A New Course

Throughout this blog's life I've focused on one thing: sharing recipes and the tricks I found useful when cooking. I used this blog half for myself (to keep records to help me later on), and to just share what I learned with whoever stops by to read. In retrospect, I have rarely touched on what was happening in my life. So much so that you all probably need to scroll to the top of the page every now and then to remember my name!

I would like to have this blog go beyond the new recipe I just found, or the old-favorite dish I just unearthed. I'm taking a new course in my life (career oriented), and I would like to write about it and hopefully you all will find it interesting, endearing, exciting, or just something that will rock your boat! OK, that sounded mysterious! Before I spill the beans, let me rewind a little bit and take you through the years leading up to this new endeavor of mine.

The blog, Sabbath Supper, was so named because when it first became public (March 1, 2009) I cooked one meal a week for the family: Sunday supper. I started cooking supper every Sunday in 2008 and didn't start the blog until the next year. I wanted to use the blog as a way to track all the new cooking skills I was learning. 

I didn't start to cook out of necessity (my step mom was an awesome home cook and have everything done like clock work), but to satisfy the urge to go in the kitchen, knock around a few spoons and measuring cups and create a meal that my large family would love. I remember when I was eleven or so, my two sisters and I acquired a set of pots and pans from a yard sale and started playing what we called "Experiments." Experiments usually was played out like this: we would gather various leaves, berries, bark, dirt, etc. and use them as we would ingredients in a kitchen. We would combine all or a few of these "naturally-sourced ingredients" in our set of pots and pans and stir them around with wooden spoons and serve them up on some old plastic plates, complete with fork and knife. We didn't eat a morsel, even though the choke berry "wine" looked tempting. But we had so much fun concocting these dishes, plating them up, and measuring out ingredients using our old pyrex measuring cup. Measuring must of been the best part, it always created the atmosphere of a true kitchen. 

So my first actual meal that I cooked for the family (besides the Cream of Mushroom Soup that I had done previously), was Chicken Argentina and Potato Parmesan. According to my blog post the chicken had lime and olives; it was good but, "...Not good enough for a repeat." The Potato Parmesan, which was technically mashed potatoes with parm thrown in, was the first time for me to use real potatoes when making mash. Overall, the meal turned out to be well received, even though it was 30 minutes late! I write a note about this: "Meat can take a lot longer than a recipe says." To this day, I agree.

Several weeks into this blog I joined the Food Network Challenge blog challenge. The members had to go through the long list of Food Network t.v. personalities, like Bobby Flay, Sunny Anderson, etc., and make one or more of their dishes each week. This challenge really got my cooking momentum going and made me go out and buy new ingredients that the family didn't typically eat, such as mushrooms, cream, fettucini, and so on. I remember this challenge to include some high, YES-I-CAN-COOK moments and some I-GIVE-UP moments. One very hard Sunday supper to prepare was oven baked chicken with homemade curly potato fries. Because I wanted to give myself a jump start on the supper that day, I prepared the curly fries in the morning and had them sit on a cookie sheet in the oven. Not a good idea. When I went back to turn on the oven, the fries had oxidized by then so they had an unappetizing brown color. I cooked them anyway, but only after having a good cry. Those potatoes were not the only thing. The chicken coating for the baked chicken was not adhering and whatever did stay on was so charred and hard by the time the chicken was cooked, it became almost inedible. I think that one brought the tears! My family is made up of troopers, and they ate every bite and told me they can't wait for next week. 

In 2010, cooking turned from hobby to necessity when my step mom started working again and someone needed to fill in for her. The first couple months were the hardest for me. I had to learn new recipes quickly and get two meals on the table each day. My family doesn't order in or go out to eat, so from-scratch meals are a daily occurrence and that means a lot of forethought. 2010 also brought grocery shopping. My step mom did all the shopping so I hadn't a clue about pricing, couponing, price-matching, and keeping everything stocked. Because if you do the food shopping you also do the paper towel, toothpaste, shampoo, and light bulb shopping that comes with it! You just can't get around that!

Even cooking every single day and doing the majority of the menu planning, grocery shopping, canning/freezing, etc., I felt like I wanted to cook more and learn more. Granted, I did feel burnt out at times, especially on Sundays (strangely enough!) but these moments didn't last for more than two days. I still enjoyed curling up with a good cook book, watching cooking shows on tv and youtube, and reading Cook's Country magazine.

The blog writing dwindled during this time because I just got way too busy with all the new things that had to be learned to run the house, to keep up with the farm and its never ending job list, and taking on side jobs like working at a summer camp. At this time I knew I had to seriously think about working towards a goal for myself as an individual, but I was unsure on what that goal was.

Then things took an unexpected turn when my stepmom became critically ill in 2013. She somewhat gained her health during the summer but fell ill once more in January 2014. She passed away the following month. My first mom, Susan, wasn't able to share with me her love of cooking before she passed when I was ten, but my stepmom, Annemarie, was happy to show me around the kitchen and share with me what she knew with her newly acquired home cooking skills. She cooked everyday and especially loved to bake. We're Catholic so she made sure to include a special dessert for every feast day of the year. I admit, I had to run to the calendar to find out what saint's feast it was that day when I saw that she was making a special cake or bread!

My step mom said that I had a lot of talents and I need to choose one of them and grow with it. A lot of different pursuits were floating in my head. I love to sew and knit so for a time I thought I should enter the field of design or fashion. I also like to help others on a physical level so humanitarian work entered my mind. Neither one of these I thought could work for me because, a.) I am more into the construction process of fashion design and not really the fashion scene, and b.) the humanitarian work would be for me very stressful and probably wouldn't be something I could do day after day.

But cooking was there. It had been there for such a long time and according to family, friends, and acquaintances, I was good at it. Could a career be made out of it? There is a demand for chefs, sous chefs, pastry chefs, personal chefs, caterers, and dietary chefs in almost every city in my area and throughout the state and beyond. Would a career in the food industry be something I can see myself doing? Yes. Technically, I've been in the food industry for a good long while because I've worked on my family's fruit and vegetable farm my entire life. I have a good grasp on what is fresh and what is in season. You can't help but be inspired to cook by growing your own food.

This long and drawn out story of mine brings me to what I wanted to state at the very beginning of this post. My entirely new life course is culinary school. Yes, I am going back to school! Its been awhile! I am twenty-five now and will be starting culinary school this coming January. I am going the Culinary Institute of Michigan (the CIM) located in downtown Muskegon. The CIM is connected with Baker College, which is right next door to Muskegon Community College. I am beyond excited to start!

I was able to take a tour of the campus earlier this month and visit both the Baker Campus as well as the CIM, which is located five minutes from the campus.

I would like to look at this post as a prelude to a series of posts. I am looking forward to writing about my experience through culinary school, from the weeks leading up to the first day to the final day of the final semester. There is so little information on the internet/literature about the culinary school experience; believe me I've looked. I wanted to know what I will be getting myself into! That is why I thought a series on this topic would help so many prospective students decide if a degree in such a field is something they want to do and can do. I know, of course, that the Culinary Institute of Michigan is not like all other culinary schools but I do believe it will be a good benchmark. Just gaining the "feel of the land" would be so helpful.

So in the upcoming posts I will be covering how I enrolled in the college, what degree I am shooting for, and all about the campus tour I took, which included free chocolate by the way! :) Hope to catch up with you all soon!

The Culinary Institute of Michigan building. Source.

Culinary school students at CIM observing a presentation given by visting chef, Sylvain Leroy. Source.

Tried and True Recipe: Ultimate Cheesecake

It's been awhile since my last Tried and True recipe so I thought it was high time to write up a post featuring this concept. For those who need a refresher, Tried and True Recipes (TNT) are those great, no-fail recipes you reach for again and again. I was doing a series of TNT recipes last year and so if you want to check those out, I will be including a compiled list with all the links at the end of this post.

The recipe that is highlighted today is the Ultimate Cheesecake. I've done this one before, as you might remember, and really is foolproof as you're going to get. Which is no easy feat when considering it is cheesecake. Cheesecake can have all sorts of issues: lumpy filling, crumbly crust, holes, etc. Not with this recipe!

I first came upon this recipe when I was watching Tyler Florence's show, Tyler's Ultimate, for the first time. (Yeah, I guess it's been awhile!) His recipe is called The Ultimate Cheesecake and is topped with a decadent blueberry and lemon sauce that is really, really good (I've tried it once). I didn't include the sauce in my recipe and I did change a few things, just because my TNT series is all about the recipe's simplicity. But if you are looking for a cheesecake with that extra something something, here's Tyler's original recipe.

Now onto my recipe!

Ultimate Cheesecake
click here for printable recipe
Serves: 8

Ingredients:

Crust:

2 cups finely ground graham crackers (about 30 squares)

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Filling:

1 pound cream cheese, 2 (8-ounce) blocks, softened

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 pint sour cream

1 dash vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 325F.

In a mixing bowl, combine the crust ingredients with a fork until evenly moistened. Lightly coat the bottom and sides of an 8-inch springform pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Pour the crumbs into the pan and, using the bottom of a measuring cup or the smooth bottom of a glass, press the crumbs down into the base and 1-inch up the sides. Refrigerate for 5 minutes.

For the Filling:

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese on low speed for 1 minute until smooth and free of any lumps. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and continue to beat slowly until combined. Gradually add sugar and beat until creamy, for 1 to 2 minutes.

Add sour cream and vanilla. Periodically scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beaters. The batter should be well-mixed but not overbeaten. Pour the filling into the crust-lined pan and smooth the top with a spatula.

Set the cheesecake pan on a large piece of aluminum foil and fold up the sides around it. Place the cake pan in a large roasting pan. Pour boiling water into the roasting pan until the water is about halfway up the sides of the cheesecake pan; the foil will keep the water from seeping into the cheesecake. Bake for 45 minutes. The cheesecake should still jiggle (it will firm up after chilling), so be careful not to overcook. Let cool in pan for 30 minutes. Chill in the refrigerator, loosely covered, for at least 4 hours. Loosen the cheesecake from the sides of the pan by running a thin metal spatula around the inside rim. Unmold and transfer to a cake plate. Enjoy!

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List of past TNT recipes:

TNT Recipe: Turkey Dressing
TNT Recipe: Mashed Potatoes
TNT Recipe: Pizza Buns
TNT Recipe: Chicago Style Pizza
TNT Recipe: Favorite Brownies
TNT Recipe: Blueberry Pancakes
Tried and True Recipes Intro

Chocolate Chip Cookies - My Favorite Recipe

Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes are plentiful. Many of them that find their way into cookbooks or internet recipe banks, are just a stepping stone away from the famous Toll House recipe. Some walk on the wild side and sneak in sour cream or oats or even pumpkin. (Yeah, intrigued about that last one.)

I've tried many, many different recipes. For a time the Toll House recipe was trending high on my favorite list but the recipe is always a hit and miss because the cookies sometimes spread when baking and create a thin cookie. Not what I want a lot of the time.

I wanted to try out another Chocolate Chip recipe to make a cookie that has a chewy exterior and soft interior and that doesn't spread, the last being top priority. I'm excited to announce that I found one! It turns out that it was right under my nose. Let me explain. . . I was baking my favorite Four-Way Fudge Brownie recipe one day and I was saying to my brother that the cookbook I was using (Better Homes and Garden Cookie Classics--the first cookbook that I ever owned), has AWESOME recipes. Not only do they have some really approachable cookie flavors (such as their White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies), the recipes never fail. They always turn out great. 

That made me thinking. . . How about the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe at the beginning of the book? There were so many recipe treasures in this book, the Chocolate Chip recipe could be a winner as well. And as I soon found out--it was. 

Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

click here for printable recipe

Yield: 50 cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup shortening

1 cup granulated sugar

2 cups brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoon vanilla

4 eggs

5 cups all purpose flour

2-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F.

In a large mixing bowl beat the butter and shortening with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat mixture until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in the vanilla. Follow with the eggs, drop in one at a time. Add flour and beat until dough just comes together. Beat in chocolate chips. 

Drop dough by rounded tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto lined baking sheet. (Line with either nonstick foil or parchment.) Using a #40 spring loaded ice cream scoop really makes this step go a lot faster. 

Bake cookies in a 375F oven for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; cool.

Watch and Bake

I filmed a how-to video on how to make these chocolate chip cookies. It is a really fun video to watch and hope you check it out before you turn on the mixer. :)

click on image to view video

Homemade Tuna Noodle Casserole (Without the Can!)

The condensed soups, be it tomato, chicken noodle, cream of this or cream of that, they all have personal recipe books to their name. Instead of choosing the pot o' soup route, you can take your condensed soup and make Southwest Chili or Garlic Chicken.

Or arguably the most famous condensed soup based recipe: Tuna Noodle Casserole.

Cream of mushroom soup, the star of the Tuna Noodle Casserole stage, was actually my favorite Campbell's soup when I was growing up. And it was one of the few meals that I could cook for the family when I was eleven. (Yeah, it was basically soup and cinnamon toast then!)

Using the cream of mushroom as a base for Tuna Noodle Casserole is always a fast and effortless way of pulling a casserole together, but sometimes this is not always possible. Such as last week. I proposed the idea of making Tuna Noodle Casserole that week and since we haven't had it in SUCH a long time, the family was getting kind of excited about the whole thing. I started check-boxing the ingredient list in my head. . . "So I will need peas. Check. Cheese. Check. Tuna, cheese, milk. Check, check, check. Think I'm all set. Wait a minute. I don't have any cream of mushroom soup. Actually no cream of soup at all!"

I just couldn't bring myself to burst the Tuna Noodle Casserole bubble for the family so I scoured the internet searching for a recipe that didn't include the "can." I found one at "Sing for Your Supper Blog." It it not your traditional Tuna Noodle. It uses spaghetti, olives, canned mushrooms, etc. Not many flavors or textures the family would like. But the recipe has good bones, especially when speaking of the roux. So I took some components from this recipe, added a few of mine and produced a casserole that we think is better than the Campbell version. And hey, making Tuna Noodle Casserole from scratch also means less salt and the sometimes "chalky" aftertaste you get from a canned soup. Not a bad comeback!

Homemade Tuna Noodle Casserole
click here for printable recipe

Yield: One 5 quart casserole

Prep Time: 1 hour
Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. jumbo elbow macaroni (use any pasta shape you like!)
2 cups chicken stock (I use chicken bouillon cubes. To make: Drop in two cubes into two cups boiling water. Boil until cubes have dissolved)
4 medium onions
1/2 stick butter
5 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons dried parsley
1 quart frozen peas (I use whole sugar snap peas. Alternatively, you can use two 15 oz. cans of shelled peas)
2 cans chunk white tuna (5 oz. cans)
2 cups shredded cheddar or monterey jack cheese
2 packets of Ritz crackers, crushed (Tip: Put two Ritz cracker packets into plastic bag and crush by hand until crumbs resemble large bread crumbs)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F. Boil 4 quarts water in 6 quart pot. In the meantime, chop onions into small dice. Add macaroni to pot and boil until fully cooked (around 11 minutes). Drain pot and pour cooked pasta into separate bowl. Return pasta pot to medium-high burner and add 1/2 stick butter. As soon as butter is melted add onions, salt, and pepper. Put lid on pot and cook onions until softened, about 10 minutes. Next, add 5 tablespoons flour to onions, stir vigorously and cook onion-flour paste for 2 minutes. Slowly begin adding chicken stock and milk to pot and stir continuously. Simmer until thickened. As soon as liquid has thickened, add in dried parsley, salt, pepper, cooked macaroni, frozen peas, tuna, and cheese. Bring pot to a simmer. Pour tuna noodle mixture into casserole dish that has been either buttered or sprayed with nonstick spray. Pour a little milk at the sides of the dish to prevent a dry casserole. Top casserole with cracker topping. Place dish into oven and bake for 10 minutes or until cracker topping is slightly brown. To avoid an overly browned topping, top casserole with aluminum foil and return to oven to cook for an additional 30 minutes. Look for a ready casserole that is golden brown and bubbling around the edges. Enjoy!


Watch and Cook

I also filmed a how-to video on this Tuna Noodle Casserole of mine. Be sure to watch it before you tie on your apron!

click the image to see the video

Tried and True Recipe: Turkey Dressing

No, there is no turkey in this dressing. It just earned such a title because it is the perfect choice for a turkey dinner, or a pork dinner, or a chicken dinner. You'll be making up excuses to have this side make its way into the menu plan. The family had a turkey dinner the other Thursday (who said turkey is once a year?), so I jumped on the opportunity to whip out the camera and get a few shots of this tried and true recipe that goes back decades.

Tried and True Recipes (TNT) are those great, no-fail recipes you reach for again and again. I am doing a TNT series here on this blog where I will post one of my family's TNT recipes every other Sunday. See my previous posts:

TNT Recipe: Mashed Potatoes
TNT Recipe: Pizza BunsTNT Recipe: Chicago Style Pizza
TNT Recipe: Favorite Brownies
TNT Recipe: Blueberry Pancakes
Tried and True Recipes Intro

When I was a kid and Thanksgiving came along, I didn't care much for the turkey part (save for the skin!), or the veggies. What I couldn't wait for was the dressing. Yes, it's true that I probably ate most of the canned cranberry sauce in Jell-o form, too, but dressing was my all time favorite. It still remains high on my list and the cranberry sauce? Canned is good, homemade is great!

As I said earlier, our dressing recipe goes back decades and was first introduced into the holiday food lineup by my grandmother, Gertrude. 

[ recipe binder that includes some of my grandmother's recipes ]

So want to see this dressing I've been raving about? 

The recipe starts off with you browning bacon bits, removing them from the pan and leaving most of the fat behind. Make sure you cut your bacon fine.

After chopping up an onion and some garlic cloves, you throw them into the pan and let them cook until translucent. Follow up with cup-after-cup of milk (6 in all!), eggs, and poultry seasoning. Next is the saltines, crushed and grounded until they resemble a tuna noodle casserole topping. Once the saltines have soaked up most of the milk and are looking more and more like oatmeal, you add in the bacon bits you rendered earlier. You cook this until most of the moisture is gone and the dressing is sticking to the bottom of the pan. Yes, stick. 

May look like the dishwasher will have a hassle later on but you can avoid breaking out the elbow grease. When the meal is done and no dressing is to be seen, add water to the pan and let it simmer for a few minutes (like 5). Come back and scrape up the sticky, dressing bits with a spatula. You'll be surprised on how easily the bits come off the bottom!

OK, onto the recipe!

Turkey Dressing

Serves: 6-8 

(for printable recipe click here)

Ingredients:

20 slices of bacon

1 medium onion, chopped fine

4 garlic cloves, minced

6 cups milk

4 eggs, scrambled

1-1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning

4 packs of Saltine crackers, crushed and grounded 

salt and pepper

Directions:

Cut the bacon crosswise, into small bits. Try cutting partially frozen bacon, it is easier to handle. Add bacon to a large skillet or dutch oven and cook until browned. Remove bacon from pan. Drain away some of the fat if need be. Make sure you are left with 4 or so tablespoons.

Throw in onions and garlic and cook until translucent. Add in milk, eggs, poultry seasoning, and finally, crackers. As soon as the cracker mixture begins to look like oatmeal, add back in the bacon bits. Cook, stirring often, until most of the moisture is gone and dressing is sticking to bottom of pan. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

For easy pan cleanup: add some water to pan, let simmer for five minutes, and scrape stuck-on, dressing bits using a spatula.

 

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See you on May 5th!

 

Tried and True Recipe: Mashed Potatoes

Rice, noodles, bread, and potatoes are my family's usual "starch choices" for a meal. Potatoes must rank as #2 in the lineup for I seem to be always scrubbing and chopping those spuds. So for this week's tried and true recipe I thought it was high time I showed you how we make mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes can be prepared many, many different ways. Cream or milk. Skinned or skin on. Red potatoes or russets. Whipped or mashed. OK, I think you get the picture!

Tried and True Recipes (TNT) are those great, no-fail recipes you reach for again and again. I am doing a TNT series here on this blog where I will post one of my family's TNT recipes every other Sunday. See my previous posts:

TNT Recipe: Pizza Buns

TNT Recipe: Chicago Style Pizza
TNT Recipe: Favorite Brownies
TNT Recipe: Blueberry Pancakes
Tried and True Recipes Intro

For our mashed potatoes, we keep things thrifty and simple. We use milk, butter, skin-on red potatoes (usually), and salt and pepper for seasoning. When it comes to the mashing part, we grab for either the "ye old" potato masher or the hand-held electric beater, it really depends on the cook.

There are a couple things you should keep in the back of your mind when cooking up a pot of mashed potatoes. First off, when boiling your potatoes, cut the potatoes in quarters; it will make them cook a lot faster. Also, make sure your potatoes are fork tender (fall apart when you stab them with a fork), before you drain and start mashing. Mashed potatoes with chunks of raw potatoes. . . Ek. Lastly, go a little adventurous with the salt. I've noticed that you need to use more salt than you initially think when it comes to this side dish. OK, let's get to the recipe!

Simple Mashed Potatoes

Serves: 6

(Click here for printable recipe)

Ingredients:
2-1/2 lbs., or 16 medium-sized, potatoes (I often use red skinned potatoes)
6 tbsp. butter
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper

Directions:
Wash and clean potatoes. Leaving the skins on, cut potatoes in quarters or halves, depending upon the size. Place potatoes in a 4 quart pot and fill with water until potatoes are covered. Put on high heat and bring to boil. Boil for 30 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender, (potatoes full apart when you stab them with a fork).

Drain potatoes and return to pot. While potatoes are still piping hot, mash with potato masher. Before the potatoes are fully mashed, add butter and milk. Add more milk if the mixture looks too dry. If you want, you can use an handheld electric beater at this time to whip up your mashed potatoes. Alternatively, you can continue using your potato masher. Finally, add salt and pepper to taste.

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See you in two weeks!  Next TNT recipe will be posted on the 21st.

Tried and True Recipe: Pizza Buns

Back again this weekend to share with you yet another pizza recipe! 

So the tried and true recipe for this week is Pizza Buns. Tried and True Recipes (TNT) are those great, no-fail recipes you reach for again and again. I am doing a TNT series here on this blog where I will post one of my family's TNT recipes every other Sunday. See my previous posts:  

TNT Recipe: Chicago Style Pizza
TNT Recipe: Favorite Brownies
TNT Recipe: Blueberry Pancakes
Tried and True Recipes Intro

This recipe, simply put, is a pizza done cinnamon roll/jelly roll style. Don't worry, it's not one of those fiddly yeast dough recipes that require great skill in dough manipulation. May not be as easy to make as the Chicago Style pizza from last week, but it is, in my opinion, easier to make (and bake), than the traditional flat, circular pizza pie. I have found through my experiences that it is not always easy to roll and stretch out pizza dough to a large and thin circular object. Main cause of this is not giving the dough enough time to rest and have the gluten relax--and time is not something I always have. So with these pizza rolls, the dough needs just a short spurt of rising (for me, 50 minutes on average in a warm kitchen), before rolling it out into a shape that resembles a rectangle. It needn't be exact, because jelly rolls through their nature, always turn out beautifully, even if they start with rather poor aesthetics.

So after rolling out the dough to a rectangular shape, you spread out your filling. In my case I used ground Italian pork sausage that was browned and cooled beforehand. Follow this with a few handfuls of mozzarella, and we're good. Taking a long side, roll the dough into a log just as you would your traditional jelly roll. Seal the edges with a bit of water; it is not a sticky dough in the first place and it needs some help in the adhesive department. Using a knife, cut twelve rolls from each log.   

[ rolls with sausage and cheese filling rising for the 2nd time ]

[ I chose to do six of them with only cheese ]

After another short rise (twenty minutes or so), and fifteen minutes of baking in a 350F oven, take out the rolls and give them a good dollop of homemade pizza sauce. I would say two large dollops per roll. I think "dollop" terms do help. Should be placed right alongside "pinch." 

And of course more cheese! Place rolls back in the oven and bake for fifteen minutes more. Before you take them out you may want to do what I do to get a nice golden brown cheese topping. (I love crispy cheese!) I like to turn on the broiler and broil until I see the right amount of golden brown. Takes only but a few minutes more and I think it is well worth the extra time. If you try to achieve golden brown cheese delight by way of extended baking at 350F, your pizza bun bottoms will be past satisfactory by the time the cheese catches up. Believe me, I've been there.

So without further ado. . .

Pizza Buns

Recipe comes from the King Arthur Flour website. See it here.

(Click here for printable recipe)

Buns

• 1/2 cup milk
• 2/3 cup hot tap water
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 4 teaspoons Pizza Dough Flavor,* optional but good
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 tablespoons Baker's Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk
• 2 tablespoons potato flour or 1/4 cup instant potato flakes
• 3 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• *Increase the salt to 1 1/2 teaspoons if you omit the Pizza Dough Flavor

Filling

• 1 1/2 lb. Italian sausage, removed from casing, crumbled, and fried
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese, or the pizza cheese of your choice

Topping

• 1 cup pizza sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Pizza Seasoning, optional
• 2 teaspoons sugar, optional
• 3 cups shredded mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese, or the pizza cheese of your choice

Directions

1) Whisk together the milk, hot water, and olive oil. The hot water should heat the milk so that the entire mixture is lukewarm. Set it aside.

2) In a separate, larger bowl, whisk together the salt, Pizza Dough Flavor, sugar, dry milk, potato flour, all-purpose flour, and yeast.

3) Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring to combine.

4) Mix and knead the mixture — by hand, using a stand mixer, or in a bread machine — to make a smooth, soft dough.

5) Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl or a large (8-cup) measuring cup, cover it, and allow it to rise till doubled, 60 to 90 minutes.

6) Gently deflate the dough, and transfer it to a lightly greased work surface.

7) Roll the dough into a 12" x 18" rectangle.

8) Spread evenly with the 1 cup cheese, and the browned sausage, gently pressing them into the dough.

9) Starting with a short end, roll the dough into a log. Cut the log into 12 pieces.

10) Space the rounds on two parchment-lined or lightly greased baking sheets, six to a sheet. Flatten each to about 1/2" thick.

11) Cover the pan, and allow the buns to rise for 60 to 90 minutes, till they're nicely puffed. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.

12) Bake the buns for 15 minutes. While the buns are baking, combine the tomato sauce with the Pizza Seasoning and 2 teaspoons sugar, if you're using them.

13) Remove the buns from the oven, and brush each with a generous tablespoon of sauce. Sprinkle with about 1/4 cup shredded cheese.

14) Return the buns to the oven, and bake until their edges are golden brown, and the cheese is melted, about 15 to 20 minutes.

15) Remove from the oven, and serve warm. Store any leftovers in the refrigerator. Reheat for about 10 minutes, covered, in a 350°F oven; or very briefly in a microwave.

Yield: 12 pizza buns.

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Come back on April 7th for another tried and true recipe!

Tried and True Recipe: Chicago-Style Pizza

My family loves pizza. I've tried many different variations throughout the years, from BBQ Chicken Pizza to Ciabatta Bread Pizza. We like any version really but one does stand out in regards to being flavor-packed and easy to make. You may remember me mentioning it last year; it is the Chicago-Style Garlic and Butter Pizza. Made it so often that it has become the Tried and True Recipe of the Pizza World; for this house anyway! 

Tried and True Recipes (TNT) are those great, no-fail recipes you reach for again and again. I am doing a TNT series here on this blog where I will post one of my family's TNT recipes every other Sunday. See my previous posts:

TNT Recipe: Favorite Brownies

TNT Recipe: Blueberry Pancakes

Tried and True Recipes Intro

So this is what the pizza looks like:

13x9 pan! Yay! Makes it so much easier to do. If you have a Pyrex dish of some sort you might want to make the pizza in that. It allows you to take a peek of the bottom while cooking to make sure it is not too under or over browned.

So here is the recipe and a side note to go with it. It is not necessary to use garlic and butter in the crust. The garlic can be completely omitted (which I did once and it still was tasty), and vegetable or olive oil can be substituted for the butter.

Update: I modified the following recipe on 4/14/13 to make it closer to what I personally do.

Chicago-Style Garlic and Butter Pizza Crust

Yield: One 13x9 pan / Click here for printable recipe

• 1 (2-1/4 tsp.) package active dry yeast
• 1-1/4 cups lukewarm water (110F - 115F)
• 3-1/4 cups flour, plus more for dusting (Try using half bread flour; makes for a chewy crust)
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 tbsp. butter
• 4 garlic cloves, minced 
• pizza toppings, your choice (What I Did: My toppings were homemade pizza sauce--tomato sauce, dried basil, salt and pepper, sugar--mozzarella cheese, sliced bell peppers lightly sauteed, and browned, Italian pork sausage)

Directions:

1. In a measuring cup, dissolve yeast with 1-1/4 cups lukewarm water and sugar. Wait until yeast starts to "bloom" or create foam. 

2. In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add garlic to butter and cook on medium heat until fragrant. Move from heat. 

3. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, and salt. Stir in yeast mixture. Add butter and garlic mixture.

4. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until soft and elastic, about 5 minutes. Lightly grease a large bowl, add the dough and turn to coat. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

4. Deflate dough. Grease a 13x9" baking dish and press in dough to cover bottom and 2 inches up the sides; let rise for 20 minutes. While waiting for dough to rise, preheat over to 400F.

5. Top pizza dough with your favorite toppings and bake for 30 minutes.

Tried and True Recipe: Favorite Brownies

Whenever a recipe allows me to spend fifteen minutes prepping, thirty minutes baking, zero to three minutes cooling, and all done with a 13x9 pan, well, let's just say that the recipe print out or cookbook page quickly becomes crumbled and stained by multiple use. I love this type of recipe because advance planning is not necessary and I wind up with a dessert in under an hour. Oh, and don't forget that 13x9 pan tagline. I don't know why but whenever I see the 13x9 pan as recommended hardware in the recipe, everything seems so much more doable. 

Now onto my promised Tried and True Recipe for today. Tried and True Recipes (TNT) are those great, no-fail recipes you reach for again and again. I am doing a TNT series here on this blog where I will post one of my family's TNT recipes every other Sunday. See my previous posts:

TNT Recipe: Blueberry Pancakes

Tried and True Recipes Intro

Actually, this time I will be sharing two recipes, each being a recipe for a brownie. And yes, they come together in no time and 13x9 pans are in your future.

The recipes are called "Best Butterscotch Brownies" and "Four-Way Fudge Brownies." Sounds yummy, huh? So you can better picture them in your mind. . .

I could take credit for these moist, chewy, fudgy, butterscotch-y brownies, but I shouldn't. My sister Catherine baked these and did a mighty fine job. They tasted better than usual! 

What I really like about these butterscotch brownies is that no butterscotch chips are used. Brown sugar and butter heated together is what gives them their flavor. To me, butterscotch in chip form leaves a metallic aftertaste so not too fond of them. Another highlight for these brownies is how well they travel. Great lunchbox choice.

I tried a lot of different chocolate brownies before I found the Four-Way Fudge Brownies recipe. With a lot of the recipes I found the chocolate to be prominent, but the brownie's chewiness was always an issue. They always turned out more crisp than I wanted them to be. Up until last year when I found the Four-Way Fudge Brownies, I thought boxed brownies were the best. Yeah, I was that far from brownie bliss.

Onto the recipes!

Best Butterscotch Brownies 

(click here for printable version)

source: www.cdkitchen.com

Ingredients:

2 cups light brown sugar

1-1/2 sticks butter, melted

2 eggs

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

Melt sugar and butter together. Cool. Add eggs. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and vanilla together. Add to other mixture. Mix well. Bake in greased 13x9 pan at 350F for 30 minutes.

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Four-Way Fudge Brownies

(click here for printable version)

source: Better Homes and Garden cookbook, out of print

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, cut up

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1-1/3 cups flour

Directions:

Grease a 13x9 pan and set aside. In a medium saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat. Remove from heat. Stir in sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat lightly by hand just until combined. Stir in flour.

Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake brownies in a 350F oven for 30 minutes. 

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Next TNT recipe will be posted on March 10!

Tried and True Recipe: Blueberry Pancakes

Here's the premiere post of my brand new blog series: Tried and True Recipes. TNT recipes are those great, no-fail recipes that you reach for again and again. See my previous post to learn more. 

Homemade blueberry pancakes have been a staple for my family for years. They are the pinnacle of Sunday brunches and most recently, Friday lunches, as we abstain from meat on this day of the week. Add the fact that we grow and freeze our own blueberries and you have one spectacular pancake. We typically reach for the Bisquick mix to make pancakes, but last year I found a wonderful pancake recipe from Annemarie's famous Betty Crocker cook book from 1950. According to Pinterest, this is one popular cook book! Recipe follows photos. . .

Blueberry Pancakes

(click here for printable recipe)

Ingredients: 

1 egg

1-1/4 cups buttermilk

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. sugar

2 tbsp. soft butter

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 to 1/3 cup frozen blueberries

Directions:

In a bowl, combine eggs, milk, and baking soda. Beat until foamy. Beat in flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, and salt. Make sure you don't over beat. Pour frozen blueberries in (don't bother rinsing them unless you see ice), and stir gently with a spoon. 

Heat griddle and grease with butter. Here's a tip on how to grease: take a stick of butter straight from the fridge and unwrap it at one end. Using the other end as a handle, slide the butter stick over the entire surface of the griddle. Place butter back in fridge until you have to grease again. Using a ladle, pour batter on hot griddle. Test and adjust amount of batter you need for a pancake in your preferred diameter. (Hey, every family is different. Some like it big, others small!) Once the pancakes' edges are firm and you see large bubbles in the middle, it is time to flip. First, use a large spatula to cut and separate the pancakes that are touching, then flip! 

As soon as the other side is brown the pancakes are ready to eat. You can have them right off the griddle or you can place them in a warm, glass baking dish and put them in a warm oven. They will be still nice and butter-melting-warm when it's time to eat!

Yield: 16 4" pancakes.

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Next TNT recipe will be posted on February 24!