Monday, August 25, 2008

Sylvia's Pizza Dough and Sauce


This is Trent's Mom's recipe. She said it is also a French bread recipe and will make two loaves. It makes a large pizza, but actually it ends up being a pretty thick crust. You could roll it thinner and probably make two medium pizzas.

5-6 cups flour
1 Tbsp yeast
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2 cups warm water

In kitchen aid put 4 cups of the flour, the yeast, sugar, salt, and water. Blend well, until smooth. Add the remaining flour once cup at a time until you have a medium soft dough. Knead in your mixer until it is smooth-about 8 minutes. Cover with a dish towel, and allow to rise until double-about 1 hour. Punch down and let rise for 10 minutes. Cover pizza stone with corn meal. Shape pizza to fit your round or rectangular pizza stone. Prick pizza dough several times with a fork. Then spread a thin layer (about 1 Tbsp) of olive oil over dough. Spread about 3/4 cup pizza sauce over dough. Place in preheated oven (400 degrees), and bake for about 10 minutes. At this point you can make the dough ahead of time, and add everything else (toppings) later when you're ready to eat. Sprinkle a lot of mozzarella cheese on top, then top with clean spinach leaves, chopped green pepper, sliced tomatoes, sliced zucchini, marinated artichoke hearts, etc. Sprinkle some salt over top and bake for about 15 minutes.

Pizza Sauce

2 8 oz cans tomato sauce
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
Dash pepper
1 tsp basil
1-2 Tbsp parsley
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp onion salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Place all of the above in a medium saucepan and blend well. Heat on medium for about 15-20 minutes. There will be a lot left over. She puts it in small jars in the freezer until next time. I usually just half the recipe.

Alterations
I use this same dough recipe, but make a bbq chicken pizza. Just make the dough, but add bbq sauce, cooked chicken, mozzarella chicken, and red onion (optional).

Chicken Tenders with Dipping Sauce



This is Carol Peterson's recipe from the cooking classes she does in our ward. I love, love, love these. The sauce is really good, too. It's also good with bbq sauce.

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Salt and pepper
4 cups crisp rice cereal (rice chex)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 lbs chicken tenders (I just cute up chicken breasts into nugget size pieces)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 Tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place flour in a shallow bowl, and egg in a second bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Pulse cereal and oil in a food processor until fine crumbs form. Season with salt and pepper; transfer to a third shallow bowl.

Coat chicken; first in flour; shaking off excess; then with egg, letting excess drip off; and finally in cereal mixture, pressing to help it adhere. Place on a baking sheet, and bake until light golden brown and cooked through, 10-15 minutes, turning over halfway through.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together sour cream, mustard, and honey; season with salt and pepper. Serve tenders with creamy honey mustard dipping sauce.

Grandma's Banana Bread



2 eggs
1 square margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
Dash of salt
3 large ripe bananas

Mix margarine and sugar. Add eggs. Put in 1 cup of flour and 1/2 the mashed bananas and mix. Then add remaining flour, soda, salt and bananas and mix. Put into greased loaf pans and bake at 350 for approximately 40-45 minutes. Insert toothpick in center to see if it is done. 

Grandma's Caramel Brownies




60 light caramels (I usually use 35-40, so does Grandma)
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 german chocolate cake mix
3/4 cup margarine, melted
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1 cup chopped nuts (optional, I've never used nuts)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a heavy saucepan, combine caramels and 1/2 cup evaporated milk. Stir until melted. Set aside. Grease and lightly flour 9x13 baking pan. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, melted butter 1/3 cup evaporated milk, and nuts. Press half of dough into pan. Bake at 350 for four minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chips over crust. Spread caramel mixture over chips. Crumble remaining dough over caramel. Return to oven and bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes. Cool slightly, then refrigerate 30 minutes or until caramel is firm. Cut into squares and serve. 

Roasted Fresh Corn, Poblano, and Cheddar Pizza

Roasted Fresh Corn, Poblano, and Cheddar Pizza


Citrus Chicken

Citrus Chicken

1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp grated lime rind
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
2 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme
2 tsp bottled minced garlic
1 tsp grated orange rind
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground red pepper
1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast cutlets
1 Tbsp olive oil
Cooking spray
6 cups bagged prewashed spinach

1. Combine first 8 ingredients in a small bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Pour 1/4 cup juice mixture into a large zip-top plastic bag. Add chicken to bag. Seal, let stand 5 minutes. Add oil to remaining juice mixture, stir well with a whisk. 
2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Remove chicken from bag; discard marinade. Add chicken to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until done. Place 1 1/2 cups spinach on each of 4 plates. Divide chicken evenly among servings; top each servings; top each servings with 1 tablespoon juice mixture. Yield; 4 servings.

This is from Cooking Light. Trent and I loved it. Trent thought it tasted gourmet. I didn't have red pepper, so I left it out and it still tasted great.