Pizza Dough

We love pizza in my house. I almost never order pizza out unless were going out to a nice pizza restaurant. I've been making my own dough for a few years now. I usually mix the dough together the night before and let it rise out on the counter for the next day. You can get two 12" pizzas with this recipe. And I freeze the left over dough till I'm make another pizza again. If your going to freeze it just let it though out in the fridge the night before and then let it rest on the counter for about 2 hours till it's room temp before making.

Ingredients

1 pack active dry yeast
1-1/2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp. sugar
4 cups flour
2 tsp sea salt (optional)
1/4 cup olive or vegetable oil

1. Stir in the sugar in warm water then sprinkle the active dry yeast. Let rest till nice and bubbly on top usually about 5 mins.

2. While the water mixture is resting, combine the flour and sea salt in mixing bowl. Once the yeast is ready pour the water mixture and oil into the flour and mix till well combined.

3. Transfer dough to oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Dough rises in 2 hours. Once it has risen freeze half the dough if you like then make your pizza!

When freezing dough wrap in plastic wrap then transfer to zip lock bag.

Notes on flour: you can mix half white and half whole wheat flour. I do half/half sometimes and it's wonderful.


Tonight's dinner I made a cal zone. Chicken sausage, ricotta cheese, spinach, and mozzarella with marinara sauce on the side.

Another option for cal zone: Canadian bacon, broccoli, and cheddar cheese dipped in ranch. YUMO!

Enjoy
~Monique

Flank Steak Pinwheels

So we had some good friends of our's in town earlier this month and my girl Ash from My Smashing Adventures  and I threw down on this meal. We made Rachel Ray's Flank Steak Pinwheels, Pioneer Woman's Perfect Spinach Salad and Laura Vitale's Cheesy Garlic Bread and let me take a moment and tell you about THIS bread. I wish we took a picture of it. It was the BEST garlic bread I've ever had in my life. We smelled like garlic for days, but I don't care. If you love garlic bread and then need to make the bread. You wont regret it. Ok.... so moving on to the real post thank you for your patience. The flank steak pinwheels were divine. Super easy, quick to put together and easy to grill. Everyone loved them. Check it out. Recipe link here.

Cracker Candy via Pinterest

The hubs and I love toffee candy. I recently came across this cracker candy on Pinterest and decide to give it a go this past weekend.  It's kind of similar to toffee candy and I happened to have everything on hand. It's super quick, easy and pretty good. 

Cracker Candy

1-1/2 sleeve of saltine crackers (My guess is any kind of cracker you have on hand will be fine)

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

1 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark will do)

2 cups of chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (more or less according to your liking)

Splash or two of Vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with aluminum foil or use a silicon baking mat.

Arrange the crackers in a single layer on the baking sheet.

Cook the butter, vanilla and brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir while the butter melts, and bring the mixture to a rolling boil. Once boiling, carefully pour the mixture over the crackers on the baking sheet in an even layer.

Bake at 350 degrees for about seven minutes, until the toffee is bubbling all over. Carefully remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool for one minute.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the hot toffee, and allow them to sit for one minute to soften and melt. Once softened, use an offset spatula or knife to spread the melted chocolate over the entire surface of the toffee in an even layer. While the chocolate is still sticky, sprinkle the top with chopped walnuts.

I popped mine in the freezer for about 15 mins until set then broke in pieces. Store in Tupperware or Ziploc bag and keep refrigerated.