Pear Arugula Pizza

My friend, Bridgette Server, had a few friends over for pizza last fall and this one was a surprise favorite! We had this today with Chelsea and Russell.  They're staying with us during the Covid-19 quarantine.
Ingredients:
2 pizza crusts (any plain recipe will do.  I use the one that comes with the bread machine)
Lemon Infused olive oil
Kosher salt
Thinly sliced pears
Prosciutto
Red onions, thinly sliced
Balsamic glaze
Fresh Mozzarella
Arugula
Honey
Instructions:
Drizzle the olive oil over the stretched dough and sprinkle with salt.  Bake 500° for 5 minutes. Layer the rest of the ingredients on except the arugula and honey. Bake for about 8 minutes or until bubbly.  Immediately toss arugula on top then drizzle with a little olive oil, balsamic glaze and honey. Enjoy! Serves around 6 people.
Here's the link to the lemon oil Bridgette uses.  There are cheaper ones but I don't know if they're as good:
https://www.amazon.com/Agrumato-Extra-Virgin-Pressed-Lemons/dp/B000M7TH46/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=agrumato+lemon+olive+oil&qid=1589083111&sr=8-2

And here's the balsamic glaze:
https://www.amazon.com/Nonna-Pias-Classic-Balsamic-Glaze/dp/B07KCPWHN8/ref=sr_1_2?crid=JW3XRU0NK76L&dchild=1&keywords=nonna+pias+balsamic+glaze&qid=1589083325&sprefix=nonna+pia%2Caps%2C210&sr=8-2

Sourdough Bread

A healthy and delicious treat! Sourdough bread is sometimes hard to find in stores and it's so easy to make.  You can substitute wheat flour for some of the white flour if you prefer. The longer you let it rise, the more glutton will be broken down and the sourer it will be. Also, you can make the dough into a round loaf, or shape it into a baguette.  I usually make 2-3 loaves at a time and freeze whatever we won't eat immediately.

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. honey
3/4 cup starter
1 cup water

Mix all ingredients in a mixer for 4-5 minutes. Put in a greased bowel and cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap.  Let the dough rise for 12-18 hours.  You can turn it over once or twice while it's rising but it's not necessary.  Dump it onto a floured surface and stretch and fold 4 times.  Shape into a ball or roll into a baguette.  Cover and allow to rise for 30-45 minutes while you heat the oven to 400°. Spray the top with water and slash two to three times with a sharp knife. Bake in a convection oven at 400°on a lower rack for 30 minutes, then cover with foil and bake 15 additional minutes.  If you're not using a convection oven, you may have to bake it a little longer. When you take the bread out of the oven, you can rub butter on it to make it pretty if you want. Allow it to cool on a cooling rack for one hour.

Smoked Turkey

Ingredients:
14-16 lb. turkey
5 gallons of brine
2 T olive oil
Dry meat rub

Brine:
5 gallons of water
5 cups of salt
2 1/2 cups brown sugar

Soak the turkey in the brine for about 8 hours.  Make sure it stays under 40°. Rinse it off and dry it with paper towels.  Rub olive oil and herbs of choice on the turkey. (We used garlic powder, parsley and pepper.) Smoke for 1/2 hour then roast on the Traeger grill breast side up for about 2 hours.  Measure the the temperature in the breast.  Cook until 165°. When you take it off the grill, wrap in foil and let it set for about 20 minutes.

Sourdough Waffles

Sourdough Waffles

When I started making sourdough bread a few months ago, I looked what can be done with the extra starter.  This was one of the success stories!  The waffles come up fluffy and slightly chewy.

1 1/2 Cups milk

1T vinegar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 C sourdough starter

1 1/2 C flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 T Sugar

1/2 tsp salt

Put the milk and vinegar in the blender and let it sit for 5 minutes then add all the other ingredients.  Blend. Pour into hot, greased waffle iron and cook for about 4 minutes.

Creamy Chicken Basil

Creamy Chicken Basil

Ingredients:

3 boneless chicken breasts

1/2 C water

1 tsp Better Than Bouillon (can substitute regular bouillon)

1 can cream of chicken soup

8 oz cream cheese

2 T Italian seasoning

1/8 C fresh basil, ribboned

Instructions:

Cook the chicken, water and bouillon in the crockpot on high for about 4 hours. Take the chicken out.  Dump in the cream of chicken soup, cream cheese and Italian seasoning. Stir all the ingredients together. Shred the chicken and put it into the sauce.  Cook for one more hour.  Just before serving, stir in the basil ribbons. Serve over rice.

Lemon Zucchini Bread

Lemon Zucchini Bread

I actually made this bread with yellow squash to make it look more "lemony" but you can use zucchini instead!

Ingredients for the bread:

4 eggs

1 C oil

2 C sugar

2 C zucchini or yellow squash, grated

1 lemon
2 tsp poppy seeds

3 C flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325°

Grease and lightly flour two bread pans

Beat eggs, then add oil and sugar.  Mix well.  Add in squash and lemon.  Add flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix. Pour into bread pans and bake for 1 hour (10 minutes less if using convection oven.) Loosen from pan 20 minutes after it comes out of the oven.

Ingredients for glaze:

2 T butter, softened

1 lemon

2 C powdered sugar

About 1/8 C milk

Juice and zest one lemon. Beat butter.  Add a little powdered sugar at a time. Add all the lemon juice.  Add 2 tsp lemon zest. Add enough milk to make a smooth glaze.  Pour glaze over cooled bread. Sprinkle a little zest over the top.

Scrumptious Hot Chocolate

Yesterday, we had one last meal with Alyssa and Jason, Chelsea and Russell, and Brooke home.  I didn't have anything in the house to make dessert so I decided to try homemade crockpot hot chocolate.  It was a huge hit!  I melted the chocolate chips first with a little butter and milk before adding them to the crockpot, but next time I might just try dumping them in with everything else to see how it comes out.

Ingredients
2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 T butter
1 can sweetened condensed milk
12 C whole milk

Instructions
Pour everything into the crockpot and cook on low for several hours, stirring occasionally. I turned ours up to high for the last hour (but then scalded my tongue when I tired it!)