Pot Pie Pizza!

               Remember yesterday when I said today's post would need my pot pie filling recipe? Well this is it, Pot Pie Pizza! Did you know you can put *almost* anything on a pizza crust? My pastry shell skills are severely lacking these days and Doodle Bug (who usually eats anything) out right makes a dirty face at it! But he loves this use of my pot pie filling! Even Peanut who picks at EVERYTHING was a clean plater. Give it a try, it's worth it!

          Pizza Crust (If you don't want to make your own you can use the premades or the dough from the dairy section)
1 package pizza dough yeast (you can use regular yeast too, just let it sit for 5 minutes after all ingredients are combined)
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2-1/2 cups flour (Regular all purpose or wheat)
Disolve yeast in water. Stir in remaining ingredients until a ball forms. Flour your hands and stretch, pull and roll out flat. Makes 2 thin crust 14 inch or 1 hand stretched 16 inch.

To make pot pie pizza (I made 1- 16ish inch pizza) take your crust (made or premade) top with about 2 cups of pot pie filling. Add your favorite shredded cheese on top and bake at 425 degrees F for 25 minutes. Yummy time! Enjoy your pizza and watch it disappear!

Pot pie filling

               Look, the rare weekend post! Okay, so I wanted to post this tonight because it will be needed for tomorrows post. I also didn't want to do this one tomorrow and then wait to do the next one on Wednesday!
               Anyway, this is my basic chicken pot pie filling. I make it in batches and freeze it for future quick grabs.

It's easy, all you need is:
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and diced
1 bag frozen veggies (corn, peas, and carrots)
1 family sized can of cream of chicken or cream or mushroom soup
1-1/2 cups of milk
Salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder *optional
Mix it all together in a big bowl. Add salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder to taste. Freeze in approximately 2-1/2 cup portions for family sized pot pies or 1 cup for smaller. (You'll need about 2 cups for the recipe I'm sharing tomorrow!)

An easy bread recipe, no lie!

        Okay, so I don't know about you but if I look at a recipe and it seems long, complicated, or not worth the trouble I lose interest quickly. This is why it took me so long to jump into making my own bread. All of the recipes I found put me off of the idea of making my own bread. But I finally got over it and found one to try. Then another. And so now I'm to the point where I put my own recipe together. And it's easy, no frills, not complicated! It really only takes a little measuring, a little elbow grease, and a couple of hours of patience! No need for a big clunky bread maker taking up precious space, this is an old fashion oven baked recipe. It's only 13 steps, and three of those are pretty much just waiting for it to do something on it's own. Plus for two others you get to hit something! So really it's more like 8 steps!


Ingredients:

1 package of active dry yeast (or 2-1/4 teaspoons if you buy it in a container or "brick")

1/3 cup warm water

1 cup warm milk

1-1/2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted, melted butter

½ tablespoon salt

2 cups wheat flour

2 cups bread flour (can also be done with all wheat or all bread flour if you prefer)

Extra flour and melted unsalted butter

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl.
   
2. Stir in milk, sugar, butter and salt until the mixture is well incorporated.
   
3. Add flour(s). Mixture may be slightly sticky, if so add a little extra flour until a nice ball starts to form.
   
4. Flour your hands and grab your dough ball.
   
5. Knead, squish, twist, turn, and pull dough for about 10 minutes.
   
6. Making dough into a ball place it in a large greased bowl, turn ball over so it get a complete greasing.
   
7. Let sit in warm place, covered with a dish towel for an hour. Dough should rise and (approximately) double.
   
8. Once dough has risen, punch it down, a few little punches should do!
   
9. Shape dough into a loaf shape and place into greased loaf pan.
   
10. Let sit in warm place, covered, for another hour.
    
11. Again, loaf should have risen to approximately double.
    
12. Brush melted butter over the top and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes. I slice a line down the center for a nice split top loaf. When done loaf should be golden brown and sound hollow when tapped.
    
13. Remove baked loaf from pan immediately to cool on a wire rack. Again brush melted butter on top of loaf.
    

A few tips:

-Wait until bread is completely cool to slice into it. Remember baking is science and everything has a reason. If you slice it when it's hot it will not turn out the same as if you wait.

-Make sure you let it cool on a wire rack, if it cools on or in a pan moisture will collect on the bottom and can contribute to molding.

-Store bread in a tight fitting container. The less air the better. I've found using a store bought bread bag actually does work best!

-Homemade bread has a shorter shelf life than store bought. It should be used up in 3 days. But if it does dry out it makes fabulous bread crumbs!

   

Cranberry-Chocolate Christmas Granola, and Happy Holidays!

     Today is Doodle Bugs last day of school for the holiday. So I'm throwing in my hat and it'll be my last day blogging until the new year as well. I'm looking forward to spending two weeks with both of my birdies in the nest! Also it is HARD to try to keep up with Christmas stuff and blog too! Kudos to those who aren't taking a holiday! I hope the rest of you have a wonderful holiday! In the mean time I hope you try this recipe. it is awesome! It's not you normal granola, it's sweet and delectable. Almost candy I think! I made some for Doodle Bugs teacher and covered it with a piece of fabric and told her I had a lid issue. She told me it wouldn't be there long enough to need a lid!

Here's what you need:

2 cups oats

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

2 tsp brown sugar

dash of salt

2/3 cups dried cranberries

2/3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Here's what you'll do:

Preheat oven to 350. Stir all ingredients together except chocolate chips. Spread mixture on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes then stir. Bake another 10 to 15 minutes. Watch the last couple minutes that it doesn't burn. You just want browned edges. Once it's nice and golden brown remove from oven it'll still seem sticky, but that's okay as it cools it hardens up a bit. Let cool about 20 minutes. Gently stir in chocolate chips. Store in airtight container. Enjoy!

As with all of my projects, I have designed them for my family and love to share with you so you can have them for your families as well. All projects, patterns and directions are meant for your personal use and neither the patterns nor completed projects are to be used for monetary gain. 

We made Pizza Pasta!

This is one of my son's favorite recipes to help with because it's super easy and tasty! It really is more of a guide line than a recipe because it really is thrown together by eye.

You'll need:
1/2 box of your favorite pasta
jar of pizza sauce or 2/3 jar of you favorite spaghetti sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Italian seasoning
1/2 cup chopped pepperoni
Any additional 'toppings' you like. I throw in some mushrooms and black olives when I have them.

Cook your pasta as you normally would and drain. Add your sauce and topping and heat over low just so it is heated through. Add 3/4 of your cheese and mix throughout. Scoop servings into bowls and sprinkle with addition cheese and a little Italian seasoning with some garlic bread on the side and your all set for a yummy dinner your kids will love too!

Amber's Lemon Summer Cupcake-in-a-jar recipe

I made this for my son's teachers birthday and it was a great hit! It also makes a great full size cake.
This recipe will make one 9x9 cake that you will cut in half to create two cakes from which you will cut the smaller cakes. My jar was about 4 inches tall and if I'd had another one this recipe would have made at least one more with some leftovers. Possibly even 3. You could even double the recipe, use a 9x13 and make a lot more. Or just a regular cake for a potluck, birthday, ect. So with no further ado, here it is!

Ingredients
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1-1/4 cups sugar
* 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 large eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour your pan and set aside. Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add wet ingredients one at a time making sure to incorporate them well. Mix all ingredients for two minutes. Pour batter into pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cake cool completely. Turn out onto a plate and cut the cake horizontally through the center. Level out the two by cutting off the top of the top cake and flip over so both middles are now up. Cut on circles just a tab bit smaller than the opening of your jar. I had a biscuit cutter that was just the right size. Build the jar up cake, icing, cake, icing until the jar is full. You can make your own icing or buy premade. I got lazy near the end and just grabbed a jar of premade vanilla frosting, added 7 drops of yellow food coloring and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. It is absolutely delightful by the way! Very refreshing, and not too rich. Plus I had extra to put away for a graham cracker snack later, yum-me! Decorate your jar(s) and tie on a label and your ready to gift! *Here's were in my 11:30-at-night-over-tired-mommy world I said out loud to myself, "Now stick a fork in it, your done!"*



Enjoy!

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