball.

Place in a large greased bowl and let rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours.

Roll in balls and let rise for about 30ish min.

Heat a large cast iron skillet with a teaspoon of oil.  Roll out a ball of dough until it is is thin..  When skillet is hot add dough to skillet.

After about a min bubbles with form and then flip.  There should be some dark spots which are good.  They add great flavor.

 Here are several kinds of pizzas that I have made but there are a lot of choices.They only take a couple of min to cook under the broiler.

These are wing sauce topped with mozzarella and shredded chicken and blue cheese.  You can leave off blue cheese if you want.

 

BBQ sauce with diced left over chicken and Swiss cheese and blue cheese of course.

BBQ sauce, deli roast beef, Swiss and blue cheese.

Pesto with chicken, fresh mozzerella, and cherry tomatoes.

Traditional marinara, mozzarella

and toppings.

 The ones on the end are different.  These are just a few ideas there are a lot more that you can make.

Pepperjack Mac and Cheese

I like a saucy mac and cheese so I do mine all on the stove top.  If you like bacon I would be good topped with bacon.  I don't like bacon so its left off.

Here is what you need:
3ish cups of pepperjack
pasta
2 1/2 cups of milk
3 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
1 teaspoon of ground mustard
1 teaspoon of cayanne pepper
salt
3ish cloves of garlic
a couple chicken breasts

Start pasta. Simmer chicken in hot water until cooked and then shred. Melt butter in a medium heat and add several gloves of minced garlic.  Stir in seasonings and cook for about a min.

Add flour and stir into a paste and cook for a min to cook out the flour flavor. Add milk and bring to a simmer until it thickens (about 5 min) It will be the consistency of cream.

Stir in cheese and leave on heat for a min so it is warm.

Add in warm pasta and adjust consistency if needed by adding milk and/or cheese.  Once the consistency is good add in shredded chicken. 

Carmel Corn

This takes about 10 min and is a great yummy snack.

12 cups of popped popcorn (its best to use kernel in a pan or microwave that way you don't have all that salt)
1 cup of dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla
1 stick of butter
salt (if you use unsalted butter and popcorn)
1/4 cup of corn syrup (I forgot to put it in pic)

I have a bowl for microwaving popcorn.  I pop a 1/4 cup at a time and after 3 batches I have about 12 cups of popped popcorn.

Melt the remaining ingridents in a sauce pan over medium heat.  Stirring constantly. 

Simmer slowly for about 5 min so all the sugar will melt and not be grainy.  It will still taste good but be slightly grainy if it doesn't get all melted.

Pour caramel over popcorn and thoroughly mix.  Enjoy warm or cool.

English Muffin Bread

This isn't hard.  It takes a while but its not all constant work.

2 1/4 cups of warm milk
4 1/2 cups of flour
2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast
1 tablespoon of water
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda

Sprinkle yeast over 3/4 cups of warm water and let it sit for 10 min.

Mix in milk and salt.  Slowly add the flour until smooth.  It will be wet and doughy more like a batter.

Let rise for about an hour in a warm place until doubled.

While rising grease and coat two loaf pans with cornmeal

Mix baking soda with 1 1/2 teaspoons of water

Mixing baking soda mixture into dough.  It will deflate a lot.

Evenly poor batter into two loaf pans.  Let rise for about an hour and until 1/2 inch from top of pan.
Bake at 375.

Bake for 50 min uncovered and then another 10-15 min covered with tin foil.  Let cool and slice.

Toast and serve warm with jam and butter.

Lemon Basil Rositto with Chicken

This is not that hard.  No harder than a homemade rice pilaf. 

Here is what you need:
2 tablespoons of butter
1 lemon
2 cups of rice
1 cup of wine
1 onion
4-5 cloves or garlic
4 tablespoons of cream
2 tablespoons of chicken broth concentrate
2 grilled chicken breasts (I used leftovers but you can grill is fresh)
1/2 cup of rough chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper

Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Chop onion, and mince garlic and cook in pan until onion is translucent and has lost most of its moisture.

Add two cups of rice and toast until slightly golden

 Add one cup of dry white wine and a couple tablespoons of chicken stock concentrate.  Continue over medium heat and allow wine to be absorbed into rice.

Add 4-5 cups of water.  Add some salt and pepper and bring water to a boil.  Cover over medium low heat and cook until rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed about 20 min.

While rice is cooking chop chicken and basil

When rice is almost done add a little red pepper flakes (if you like heat) and chicken.

Zest lemon into rice and squeeze juice into rice.  Add in cream. 

Add in chopped basil and taste test to see if it needs more salt and pepper or lemon.  Top with Parmesan cheese.

Lemon Glazed Cookies

 I make these all the time and the other day I realized I had not done a post about them.  They are loved by everyone who eats them.  The only key is to use real butter and a very fine zester otherwise you get stringy bits of lemon zest in the cookies.

Here is the ingredient list
2 lemons
1 egg
2 1/4 cups of flour
3/4 cup of sugar
2 sticks of real soft butter
1 tablespoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

Put butter in mixer on low and beat till fluffy.  I Put it on while I mess with the sugar and by the time I am done it is perfect.

Zest lemons into sugar and mix together using hands.

Mix in sugar and then egg and vanilla, and then add in salt and baking powder.  Once this is done all the flour a little at a time (I forgot to take a pic)

Once the dough is mixed scoop onto a cookie sheet.  I like to use stoneware.  Flatten with two fingers when done and bake for about 8 min on 350.

Let the cookies completely cool.  I usually leave them till the morning.

Now for the glaze:

Take some powdered sugar and the lemons that were zested.  I usually only takes the juice from one lemon but sometimes it takes both.

Squeeze the juice from the lemon and the add in powdered sugar until desired consistency.  Then glaze the cookies.  I usually use a silicon brush.  Let the glazed set for a while before serving.\