Food – Page 18 – a hippie with a minivan

Pizza dough…

Pizza is such a great meal to make… it is easy, pretty cheap, delicious and there are always leftovers!

My favourite recipe for the dough makes 3 good sized pizza’s…

2 1/2 cup of warm water
3 tsp yeast
2 tsp honey
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tsp salt
5 1/2 cups of flour

Put the water in a large bowl (or the bowl of your mixer) and add the yeast and honey and let sit for about 5 min…

Meanwhile, mix the flour and salt together…

Add the olive oil to the yeasty water, mix then add the flour. The dough should be quite moist and a bit sticky. Knead until you get a soft and satiny dough… set aside in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled. (about 45 min to an hour.)

When the dough had doubled, divide into three pieces and prepare.

Tonight the boys all wanted pepperoni and cheese…We use a can of Garlic Tomato paste mixed with a can of water and some herbs to make the pizza sauce.

I wanted to make the caramelized onion and spinach pizza with peanut sauce that Annie had shared… and of course the beauty of pizza is that you can make your own…

Here is the Pepperoni and cheese…

(stuffed crust pepperoni and cheese)

(Caramelized onion and spinach pizza with a savoury peanut sauce…)

Inspired…

I have been making weekly menus now for a few years but Annie has inspired me to share my routine and my weeks menu here also…

My weekly routine is to get up Saturday morning and look at the local flyers online and see what is on special and where… most of the time I go to two grocery stores. The stores that have cheaper prices (Super-C and Maxi) often have the nicest looking produce because their turnover is quicker but don’t have much in the way of choice or “speciality” foods… but the staples (flour, eggs, TP etc…) are much cheaper and it really makes a difference to take the effort to go to both types of stores…The other stores (IGA and Metro) are more expensive but have more choice and organic sections.

So the factors that go into my weekly menu are what we already have in the house, what is on special and what we feel like eating that week… I always try to choose at least 2 meals that are quick and easy for the nights that I just don’t feel like cooking or we have something planned and I always try to make sure that the suppers we eat on weekdays are things that have leftovers for Simon’s lunch the next day… though we are not vegetarian, I always have a few vegetarian meals because I enjoy it and I know that I don’t feel good eating meat too often.

After choosing the meals, I go through each item on my list and figure out what we already have and what we need and make my grocery list…

This weeks grocery bill came out to about 135$ (with a few staples)

Meals for the week (not in the order we will be eating them):

Steaks with grilled Asparagus and spinach salad
Crispy Tofu with Coconut Quinoa (the curried version of this)
“Quick Spaghetti” (bacon, onion, mushrooms, garlic etc on pasta for the guys and spinach for myself)
Pizza
Grilled veggie wraps with avocado-wasabi mayo and homemade tortillas
Creamy Broccoli soup
Bar-B-Barn ribs with veggies

(I really need to share more recipes!)

For breakfasts, lunches and snacks we have eggs, oatmeal, homemade bread, pancakes, croissants, crackers and cheese, fruit, veggies etc…

I will most likely be making some treats also…

Ricotta Vanilla pound cake…

I found this recipe/blog through foodgawker and I kept going back to it because it looked so good!!

I tweaked it a bit by adding more vanilla than called for because it was just telling me to add more and I am so glad that I did because the end result was a creamy, buttery vanilla goodness that I just couldn’t get enough of !!! This is not a dry pound cake, that’s for sure!

Ricotta Pound Cake

(makes one 9-inch cake, about 10 servings)

1 1/2 cups cake flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups fresh whole-milk ricotta

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 vanilla bean (I added a whole one)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I added another 1/2 tsp)

Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and position a rack in the center. Grease a 9-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray or butter, dust it with flour, and tap to knock out the excess.

In a medium bowl, sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream togther butter, ricotta, and sugar on medium speed until smooth and light, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down sides of the bowl after each addition. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out seeds with blunt side of a small knife, then beat them into batter along with vanilla extract. On low speed, beat in dry ingredients to combine them, scrape down sides of the bowl, and beat batter for 30 seconds on medium speed.

Pour batter into prepared pan and use a spatula to smooth the top. Give the pan a few gentle whacks on the counter to remove any air pockets. Bake cake for 15 minutes, then turn the pan 180 degrees to ensure even browning. Lower the temperature to 325 degrees and continue baking until the cake springs back lightly when touched, the sides have begun to pull away from the pan, and a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 25 to 35 minutes more. Allow cake to cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then carefully invert it onto the rack to cool completely.

Dust cake lightly with confectioners’ sugar before serving it; the flavor is best on the next day. Any leftover cake may be wrapped in plastic and kept at room temperature for up to 3 days. The cake also freezes beautifully, wrapped in plastic, and place in a large, sealable plastic bag.

From “Dolce Italiano”

Friends and Fajitas

A friend of ours met and got married to a girl from Mexico last year…

we have had them over a few times for supper but Zorayda has been wanting to make us some authentic Mexican Cuisine… and because they have a small place they came over here to prepare it…

(more…)

Twice baked Potatoes…

We usually don’t eat that many potatoes… but with Spring here finally we decided to BBQ some steaks the other day and Simon made a special request for these…

Twice baked potatoes are delicious and so versatile…

Here is the way I make them….

First… bake the potatoes….

my favourite way of doing that is by coating the potatoes with olive oil (put some oil in my hand and rub the potatoes) then prick them with a fork and bake at 350 for about 45-50 min… Even if you are not making twice baked potatoes, this is my favourite way to make baked potatoes because the olive oil makes the skins crispy…

then you cut the potato and carefully scoop the inside out into a bowl…. (leave enough potato for the skins to hold their shape and I use a cloth or my baking mitts to hold the potato while it is hot…)

Mash the potatoes in the bowl with whatever you like (I added butter, sour cream, green onions, salt, pepper, and a pinch of garlic powder) then scoop the mashed potatoes back into the skins… (add a bit of cheese on top if you wish) and then bake again until the tops get bits of brown…

So easy and just a great way to make a baked potato more interesting…