This Just In

Do you love pizza like I do? As in you-absolutely-have-to-have-it-in-your-life kind of love? If so, then you’re in luck.

I’ve been making this pizza crust for over 20 years.  The original recipe came from my ex-mother in law, who in turn got it from a friend.  I have modified it over the years to get what I make today, and I have to say I haven’t found a better recipe than my own, ever, for the type of crust it is. Found one restaurant in the wilds of the Michigan U.P. that came close, but that’s about it.  This is a hand tossed style pizza crust.  Not too thick, not too thin.

It’s not just about the recipe, but what you do to the crust before and after.  The combined effect is irresistable.  At the request of my dear old friend Angie, I am sharing this recipe with you. And trust me, you’ll be glad Angie asked.

This one is a 16″ pepperoni and ham with extra cheese. 

Top Secret Tip: spray your pizza pan with nonstick spray, or brush it lightly with oil.  Sprinkle lightly with cornmeal for a crispy crust bottom that shatters.

Top Secret Tip #2: Brush the crust with butter the minute you pull it from the oven.  Dear Lord, please help me not to eat the whole thing.

Remember the sky’s the limit for toppings.  I like meat on mine.  Little Man is a “just cheese” kind of kid.

Best Ever Home Made Pizza Crust

Ingredients:

6 C. bread flour (you can also use all purpose, but I like the higher protein content in bread flour for the extra chewiness.)

2 Tbsp. instant yeast

1/2 Tbsp. salt

1 tsp. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 C. olive oil (vegetable oil can be used)

2 1/4 C.  very hot tap water

(See Stacey’s notes at the end for other things you can add)

Directions:

In a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, combine all dry ingredients. Stir to distribute leaveners throughout the flour.  Add olive oil. Add hot water.  Turn stand mixer on to the low setting and run until a soft dough ball forms.  It should be moist, but not sticky in any way, and there shouldn’t be any large amounts of dough stuck to the side of the bowl.  If you don’t have a stand mixer, that’s okay.  Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir with a wooden spoon, adding the water until a soft dough forms.  Knead with greased hands until the dough ball comes together.

Remove dough ball from mixing bowl and place in a large mixing bowl that’s been lightly greased or sprayed with nonstick spray.  Cover and let rise for two hours.  Divide dough into thirds, rolling it out onto lightly greased, cornmeal sprinkled 16″ pizza pans.  Top with sauce, cheese and other toppings of choice. 

 Bake for 25-30 minutes at 425° on the lowest rack of your oven.  Oven temperatures vary, so check your pizza for doneness at the 20 minute mark, and go from there. 

 Slather a good amount of butter on the crust right after you pull it from the oven.  I use a stick of cold butter with the wrapper peeled back, like a glue stick all the way around the edge of the pizza.  It’s really easy to do this way.

Stacey’s Notes: There are a lot of interesting ways to vary this recipe.  Substitute beer for the water.  Add half a cup of grated parmesan cheese.  Add 1 tsp. pizza or Italian seasoning.  I have done all of these at some point and they are all absolutely delicious.

Be sure NOT to deviate with the cornmeal and butter.  You will not get the same flavor or texture.  I can’t stress that enough.  You can also cut this recipe in half, and you’ll get enough dough for two 12″ pizzas, or two really, really thin 16″ pizzas. 

I hope you’ll enjoy this friends and family favorite, it’s one of my favorite things to make.

S.

I recently had the pleasure to participate in a collaborative paper crafting/digital scrapbooking kit for charity.  Entitled “To Haiti, With Love” this beautifully done mega kit was created to raise money for the earthquake victims in Haiti.  I have waited until now to publicize this product, and my part in it, because I think it’s a good time to remind people that while the tragedy is nearly a month behind us, help is still very much needed.

What will you get for your $9.99 donation? Oh my goodness….where do I start? I’ll show you a couple of product shots so you get an idea…but your best bet is to CLICK HERE so you can see everything yourself.  You will be amazed, dazzled, and your inner bargain hunter will jump for joy.

The picture below is of the extra 3D card kit you can get in the larger of the two packages.  For only $14.99 you can get years worth of cards, scrapbooking supplies and more. 

And you’re helping people who have lost everything.  Every penny of the proceeds, less PayPal fees, goes to Food for the Poor.  Please, take a minute and check out their website.  They are an incredible organization with a significantly large portion of every dollar donated going directly to those in need.

This is my little portion of this fabulous kit.  I am honored to have been asked to participate.

If you’re looking for a way to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti and get a wonderful gift that will last a lifetime in the process, this kit is for you.  Our continued prayers and love to the people of Haiti, and we thank you for your support in our efforts to help.

S.

And the far better recipe in my humble opinion.  My mother makes peanut butter cookies like nobody’s business.  I am seriously addicted to them, and for the life of me don’t know why I didn’t have her recipe for them.  I got it from her last week and have been making them ever since.  I was going to call them “Mom’s Peanut Butter Cookies” originally, but that could be anyone’s recipe…I want to be clear these came from my mom, so I titled them with her name.

I made these for a bake sale to benefit our troops…our local guard unit is coming home from Iraq in June (God willing) and their wives were having a bake sale to raise funds for a splendid welcome home event. 

 They each have a Hershey’s™ Bliss Heart in the center.

I made these for us to eat today, and gave 1/4 of the batch to my sister Andrea and her kids.  I’m telling ya, we’re all junkies.  These cookies are that good!

The perfect texture, the perfect thickness. 

I like mine with a sugared top, Little Man likes them really plain.

Of course he didn’t inform me of this little tidbit till I was done baking.

Oh well, maybe next time.  In the meantime, he’s eating these the way they are.

I’ve created an adorable recipe card for you to download for this extra special recipe.  I used the incomparable Mary Fran from NitWit Collections’ “Oh the Possibilities” Kit to make it, and my own Recipe Card Template for Photoshop.  Be sure to check out NitWit Collections and TooFaboo for even more gorgeous kits, templates and crafting ideas and supplies.  Special thanks to Mary Fran for her permission to use this kit in this manner.

Download your free recipe and recipe card here.

Nancy L.’s Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 C. Shortening

1 C. Peanut Butter

1 C. White Sugar

1C. Brown Sugar

2 eggs

3 1/4 C. flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1/2 C. milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°.

Cream shortening and sugars in a large mixing bowl.  Add peanut butter, mix well.

Add eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition.  In a seperate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.  Stir well to equally distribute baking soda throughout the flour.

Alternate adding milk and flour mixture to cream mixture, stirring well to combine.

Using a cookie scoop or your hands, shape dough into balls.  Flatten on cookie sheets with a fork to form a criss cross pattern.

Top with sugar before baking if you like.

Bake 10-12 minutes.

Makes 32-36 large cookies.

I hope you enjoy the recipe and the recipe card, my mom and I are happy to share them with you.

S.

Incase you don’t already know it, I have a thing for autumn.  Fall colors just make my socks roll up and down.  If I could live in an autumn colored world, I would.  Well…that might get boring–but I keep my little part of the world as Autumn-y as I can.  I redid the blog today with elements and papers from a digital scrapbook kit that I designed called “That Fall Feelin’“.  I love the colors in this kit, and the country feel of it.  I think it crosses over to the blogosphere pretty well.

January is behind us already and now we’re in to February.  I should make up a Valentine’s type theme for my blog, that might be cute.  But what I really want to do is change the name.  “This Just In” doesn’t fit what this little place is.  I don’t know really how I came to pick that in the first place, other than that I was working a demanding, face paced job at the time I started blogging.  I’m not really sure how to go about changing my domain name, etc. Perhaps I will ask my hosting company to help me with it.

Don’t tell my little man, but over Winter Break (which just happens to fall Valentine’s Day weekend) we’re going to Saginaw to the Chuck E. Cheese.  We’re also going to either stay with his Aunt Deb, or get a hotel room.  Still trying to figure that one out.  Little Man has been dying to go to Chuck E. Cheese’s for a few months; I figure this is the perfect Valentine’s Day present.

Do you know what you’re getting your sweeties for V-Day yet?

S.

Okay, so I’m a crafty kind of girl.  I love to create things in many mediums, from digital stuff to tangible stuff like quilts and cross stitch pieces.  About a year before my bout of severe depression, I picked up the stuff to make the project I’m going to share with you today.  Over the past 2.5 years, I have picked at this project, a bit here, a bit there.  I can proudly say that today, at last it is finished.  And I love the way it turned out.

These are 8″ paper mache letters that I covered with scrapbooking papers and stickers. using Mod Podge.  Embellished with orange chip board lower case letters and Zots3D.

“E” is for Every.  As in Every day, I love this little boy more than the day before.  If that’s possible.

“V” is for Very.  There are so many veries.  There are varied veries, haha.  As in “I love him Very much”; “He’s Very funny!”; “He’s Very Smart.”

“A” is for Always.  As in “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for Always…”

“N” is for Next.  As in “You never know what he’ll do Next.” “Next thing you know, he’ll be all grown up.” Exactly my point.  It goes by so fast.

Together these spell “Evan”.  As in “I love you son.” “I’m so glad you’re my boy.” “Do you know how precious you are to me?”

S.