foodiefanatics

I just emailed a friend some tips for making good pizza crust. Here's what I sent: I've had lots of pizza dough failures and here are the things I've done that may have contributed to success: 
1.  preheat the oven to your highest temp (not broil obviously) for at least 1/2 hour  

2. I roll the dough out on my counters (which are granite). I don't know what your counters are, but the idea is to roll them somewhere that the dough kind of sticks (not like sticky sticks) but so that the dough stays spread out for a while. Sometimes I have to put a little bit of flour so it isn't too sticky but if you put too much flour it just springs back on itself (what sometimes works is to put flour kind of in the center of where you are rolling and when you've got it rolled out pretty thin, pull each edge over to the counter where there isn't any flour so it sticks spread out thinner--hope that makes sense).

3. Roll it out at least 15 minutes before you are going to put it on your cookie sheet (this is especially important with Trader Joes dough which seems to be way over elastic).  Let the dough sit on the counter in that stretched position while the oven preheats.  I roll it out as thin as I can at this point.  

4. Put the dough on a cookie sheet when the oven is preheated and pre cook the crust for about 7-8 minutes so that it isn't doughy but isn't really done.  Remove and either put on your toppings and put back in on your baking stone or cool (at this point, you can wrap it in plastic and keep overnight). If you do put it right back in on the baking stone, the stone needs to be preheated.  

What I did was pre-cook the crusts (I doubled the dough and made two crusts) the day before, and then wrapped them in plastic.  The next day, I preheated the pizza stones in the oven at 500 for 1/2 hour, topped my pizzas and gently put on the preheated pizza stones for about 6 minutes.  I'm guessing you can freeze the prebaked crusts too but I haven't done it yet.   
  
Dough Recipe
The dough recipe is from Williams and Sonoma Italy cookbook   In small bowl, sprinkle 1 1/4t yeast over 1/2 cup warm water and let stand until creamy, about 5 minutes. STir until dissolved.   In a large bowl, stir together 1 1/2 cups flour and 1t salt. Add the yeast mixture and stir until a soft dough forms (I do this in my  mixer with the dough hook).  I mix with the dough hook for about 8 minutes.  The recipe says to stir until a soft dough forms (about two minutes). Knead on a lightly floured surface about 10 minutes (I don't do this when I use the mixer).   Place the dough in a floured bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, draft free place until doubled in bulk about 2 hours.   Punch down the dough and knead briefly on a floured work surface. leave the ball on the surface, invert a bowl over it and let stand for another hour.   Now roll out as I stated above.  

HInts for the dough--the dough consistency in the mixer when the kneading is over should be such that you can touch it and it kind of pulls away with your finger but doesn't stick if that makes sense.  You should have a ball in the mixer but not a firm ball.  Again, I've probably done this 50 times and I'm only now starting to get it right.

This cake is very yummy. It's from Gourmet (March 2009).  A traditional pound cake infused with cardamom seeds and vanilla pods (I put in vanilla as well because I love vanilla).  The cake gets better over time as the flavors become more pronounced. Served with strawberries and whipped cream, the cake almost melts in your mouth. I cooked it in two loaf pans (the recipe says use a bundt cake pan).

From our CSA, I made artichokes with green garlic dip. Steam the artichokes (after cutting off the tips and the stem so that the artichokes will sit in the steamer) for 40 minutes or until you can easily pull a leaf from the middle.  For the dip, quickly par boil the green garlic (I used two stems) then mix in the blender with 1/4 cup mayo and 1/4 cup sour cream (or yogurt), add some milk if your blender won't mix. Add red wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.
I also made this really good sweet potatoes, apples and greens with chili.
Preheat oven to 400. Clean and cut up three or four yams. Toss with 3 T melted butter, 1 T chili pwd, 1/2 t red pepper and spread on a cookie sheet covered with foil. Bake for 25 minutes until yams are soft. While they are cooking, heat 2 T butter in a large skillet and saute chopped, cleaned greens (about 1-1/2 pounds of whatever you have. I used collards and kale). In a 10 inch skillet, heat another 2 T butter and cook three peeled, sliced apples until they begin to caramelize (about 10 minutes). Mix everything into the large skillet and flavor with salt. This is really good but it's kind of a fall veggie (even though I got all these veggies in my spring box!)

For Easter, we were pretty non-traditional, but yummy.  We started the morning with a honeyed yogurt and blueberry tart with ginger crust (Food and Wine, March 09). This tart was easy and relatively healthy (you mix 10 graham crackers with 1/2 cup chopped candied ginger, 3 T butter and one egg white and bake. On top is drained Greek yogurt mixed with 2 T honey and spread with blueberries). I used frozen wild maine blueberries that had thawed and just put blueberries on each individual piece.
For dinner, we had hunks of bread spread with olive oil and grilled then sprinkled with sea salt (really good and really easy), a salad with a homemade creamy italian and a homemade mac and cheese

Hard cheese mac and cheese

Bring a pot of water to a boil and boil about 3/4 lb pasta (gemelli, fusili, something that will catch the sauce).
While the water is boiling, head 1 T olive oil in a large sauce pan and sear 3/4lb italian sausage (I used precooked. If it isn't precooked you need to fully cook it).  Drain. In the same pan, saute 2 chopped shallots, 1 T chopped garlic for five minutes. Add 3 T flour and stir for two minutes. Add 1/2 cup white wine, scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pan.  Then slowly pour in 3 cups of chicken broth and whole milk (I used about half and half).  Bring to a boil and turn off.
Shred 2 cups of cheese. I used a mixture of Italian Pecorino and sharp cheddar. Add the cheese to the hot milk mixture, whisking until it melts.  Add 1 1/2 cups peas (thawed if frozen) and 1/4 cup chopped jalapeno.  Mix in pasta and sausage and 1 t black pepper.

I've been looking for something relatively healthy for a mid-morning snack. I came across this recipe for flax cookies taken from Everything Flax and adapted it a bit.

Flax Seed Cookies
Preheat oven to 375, line two cookie sheets with parchment paper

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 T hot water
1 egg
1tsp vanilaa

Beat butter and sugar. Add water.  Mix in egg and vanilla and beat until light colored.

1/2 cup ground flaxseed (or flaxseed meal)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4t salt

Add to butter mixture.

1 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Stir into mix.

Put by tablespoon onto cookies sheets and bake for about 12 minutes, switching trays half way through.

Last night we had a great Indian meal using recipes from Madhur Jaffrey's Flavors of India.  I made Beans with Roasted spices (using pinto beans and coconut milk).  This tasted great but it almost seemed Mexican.  Very spicy (total cooking time was about 1hr 45 minutes using canned beans).  Boatman's curry was a spicy fish curry (cooking time is brief, but prep time is at least one hour).  Flavors are fantastic but lots of blending and frying. I used coconut milk for the grated coconut in this recipe as well. I love this sauce and would like the sauce on rice without the fish! The third dish I made started with the recipe for potateos with mustard seeds and onions but I significantly adapted this recipe. Instead of tomatoes, I added 1 cup peas. I also added two chopped carrots with the potatoes. The dish was loved by all and it's very colorful.