My "Family" Home Made Pizza, I'm givin' it up Ma!

Favorite Mixing Bowl
(1)

Yeast is active
(2)

This dough is "Kneedy"
(3)

Ingredients list; Active Dry yeast ( one packet) Canola Oil,Gold Medal "Unbleached" flour, Wheat Gluten , "Whole" milk Mozzarella and a tablespoon of Sugar.

Well I'm turning it loose, no secrets will be kept, all the pictures and directions will be real from start to finish. All set, here we go.

Perfect Dough Ball
(4)

First, get a mixing bowl, add about one and a half cups of hot tap water about 110 degrees or so, we don't want to kill the yeast. Then add 1 packet of yeast, 1/4 cup of canola oil, 1 tablespoon of sugar. I always use a fork for mixing,easy to clean when you're done. If the yeast doesn't activate, the water is to hot, the yeast is old or in my case, Jackies watching it.

What I'm showing you is the step by step process of preparing the dough. We're not going to add the Gluten until after we get the yeast active. (don't add Gluten if your allergic).  If you have noticed your baked goods, cakes and yeast recipes have lost some of their quality, it's not you. Gluten has slowly but surely been taken out of flour and wheat products for a long time. Back to the task at hand. After the yeast is active add the tablespoon of Gluten. Make sure it's blended well with the yeast mixture, then proceed. The most important step is coming up, so if you need a break from all this stress, go now.

Box of
Wheat Gluten

About 45 minutes
(5)

 Adding the flour is the most critical step, too much, it's over, not enough your hands will never be clean again. My technique is to pour the flour from the bag and work it in slowly, until you get to density in picture (3). At this point you're ready to work it Baby! Get your hands in it, put some oil on your hands, first,  now roll, pound and push. Add a sprinkling of flour now and then to keep it from staying to sticky. When it starts to behave and is moist, not wet, form it into the Dough Ball. Then cover with a kitchen towel and put it on the counter or stove. After about 45 minutes (picture 5) it should have risen to twice the size and have a wonderful doughy aroma. Now as you can see I set the Dough Ball on the stove (We used to have a kid in school we called Dough Ball, he loved it) Today it would be "bullying." Sometimes if you're in a hurry, preheat the stove to 450 Degrees, turn it off when it beeps, set the dough on a cooling rack on top of the back burner. There's enough extra heat to cut the rising time in half and still retain the quality of the dough. There should be enough dough to make a 12 inch and a 9x12 inch pizza. For a deep dish crust, punish the Dough Ball again and do a "Double Rise", thick and chewy that's as good as it gets. Next time Let's cook this "Bad Boy"!

Now, Let's make some Pizza! Please Leave a comment. Thank You! Til next time

Now, Let's Bake this Thing! Kabish?

Right amount of dough
for a 9x12
Pizza

Perfect
ready to top

Pre Heat oven to 400 Degrees. As you can see by the image on the left, I plopped part of the dough ball on my favorite pizza pan. Make sure you coat the pan with Canola oil or Wesson oil. Don't be stingy with the oil. You can drain the excess by tilting the pan. This is the right amount of dough for a 9x12 square pizza. I put the other dough ball in a freezer bag, dated it and put it in the freezer. Do not use Olive oil, it doesn't heat fast enough, and after all this work  you want the best finished product you can get. Now let's spread the dough! Oil your hands, and spread from the center out until you get the dough  end to end and side to side. It takes a little doing, but you'll get it, If you tear some holes in the dough, don't worry, just pinch them closed. Then pinch along the edges to form you edge crust. My wife loves the corner pieces.

Ready to take the heat.

Now Your ready to top it off. If you have a sauce in mind, go for it. The sauce and topping I use are Contadina pizza sauce, down here in NC I can only find it at Kroger. Sorrento "Whole Milk" mozzarella and then you can use your imagination. Peppers, pepperoni, onions, sausage, etc. Make sure the mozzarella you use is whole milk, that's what the good pizza shops use, it has a beautiful melt,  taste and color. 

"Squizito"
The Star of
the show!

Cooking time varies, gas stove, electric stove. I use an electric stove. Make sure you place the pizza on the middle shelf of the oven. A rule of thumb is to do a visible check after 15 minutes of baking. Then it's up to you, how dark do you want it. All I'm showing is the way my family likes it. You know you've got a great pizza when you can lift the whole pizza with a spatula. If my Mother sees this I'm gonna get baked! Not to worry, she thinks the "internet" has something to do with the Boston Celtics.

til next time

I don't throw the dough, these guys do.

"In Crust We Trust".

Avacados, How Can You Tell?

Last summer here in North Carolina, we had a real problem with Haas Avocados, so bad that even green ones were rotten inside.I never bring fruit or vegetables back for a refund, but after being burnt several times, I had had enough. I know they are from Mexico but Trader Joe's wanted me happy so they credited even for the other 4 packs that I had long thrown away. Since then they have changed Avocado suppliers.They now have Mission Organic still from Mexico. So far so good.

From Left to right
(1) (2) (3) or (4)

When I buy them loose, I'' always get them in different shades of green. That way 4 will last a week and none will over ripen. Oh, oh, the mailman just came, I need to make sure he didn't drop it on the ground again, Be right back..... Hello again, a new twist, he made sure the junk mail made it into the mail box and you guessed it, the good mail is on the ground. Look, believe it or not I got a rebate check back from Staples. I guess I did  all 50 rebate rules right.

Number 3
Perfect!

Now, you need to guess which avocado in the picture is ready to eat. If you guessed 4, (ready tommorow) wrong, 2 (ready in three days)  wrong, 1 (ready in two days) wrong, 3 is correct. As a matter of fact this was number 3 givin' it up for the K man. Make sure you pop the pit out and shave the skin off. (that's what she said) Oh, and that's how to open an Avocado. Take a knife (your safest one) score it in half pop it open and you're done.

Let's make something with this, hmmm, what do you think?

Wholley Molley ---------!

 

Til next time

Music Critique, "Sleigh Bells" or Something Else?

 

I think they spelled sleigh wrong. Sleigh is usually associated with Santa Claus and gifts, not only was it lip synced, it was lip synced badly.  I think Slay would be the proper spelling. What a train wreck. Maybe if I'm a girl with 35 tatoos, I'll buy the sneakers, a Cleopatra wig, sure, what the heck, this CD. really??  I  want to cut these kids a break, they are looking for the big time. Guess what, finally artists like Adele and newer talent like Karmin are showing up and techno pop and all the added "wawawa" junk is going by the wayside.Thank you! Who are the folks that pick who  goes on these shows? ( I watched it again, it's worse than I thought!} It sounds like another suicide song to me. I love songs like, "People get ready for a Trains a comin" Guess what? Lorne Michael produced both of these shows! Watch the credits.
Take a look! The late  Motown great, Curtis Mayfield and the very talented Taylor Dane. Someplace in England or politically correct U.K. If you look real close in the background, after the sax player does his solo, he airplays it like a guitar. Cool!

How does Beef and Vegetable Stir Fry Sound? Recipe Time!

This recipe makes four servings, I'll give you the nutritional information up front. This way you can decide to make it or not. Good idea? This information is based on per serving: 350 calories; 7 Grams of total Fat; 690 Milligrams of Sodium.

 Just for you,Vince, Mr. Slap Chop and my favorite the best thing since the Snuggle the "Sham Wow"I was looking to put some "How to" slice vegetables video but they were putting me to sleep. Then I found Vince and thought you would like to go down memory lane. Now the promised Beef and Vegetable stir-fry You will need one pound of fresh Asparagus, 12 ounces of round steak, 3 tablespoons of all purpose flour, 1 gallon freezer bag, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon honey, 1/4 cup water, 2 minced garlic cloves, 1/4 teas. of crushed red pepper flakes, 3 tablespoons vegetable oil divided,4 small carrots chopped, 1 red and yellow bell pepper cut into 1/2 inch strips, 1 cup sliced white mushrooms, 1 cup of broccoli florets, 1/2 Small red onion 2 cups of cooked rice. (1) Trim asparagus's and slice in 1" pieces. Peel carrots and slice into 1/4" slices, set both aside. (2) Slice steak thinly (stick it in the freezer for about an hour and it slices easier) and place in freezer bag with flour, shake to coat and set aside.(3) In a small bowl, whisk together 1 tbsp. oil, soy sauce,honey, water, garlic and red pepper flakes. (4) Heat remaining oil in a large skillet or wok over med. high heat until very hot. Carefully add steak and carrots and stir fry for 4 minutes. (5) Stirring constantly, carefully stir in sauce mixture and stir fry for one minute. (6) Add remaining vegetables and stir fry 3 minutes more. Serve immediately over rice. Enjoy!

Now We're off to Merry Lake

We usually stay at Papa Jack's for a couple of days, or until we keep finding him out in his garden. This usually means, for a guy approaching 90, "get the hell out of here!" So we gather up the kids, and off we go, to Merry Lake. The lake is in a town, Camden Mi. which is literally a tobacco spit from the Ohio line. Pioneer Ohio is the first town across the line. This is very important to the story I'm about to tell.
We went to some garage sales in Pioneer on our way to the lake, and I asked one lady if she knew Russ Lanius, he used to be the service manager at a Canon dealer where I was the sales manager back in the 80's. She said of course, they're on their way to NC for a vacation. I can call them for you. So, right then and there, she calls them and I talked to his wife, gave her our email address and she said they would get in touch with me. It was freaky! A few days later, I got an email from a Blackberry it was Russ, the message was "I just left Wauseon H.S and I'm on my way to Mac Steel, talk to you soon". The guys still on the same service call  I sent him on 30 years ago. Hilarious!

MacSteel had one of the worst driveways I had ever seen, that's probably why it's taken him so long! What's really freaky, is that we were traveling from NC to MI on the same weekend. I think we need to keep in touch, and yes, he has a daughter named Missy. You can't make this up!

Next post~Germanator shows up on Merry Lake vacation

Summer Vacation in Detroit, part 2

We arrived at Papa Jacks house, a neat little 2 bedroom, 1 bath home with a "Michigan" basement. I was a real estate agent for a time, and you couldn't count basements in the square footage, so it is less than a 750 square foot home. A "Michigan" basement was added well after the home was built, because you needed some more room. They would shovel underneath the house, raise the house. put it on rafters, and dig the basement. For me that task has "move" written all over it. They were affordable and built and designed for one purpose, to house workers who were coming in from all over the country, to get a great paying job, from the car companies. Henry Fords idea about affordable cars for the workers, took root in the housing market as well.The car companies hired anybody and everybody they could. The demand was incredible. Glass makers, housing, retail, if you relocated in the Detroit area, you were going to do well financially in a very short time. Back to the vacation, we had two grandkids with us, Zoe and Corgan, Butch and Zozo to Papa Jack.

Our arrival dinner was the usual, Caprara Pizza, right down the street on Northline Rd.(Nortline to the locals) It was a fresh dough ready to bake pizza in an aluminum pizza pan for $8.50. You took it home, followed cooking directions on the bag. and viola, dinner time.

Check out my first vacation blog, and play the parade video and the Detroit 2012 video at the same time, it is eerie. I did it by mistake, but what a story they tell.

Next blog, "Arrive at Merry Lake"