03- Bc Cografya Arşivi: recipes

Limited Time & Another Soup

Lately it's been...well...summer time...and it's been full of fun things on both the weekdays and the weekends, which means limited time to plan and cook meals. So I have been doing what I usually do, cooking one big pot of something and eating it throughout the week. I always like making soups; they are chock full of veggies and are a great way to get a nutritional meal in a relatively compact way.

I know summer is not really the time you would normally think of soups, but this soup is so good and it's made from fresh summer squash so you really can't get much fresher! I also love it because you can cut everything up the day before and just put it all together when you are ready. Also, once it's in the pot, you can "set it and forget it" for a while. It's really no work at all!

Summer Squash Soup*

1 tsp olive oil
1 1/4 cup onion, diced
3 tsp minced garlic
2 tbsp jalapeno, diced (I used a diablo pepper instead)
1 1/3 cup celery
2 cups gold potatoes, peeled and chopped
dash white pepper
4 cups chicken broth
6 cups yellow summer squash
1 tsp oregano
.5 tsp turmeric
salt to taste

(PS I didn't have turmeric and it was still good)

Heat oil, add onions and saute for 5 minutes. Add garlic and jalapenos and cook for about 2 minutes. Add everything else but the turmeric and let boil for about 30 - 40 minutes, until the potatoes are soft. Add turmeric and put in blender / use immersion blender to blend everything together.

You can put half of it into a gallon freezer bag and flatten it and freeze it for later, but it also keeps pretty great in the fridge (1 week +).

*Recipe from here.

What recipes do you turn to when you're busy? What is your favorite summer recipe?

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Over and Over Again

I am currently on week 8 of training for Boston. This training schedule, like my last, I decided to (loosely) follow Hal Higdon's Advanced training program. I have already mentioned how I don't really follow it to a T, because it calls for 6 days of running per week. Sometimes it doesn't matter if you change it up during training a little bit. However, there are many that you have to do the same each time. This takes a lot of experimentation and it took me a while to figure out what did and did not work for me.

A typical training week includes:

- On weekdays, I run twice after work. Lately this has consisted of one easy day and one day of speed work. I have mentioned this before, but my intervals of choice are Yasso 800s. If you are not familiar, this is where you take your marathon goal time in hours (mine is 3:30) and you run an 800 meter interval in that many minutes. So I would have to run each 800 interval at a 7 minute mile pace. It really kicks my butt, let me tell you! I do feel that it helps a lot with overall speed.

- On weekends I do one easy run and one long run. The long run is usually between two and three hours and I've been using it to explore the area. One of my favorite long runs is a long loop around Oakland and through Berkeley, ending with a loop around Lake Merritt before heading home.

- I always eat breakfast on long run days, usually around a half an hour before the run. I always eat the same thing, steel cut oats with fruit and Silk Almond milk. If I am traveling or at someone else's house, I have Cheerios instead. It gives me a great hearty meal before heading out and the almond milk does not give me any tummy issues (like real milk does) while I am running. I actually use Silk milk instead of regular milk in everything. I also use it to make lattes, smoothies, baked goods and other things like mac and cheese or pumpkin curry. You can find tons of great recipes on their Facebook page. I use the unsweetened kind, since it doesn't overpower whatever you are making. *

Travel breakfast

- I almost always listen to music, unless I am running with someone else. Lately, a great companion has been this Pandora station. I find that rap has a beat that makes my steps just a little bit faster.

- I try to get out onto the trails once a week, but there isn't always enough time. When I do make time for it, I really enjoy the change in scenery, the quietness, being in nature AND it's a great way to get stronger legs and to work all of your muscles, therefore hopefully keeping injuries at bay. Some of my favorite trails are in the East Bay Parks near my house but I am finding great ones all over the Bay Area!

I only have 10 more weeks of training and here's hoping that the next 10 go as well as the last 7 have!

Do you have any training tips or tricks for me? What does your typical week look like? If you are a non-runner, what is your favorite outdoor activity?

*FitFluential LLC compensated me for this Campaign. All opinions are my own.

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Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Many people get stressed out with all the extra work that the holidays bring. Not only do you have to do your regular day to day things, but throw in grocery shopping, having a kitchen or house full of people and having to get up early and plan and cook everything so that it hopefully comes out of the oven all at the same time, and you can easily have a meltdown on your hands.

Personally, I love to cook and like we have talked about in some of the previous What’s For Dinner posts, planning ahead is key. It’s hard when you only have four burners and one tiny oven, but it can be done, and it can be fun.

For several years, I was a vegetarian, so I left the cooking of the turkey up to the carnivores. My favorite thing was the sides. Now, I love cooking and eating turkey, but my favorites remain the same. I could eat side dishes all day. Oh wait, I DO eat side dishes all day. However, this can be traumatic on my waistline! So there are a couple of things that I do in order to not feel the post dinner food coma and accompanying guilt.

First, I sign up for a Turkey Trot! I know, it’s sometimes hard to fit in in, but you can put the turkey in the oven and then go off and run. It takes less than an hour for most and you end up feeling invigorated afterward! The other thing I do is that I try to cut down on my butter and sugar intake by doing a few subs to my favorite recipes.

One of my favorite side dishes is sweet potatoes! However, the general recipe is loaded with butter and sugar. Personally I like the taste of the potato and don’t need to cover it up with sugar, so I just go Au natural. Also, I love the flavors of fall, so why not work with what’s available?

Cinnamon Apple Sweet Potatoes

3 Large Sweet Potatoes (or Yams)

1-2 Large Apples

1 cup pecans

4 Tbsp Brummel and Brown spread

2 Tbsp cinnamon

½ -1 cup Craisins

1 tsp salt (or more to taste)

Dice up the apples and sweet potatoes and put them in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and toss together thoroughly. Put mixture in 9 x 13 baking dish or on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about an hour, stirring occasionally (3 – 4 times). Remove and enjoy! The apples give it a bit of sweetness without the added sugar.

__________

Another dish I love to make is dessert. One of my favorite recipes is for these pumpkin spice muffins. If you sub part of the sugar with splenda and use Brummel and Brown rather than butter, you have a muffin you can sink your teeth into without feeling the Turkey Day bloat.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

1 cup Flour

¼ cup Splenda

¼ cup Sugar (or you can use ½ cup sugar only)

2 tsp Baking Powder

2 tsp Cinnamon

½ tsp Nutmeg

½ tsp Salt

4 Tbsp Brummel and Brown spread, cut into pieces

1 -1 ¼ cup Pumpkin Puree

½ cup Evaporated Milk

1 Egg

2 tsp Vanilla

½ cup craisins (or raisins)

2 Tbsp Sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

¼ tsp Nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 muffin tins.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Cut in spread with two knives or your fingers until it is fully incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix together pumpkin, evaporated milk, egg, and vanilla. Pour pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Add raisins. Fold gently until mixture is just combined.

Use a ¼ cup measure to fill 12 muffin tins with batter. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar-nutmeg mixture over the top of each unbaked muffin. Bake for 25 minutes. Take out of the oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes before taking out of the tin. If you are like me, you will not listen to this advice and you will take one “ugly” one out for a sample right away. Somebody has to do it.

Thank you to Good to Know & Unilever Spreads for being a sponsor. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Who is the Thanksgiving chef in your family? What is your favorite dish to eat? What is your favorite Thanksgiving recipe?

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An Apple a Day Monday: V

Last year, through the month of November, I did a Fall cooking series called An Apple a Day Monday. I was lucky to have an available and very productive apple tree nearby last year, which facilitated dishes like Apple Bundt Cake, Apple Crisp, Apple Cider and Apple Bran Flax Muffins. This year I am not as lucky to have the apples, but have been experimenting with some other items instead.

This weekend, my Mom was in town and we had a great time exploring the area and shopping and eating! On Saturday night, Broski came over with the lady friend and they all had a chance to try my Screamin' Hot Habanero Sauce that I made out of the peppers that they gave me. Remember the one that gets rid of your socks? They both loved it and wanted the recipe (Mom is not as fond of hot stuff), so I decided to share it with you too, in case you feel like making some of your own. I got my peppers from the garden, but they are pretty cheap at the market, especially if you have a Latino market nearby. They always have the best peppers!

It's a great addition to any dish and I like it because it doesn't taste of vinegar; it mostly just tastes of pepper / heat! And a little dab'll do ya! The problem with my cooking sometimes is that I just toss stuff in, so you may need to tweak this a little to make it to YOUR liking, just like I did. The recipe was inspired by this.

Screamin' Hot Habanero Sauce

2 cups of hot peppers (I used Serrano and Habanero)
1 tbsp salt
1 lemon, juiced
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup vinegar (I used Champagne, but you could use red wine, apple cider or white vinegar)
1 tsp garlic salt

First, cut the stems off the peppers. I put gloves on to do this just in case. I would hate to touch my eye afterward or something silly like that. Then blanch them in boiling water for about 2 minutes. Remove them and run them under cold water (see how to blanch here).

Place them in a blender with the remaining ingredients. Blend. Voila. Now you have sauce. This will keep in the fridge for about a year. A spoon full in any dish gives your dish a nice kick, or you can do like we do, and just spoon it on your meal, one plate at a time!

The original recipe suggested removing the seeds, but I did not. If you want it to not be as hot, you may want to remove the seeds. If you want it more vinegary, you may want to add more than I did, but I prefer it not as vinegary.

Do you like spicy things? What dish do you use peppers in? Have you ever made your own hot sauce?

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Squash Galore

Firstly, I want to say GOOD LUCK to everyone racing this weekend! There are a bunch of people doing the RW Half! Go get 'em! Also, a big fingers crossed, for Lisa, who is trying for a sub 4 marathon today! To everyone else, I hope your feet are swift and you end the race with a smile on your face. As you read this, I am currently running Broski's first half marathon with him!!!

Once again, my "meal planning" consists of making a big pot of this and a big pan of that and eating it throughout the week. This week, the challenge was to use acorn squash, but since the email regarding the challenge came after I had already gone grocery shopping, I improvised. This week's big pot meal?

Butternut Squash Veggie Chili.

The good thing about this is that even though it doesn't have any meat*, the squash gives it some oomph, so it feels really hearty and good. Like I said in my first meal planning post, it's good to have staples on hand, since this week my challenge to myself was to NOT go grocery shopping, since there are quite a few things in the fridge that did not get used up as fast as I wanted last week. So, out came the staples and into the pot they went.

As always, I make enough so that a few can go in the freezer for lunches, and a few cups can go in the fridge for this week's meals. This recipe made about 10 cups of chili.

Butternut Squash Veggie Chili

1 yellow onion, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
2 yellow peppers (fresh from the garden!)
4-5 garlic cloves, diced

1/2 butternut squash, cubed
2 cups of dried kidney beans
6 cups of water
1 packet of veggie stock
1 thai chili pepper, sliced in half

1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp fennel
1 tbsp Italian seasoning

In frying pan with a little bit of olive oil, sweat the onions. Add the celery, yellow peppers and garlic and cook for another 5-10 minutes*. Put cooked veggies and remaining ingredients in a slow cooker and cook for 8-10 hours on low. OR you can put them in a pot and cook for roughly 5 hours to achieve the same effect.

*You could also add ground hamburger to the frying pan if you wanted a meat version.

_____

In order to get ready for the week ahead, I also baked some butternut squash in the oven. This will be added to either oatmeal in the morning, paired with yogurt for a fun dessert or used as a side dish for other meals during the week. I also cleaned out the freezer and found some chicken, so I cooked up a bunch of that to use during the week as well. That being said, here are this week's dinners.

Monday: Butternut Chili, Cabbage Salad (an old standby)
Tuesday: Chinese Chicken Salad (cabbage salad with chicken, nuts & Craisins)
Wednesday: Chicken Fajitas
Thursday: Roasted Chicken and Potatoes
Friday: Butternut Chili, Brussels sprouts
Saturday: Chicken Salad and Butternut Squash
Sunday: Dinner out / Left overs

What is your meal plan for the week? What's your favorite way to use winter squash?

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Lunch Time

If you haven't already, go here and see how taking stock is critical to easy meal planning!

Next comes the meal planning. This week (and many), the plan went like this:

1. Shopping. Stock up on the things that are missing from this list. Usually this means going to buy a bunch of vegetables and fruits and sometimes a few of the staples.

2. Planning. Depending on what is fresh, on sale and available, the weekly plan is made.

I know, this may be backwards. Shop THEN plan? To this I say, YES. I always have my staples so I have pretty much done the "planning" already. All I need to do after shopping is decide what I want to cook.

Today I am going to only talk about the lunch planning portion. Each week, after seeing what the haul is for the week, I make a big batch of ___ (fill in the blank with a bean dish here). I also cut up all of my vegetables to go along with my meals. This usually means cutting cabbage or broccoli for salads, and cutting carrots and celery for snacks.

Cabbage Salad

This week, we had several vegetables left over from last week. This is normal. I always do a little bit of "overbuying" in order to have a quick snack or to anticipate extra hunger! But fear not, it does not go to waste!

Needing to be used up from last week: Red, yellow and orange bell peppers. Carrots. Serrano peppers.
Add to that from on hand items: Onion, Garlic, Garbanzo beans, Curry powder, Diced tomatoes, corn.
Put in Crock Pot for 8 hours and you get: Garbanzo Stew (recipe below)!

Garbanzo Stew

This was put into 8 one cup containers.. 6 of them go into the freezer and two go into the fridge. I like to put 6 in the freezer, so that way I will always have a variety to choose from. I usually eat 3-4 of them for lunch and then I have some from last week as well as having fresh veggies on hand so I am not always eating the same thing over and over.

Freezer mini meals

Remaining peppers were added to quinoa, basil and lemon to make a quinoa salad, which will be used as lunches as well. The I pair each one up with a various salad and lots and lots of fruit. I usually bring one or two pieces of fruit as well as some loose fruit, cut melon, grapes or berries. So this weeks lunches will look like this:

Veggies for quinoa salad

Monday: Garbanzo Stew, cabbage salad, fruit

Tuesday: Turkey Chili (last week's big pot meal), broccoli salad, fruit

Wednesday: Quinoa Salad, beet salad, fruit

Thursday: Garbanzo Stew, broccoli salad, fruit

Friday: Chicken Curry and Rice (week before last's big pot meal), cabbage salad, fruit

Saturday: Party food (@ my uncle's memorial)

Sunday: Clam House with Mom, Dad and Grandma for a post race meal!

Garbanzo Stew:

2 cups dry garbanzos
2 carrots, chopped
1 each red, yellow, orange bell peppers, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
2 Serrano peppers, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 can of yellow corn
5 cups of water

1 tbsp Curry powder
1 tbsp salt
2 packets of Trader Joe's concentrated chicken stock

Mix everything together. Leave in crock pot on low for 8 hours.

How do you do to use up older veggies before they go bad? What do you eat for lunch every day?

Check out Jill and Laura's sites for more meal planning tips!

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Taking Stock

Before you go grocery shopping each week, you have to first take stock of what you have on hand. From there you can decide what you are going to cook for the week and what you need to buy at the grocery store. For me, what is on sale or what is fresh that week at the store often determines what I make.

There are certain things you just always have in your pantry. There are other things that you buy once a month and others that you buy every week. There's a way to go about it in an organized manner; sometimes I manage to do it better than other times.

Pantry Staples (Buy in bulk a few times a year and/or always have on hand)

* Baking goods: Flour, Sugar, cocoa powder, splenda, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, chocolate chips

* Oatmeal, raisins, flax seed, chia seeds

* Dried items: Pasta, Rice, Dried Beans, Coffee

* Canned items: Tomato Paste, chicken stock, canned tomatoes, coconut milk, evaporated milk

* Spices, salt, pepper, peanut butter, honey, olive oil, vegetable oil, rice vinegar, red wine vinegar, champagne vinegar

Fridge Staples:

* Mustard, ginger, shriracha, mayonaise, ranch dressing

* Almond butter, miso paste, tahini, sweet chili sauce, almond milk

Freezer Staples:

* Veggies: Frozen corn, edamame

* Meat: Chicken pieces, frozen shrimp

* Stuff I made in the past: pizza dough, sauces, muffins and mini meals (which will be talked about in more detail in a future meal planning post),

Monthly Buys:

* Steel cut oats, nuts, dried fruit,

* Yellow onions, potatoes, winter squash, Serrano or other peppers, garlic

* Coffee

Weekly Buys:

* Fresh fruit, vegetables

* Creamer, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese

Pioneer Woman's stock list.

Some of the items I bought this week: butternut squash, cantaloupe, celery, red cabbage, pumpkin, mango, plums, peaches, apples, pears, Brussels sprouts, chicken breasts (0.99/lb!!).

Every week I make a big batch of something and freeze several portions for weekly meals, as well as making things like salad fixings in advance so I can just grab and go during the week. I am going to talk about that more next week, but for now, I will leave you with one of my favorite easy meals that you can use in several different ways.

Crock Pot Whole Chicken

I know, a whole chicken is a little scary. However, recently they were .99 cents a pound and so I picked up a nice one (about 5 lbs) for a steal (you do the math).

(1) Buy a whole chicken.

(2) Once you get the chicken home, take the gizzards out of the inside and feed them to the cat.

(3) Mix together your favorite spices. I used salt, pepper, a bit of red pepper flakes and Old Bay seasoning. Rub them all over the chicken, both inside and out. Make sure you get the armpits and all the other orifices.

(4) Cut up an onion. Place it in the bottom of the crock. Put the spice rubbed chicken on top of it.

(5) Set it on low for 8 hours or high for 5 hours. When it's done, the juices should run clear and the arm should easily pull off the chicken. Yes, in my world, chickens have arms.

(6) Take the chicken out of the crock. ** Now comes the fun part!** Leave everything else in the crock. Remove the skin from the chicken. Throw it back in the crock. Remove all the chicken from the bones. Throw the bones back in the crock. Throw the bone carcass back in the pot.

(7) Put the chicken meat aside. Fill the crock up with water and leave it overnight, or for about 8 hours on low. The next day, strain the liquid into quart jars/containers. You now have stock!

So. To recap. You now have... three to five meals worth of chicken (depending on your family size) plus about 12 cups of stock (in my case)! All for around $5.00!

Happy meal planning! Go check out Jill and Laura's sites for this week's What's For Dinner linkup!

Do you have a cheap, go-to meal that you use over and over? Do you like to cook? Do you plan out your meals or just fly by the seat of your pants?

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Chocolate Zucchini

I like to bake. I don't always follow directions. I recently had some extra zucchinis from the garden and I was feeling like something chocolatey but not too sweet, so I found a recipe for these Oil Free Zucchini Muffins. But of course, I like to add stuff and delete stuff and mess things up a bit. The recipe was adapted from here. It specifically said not to use whole wheat flour.

But I wanted to.

(PS she did say you could use whole wheat pastry flour if you want to, but that you shouldn't use regular whole wheat flour.) I also use Splenda® rather than sugar most of the time, but you can use agave syrup or maple syrup or sugar if you like. Also, in the end, she was right, the whole wheat flour made the batter a little gummy, so I added a bit of applesauce just for fun.

Oil-Free Chocolate Zucchini Walnut Muffins

Yield: 20 - 24 muffins

Ingredients:

1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water)
2 cups zucchini
1 cup almond milk (or regular milk)
2 tsp lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups whole wheat (pastry) flour (or all-purpose)
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup Splenda^® (or sugar)
1/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup walnuts, chopped
*optional:
3 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 - 1 cup applesauce (depending on moisture level. I added this at the end)

- Mix flax and water together and set aside to thicken. Mix almond milk and lemon together and set aside to curdle.

- Mix all dry ingredients together.

- Mix all wet ingredients, including flax egg and almond milk together, then add in chocolate chips and nuts. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry.

- Put 1/4 cup of batter into each section of a greased muffin tin using a 1/4 measuring cup.

- Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees. Muffins are done when toothpick comes out clean. Cool on cooling rack in the tin before taking them out of the tin and letting them cool completely.

- Try not to eat three of them right away like I did.

- Take them to work and give them away before you eat all 24 of them.

- Get strange looks when you use the word "chocolate" and the word "zucchini" in the same sentence.

Now, since I am on the subject of recipes and food, I want to talk about something exciting coming up. My friends Jill and Laura are starting a new feature called What's for Dinner, which is a weekly collection of posts (and a link up) about menu planning. It's purpose is to encourage each other and to hold each other accountable as we purposefully plan out regular, weekly meal menus. These posts will be on Sundays and I am looking forward to participating, because I love planning out my weekly meals, but can always use tips from those more experienced and better at it than I am.

So, if you feel like doing a post about YOUR meal plan, or you want to post a recipe or get recipe ideas for fall, or if you want to check out how other people are organizing their eating, how they have time to do it with a busy schedule, or how they stay healthy with so many other things going on, sign up, or just go and check up their link up on Sundays!

Where do you get your recipe inspiration? Do you plan out your meals for the week in advance? What is your favorite kind of muffin?

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Cabbage

I am on a cabbage kick lately. I used to only think of it as:

(a) something very soft and mushy that comes with corned beef (ps I actually like it this way too!)
(b) something that gets thrown at you at the St. Patty's Day parade in New Orleans (yes, you pick it up off the ground and then cook it according to situation a)
(c) something that was in nasty, mayonnaise filled, sweet, gross coleslaw. I always hated coleslaw.

BUT.

During my travels I have seen it in many a dish, so I thought I would try to experiment a bit. I have to admit, Mr. Lovely also spurned this, as we went to a Vietnamese place and got their cabbage salad and he asked me if I could make it for him. So I did.

Mr. Lovely's Vietnamese Salad

1/2 head of cabbage, shredded
2 medium carrots, grated
Several Basil Leaves, chopped
Peanuts, ground

Sauce:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
Squirt of Sriracha (hot!)
1 heaping tsp minced ginger (I'm lazy. I use this)
salt to taste
1 tsp sugar/honey (or more to taste)

Optional: 1 tbsp peanut butter / 1 tsp finely minced garlic / chopped broccoli

Mix everything together. Eat. Enjoy. Simple and tangy and crunchy! This will even last for a few days in the fridge without losing it's crunch. This is also really good on a fish taco instead of lettuce!

Trying to Make Teriyaki Stir Fry

Sometimes I try things and I don't have all the ingredients but it comes out just fine! This was my attempt to do teriyaki chicken, but I didn't have soy sauce, which you may know is the main ingredient in teriyaki sauce, but it ended up turning out pretty good actually.

3 - 5 baby bok choy, quartered
1/4 cabbage head, shredded
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
4 mushrooms
2 chicken breasts, diced

For not really teriyaki sauce (here is the real recipe in case you would rather make that):
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp flour (recipe calls for cornstarch)
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 minced garlic clove
1 tsp ginger

In small saucepan, put all sauce elements. Heat slowly, stirring frequently. Once sauce reaches desired thickness, take off heat (about 10 minutes). Heat large pan. Once hot, add oil of choice. Add chicken. Once chicken is browned, add veggies. Let cook for about 5 minutes, until veggies are cooked but still crisp. Add "teriyaki" sauce. Eat. Enjoy.

I admit, it may have been better with soy sauce, but it was still really good without it! It just wasn't teriyaki!

So, cabbage is not just for gross coleslaw! In fact, I even have discovered that all coleslaw is not gross! I think my next cabbage attempt will be sauerkraut! I love sauerkraut!

Do you have a favorite cabbage recipe? Do you like coleslaw? Have you ever thrown a cabbage or had one thrown at you?

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Food Firsts (4)

On Sunday, Mr. Lovely and I had pizza. I made the dough (my first attempt) and it didn't even suck!

The recipe was adapted from here.

4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
1/4 cup olive oil (optional)
1 3/4 cups water, ice cold (40°F)
Semolina flour OR cornmeal for dusting

I am not going to go into the making of the dough in detail; if you want more information, you can go to the original site. Basically, add together all the dry ingredients. Then add the oil and water and stir, using a metal spoon kept cold, or your hands, which you should keep dipping in ice water. Once the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl (about 5 mins), split it into 6 equal portions. Each portion should make about a 9 inch pizza.

I kept two portions in the fridge and put the rest in the freezer to pull out later. When you are ready to use the dough, take it out of the fridge about 2 hours beforehand. Flatten out the ball and cover loosely with a piece of saran wrap until it's time to cook. When you are ready with all your toppings, you can throw the crust or you can just roll it with a pie roller. I put cornmeal on my baking sheet and placed my crust on it, then poked holes in it with a knife to keep it from rising. Put your toppings on and then cook on your oven's highest setting (mine is 550) for about 6-10 minutes (mine took 7).

The Topping Bar

Serve and enjoy! We had a ton of fun and this is a great idea for if you are having people over, because each person can make their own pizza with whatever they want on it! As you can see, some people like to heap stuff on theirs and some people take a more simple approach. You can try to guess whose is whose.

Do you ever make your own crust? Or add your own toppings? What is your favorite pizza topping?

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