Frustration Released

Those of you who were in attendance at Emily's cooking class on Thursday feel more calm and relaxed. Beating and pounding the chicken felt good, didn't it?  You should have seen Claudine go!  She didn't even wait for a meat mallet.  She grabbed the closet thing handy [luckily just a rolling pin] and went at it.  Ryan was especially grateful to benefit from the evening, as he had a homemade lunch the next day of stuffed chicken and gravy.  He said it tasted just like a homemade chicken pot pie.

Emily has some culinary skills.

  Join us next time to see them in action.  And thanks to Machell and Rebecca for cleaning up.  Oh, and Lisa for the bleaching.  It was all great fun.

Maple Twist

I just had some a friend made.  It was amaizing!  It looks more complicated than it is.  The recipe is on her recipes blog.
Colleen

Pizza Dough from Playgroup

From one of my favorite recipe blogs: http://mykitchencafe.blogspot.com/:

Slow-Rize Pizza Dough (this is the one I made for playgroup, but the other one is great for quick dough)

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
1 1/3 cup water
3 1/2 to 4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt.

The beauty about making this recipe the night before is you can just throw all the ingredients together cold (no warming the water) and stick it covered in the refrigerator. That is all I do - mix the dough to the desired consistency (I like my dough pretty soft) and really try not to overflour it and then place it in a greased bowl covered with saran wrap in the refrigerator. Be sure to take it out of the refrigerator a few hours before you make the pizza so the dough has time to warm and relax. This recipe makes 2 medium-sized pizzas. (It feeds our family of two adults and two children and we eat a lot of pizza.)

Directions for baking pizza:
Preheat oven to 475 degrees. (If using a pizza stone, let stone heat for at least 30 minutes in the oven before baking pizza.) If baking in a sheet pan, press dough onto sheet pan and top with sauce and toppings. Bake for about 12 minutes (checking often) until crust is browned and cheese is golden and bubbly. If baking on the preheated pizza stone, slide pizza onto stone and bake for about 8 minutes. Makes 1 large pizza.

Fast and Easy Pizza Dough
This recipe was given to me by my Aunt who got it from a woman named Linda who I have never met - but in the event she miraculously stumbles across this blog, I'll give a big thanks, Linda!

3 cups flour, more or less
1 tablespoon honey, heaping
1 tablespoon oil, heaping
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon yeast
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. (If using a pizza stone, let stone heat for at least 30 minutes in the oven before baking pizza.) Mix all pizza dough ingredients together, except the flour. Add flour and knead for a bit then put into pan (or use a pizza peel and pizza stone). If baking in a sheet pan, bake for about 12 minutes (checking often) until crust is browned and cheese is golden and bubbly. If baking on the preheated pizza stone, slide pizza onto stone and bake for about 8 minutes. Makes 1 large pizza.