Mama Kat's Pizza Crust

After years of experimenting and altering, and dozens of times of making pizza at home, I came up with a recipe that I was told (though I'm sure it was just to flatter me) tastes better then Pizza Hut or Papa John's crust. I don't have pictures for this one, but next time I make it I'll try to get some!

Mama Kat's Pizza Crust

• 1 cup water at about 110*f
• 1 tsp. white sugar
• 2 tsp. brown sugar
• 1 pkg. (2 & 1/4 tsp.) active dry yeast

-Mix all above ingredients together and let proof for a few minutes untill it starts to froth on the top.

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 & 1/2 tsp sea salt

-Stir the oil and salt into the proofing yeast.

• 2 & 1/2 cups Bread flour plus more for forming dough
• 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning (optional)
• Other seasonings to taste: Oregano, Garlic powder, onion powder, parmesan cheese, etc.

-In a large mixer bowl stir seasonings into one cup flour.
-Stir in the proofed yeast mixture.
-Stir in another half cup of flour.
-Switch mixer attachment to dough hook.
-Add more flour 1/4 cup at a time untill dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl to form a ball.
-Continue to knead untill the dough isn't sticking to the sides of the bowl, is not sticky and is stiff enough.
-At this point, the more you knead the dough the stiffer the dough will be. Stiffer dough is better for thinner, chewy or crispy crust. The less you knead it the softer it will be and it will be better for a thick, soft Pan type crust.
-Oil the inside of a large bowl that holds at least double the dough amount. I like olive oil.
-Place kneaded dough in oiled bowl and roll to coat dough in oil. Cover bowl with cling wrap or a towel and set in a warm place to rise for an hour or untill the dough has doubled in size.
-When hour is almost up, preheat oven to 450*f
-Spray pans with cooking oil spray and sprinkle with a small amount of cornmeal.
-When dough is doubled, punch down to release extra air bubbles.
-Knead dough a bit to release more of the large bubbles then portion out dough into desired size for pizza crust. Lightly knead each portion of dough then form into thick discs. (If making thin crust knead more to make dough more stiff)
-Roll out, toss or shape pizza to the size desired. Place on prepared pans. If desired, brush the edges of the crust with oil or garlic butter.
-Let rise another 20 minutes then top with sauce, cheese and desired toppings.
-Bake in preheated oven untill pizza looks done. Every size and thickness of pizza will have a different cook time. A thick, deep dish or pan type pizza may need to bake at  400 to 425*f so the inside of the crust cooks as well as the outside.

Indian Fry Bread

Quick, Easy, Delicious! Fry bread is a long time favorite of mine. It may not be as healthy as some things... But it can be eaten with anything! You can use it to dip in chili, or recently we had it with chicken chile verde, it can be topped with meat and veggies and eaten like pizza or tostadas, you can roll it in sugar when it's fresh out of the oil or drizzle it with with honey for a sweet dessert bread, you can use it for... Anything! And it uses basic household ingredients that in my house are always around. You just sift together the dry ingredients, stir in the wet and form it into thin discs. Drop it in hot oil until it's golden, flip it and cook until the other side is golden and pull it out, setting it on a paper towel to cool and drain excess oil. One of the quickest bread recipes I've tried!

Ingredients:

• Oil to fry
• 2 cups Flour (may need more if it's humid)
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1 Tbsp.Baking Powder
• 1/2 cup Water (Or 1 tsp. powdered milk and another 1/2 cup water)
• 1/2 cup Milk

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder.
Pour liquid over flour all at once and stir in, mixing well enough to get rid of most clumps, but not kneading. If it's too wet and sticky stir in another tbsp. of flour or two.
In a pan heat about 1 inch of oil. I have an old 3 inch deep sautee pan I use. Heat to about 375*f. or untill a very small tester drop of bread bubbles as soon as it's dropped in.

Form dough into about 4 to 7 inch discs that are about 1/4 inch thick. Or you can form them into any flat shape or size.

Fry each disc in hot oil for a few minutes on each side untill golden and crisp.

 

The pictures below are a batch I did with just dropping them in kind of free form because I ran out of flour and my hands were too sticky to form them into discs.

Place on paper towels (or paper plates) to drain excess grease and cool.

Serve in any way your imagination can think of.

While hot they can be rolled in sugar or sprinkled with powdered sugar to be a dessert.

Chicken and Dumplings

This is a dish I make so often I no longer use a recipe! I put about 2 pounds of chicken breasts in a pot of water, add chicken bouillon (No, not proud that I use that, but it does enhance the flavor) and seasonings to the water and cook for a good hour or hour and a half, making sure to temp the chicken at over 165*f before it's done, but not cooking it so long it turns to mush. I pull the chicken out of the water, cut it into pieces and set it aside. In the same pot of water I boil a bag of frozen stew veggies until they're tender, then dump the chicken back in. After that I make a slurry of cornstarch and cold water and stir it into the pot of hot water and stir it until it thickens. For the dumplings I use a premade biscuit mix (Again, not proud of using it but it's a quick shortcut) I make a thick biscuit dough and drop spoonfuls into the boiling soup. Put the lid on for 15 minutes or so and let it cook until the thickest biscuit is cooked in the middle. Done! Serve. It WILL be hot! I always put an ice cube or 2 in the kids' bowls for them to stir in, so they can cool it down fast enough for them to eat before they die of starvation!!! My kids don't know what patience is... But they do know how to eat. And this is something my kids and husband would eat a couple times a week if I made it!

Candy Cane Christmas Cookies

These are cookies I made last Christmas. They came out beautifully and had a wonderful light peppermint taste.

I love baking dozens of cookies for Christmas, and you HAVE TO have cookies for Santa! Along with plenty for friends and family. :-) What would the holidays be without tons of unhealthy, delicious, indulgent baked goods to stuff yourself with?

I made the dough, split it in half and colored half of it with a few drops of red food coloring. Made 2 "snakes" as my kids called them, one of each color, and twisted them together. The shortbread type dough came apart easily so they had to be handled carefully. They took a little time to form them all but they look so pretty!

I baked them on parchment paper. I left the first batch in the oven too long and they turned brown and too hard so after that I watched very carefully and pulled them as soon as they turned golden on the bottom edges.

This is one of those projects where you could talk to the kids about how a candy cane represents a shepherd's crook or a J for Jesus and how the red can represent Christ's blood and the white is purity. There are many moments that can be good opportunities to talk to kids about Christianity, I especially like to teach them when they're having fun.

I don't have the recipe I used for this right now, but as soon as I find it I'll add it to this post. :~)