Whole Wheat Pizza Crust!

This is a crust I made today for Lucia's pizza/birthday party. I really love it--I wish I had let it rise a little more today, however, just to take a little of the gritty whole-wheat edge off of it and to make it airier.

(NOTE: I use ALL whole wheat flour even where it says all-purpose and I don't like it too well coming out of the freezer, seems to lose its pliability. I have also liked doubling the batch and dividing it into 3 balls so that there's a little more crust.)

This is taken from www.allrecipes.com.

INGREDIENTS:

1 teaspoon white sugar (brown sugar's fine)
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (here I use all whole wheat flour)

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.

Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then mix in the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining all-purpose flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 2 pieces for 2 thin crust, or leave whole to make one thick crust. Form into a tight ball. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Then, drape it over both of your fists, and gently pull the edges outward, while rotating the crust. When the circle has reached the desired size, place on a well oiled pizza pan. Top pizza with your favorite toppings, such as sauce, cheese, meats, or vegetables.

Bake for 16 to 20 minutes (depending on thickness) in the preheated oven, until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges, and cheese is melted on the top.

Enjoy!

yummy oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

okay, so how is it that I (Darren) am already posting for Pam on her blog when it is ONLY day two? hmmm...I'll consider it a Valentine's Day gift.

so these cookies are all the rage here in the Prince household. they contributed to about a pound or two of Jesse's birthweight the last month before Jesse was born in 2003 because I was making them all the time. and we continue to make a batch of dough and keep it sitting around in the fridge for up to a week at at time. I'm not sure where the recipe comes from, but I found it through a friend's housemate's friend.

Jose's Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups all-purpose flower (note: we started using whole wheat flower here, and they turned out great)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened (you could use less butter here if you wanted to)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 large eggs
12 ounce bag of chocolate chips
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, grated (this is optional -- I rarely put it in)

In a food processor pulse 1 cup of oats until ground fine. In a large bowl stir together ground oats, remaining 1/2 cup whole oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy and beat in vanilla and peanutbutter. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, and gradually beat in flower mixture. Add chocolate chips and grated chocolate, beating just until combined. Chill cookie dough, covered, at least 2 hours and up to 1 week.
(sometimes we just can't wait, so we make a tray of cookies while the rest of the dough chills).

Preheat oven to 325.

Form rounded tablespoons of dough into balls and arrange about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Flatten balls slightly. Bake cookies in batches in the middle of the oven 15 minutes, or until just pale golden. Cool cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes and transfer to racks to cool completely.

Makes about 60 cookies. (really? I can't believe that. then again, I tend to lose count.)

Yo-Gurt, Girls, and Guys!

So guys, I've been blabbing on and on about my exciting discoveries and decided that maybe that posting to a blog would spare some of y'all some unsolicited conversation/emoting.

Here goes.....

I've discovered yogurt-making at home, and along with it, the joys of reducing the amount of plastic going back to the environment or expending some fuel in it's recyclling journey. The latter is enhanced if you used powdered milk puchased from a bin, sans packaging!

I garnered this info from an Iranian woman I became acquainted with in a So. Cal park. She offered Jesse bubbles and I swooped in to ask her about food and yogurt-making of course. (I had been tipped off that Persians could offer me a yogurt education.)

To do it, you have to use your intuition a little bit in regards to determining what warm is:

1) Preheat oven to it's lowest setting. (Shut off after oven gets up to temp.)

2) During step 1, bring a gallon of milk to boiling and then remove from heat. Allow to cool down to warm, then SLOWLY stir in a cup of yogurt until mixed perfectly.

3) Put the top on your pot of milk/yogurt. Place it in the oven which you have allowed to cool to warm--it cannot be HOT for risk of killing the active bacteria. Leave in oven, untouched, for 3 or 4 hours. Then remove and place in fridge.

Enjoy the magic trick of turning your milk into yogurt!