German Pancake

This recipe makes for a great sunday morning breakfast because of how easy it is.  The proportions I will give make a pancake that feeds two, but can easily be multiplied to feed more than two.  If you are going multiply this recipe by more than two, I would suggest cooking it in two dishes.  If you try to much one of two things will happen. 1) It will overflow or 2)  It will not cook enough in the middle.

What you need:
1/2 C Flour
1/2 C Milk
3 Eggs
vanilla extract
nutmeg
cinnamon
1/2 Tbsp Butter

What to do:

1) Turn your oven on to 375 degrees.  Put 1 tbsp butter into an oven safe dish and put in oven to melt while oven preheats.
2) In one bowl combine all dry ingredients and mix them up.
3) combine eggs, milk, and vanilla.  Mix them and add to the dry ingredients.  Wisk together until nearly all the flour chunks are gone.
4) By this time the butter should be melted.  spread the butter over the walls of the baking dish.  pour your mixture into the dish.
5) Bake for about 20-25 or until the edges are a nice golden brown.
Cut and serve.
 (as the food cools, it will fall back into the dish)
We really like it with just cream cheese and maple syrup.  You can top it with whatever you like. Fresh fruit is especially good.

Cheesy Baked Rigatoni

2 1/2 cups uncooked rigatoni pasta
1/2 lb uncooked mild Italian pork sausage
3 cloves garlic
1 can crushed tomatoes, undrained
3 teaspoons dried basil
1 Cup shredded parmesan cheese
2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese


What to do:
1) Cook the pasta a little under what the cooking time on the box directs.  It will continue to cook in the oven, and if you cook it just how you like it in the boiling water, it will be overcooked.
2) In a skillet, cook the sausage till it is no longer pink, drain any fat and set aside.
3) While the pasta and sausage are cooking, in a medium bowl, combine the tomatoes (with their liquid), basil, and the garlic that you have previously peeled and chopped (or crushed).
4) Spray a 9x13 glass cooking dish with non-stick spray.  In the dish layer half each of the pasta, sausage, mushroom (if you like to eat fungus), red pepper if you like them, Parmesan cheese, tomato mixture and mozzarella cheese.  Repeat layers. 
5)  Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until the mixture is hot and the cheese is golden brown. 

Winter Salad

Okay, this one is so easy and delecious

2 Pomegranates
5 Granny Smith Apples
1 C Whipping Cream
1/2 C Sugar 
1/2-3/4 C Milk chocolate chips

Prep:
 Chop the apples into small cubes, take the fruit out of the pomegranates, whip the cream with the 1/2 cup sugar.  

Assemble:
  Fold the whipping cream into the mixture of apple, pomegranate, and chocolate chips.

     Enjoy!

our weekly staple

Friday night is Pizza night at our house. We mostly stick with pepperoni and Canadian bacon or BBQ  chicken. Each week we modify the dough recipe because it is to dry or wet, sometimes sometimes to stiff, could be soggy when in comes out of the oven. But last night, we got it perfect! The dough was crispy, packed with flavor, it wasn't soggy at all. So, I thought I would share this with you.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 C warm water
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
3- 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon butter
dry oregano

What to do:

Whisk 1 cup warm water (105 degrees F) and the sugar in a bowl; sprinkle the yeast on top. Set aside until foamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in the olive oil.

If you have mixer that can handle bread dough just put all the dry ingredients in first, mix them up and than add the yeast, water and olive oil that you previously prepared. If not, don't dismay, you can do it by hand! (We did it for four months in Virginia, it turns our just as good.) Whisk the flour salt and oregano in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the yeast mixture. Gradually stir with a wooden spoon to make a rough dough. ( when you add the oregano, rub it around in your hands before it goes into the bowl. This helps to release some more of the flavors and helps to make sure you don't bite a big chunk.)

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes, dusting with more flour if necessary. Brush a separate large bowl with olive oil, add the ball of dough turn to coat with the oil. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 hour, 30 minutes. Shape as desired and roll out to a thickness of 1/4-inch. Transfer to the preheated pizza stone and bake until crispy and golden brown, usually 12 to 18 minutes (depending on the toppings). We do not use a pizza stone, but for an extra crispy crust it works great. For an extra bit of flavor we like to crush some garlic into olive oil, spread that on the dough and bake that for 5-7 minutes at 375 or 400. The first baking of the crust is crucial to making your pizza crust not soggy. When you pizza come out of the oven, lightly brush the crust with melted butter. yum!

A pulled pork experience for the ages

We had been in dire need of a new recipe.  As you will see in subsequent posts we eat a lot of chicken, and have found many uses for it.  We needed a new protein, and pork was a great option.  As we were grazing at Costco one day we ate some pretty great pulled pork.  We began to think that we could replicate it, and thus the quest began.  We bought a side of Boston Butt/Pork Butt on sale for $1.99/lb.  The pork weight (prior to cooking) was 2.5 lbs.  The seasoning for this is so simple you will think it isn't possible for it to be so good.  Just trust me. These measurements are estimates only, feel free to change the amounts as you wish.
       1 1/2 Tbs    Brown Sugar
       1 Tbs         Coarse salt
       1 tsp           Paprika
       1 tsp           Black Pepper


That's it.  Rub the butt the night before and put the frozen pork in the fridge.  The salt will help draw out some of the moisture which otherwise would create to much juice in the crock pot.(This is not to be done, however, when seasoning red meat as it will be far to dry.)   Put in crock pot.  Cook on low for 5-8 hours.  The extra time won't hurt it at all.  Shred (REMEMBER TO REMOVE THE BONE!) and put some of your favorite BBQ sauce in it.  If you take some out before applying the BBQ sauce, this is also a great meat for Tacos.  Serve on a toasted bun of your choice and enjoy!