My Homemade Pizza/French Bread

This is one of our families favorites & we make it about once a week.

Homemade Pizza Dough/French Bread

(This makes 2 large pizza's or 2 loaves of bread)

2-1/2 c. very warm water

2 Tbsp. yeast

2 Tbsp. sugar
6-1/2 c. white flour

5 Tbsp butter/margarine

1/2 tsp. salt

Pizza Sauce

1 tall can or 2 sm. cans of tomato sauce

1 Tbsp. Italian Seasoning

1 Tbsp. Garlic Powder

(if you like your sauce thick then add a can of tomato paste as well)

Mix water, yeast & sugar (in that order) together in a bowl. Place aside & let it "proof" for about 5-10 min. The picture above is what the yeast mixture looks like when it has proofed. (I usually place it in front of the vent on my stove so the heat from the oven preheating will help "proof" the yeast mixture.) Mix the flour, salt & butter together. Then when the yeast mixture is done proofing add it to the flour mixture & mix well. If the dough is a little dry you can add about 2 Tbsp. of Olive Oil. Sometimes the amount of flour will depend on the weather. If it's wet (humid) then you'll need a little more flour (but be sure to not add too much). I will usually add about 1/2 cup at a time until it looks/feels right. If it's dry outside then use a little less. Put on a floured surface to rise & cover with a dry towel. If the dough still feels a little sticky then put a little flour on the dough & knead it into it by hand until it's not sticky anymore. Let rise for about 10 min.

While the dough is rising, mix the sauce.

When the dough is done rising, break it into 2 pieces & roll one out on your pizza stone/pan. You can bake this on a cookie sheet if you don't have a pizza stone/pan. Spread sauce on top, add cheese and any other toppings. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 min. You can freeze the remaining dough to use later if you'd like or bake an extra pizza to enjoy now or for leftovers.

French Bread

Use dough recipe above. When dough is done rising seperate into two & place in greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 30 min. Remove from pans & place on cooling racks.

SpudNuts

Got this great recipe from our cousin Raygon!
She says these are so yummy, you wont be able to stop yourself from devouring them!

SPUD NUTS
1 package yeast
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup shortening
2 cups scalded milk
1 cup mashed potato
2 eggs
6-7 cups flour
oil (for frying)

Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
water

Directions:
Dissolve yeast in warm water. In large bowl, add salt, sugar, and shortening to milk, cool mixture to body temperature. Add potatoes, eggs, yeast, and flour to milk mixture. Stir well. Roll dough on lightly floured surface to 1/2 inch thick. Cut with doughnut cutter. Place on a pan and let rise 1 hour. Fry in 350* oil. Drain on paper towels. Combine powdered sugar, vanilla and enough warm water to make thin glaze (start with just a few Tablespoons water so the glaze doesn't end up runny) Dip doughnuts in glaze or brush on with a pastry brush.

Yummy, Yummy Pie Crust

If anyone hasn't heard ofShars Kitchen and her free cooking classes you really need to!
Click to see when her classes are.

One of the many classes I have been to included her pie crust recipe. I just used it for the first time this past week to make my homemade Chicken Pot Pie and it is the absolute best pie crust I have ever tasted! Yummy, yummy pie crust!

It's quite simple too:

Combine 2 Cups of White Flour, 1 Cup Shortening, and 1/2 tsp. Salt until mixed well. After you have a crumbly mixture then add 1/2 Cup of Ice Cold Water and mix until blended completely.

The recipe is from Shar's grandmother and is meant to be hand mixed, so if using an electric mixer do not mix too long.

Once the dough is completely blended, put in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours. The dough will be a little sticky, but once refrigerated it will be ready for rolling!

The recipe above makes 2 pie crusts.

"Candied Yams"

I'm on the Activities Committee for my church and we are having a Christmas Dinner on December 6th. I voluntered to find out pricing on yams, Chocolate/Banana Cream Pies and also Print out Recipes for myself and 11 others to make Candied Yams. They expect 200-300 people to be there so I thought why not take a test run on the yams - Considering I've never made them before. Sis B wanted something simple and not to overpowering. So I whipped some up tonight with a Very Simple Recipe and they turned out quite good I thought.

"CANDIED YAMS"
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
1 - 40oz can Yams
1 – 29oz can Yams
¼ cup Butter
½ cup brown sugar
½ Bag Mini Marshmallows (4 ½ cups)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350*
Drain Yams and pour into an 8x13 Casserole Dish. Spread evenly in dish. Sprinkle brown sugar over yams and mash into the yams. Cut butter into small cubes and dot over the yams.

Bake for 2-3 minutes for butter to melt. Take out and mash butter into yams. Cover the top of yams with all the marshmallows until yams barley peek out. Bake for 20 minutes at 350* - Marshmallows should be brown and yams should be bubbly.

Only Do Instructions Below If Necessary
Some ovens won’t brown the marshmallows –if this is the case – turn the temperature down to 250* and Turn to Broil and cook for 1-3 minutes – Take out as soon as you see them browning – Its real easy for them to burn on Broil so watch carefully!

Pizza Casserole

This is one of my husbands favorite Dishes and I'm making it for dinner tonight. Most of the time I make it with Pepperoni. I've tried it once with Italian Sausage when I didn't have pepperoni and it was pretty good. Not as good but both would be nice to try. Darin likes Salami so tonight I decided to add it with the pepperoni. I used 20 slices pepperoni and 8 slices Salami since they are bigger. I personally didnt care for it with the Salami and probably wouldn't use it again.

PIZZA CASSEROLE

1 pkg Rotini Pasta
1 to 2 - 26.5 oz can - of Spaghetti sauce
1 14.5 oz can - Diced Tomatoes
1 - 8 oz pkg - of favorite shredded cheese
½ pkg of Hormel Pepperoni Mini’s
OR 20-30 slices Pepperoni from 8oz pkg
(only use this if you want less fat in the dish)
1 lb - Italian Sausage

Add Spaghetti Sauce (I use 2 cans because we like it saucy) and diced tomatoes to a skillet and heat up on medium - when sauce starts to bubble turn down to low. If you want to use Sausage, cook it first then add the sauce and tomatoes to it and keep on warm.

Cook Rotini Pasta and Drain.

While pasta is cooking, if you are degreasing pepperoni, do that now (see directions below). This won't take all the fat out but it will at least cut down on the fat content. It also gives it more of a crispy taste (which I like). Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray. Pour the cooked pasta into skillet with the sauce and stir. Leave on warm until pepperoni is done.

If using the minis add them here or when Pepperoni slices are cool enough to touch, tear them into 4 pieces and sprinkle them around in the sauce and then stir them in. Pour mixture into a 9x13 casserole dish and spread evenly. If you like you can add a few more pepperoni pieces or minis on top of dish.

Then pour the package of grated cheese over the top and spread evenly over the dish. Bake @ 350' for 15 minutes, until cheese is melted.

To Degrease Pepperoni:

2 ways to do this: Microwave or Oven

1 - Microwave Oven

Lay at least 2 Paper towels on a paper plate and then arrange 10 slices over the paper towels. Lay another paper towel or 2 over the pepperoni and cook for only 30 seconds. Repeat until all slices are cooked. Don't cook longer than 30 seconds or the pepperoni will get too hard. Let cool to touch then tear into 4 pieces. Tearing is easier than cutting after they are cooked.

2 - Preheat Oven to 300' put cooling rake on a cookie sheet and place 20 slices on top cooling rake. Make sure oven is preheated and it should only take 8 minutes to cook the pepperoni. Don’t over cook they will get to hard. Let cool to touch then tear slices into 4 triangular pieces.

My Attempt At Faces...

Jesus Christ

This is a picture I drew many years ago.

I usually don't do well with faces, so I was pleased with the results.

Dinner Rolls!

I just made these rolls tonight. This was my first time using this recipe! I've tried several & this is the one I like most, so far. Here's the recipe:

Dinner Rolls

2 Tbsp. yeast

1/2 c. warm water (105-115°)

2 Tbsp. sugar

2 c. hot water (120-130 degrees)

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. butter/margarine

2 eggs

2 tsp. salt

7-8 c. flour (mine took 9 cups)

soft butter

Mix together yeast, 1/2 c. warm water & 2 Tbsp. sugar. Let sit for 10-15 min. to proof (gets all fluffy). Whisk in large mixing bowl 2 c. hot water, 1/2 c. sugar, butter, eggs & salt. Add yeast mixture (after it's proofed). Add one c. of flour at a time. Let dough rise in greased bowl for one hour. I usually pour a little bit of olive oil in a large bowl to grease it, you can use canola or veggie oil. Shape into balls. I kinda rolled them into balls & then took a little time to make them smooth on the top by just pulling the top around to the bottom, until the top was smooth.

Bake at 350 degrees for 16-22 min.

I had to adjust my oven to 375 for 18 min. (my oven tends to be a little cooler than some).

I only let my rolls rise for about 20 min. until my dinner was done baking.

They still rose quite a bit in that 20 min.

Baby Book

This is a book I recently made for a young Women that I visit. I recently found out she was pregnant so I did this book for her to keep her baby memories in it.

Christmas Baking Day

Every year we get together as sisters and have a Traditional Christmas baking day, where we make goodie plates or bags for Others. We have so much fun and try to take pictures. Here are a few pics from Past Years.

Bridgette's Famous Homemade Carmel

Lots of Pretzels

We will be posting more Pics for this year after baking day in December.

Welcome

Thank You for visiting our Blog! We are 5 Sisters, MarQuette, Rachelle, Bridgette, Katrinna and Heather who want to share some Recipes with you! Please feel free to copy a recipe or two or drop us a comment to let us know what you think or if you have a suggestion please feel free to let us know!