Pizza Secrets

Pizza
Simple? Yes. Boring? Hardly.





My ultimate pizza dough recipe. Dead simple. Dead quick. Dead delicious.

Whole Wheat and Honey Pizza Dough recipe from Allrecipes.com
(If we don't happen to have honey or I just don't feel like dirtying a spoon to scoop some out of the jar (ie, most of the time), we omit the honey, and honestly, I can't taste the difference.)
The Mustards split this recipe in to two pizza pies.

Mr. Mustard is real particular about the order of his pizza toppings.
This is how he does:

In order!

Pizza/tomato sauce
Cheese
Onions
Vegetables etc
Spices

The tastier of the two pizzas pictured featured diced potatoes & pesto!

And now for the real secret to gooood pizza:
HOT OVEN!
Forget 350F or whatever the recipe says.

- Turn your oven to broil with the rack near the top.
- Sprinkle a cookie sheet with cornmeal and place the bedazzled pizza in the centre.
- Now let that baby buuuuurn (not literally) for 7-10 minutes, or until everything is nice and bubbly and lightly browning.

Homemade Pasta with Homemade Pesto

To make up for my (extremely)extended absence, I thought I'd ought to make my (re)debut post a knock-out. And that, it is. It really is.

Homemade Pasta with Homemade Pesto



(I literally had to throw this plant out a few hours ago. Maybe I was feeling nostalgic, hence the surprise posting... but it was just getting too buggy(ew) and those bugs are stubborn and I would not put it past them to mowsy on over to my brand-new herb additions and set up camp there.)











To the last drop.


Recipe for homemade pasta from JoyTheBaker. Get it here!

Recipe for homemade pesto from Das Grosse Betty Bossi Kochbuch:

(Lately we have been adding chopped sundried tomatoes to the basil mixture before pureeing it and it is amazing!)

Basilikum-Pesto

3 bunches basil, coarsely chopped (about 100 g)
3 garlic bulbs, pressed (*we use only 1, though)
2 T pinenuts

Puree in food processor
(do not over-process or basil leaves will become bitter)

1/2 t salt
3 T grated parmesan
small amount of lemon peel (*I think we skip this, but it sounds nice!)

Mix into basil mixture

150 ml olive oil

Add slowly to mixture

Pesto will keep in the fridge for a maximum of 5 days.

Spätzli

Spätzli
(pronounced sh-PATZ-li)

A Swiss specialty made by my special Swiss Mister.
If you've never had spätzli before, it essentially tastes like pasta. (Is it a pasta?)
In Switzerland you basically don't bother making it from scratch because pre-made is everywhere, cheap and delish. But this is North America! We don't typically do spätzli. But luckily for you, my Swiss guy does. And I will lovingly hash out the directions into English.









Adapted a lot from Annemarie Wildeisen's Kochen recipe for Käsespätzli.

(We made a half recipe)

400 g flour
4 eggs
250 ml fizzy water
1 tsp salt

1. Put flour in a big bowl, make a well in flour, drop in the eggs and lightly beat them.
2. Add in fizzy water and salt and mix for 5 minutes until dough is fluffy.
3. Leave at room temperature for 15 minutes.
4. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
5. Drop small blobs of dough into boiling water by cutting off pieces as you slightly pour dough out of the bowl (if that makes ANY sense. Look at pictures 1 and 2 and it might make more sense)
6. Let blobs boil until they float to the surface.
7. When they float to the surface, scoop them out with a slotted spoon.

Optional directions:
Lightly fry spätzlis in a pan before serving with sauce.

Mushroom sauce

um...

I'm still waiting on this one. It is a Mister Mustard original and he's not home. Next time, okay? Okay. Deal.

Pizza Pinwheels

Pizza Pinwheels REMIX







Chocolate for the Missus, cheese for the Mister.

I got this recipe in Grade 10 Foods class (6 years ago!).
Sorry, Mrs. Bygness, I'm giving your recipe away.

This recipe is amazing. It is so versatile; you can make anything out of it.
When I want baking powder biscuits, I just use the dough without the toppings.
When I want cinnamon buns, I spread butter (or margarine) on the dough, add cinnamon, sugar and raisins.
When I want nommy cheese biscuits, I add grated cheese and spices.
When I want chocolatey biscuits, I spread coconut butter (though regular butter would be fine), add cocoa powder, a touch of sugar and chocolate chips.

Seriously, do what you like with this and it will turn out delicious.

I haven't tried the original intention for this since I made it in Grade 10, but I bet it was good too.

Pizza Pinwheels

375 ml flour
15 ml baking powder
1 1/2 ml salt
60 ml chilled margarine
150 ml milk (In the original it adds: 50ml milk powder. We made our own milk!)

40 ml pizza sauce
grated cheese
vegetables chopped very small
(sliced meat cut into strips, if you wish. I was a vegetarian by then)
spices (I don't know exactly what this was supposed to mean, but I guess pepper, oregano, basil... improvise!)

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. (We used metric for the measurements, but not the temperature...)
2. Mix flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
3. Cut in margarine into flour mixture using a pastry blender until mixture is mealy.
4. Gradually add milk to dry ingredients, stirring with a fork until dough forms a soft ball. Knead 6-8 times, on a lightly floured counter.
(If making plain biscuits, at this point, make into small balls, or cut out circles, and bake)
5. Form dough into a circle shape. Using a rolling pin, roll dough out into a rectangle (to about 1/2 cm thick)
6. Spread with pizza sauce (or butter or margarine or coconut butter or whatever!)
7. Sprinkle with cheese, vegetables, (meat) and spices.
8. Roll up like a jelly roll.
9. Using a piece of string or fishing line (I use dental floss), cut into as big of biscuits you want.
10. Place in slightly greased muffin tin.
11. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

(You can tell this recipe was intended for beginners)

They just WORK. Every. Time.
It's also nice for The Mustards, because we only cook for 2 and the recipe does not make that many.

I found this recipe over at edible-moments.blogspot.com which is very very similar to this one here, but her's look more like "real" cinnamon buns. I'll give that one an audition tonight or tomorrow. The icing looks like a very welcome addition as well!

Mister Mustard is getting very hungry; he's burried in an English essay and I'm making mexican.

Pretzels & Tostadas

Pretzels


Punching dough is very fun.


Boiling dough is very fun.


And eating homemade pretzels is also fun.
Normally I am all over the whole wheat, but I think next time I will stick to white. Sad. But true.
NONETHELESS they were super tasty and vegan. Wait, I put egg wash on top. I think it would be better without anyway.
Recipe from smittenkitchen.com

Tostadas with homemade refried beans


Missus Mustard "aren't you supposed to wear gloves when you touch jalepeños?"
Mister Mustard "no, it's fine. I've done it tons of times and nothing happens to me"
WEAR THE GLOVES. Please, wear the gloves.
(I resorted to dipping my hand in a bowl of milk.)
Anyway, they were the best refried beans I have ever had. That's got to count for something.
Recipe from fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com



The Mustard Take on Tostadas:

Tostada + refried beans + shredded cheese + diced tomatoes + preferably guacamole + plain yogurt + optional salsa + baby lettuce leaves.
Stack, get hands very messy whilst eating, repeat.

If you omit the yogurt and cheese, it would be a tasty vegan meal too!

Can you tell I don't write recipes often?


I wish I could post smells... 'cause oh baby, it is smellin' GOOOOOOOD up in here!