Build a Pizza from Scratch

Dough:
1 pkg. yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1 tsp sugar 
½ tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 cups flour, all purpose

Combine yeast, water and sugar in large bowl and let set in warm place until bubbly. Add remaining ingredients and beat with spoon. Knead a few times. Grease bowl, put in dough, turn over once and let rise in warm place until double in size. Roll Dough out to fit in greased pizza pans

Sauce: In sauce pan combine
1 large can crush tomatoes, 28 oz.
¾ tsp oregano
¾ tsp. rosemary
salt and pepper
½ cup chopped black olives
1 tsp garlic powder
½ onion chopped
½ green pepper chopped
a few mushrooms.
Combine in saucepan and simmer… Spread sauce on dough

Topping:
Meats: pepperoni, cooked hamburger or sausage, steak strips
Cheeses: grated Provolone, Mozzarella, Romano, Scamoze. Cheddar

Top with cheese and your favorite meat, olives, peppers onions, mushroom, spinach, asparagus and herbs, if wanted. Create your own family favorite today!

Bake at 400 degrees F. for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown. Makes 2 pizza pies

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

The chicken coating:
3-4 boneless chicken breasts
salt + pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup canola oil

The sweet and sour sauce:

3/4 cup sugar
4 tbs ketchup
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp garlic salt

Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees. Rinse your chicken breasts in water and then cut into cubes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs. Heat your 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet and cook your chicken until browned but not cooked through. Place the chicken in a 9x13 greased baking dish. Mix all of your sweet and sour sauce ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and then pour evenly over the chicken. Bake for one hour and during the baking process you will need to turn the chicken every 15 minutes.

Magic Custard Cake

Magic Custard Cake Recipe

YIELD: ONE 8"X8" CAKE

TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES

 Temperatures for the ingredients are important here. Not too warm to cook the eggs before baking, and not cold either. You can use either confectioner's sugar or regular sugar, use the same amount by weight but the volume will be different. If you use regular sugar, 150g will equal 3/4 cup. We noticed on the the site were we originally found the recipe that her top was fluffier. After reading through the google translations we noticed she added 4 drops of vinegar to the egg whites when whipping. That would have made them more stable and probably resulted in a fluffier top. Whipping the egg whites in a copper bowl would accomplish the same thing. Next time we make it, that will be the plan.

A few more notes on making the cake: When adding the milk, we found it easier and less messy to gently hand whip them in instead of using the stand mixer. It is a very liquidy batter, and for us it splattered everywhere even at the slowest speed. For folding in the whites, it is done with more of a gentle whisk/folding motion with the whisk since the batter is so runny. The whites will look a little curd like after mixing them in, just try to mix/fold them to the point where there is no big chunks. Because of the custard-like center, when fully baked, there will be a bit of a jiggle, but not a sloppy jiggle to the cake when gently shook. Same after is has cooled. That's about it. Have fun and every time we've made the magic custard cakes, going into the oven we don't think they will work correctly, and after baking they are magically perfect.

ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted Butter
• 2 cups (480ml) Milk
• 4 Eggs, separated
• 1 1/4 cups (150g) Confectioner's Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon (15ml) Water
• 1 cup (115g) Flour
• 1 teaspoon (5ml) Vanilla Extract
• extra confectioner's sugar for dusting

directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly butter or grease a 8"x8" baking dish.
2. Melt the butter and set aside to slightly cool. Warm the milk to lukewarm and set aside.
3. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks *see head note. Set aside.
4. Beat the egg yolks and sugar until light. Mix in the melted butter and the tablespoon of water for about 2 minutes or until evenly incorporated.
5. Mix in the flour until evenly incorporated. Slowly beat in the milk and vanilla extract until everything is well mixed.
6. Fold in the egg whites, 1/3 at a time. Repeat until all of the egg whites are folded in.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45-60 minutes or until the top is golden. Allow cake to completely cool before cutting and then dust with confectioner's sugar *see Note 1.

Note 1: For faster cooling you can place the cake in the fridge. Even after fully cooled, it will still be slightly jiggly.

Ooooh So Good Lemon Monkey Bread

This monkey bread is sweet and tart, moist and warm, crusty and soft all together. Ooooh it is so good.

The base for this sweet treat is Rhodes Dinner Rolls. Let them thaw until not frozen, but still cold.

Then, cut in half and place in a greased (I used butter) baking dish.

Drizzle with melted butter. Mmmmm. You know how I love butter.

Then we’re going to zest a lemon.

And mix that zest with some regular granulated sugar. Which infuses the sugar with the lemon flavor. Look at those gorgeous flecks of bright yellow lemon!

Sprinkle half the lemon sugar over the rolls and allow to rise until double. They are going to get nice and fluffy and the lemon sugar will essentially dissolve into the bread as it rises. Yum!

When all puffed up nicely, sprinkle the other half of your lemon sugar on top of the rolls and then bake.

Remove from the oven when nice and golden, slide out of the pan onto your serving platter and drizzle with a little lemon glaze.

Pull apart and enjoy!

Warm, crusty on the outside, soft and perfectly lemony on the inside! Dee-licious!

The lemon sugar gets a little caramelized with the lemon and is just amazing around the edges. Oh buddy. That’s the good stuff.

Lemon Monkey Bread

12 Rhodes dinner rolls, thawed but still cold

zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice

1. Cut rolls in half and place in a greased 9×13″ pan.
2. Drizzle with the melted butter.
3. Mix lemon zest and sugar together in a small bowl. Sprinkle HALF of the lemon sugar mixture over the rolls. Cover and let raise till doubled.
4. Sprinkle remaining sugar mixture on top. Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes. Remove from pan.
5. Combine glaze ingredients. Drizzle over rolls while still warm.

Scalloped Hasselback Potatoes

Let’s find out how to make these fancy Scalloped Hasselback Potatoes full of cheese, butter and delicious cream. You will need: potato, butter, Parmesan, oil, garlic powder, and cream made from yogurt and some parsley, cheese. You will do it like this:

Ingredients:
- 2 larger whole potatoes;
- 100 grams butter;
- 100 grams Parmesan cheese;
- vegetable oil;
- 60 ml heavy cream;
- 60 grams cheese, grated;
- salt;
- garlic powder;
- sour cream (optional).

Preparation:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 F (200 C);
2. Scrub the potatoes clean;
3. With a sharp knife, make slices across the potato, but be sure to stop until you reach its bottom;
4. Slice the butter and Parmesan.
5. Next, open the potatoes’ crevices and shove the Parmesan and butter, alternating between the two.
Tip: It helps to put butter in freezer for awhile until cutting it.
6. Put the potatoes onto an oiled baking sheet and drizzle a little oil on top of them.
7. Season with salt and garlic powder. You can be quite generous with salt.
8. Bake for about 60 minutes.
9. After 45 minutes, remove the baking sheet from the oven. Drizzle cream over the top and top with grated cheese. Any cheese you like.
10. Return the baking sheet to the oven for the last 15 minutes.

You can put sour cream, it gives a nice flavor and for a great lunch serve it with chicken and a little gravy.

Awesome Cheesy Mushroom Pull-Apart Bread

It’s weekend, and this is a reason to try something special in our kitchen, for us, for friends, for guests. Mushrooms and cheese make this pull apart bread so delicious you won’t be able to stop picking at it! You will need:

For the Mushrooms
12 oz sliced mushrooms
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme

For the Bread
1 unsliced loaf sourdough bread
12 ounces Provolone cheese, thinly sliced
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup finely diced green onion
2 teaspoons poppy seeds

Make it like this:

For the Mushrooms
Heat a medium skillet on medium. Add the butter. Once the butter is melted, add the mushrooms. Cook 4-5 minutes until they start to sweat. Add the thyme and continue to cook another 2-3 minutes.

Set mushrooms aside and allow to cool.

For the Bread
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the bread lengthwise and width-wise without cutting through the bottom crust. This can be a little tricky going the second way but the bread is very forgiving.

Place loaf on a foil-lined baking sheet.

Insert cheese slices between cuts. Pour the mushrooms between the cuts. Use your fingers to push the mushrooms down into the loaf.
Combine butter, onion, and poppy seeds. Drizzle over bread. Wrap in foil; place on a baking sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Unwrap the bread and bake 10 more minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Lemon Flowers

This next recipe looks awesome. So, grab your ingredients and utensils and lets get to work.

You will need the following ingredients:

• 1 package of frozen dough (you can buy it from your local mini market)
• lemon mousse = 1/2 can of condensed milk, whipped in a blender with juice of 2 Tahiti lemons
• 2 tablespoons sugar powder (icing)

You will need the following equipment:

• shape for mini cupcake (with 24 cupcake spaces)
• a cookie cutter in the shape of a flower

Follow the instructions:

1. Unroll the frozen dough and leave it for half an hour at room temperature. Start by cutting flowers with the cookie cutter shaped as a flower.
2. Place each flower inside the hollow cupcakes form. Fold one petal (petals alternating out) into another and fit the dough into the cavity of the cupcake form.
3. Carefully push the three outer petals against the sides of the tray, and then push the other three inner petals also against the walls of the form.
4. Make holes with a fork in each of the funds of the tart dough still raw, twice the times. Bake at 180 degrees for about 5-7 minutes or until golden.After cooling remove to a plate.
5. Fill each flower with lemon mousse.
6. Sprinkle the sugar over the flowers and Voila!

As other suggestion you can use as filling cream: Nutella, jam, cream, vanilla cream topped with fruit buds … you have endless possibilities.