Pizza

One time, I tried to make pizza dough from scratch. It didn't work out, I have no idea why, and I kind of didn't think about it any more.

But I'm not a huge fan of frozen pizza, and buying those pre-made pizza crusts is really inconvenient when you don't make pizza that often.

However, since I've successfully made more than a couple of loaves of bread, it was worth attempting the pizza crust again. Especially whole wheat style!

My most recent whole wheat flour purchase was Gold Medal brand. I'm not particular about the brand, and I couldn't tell you why I picked up that one rather than something else. It had a recipe on the side of the bag for pizza crust that looked easy enough.



I topped the crust with mozzarella, parmesan, tomatoes and the mysterious "pizza spice." It came out fantastic but next time I would bake the crust longer to start. It was quick and easy enough for a weeknight.

Ever notice how I have to bake everything significantly longer than recipes call? It's like my kitchen is in some weird vortex where it's 50 degrees cooler. Now if only it just felt cooler too.

This Morning

I woke up at 7:30, before my alarm was even supposed to go off. I was so excited I couldn't sleep any more. I was excited for my long run of the week!

So, I get up, get dressed, eat a piece of bread & butter (breaking the fast, so to speak), and start out the door. As I go, I click around to get my iPod started. Normally, it detects the sensor before I start down the steps.

Today it didn't detect anything. At all. I was down the street before I turned around and came home. After all, it crashed my iPod altogether on my last run. Not to mention the upgrade to the website has been anything but smooth. But, as gimmicky as it is, it was very much well worth the $30 investment for me.

After at least a half hour of research, I gave up and went out anyway feeling like Dumbo without his feather. By then it was a half hour hotter, too, but still worth it.

I saw hummingbirds, dragonflies, flying beetles that I mistook for hummingbirds, horses, and the 91 highway. It's a little disheartening when all of the cyclists pass you so fast, but only one runner passed me. And I ended up passing him before I turned around to come home.

But now, what to do about my dead sensor? A replacement sensor is apparently $19. It seems you can take it to an Apple store and they'll replace the battery for free. But, the nearest Apple store is at least a half hour away. SparkPeople's fitness maps are really convenient for me, since I can just add it to my fitness plan. If you're not in to SparkPeople there's always WalkJogRun too. Or, since I know it's worth it to me, do I graduate to something nicer?

Either way, RIP little Nike sensor. We've had a lot of fun together.

Banana White Chocolate Toffee Cookies

Oh, gnarly banana. Don't be sad that my husband crinkled his nose at you and called you inedible. You make me so happee!


I had squirreled this banana chocolate toffee cookie recipe away for the magical occasion that the mister doesn't eat all the bananas before they get to such a state. Who would have thought it would be so soon? The article questions the flavor mix but obviously this is crazy talk. Bananas? Good. Chocolate? Good. Toffee? Super fan.

Alright, two confessions:

1) I get really excited about rotting bananas.
2) I can't make chocolate chip cookies.

It's true. It's embarrassing. In my mind, they should come out the way the time-lapsed pre-made cookie dough bakes in the commercials, and everyone gathers around and all the children love you even though it's so easy they can do it. Mine ... fall apart on the bottom, fluff up like little muffin tops, chocolate chips seep out and burn ... you name it, it happens (and yes, I have some new tricks I plan on trying).

But this suggestion that bananas react well with baking soda was promising. (I just spent at least a half an hour researching this - anyone??)

Also, I didn't have all of the ingredients, nor the energy to go much further than the local Wal Mart. Wal Mart does not sell toffee chips. Wal Mart sells Heath bars (FTW). It ends up that two king sized Heath bars = 1 cup of chocolate and toffee chips. We won't talk about how catharctic smashing candy bars is.

I'd recommend cooking these thouroughly, as they tend to be mushy unless they turn a little brown. And it couldn't hurt to spray down the pan.

I even have corroboration that these are the most amazing cookies on earth. I know they have bananas in them, but really, the banana flavor isn't overwhelming. So if you really want to impress someone, these are the cookies to make.

"Do you want to go to La Creperie for breakfast?"

"Hmpf! I can make crepes!"



Made with the recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook. They apparently don't sell my version any more, but I don't think any kitchen is complete without a classic Betty Crocker book.

Bonus: you can freeze these just like pancakes.

I'm going to be out of town for a little while. I haven't uploaded a lot of the pictures that go with my posts. So there's one thing I'm not going to worry about for a while.

Things have been incredibly hectic lately. I can't seem to break this bad habit of trying to achieve all kinds of major life changes in a very short period of time. Life is short, but it's even shorter if you're trying to cram it all in to a few years. I'm hoping that when I get back, things will settle down again.

Chicken & Pasta

For lack of a better name, I'll just call this regular ol' chicken and pasta.

This is the quickest, easiest dinner you can make. It will cause you to stock canned diced tomatoes in your cabinet. The rest you can leave to whatever is available.

I must have just gone to the grocery store with this on my mind, because you can see olives and capers.

Here's the basics:

1. Boil your choice of pasta. We've been on a whole wheat, non-spaghetti noodle kick.
   
2. Slice up some thawed chicken. I used to just throw some chicken on the George Foreman grill and go, but lately I've been trying to plan ahead and thaw it first. Either way works, but if you're looking for a quick thaw, just put the frozen chicken on a plate in the sink and run hot water over it.
   
3. Start the tomato mix. If you're trying to be fancy, cook the garlic in olive oil first until it really starts to smell. If you're not, just throw in the can of tomatoes, whatever seasoning you like, and anything else that's available: spinach, olives, capers, veggies.
   
4. Add the chicken and cook for about 10 minutes. You can cover the pan or not; I don't really see any difference.

Ah, an old standby. You can put this together in about 15 minutes. And the tomato mix is somehow very gourmet compared to jarred spaghetti sauce.

Chicken Curry II

I didn't want to give up on curried chicken, especially with the better part of a jar of curry powder left over. So, we have chicken curry part II.

I forgot to take a picture. Don't worry, it looked just like the last time!

This time: I didn't measure anything too exactly. I left out the paprika. I left out the bay leaf. Which is a little unfortunate, since I was pretty excited about having bay leaves. It's one of those fancy herbs that is supposed to glam up the flavor of your food. I think it tastes like wood. I used the same 3/4 cup skim milk (versus yogurt and coconut milk), and at the end went crazy with the cayenne.

Ah, there's the fire.

Now, if they just sell curry powder at the .99 store ...

Microwave Potato Chips

At 10 pm on a Saturday night, I decided I wanted potato chips. No sooner than the words were out of my mouth must I have gotten "that look" on my face.

I once tried to make potato chips before in the oven, but it just didn't work. I think it was the combination of too little oil and too low of heat. But I still have about five pounds of potatoes, so burning off a couple obviously wouldn't break my heart.

And then, I stumbled across this in my search. Rays of light came from the sky, and angels sang. But would it really work? Aforementioned surplus of potatoes made it too good not to try.

Don't be afraid to doubt, my dears. Here are the results.

I sliced the potato as thinly as I could. Singular, because slicing a potato really thin is really, really boring, especially when it stands between you and potato chip eating.

I rolled the slices around in some vegetable oil (subsequent attempts with olive oil were about the same) and squeezed as many as I could onto the largest greased plate I had. They can't overlap, but touching is OK since they'll get a little smaller.

I watched them spin in the microwave for the recommended 4-5 minutes. Mostly because I was pretty sure that much oil for that long would catch fire. It seemed like something was happening just at the 5-minute mark, so I added two more.

Then there was magic:


They came out ... potato chips. Just like Lays. Tasty, crave-killing potato chips. I'll admit that this is 60% novelty, kind of like microwaved smores. But imagine showing up to a party or a barbecue and saying, "Oh, these? Yeah, I just whipped up some homemade potato chips."