The most from scratch pizza EVER

 

A good ol pizza party with some lovely friends + a pizza pinata

 

 

 Since we made homemade cheese we decided to go all the way and make an all from scratch pizza for when our friends came over for dinner. So dough, cheese, sauce all from scratch. Sadly we don't know how to make pepperoni yet :(

 

Whole wheat pizza dough:

4 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbs sugar

2 tsp sea salt

3 cups white wheat flour

1 cup white flour

 

1   sprinkle yeast over warm water and let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes

2   mix olive oil, sugar and salt into yeast mixture

3   in a large bowl combine flours

4   pour yeast mixture over flours and stir with a wooden spoon until combined

5   grease a large bowl and place dough inside, cover with a towel

6   put in warm dry place for an hour to rise

7   separate dough into 2 balls and knead each one a few times on a floured surface

8   use immediately or cover and place in fridge for a few days or freezer for up to 3 months

 

 

homemade cheese that we made a few days ago, the little add ins

 made it super tasty, and it melted really well

 

I love love vodka tomato sauce! LOVE IT, so I wanted to give making it a try but then Trader Joe's only had a very random assortment of tomatoes so I grabbed the last of the cherry tomatoes, some heirloom mini tomatoes, and yellow tomatoes on the vine (random but if you saw the options you'd have done it too) O man o man was this sauce delicious!

 

Vodka cream tomato sauce:

 

4 cups tomatoes cherry tomatoes (or assortment similar)

1 onion; roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1/2 cup Vodka

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 tsp salt

1   preheat oven to 425 degrees F and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil

2   scatter the tomatoes and onion on baking sheet and throw on the garlic cloves

3   roast for 25-30 minutes, tomatoes should start to brown a little

4   toss it all in the blender and mix well

5   in a large saucepan add vodka, cream, tomato mixture, and salt

6   bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium low stirring often for about 15 minutes

and then devour it!

 

We rolled out our dough, slathered on our sauce and topped it all with mushrooms, zucchini, prosciutto, homemade mozzarella slices and basil. Baked in oven at 385 degress F for about 10-12 minutes. It was pretty darn tasty.

And then since our friend Kenneth turned another year older but is going on a year long adventure very soon we made him a pizza piñata filled with Asian candies for his birthday (consumable goods our favorite gifts) We thought it might be hard to break open, I taped it up pretty good, but hey him and his rolling pin batton killed it and candy scattered throughout the apartment. Loved it!

Stuffed Peppers, Perogies, Chicken Alfredo, Skyline Dip

 

So here is some more crazy tasty food that we've been (I've been) creating lately.

1      stuffed peppers I used the linked recipe for how to cook them but I didn't really follow the ingredients. I put feta cheese in with the meat, red onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin, and I put oil and salsa on top and then grated on asiago cheese. We added more salsa later because it added really fantastic flavor.

Josh love love loved these.

2      perogies we made shitake mushroom, from our farmer's market, and garlic ones the first night and then later made spinach and chicken perogies. We used pre-made won ton doughs and then I made a white wine sauce to drizzle on top of them. They were so easy and fun to make together.

3      more pizza- a staple at our little apartment. This time with basil, roma tomato, pesto, kalamata olives, onion, garlic, oil pizza

4      homeade chicken alfredo with fresh made noodles from Trader Joe's and I used a recipe my sister and brother got from foods class in high school. Now my family uses it all the time. And I've never had fresh pasta before but man o man was it worth it. It cooks to perfect al dente and doesn't disappoint.
4 chicken breasts
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp. salt
2 tbs. cream cheese
2/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 pint heavy cream
1 tsp. garlic powder
broccoli or mushrooms
fettuccine noodles

1   Melt butter in saucepan, add cream cheese
2   When softened add heavy cream
3   Add seasonings and simmer 15-20 minutes over low heat, stir frequetly
4   Put oil in another saucepan and cook chicken throughly then add broccoli or mushrooms and saute
     until cooked
5   Boil water and cook pasta
6   Serve noodles with sauce and top with chicken and veggies

5      Skyline dip with the leftovers from when we made it a few weeks ago and froze some. YAY it was like eating home :)
Use skyline leftovers or a can of it - Seattlites regular chili won't work I promise!
Spread 8oz cream cheese on bottom of a dish until even
put skyline over cream cheese
sprinkle or douse top in shredded cheddar cheese
put in oven or microwave until cheese is melted and chili is hot
eat with tortilla chips!
I dream about cooking and obsess over food blogs. Thank you to everyone who gave us kitchen stuff I'm putting it all to good use. I even use the sifter Josh swears I don't need haha

Happy Friday we're off biking to Ballard for some gelato and snacks!

Chocolate Caramel Pocket Cookies, Black & White Cupcakes, Caprese, Dimply Plum Cake

I love to cook, more specifically I love baking. I made a chocolate hazelnut cake and then Josh had to tell me I was banned from baking until we made friends we could give it to (he's right, the 2 of us should not eat a whole cake alone!) So I've started to have more fun with our dinners. I think we eat pizza 2 nights a week but we put on kalamata olives, roma tomatoes, pesto, fresh mozzarella, basil, prosciutto and such- they look fancy.

1      chocolate caramel pocket cookies
Josh took these to work, they were a hit

2      pizza! with Trader Joe's pizza dough
3      black and white cupcakes- always been a crowd favorite, I like to make them in mini cupcake pans too because then they are bite size! 
4      Polenta, green beans, onions, asiago cheese crisps- so easy to make
put a little butter in a sauce pan and melt.
Then sprinkle grated asiago cheese in a circle
Let cook until it browns and flip to other side.
Then take out and place on plate to cool and harden (30 seconds)
You can also drape it over the bottom of a bowl so it dries in a shape!!!!
5     caprese, favorite snack
slice up 2-3 roma tomatoes (or regular one's I'm biased to roma)
slice mozzarella approximately 1/4" slices
either lay them to look like finger food seperate snacks or lay them tomato, mozzarella, basil, ....
Then drizzle evoo (extra virgin olive oil) over it and add a little salt & pepper
6      dimply plum cake- we couldn't decide which type of plum so we bought 3. This was really tasty and it is a coffee cake so we took it for breakfast all week. AH seriously so good. As we were walking to the store to buy plums so I could make it Joshua informed me it is one of his favorite fruits. So then we exchanged childhood stories about how we ate messy plums and such. We really liked this one, will make again!

Mallorie gave me this apron for one of my bridal showers. I frequently wear it when baking because I'm definitively one of those messy bakers! Drives Josh crazy because he hates crumbs :) I Always clean up though!!

Thursday is date night!

 Last night Joshua and I both had just worked 12 hour days and couldn't wait to get out and find some good food and hang out with just each other. We have had Thursday as date night for a long time. In Cincinnati it was the only night of the week we were guaranteed to see each other. Now we're married :) and we see each other every night. Therefore now date night is a great chance for us to explore the food in Seattle together. We have both worked a lot this week and date night last night was so needed and so relaxing. It was Joshua's turn to plan and he found a place that had $4 champagne and the kind of pizza we love- thinner crust with lots of fresh fun toppings and cooked in a brick fire oven. The Mona's had open windows and great food and our server was from Ohio! It was a warm night and it was fantastic!

I tried the hair-do out from Rockstar Diarie's Naomi

New favorite so easy!