Pizza Sunday! - Yummo!

I enjoy making things from scratch. Here's my latest effort. Home made pizza dough, sauce and all the fixen's:

Getting the Hang of the Weekend Kitchen

I spent yesterday in the kitchen. Spent the first hour or so cleaning it. Cleaning! It is remarkable to me how little time it takes a family of four to make a mess of the counters and kitchen table over night. I could have sworn it was clean when I went to bed...

In an effort to save money on store-bought snacks, I wanted to use things we had on hand to make something everyone would enjoy. A couple weeks ago a friend dropped off a half-dozen of home-grown lemons. Having used 4 of them over that time (I love a wedge in my Diet Coke - yum!) for various things - like baked fish one evening - we still have 2. So, thumbing through our various recipe books, I found a simple and quick Lemon Bread with Poppy Seeds. It was incredibly easy to make - but, sadly, it was so easy I didn't even need to use my new mixer. Sadness was all around, but passed quickly. Here's what it looked like (after the family decimated half of it!):


Next I turned my creative juices to thinking about dinner. We haven't had my Chicken Enchilada Verde in a long time. I really enjoy making this simple dish. On a chilly day it's truly a comfort meal. It's easiest when using left-over chicken from a previous meal. But, when you don't have left-overs, it's easy enough to bake a couple of oregano peppered chicken breasts until cooked through (about 30 minutes at 350°F), then cool and shred. I use onion, garlic and green chilies, Monterey jack cheese, corn tortillas and a Verde enchilada sauce. This time around I decided to try putting the enchiladas on a bed of rice before topping everything with the sauce and some of the cheese.

Turned out great. Sorry, no picture. It disappeared!

Family Recipe - Mmmmmm... Cookies!

Back in the olden days, before kids, when I could eat anything I wanted an not gain a pound, I used to make big batches of cookies. I'd take them to work and share with anyone who wanted to munch the delicious morsels.

Eventually, all good things shall pass. All I need to do is look at a cookies or cake and the pounds start multiplying - right onto my hips.

But, now we have two growing girls who love to bake. So I dusted off my recipe book where I wrote down my own modified recipes for future reference. The recipes have origins that may be well-known, or not. The fact is, I don't remember where the original recipes came from. I claim the modified food algorithms as my own, but who knows? If you see a recipe posted here that you recognize, please kindly let me know in the comment section. I will gladly give credit where credit is due!

Here is one of my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes. I am not one for pancake flat chocolate chip cookies. I like my cookies to have a bit of a chewiness and some substance. I'm the only one in the family who adores nuts, so if I want cookies with nuts, I usually make a 3rd of the recipe with them, and the rest is nut-free (unlike the inhabitants of our household).

Deboo's Yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 c. butter	5 c. blended oatmeal
4 c. flour	1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda	2 tsp baking powder
2 c. sugar	2 c. dark brown sugar
4 eggs	2 tsp vanilla
12 oz. chocolate chips	12 oz. white chocolate chips
3 oz. chopped macadamia nuts

(Recipe makes about 112 or so. Lots and lots of cookies. Freeze some dough for later... if you like.)

1. Measure oatmeal, then blend in food processor (or blender) until the oats turn into a fine powder. This is a must. If it's not a fine powder, you'll have oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. This is not what we're going for. Got that?
   
2. Cream butter and both sugars (you may substitute margarine for butter with no degradation in flavor or texture. It just works. )
3. Add eggs and vanilla to creamed sugar and butter mixture in previous step.
4. Now for the hard part: Thoroughly mix together flour, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
5. Done mixing? Rest your arm for about 4 minutes.
6. Now mix in all the chocolate chips. Once the chocolate chips are mixed in, and if you're going to divide the batter, this is when you do it, before adding the nuts. Divide and conquer - add the nuts to the batter and mix.
7. Roll into balls and place about 1-2" apart on the cookie sheet. I like to use baking parchment paper rather than greasing the pan. No muss, no fuss. Unless you don't have parchment on hand - then grease the pan with your favorite pan lubricant.
8. Bake for 10 minutes in a 375 degree oven.
9. Cool and enjoy!