Pizza A La Fridge Clean Out

Ah, the forgiving pizza crust. Add whatever to it, cover it in cheese, bake, and you've got dinner! Tonight's crust is another generous recipe from Sydni. It has been my favorite homemade recipe yet and it was so very quick and easy. Truly, I made this pizza faster than it could have been delivered. And the best part? I used a bunch of leftovers for toppings. Half a grilled chicken breast, chopped tomatoes, leftover basil, red onion, capers, a bit of olive salad, fresh spinich from today's LPO box. It was good. And don't worry if you don't have spaghetti sauce. Just brush the entire crust with olive oil and chopped garlic instead.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups flour ( I use one c. fresh ground whole wheat, one c. unbleached white)
3/4 cup warm water
1 T. yeast
1 t. sugar
1 T. olive oil
1/2 t. salt
1 T. parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

In large mixing bowl fitted with dough hook, dissolve the yeast and sugar in 1/4 c. of warm water. Let the mixture sit 5 minutes until yeast has expanded and is bubbly. Add flour, oil, salt, and cheese to the mixture. Turn on the mixer and mix and knead the ingredients adding the remaining water until the dough scrapes the sides of the bowl and you have a smooth and elastic ball of dough. (You may need to add water 1 T. at at time until dough cleans the sides of the bowl.) Place dough ball on greased baking sheet turning over once to grease the top of the dough. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let the dough rest 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. After dough has rested, shape into desired pizza shape. Add toppings, brush crust with olive oil and bake for 18 minutes.

Sydni's Favorite Whole Wheat Bread

Let me begin by saying that this bread is good. Real good. And not just in the "fresh from the oven" sense. This bread is good because my very kind friend, Sydni, ground the wheat berries for me so I could try fresh whole wheat flour. WHOA! Not just a little difference, a HUGE difference. I mean really, really big! Enough of a difference to make a girl want to buy her own wheat grinder and ship in the wheat berries all the way from Montana!

In case you don't have access to a wheat grinder, or a kind friend who does, just substitute any good whole wheat flour. I'm partial to King Arthur or Gold's but whatever will work. Also, the Vital Wheat Gluten can be found in the baking isle of most grocery stores and health food stores. I found mine next to the cornstarch, flour and yeast at my local Wal-Mart. Gotta love Wal-Mart!

Fresh from the oven!

We ate ours warm with butter and honey

INGREDIENTS:
2 and 1/2 cups warm water
7 to 8 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup oil
1/4 cup honey
2 t. salt
2 T. vital wheat gluten
1 T. yeast

DIRECTIONS:

In large mixing bowl, combine water, oil, honey, salt, and gluten. Don't turn on your mixer. Float 3 cups of flour and sprinkle yeast on top of flour "raft"; turn mixer on low speed and add remaining flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Knead the dough for 5 to 10 minutes. When the dough is smooth and elastic shape into 24 rolls or 2 loaves. Place in greased pans. Let the dough rise until doubled in size--about 1 hour. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven. Bake loaves for 30 -35 minutes. Let bread cool and remove from pans. Try not to buy your own wheat grinder and ship in wheat berries from Montana.

Peanut Butter Brownies

One of my best friend's mom used to make us peanut butter brownies when we were in high school. They were amazing, just like Momma Marge. These are in honor of her and all the goodies she used to bake us!

INGREDIENTS:
2/3 cup Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon espresso powder*

1 cup peanut butter chips

3 large eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons water or brewed coffee*

1/4 cup melted peanut butter

*Cut the espresso powder to 2 teaspoons, and use water instead of coffee, if you’re not a mocha (coffee and chocolate) fan.

DIRECTIONS:
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugars, salt, flour, espresso powder, and chips. Add the eggs, oil, and water or coffee, mixing just until smooth. Spoon the mixture into a lightly greased 8 x 8-inch or 9 x 9-inch square pan, smoothing the top. Pour melted peanut butter on top and swirl into batter. Bake the brownies in a preheated 350°F oven for about 35 minutes, or 45 minutes (for an 8 x 8-inch pan). Place the pan of brownies on a cooling rack, and allow them to cool for 1 hour before slicing.

Potato Crust Swiss Chard and Mushroom Quiche

Another LPO vegetable recovery recipe. I confess, the potatoes used for the crust were actually starting to sprout little green shooters! I still can't believe I actually used them. I guess what doesn't kill ya....

While very good, this recipe was a little more time consuming than I would be willing to commit to on a Saturday morning. I ended up making it on Friday and just reheating slices the next morning. A few things to watch out for are burning the top of your crust (like me!). If I could do things over, I would probably wrap the crust in tin foil once it started to brown. Also, make sure you taste as you are seasoning. There a lot of bland ingredients going into this pie and you definitely don't want a bland finish.

POTATO CRUST:
1/2 cup grated onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup flour
4 or 5 potatoes, peeled

FILLING:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bunch of swiss chard
1 package sliced mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup grated grated cheddar cheese
5 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 450°F. Grease a 9- or 10-inch deep-dish pie pan. Set up a strainer over a bowl. Grate the onions into the strainer, and drain for 10 minutes, pressing out the extra liquid. When the onions are drained, transfer them to a bowl and combine them with the salt, thyme and flour. Grate the potatoes into the strainer. Press out any extra liquid, then combine with the onion mixture, mixing to combine. Pat the mixture into pie pan and up the sides. Bake for 25 minutes to let the steam escape. After 25 minutes, brush the potatoes with oil, then bake for 15 minutes more, until the edges are golden brown. Remove from the oven and turn the oven temperature to 350°F.

While the crust is baking, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chopped swiss chard and mushrooms and cook until the chard is wilted, and the mushrooms give up their liquid and it cooks away (you don't want the vegetables to be juicy). Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the vegetables to the baked crust, and sprinkle the cheese evenly on top. Whisk the eggs, milk and Worcestershire together, and pour slowly over the vegetables. Return the quiche to the oven and bake for another 25 to 30 minutes, until the center is set. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before slicing. Serve warm.

LPO Zucchini Bread

Our house was down and out with the flu last week and as a result most of our LPO box went uncooked. So yesterday, in an effort to use up some of our veggies before they spoiled, I spent the afternoon baking and cooking. One of the veggie recipes I used was for zucchini bread. Super simple, extremely good and I always have all the ingredients on hand! While I usually just sprinkle the top and bottom with granulated sugar as soon as it comes out of the oven (a trick from my mom-in-law) this time I tried a streusal topping. Either way you decide to go, it's tasty!

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini

OPTIONAL STREUSAL:
1/2 cup regular oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Combine and sprinkle over batter before cooking

DIRECTIONS:
Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans. Add streusal topping*
Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, sprinkle with sugar** and completely cool.

Double Butterscotch Cookies

In honor of the new Butterscotch Eclair at our favorite date "spot," I have been dabbling with butterscotch in baking recently. I'm ashamed to say that up to this point I have only ever made the Hershey's Oatmeal Scotchie. While it's one of Jer's favorite cookies, I have never been pleased with the way they turn out. Always too runny or too hard, the Scotchie has left me disappointed and frustrated every time. This cookie though. This cookie changed the face of butterscotch chips for me. This cookie I will dream about tonight.

I have to say that if you're not familiar with butterscotch, you're missing out. It truly is a taste that is unique to all others. So go ahead the next time you're at the store. Bypass the chocolate chips and pick up a bag of butterscotch. I promise. Try these cookies and you'll be a believer just like I am.
INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 TBS vanilla
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl cream the butter, shortening and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Stir to combine. Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and mix until combined. Gently fold in butterscotch chips. If baking immediately, drop dough by spoonfuls onto parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 9-12 minutes until edges are set and light brown. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.