On to the pizza

As I said, the pizza was tast-y. All I have is this sad looking picture of 2 leftover pieces.

I made a sauceless pizza--just added a bit of olive oil to the crust and topped with a mix of Italian cheeses and some regular old mozzarella. Added some garlic from the Dane County Farmers Market, red onions and yellow, orange and green peppers. Yum.

The crust was easy and good. Thin, crispy and a bit of a chewy texture. Perfect.

Here is the crust recipe, courtesy of Lino's Restaurant:

4 ½ Cups All Purpose Flour
2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Dry Yeast
7oz Water
7oz 2% Milk

Directions:
Combine flour, salt and yeast in a mixing bowl. Combine milk and water in a measuring cup. Heat water and milk mixture until it is 100 deg. F. Mix all ingredients together. Use a mixer if possible. It will make the job easier. Cover with a towel and let rise at room temperature for two hours. Roll and cut dough to start your pizza.

Notes: I cut the recipe in half and used Skim instead of 2% milk.

Recipe Results

The pizza was sooo good. Soo good. I wanted to bathe in it. OK, so maybe not quite.

But, first-- the granola bars I made. I used the recipe from Make and Takes, whose picture looks oh so good!

Here is the recipe from Make and Takes:
Chewy Granola Bars Recipe:

* 2 1/2 c. Oats – quick rolled oats
* 1/2 c. Rice Krispies
* 1/4 c. coconut
* 1/2 c. M&M minis
* 1/2 c. brown sugar
* 1/2 tsp. salt
* 1/2 c. butter, softened
* 1/4 c. honey
* 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Add all of the ingredients and mix together until combined. Press into a square 8×8 pan. Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and score into bars. Let it set completely and then cut into bars. For thinner bars, press mix into a 9×13 pan. They seem to set a little better in the 9×13 pan.

My changes: Left out the coconut (didn't have any), subbed mini chocolate chips for the M&M's (again, didn't have any) and used peanut butter in place of the honey (yes, you guessed it, out again). They were tasty, but I think I did something wrong. Mine didn't stay together as well as I would have hoped. I think I might have gotten the butter a tad too soft. That said, they are good. I'm already thinking about a different version--fruit and nuts--for next time! Thanks Make and Takes!

Long time gone

Trying to get back into the groove after an unintentional blogging break.

I'm spending this very dreary Sunday trying to add some life into January! Cleaning, organizing and baking. One room down, so far. :)

Mixed up a batch of pizza dough--a new recipe. It's from my very favorite restaurant. We'll see if it resembles the real thing. I'm also going to make a batch of granola bars.

Have you read the ingredients in granola bars? Just a few of the ingredients in Quaker's 25% Less Sugar Chocolate Chip Granola Bars:
Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oils (Adds a Dietary Insignificant Amount of Trans Fat) with TBHQ and Citric Acid Added to Preserve Freshness. For real? Nasty. The same thing, TBHQ, is used in varnishes and lacquers. Good times.

25 Days of Free Christmas Music

Amazon has a special going on right now. Each day, you can download a song for free. Here are the details!

No Time Bread Results

So, I made the no time bread the other day. It rose like it should and looked awesome. Then, I put it in the oven and it totally fell. I don't know what I did wrong, but the whole thing was flat. Boo.

No picture of the error!

No Time Bread

Since I didn't plan ahead, I didn't have time to make "regular" bread. I found a recipe for no-time bread from The Kitchn. It's rising as we speak! Stay tuned.

Holiday Cards

Has everyone ordered their free holiday (or other) cards from Seehere.com? You can get 50 free 4x8 photo cards if you order by Nov 30! Shipping is $3 and some change.

Go check out Freebies 4 Mom's post on this awesome deal.

Thanks Freebies4Mom!