New Pizza Dough Recipe

In the mood for homemade pizza tonight and I have a ton of homemade spaghetti sauce sitting in the fridge.  I wanted to try a new crust since I'm getting bored of my regular recipe, so I looked for some alternate ones (this one being a main inspiration) to update my current recipe. Here's what I did:

The finished product. 

What You'll Need:
1 cup of warm water
2 1/2 teaspoons of active yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons of honey
1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons of butter
a few shakes of basil
a lot of garlic powder
2 cups of bread flour

How You'll Do It (the same as my original recipe, with the butter step added)

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water, stir and let stand for 10 minutes. Mixture should become creamy. 
2. Combine all ingredients (Except for butter), stir to make dough. Let stand loosely covered for at least an hour. 
3. Place pizza stone in cold oven and pre-heat to 350 degrees.
4. Turn dough on well-floured surface and work into circular shape. Top with your sauce and mozzerella cheese. 
5. Melt the butter and brush onto the crust with a sprinkling of garlic powder. 
6. Bake for 20 minutes on pre-heated stone.
7. Enjoy!

In reality, I didn't add the butter on the crust. Partly because I ran out of garlic powder and partly because I didn't want to add extra calories. But the crust ended up pretty good, I think I'd add more italian seasonings. The fiancé didn't notice the difference, which is good and bad. :)

Penn State pumpkin!

We also carved our pumpkin tonight. Evan took over the carving duties while I scooped, sorted, seasoned and roasted the seeds.

Looking forward to celebrating Halloween this weekend! (I'm scheduled to go to New York the weekend closer to Halloween, so my Penn State friends will be celebrating with us this weekend.) 

Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches

I've been making slow cooker roast beef sandwiches for a while now. (Broil some French bread with mozzerella and dip it in the au jus created in the slow cooker...mmm...)

My recipe was pretty simple, packets of onion soup mixed with a little beef broth as my liquid and I really just let it cook away. But I found this recipe and I'm really intrigued...

Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches (from Recipe Girl)

Ingredients:
1 large sweet onion, sliced
One 2 1/2 to 3 pound beef brisket or boneless beef bottom round roast (fat trimmed)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cups low-sodium beef broth
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded and sliced into strips
1 medium green bell pepper, cored, seeded and sliced into strips
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
6 thin sliced cheese (white American, Havarti or Provolone)
6 sandwich rolls, sliced in half (warmed slightly)

Directions:
1. Place the onion slices in the bottom of your slow cooker.

2. In a small bowl, mix 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, garlic, Italian seasoning, pepper and salt. Rub the seasoning mixture onto all sides of the roast, then set the roast on top of the onions in the slow cooker. Add the broth, water and worcestershire sauce to the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 9 hours (if you have to speed things up, you can set it on high for 4 to 4 1/2 hours). I recommend slow cooking it, if time allows.

3. Toward the end of the slow cooking time, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat, add the peppers to the pan and saute until the peppers are softened.

4. Remove the meat to a cutting board and slice against the grain. Pile the meat onto the sandwich rolls and top with cheese, onions from the slow cooker and sauteed peppers. Serve beef juice from the slow cooker on the side for dipping sandwiches.

I have a roast in the freezer (buy one, get one free. What up?) that I can't wait to cook. Maybe next week?

In other news, we are thrilled football season has started. We are only Penn State football fans, so our games are limited to Saturdays only. Which works out, since I don't think we love it THAT much. But its fun to make it an event on Saturdays. Looking forward to seeing my friends as they float back into town for the games!!!

Creamy Au Gratin Potatoes

This one definitely isn't on the diet plan...

But oh well! My fiancé is headed to Minnesota for work so I'll be on my own for a few days. That probably translates to a lot of grilled chicken with salad for dinner. So I think I can even out this au gratin madness...

The sauce actually is the same that I used for macaroni and cheese. Obviously, that goes over whole wheat macaroni and then baked. But this will be more starchy goodness I think...

The sliced potatoes

What You'll Need

5 Russet potatoes (the older the better! Well, not like moldy old...but not using a fresh bag helps)
1 onion, sliced into rings
Cooking spray
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
3 tablespoons Wondra flour
1 cup skim milk
8 ounces of 2% Velveeta
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
salt and pepper

How You'll Do It

1. Peel potatoes and slice. Also slice onion into rings. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Spray a casserole pan generously with cooking spray. Arrange the potato and onion slices and salt and pepper them.
3. In a small saucepan, melt the butter or margarine. Add the Wondra flour and mix with a whisk. Continue cooking, stirring nonstop for about 2 minutes. Add milk and continue stirring.
4. Let the mixture thicken up for a few minutes while stirring and then add all the Velveeta, mixing well and melting.
5. Add the cheese sauce to the potatoes, stir well. Add breadcrumbs to the top and cover with foil.
6. Bake for an hour.
7. Enjoy!

I set out to make this dish and found out the fiancé "hates" au gratin potatoes. I think he's changed his mind! It tasted really good...something different instead of the usual sweet potatoes.

Back to the grind tomorrow! My birthday is coming up soon, so I'm looking forward to that. :)

The finished product

Grilled Porkchops

Defrosted some pork chops so I wanted to do something a little different besides baked.

The marinade was teriyaki, red wine vinegar, garlic and rosemary. We left it in for 8 hours to get everything soaking.

Then we grilled them on the George Foreman for about 6 minutes.

It tasted great! Served with yellow rice and a salad. And an extra side of editing for work. :)

Common Chicken Cooking Mistakes

Came across this article on AOL/Huffington Post - good stuff!

With the exception of the fresh, grain-fed chicken tip I'd do them all. Nothing against fresher chicken, I bet it tastes great...but I pretty much shop the $1.99/lb bulk chicken breast packages at Walmart. If they charge $3.99 for thin-cut chicken breasts instead of whole I don't want to know how much fresh and organic chicken is! Haha...but I digress...

I knew the tips before but it's nice to have them all in one place and it reminded me I should really be brining my chicken more. Ahhh, I have to remember and stop being lazy ;).

Click here for the 10 most common chicken cooking mistakes.

This weekend has been spent editing and re-editing an article due for next week...Just can't seem to get it right. Wish me luck!


P.S - I made risotto on Thursday but I ran out of chicken broth so I used beef. The fiancé said it tasted like pretzels. Weird? I thought it tasted pretty good but I don't think the pretzels comment was a compliment. Ohhh well...I'll pick up some chicken broth today.

Chicken Marsala

I'm writing about chicken marsala today - one of my absolute favorites to cook. Probably because when I first moved in with Evan I was expanding my recipe repertoire and this was one of my first big accomplishments.

It's funny how Evan always compliments my cooking (except for one fateful experiment with salmon that we laugh over) and says it is "awesome", I can tell when he actually LOVES something. No one else in the world would probably notice, but I do. He eats a little quicker, but takes little breaks between bites to savor it. :) It makes me happy to see him enjoy it. But I digress!

I made my own recipe (as I often do) after looking up a lot of different recipes online and seeing what works best. Loosely based on the Olive Garden chicken marsala recipe, but much healthier. (No breading, no oil, no butter.)

If anyone tries these recipes, I used to coat the chicken with flour or cornstarch before searing them. It helps it brown and probably makes the outside a little crispier. But since I cook pretty healthy, I try to eliminate unnecessary calories so away the breading went. It probably isn't a huge amount of calories I'm saving, but we've learned to enjoy it without the breading. Maybe if its your first time cooking chicken marsala, or you want it to be more authentic, stick with the breading. (I also omit the butter at the end of the recipe to thicken up the sauce for the same reason.)

Another way to use braising!

What You'll Need:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
3/4 bottle marsala cooking wine
1/2 cup flour (optional)
2 tablespoons butter (optional)
1 pound sliced mushrooms
Parsley, to taste
Whole wheat linguine
Pam cooking spray

How You'll Do It:

1. Slice the chicken breasts in half, pound out to even thickness. Dredge chicken in flour, set aside.
2. Heat salted water in a pot, cook whole wheat pasta according to directions.
2. Spray Pam onto deep skillet, heat over high-medium heat.
3. Add chicken and sear on each side for about 3 minutes, until the chicken is browned on the outside.
4. Remove chicken to a plate, add mushrooms and sauté in more Pam for a few minutes.
5. Add the marsala wine, and the chicken back to the skillet. Heat to boiling and then lower heat to a simmer for 15 minutes. A few minutes before its done, add butter to the sauce and stir.
6. Remove from heat, garnish with parsley. Then, enjoy!

I bet this dish would be fantastic with risotto instead of pasta...gotta remember that for next time!

If you are going to make chicken marsala for company or a pot luck or something, maybe use something variation of the Olive Garden recipe. It packs a lot of calories, but it will earn rave reviews. But for a quiet dinner at home, this hits the spot and keeps the calories to an acceptable level.

In other news, another one of our friends is engaged! SO much happiness going around. My engagement ring is being resized in Altoona currently, so I feel strange without it. Unfortunately, the jewelry store in our town isn't equipped to cut through platinum so it had to be sent off. Can't wait to get it back!!!

Wedding Website

I've officially launched the wedding website!

www.CassidyHendrick.com

I got the domain to use for this year leading up to the wedding and then possibly to use as a digital portfolio after. I will be a Cassidy-Hendrick myself then. :)

The top picture needs to be changed, since we are going to do an engagement photo shoot. Other than that, it should be good to go! (Oh, and the registries aren't quite done...still debating china patterns! You should see my dining room table. It has lots of mis-matched place settings in varying colors of blue and gold.)