Pizza Night

Last night I made home made pizza, per my dad's suggestion. I used Biz's no-rise crust, except I let it rise.

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp Kosher salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 cup warm water
1 package (2 1/4 tsp) dry yeast
1 Tbsp olive oil

In a measuring cup, add the dry yeast to the warm water. Let sit about 5 minutes, it will get cloudy and foamy. Add the olive oil, and stir.

In your mixer, pulse the flour, salt, and garlic powder together. Slowly pour in the liquid while it is running and let mix for 2-3 minutes. The dough will become really elastic and pull away from the sides in a big, warm ball. (TWSS) One batch of dough is enough for a larger, rectangle pizza (about 12" x 18") or 2 smaller, circle pizzas (about 10-12").

Grease a large bowl and turn the dough to coat. Cover with a damp, clean towel and set in a warm spot to rise for a few hours.

Roll out over corn meal and voila! I usually prebake mine at 425° which makes it easier to add the sauce and other toppings. Then I finish it for about 20-30 minutes at 375-400°.

Ours used Newman's Own garlic sauce (we really liked it so I got more), fresh mozzarella cheese cut into slices, green pepper, onion, minced garlic, and some of my dad's breakfast sausage. Sprinkled with Italian spices and baked until brown and bubbly.

I served crudites with hummus alongside for extra veggie power.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

You have two days left to enter my surprise giveaway!

I've made Biz's pizza crust several times, but in an effort to eat healthier, I made it with whole wheat flour. The verdict?! Still just as delicious as the white flour version. In fact, it has a little more flavor!

1 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp active dried yeast (or 1 packet)
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 1/2 - 2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp Kosher salt
1 tsp garlic powder

Add the yeast to the warm water and let sit about 5 minutes to activate and become bubbly. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl combine 2 1/2 cups flour, salt, and garlic powder. Once the yeast mixture is ready, stir the olive oil in and add to the flour mixture bowl. Stir until everything is combined, adding more flour if necessary. The dough will still be slightly sticky, but don't over-flour because you will need to add more flour while you roll it out. This is enough to make two 12" pizzas.

I usually have the oven on at 400° to 425° and pre-bake for 5 minutes or so. Then I spread on the sauce, cheese, toppings and pop back in the oven for about 20 minutes.



This night's toppings were leftover roasted broccoli, fresh spinach, green peppers, onion, and garlic. What are your favorite pizza toppings? And have you ever tried a whole wheat crust?

Make-your-own Pizza Night!

Growing up we always had make-your-own pizza nights! My mom would get the little pre-made pizza crusts and we'd use up leftover sauce. The toppings changed based on our cravings and what leftovers we had on hand to use up.

Ever since Biz posted her easy pizza dough recipe, when Johnny and I now have make-your-own pizza nights, we use that instead of the pre-made crusts. If you haven't tried it yet, you should! It's really easy and once you buy the yeast it's stuff always on hand and readily available. You can also easily turn it into calzones!

Tonight I just whipped the dough up in a bowl because I didn't want to wash my Cuisinart! I also made a slight adjustment to the recipe with the addition of garlic powder, which I think made it really delicious and special!

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 1/4 tsp yeast (or1 pkg)
1 cup warm water
1 Tbsp olive oil

Measure the flour, salt, and garlic powder into a medium sized mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Mix the yeast with the warm water and allow to sit for 5 minutes to activate. The water will become a creamy tan color and the top will foam a bit. Stir the olive oil into the yeast mixture and then pour slowly into the dry ingredients. Stir to mix everything and add up to 1/4 cup more flour if necessary to get the desired dough consistency. Knead for a few minutes and then leave in the bowl while you get the rest of the ingredients ready.

Tonight I was exceptionally lazy, did not have any jarred sauce on hand, and hadn't thought to thaw sauce from the freezer. I did the next best thing and popped this can open and using my stick blender pureed it right in the can! (These are another of my dad's Dollar Tree finds!) Viola!

For the toppings I cut up some onion, green pepper, garlic, and black olives. I thawed some frozen chopped spinach and also used up some leftover steamed broccoli. It helps to have all of this prepped and in little bowls ahead of time. We used a mixture of mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese for a little more flavor.

Roll out half of the dough to about 12" or a lopsided oval, like mine. Pre-bake this for about 5 minutes in a 425° oven. Remove and then layer the sauce, cheese, and toppings. Bake another 20 minutes or until the cheese is starting to brown. For a chewier crust bake on a pan, for a crispier crust bake directly on the oven rack.

My pizza had onions, green peppers, garlic, black olives, leftover broccoli, and a sprinkle of dried basil and oregano.

Johnny's had spinach, garlic, green peppers, and onions. He went with the Chicago route of putting the toppings on the sauce and the cheese on top.

Again, this is really easy to make! Just because it's dough and it uses yeast doesn't mean it's hard or scary. The first time we made it was last January and I've easily made this 10 times since! Once was this past summer with my three younger cousins - they loved rolling out the dough and personalizing their toppings. I've even been lucky enough to have Biz make it for me herself!

Blogger Potluck

A handful of my favorite bloggers don't live too far from me, we have a nice little cluster here in the Chicagoland area. While emailing back and forth with a couple a few weeks ago I thought "I wonder if they'd be up for a potluck at my house?" and asked their thoughts on it. Surprisingly they all immediately said YES!!! without a moment's hesitation!

I've seen pictures of blogger meet-ups at restaurants and events, but I thought it'd be really cool to have a potluck because we all read and follow each other for our cooking and recipes! I decided to just make it simple - meet at my house at the set date and time and bring whatever you wanted! No expectations, no limits, because I wanted them to just cook whatever they felt like, without having to be pinned into "you need to bring a dessert." Thankfully, none of us cooked any repeats and it was a super well-rounded spread!

Biz of Biggest Diabetic Loser arrived first. I was so nervous and excited beforehand with the anticipation. I knew these people from their blogs, but I wasn't sure if we'd get along in real life too, but thankfully Biz has a really strong personality that burst forth within 20 seconds of meeting her and I felt like I'd known her for years! Within a few minutes Mara of What's for Dinner? arrived with Michelle from Lucky Taste Buds. Again, it was like we'd known each other for years once we started assembling the food and "talking shop."

Biz brought us each a jar of her made from scratch tomato sauce that I can't wait to try! I've never canned home-made sauce, just made extra and frozen it. I think that's a terrific idea to have some easily on hand! Then, she got to work making her famous no-rise pizza dough pizza! I've made her pizza three or four times before, but seeing her make it in person was great and she had a few little tricks that made it taste so much better than my versions! The basil shreds really made this!

Mara came to the door with a crockpot full of her Chicken Chili Blanco and also assembled her addictive (and unpictured) buffalo chicken dip within minutes of unpacking her bag! After everybody left Johnny came downstairs hungry and attacked some of the leftover chili I snagged! He really liked it, so I'll have to make this easy recipe in the future - so much flavor from so little ingredients! That's my kinda dinner!

Michelle made a delicious pasta salad that she presented beautifully with lettuce leaves around the bowl. I might have had two servings of this! She said she only used about a tablespoon of mayonnaise in it, and it made it so light and refreshing, not bogged down like other pasta salads! She also presented me with my huge bag of goodies from winning her giveaway a few weeks ago and an adorable little treat bag with a sweet note in it! I've already broken into both! She was also the only one to bring a sweet item! A delicious (and unpictured) banana bread with cashews (!!!) and chocolate chips. I enjoyed a slice last night for a snack and it's so moist and flavorful. I'll have to add cashews to baked goods more often!

We were all talking and having so much fun I totally forgot to take pictures of US. I also meant to ask Johnny to grab a group photo of all of us with our cameras, but only remembered after everybody had already left. Here's a small idea of what the spread looked like (with Mara on the left and Michelle on the right) - this was before everything was even put out! We ate for a good solid hour until we were all stuffed!

Here's the dishes I brought to the mix:

White wine sangria. (post forthcoming)

Pioneer Woman's bacon-wrapped jalepeno poppers. (post forthcoming)

Veggie tray with unpictured dip

Croissant-wrapped baked brie with crackers (post forthcoming)

...and finally the secret family recipe of zucchini pie!

Thanks again Biz, Mara, and Michelle! I sent them each home with some homemade sausage I made during my dad's visit in these adorable foodie Dollar Tree bags! I can't wait to see what they cook with them!!

Check out Biz's recap and Mara's recap for their take on yesterday's fun with pictures!

2 Lighthouses, Pizza, and a Sunrise

How do you counter any weight you might gain from eating pounds and pounds of homemade pasta?!

Climb (and descend) 214 steps to the top of the Currituck Lighthouse in 90° weather, of course!!

Emma, Jordan, my mom, Taylor, and myself in front of the lighthouse, after climbing it.

We also visited the Bodie Island Lighthouse, which is not open to climb. I still got my picture outside of it, though!

This picture of me and my brother (with long hair!) was taken at the same lighthouse almost 5 years ago for our Christmas card that year! Yes, that's my 1966 Mustang, Sandy, that I sadly had to sell two summers ago! (Recognize the black, elbow length gloves?)

The kids were also dying to try homemade pizza from my blog. I whipped up a few batches of Biz's pizza dough and we got to work!

Taylor rolled the dough with a rolling pin that probably weighs as much as she does!



















We each had our own half to customize to our liking!

There was a half batch of extra dough, so we made pretzels as a movie snack later that night.

On the last 5am beach walk we finally got a sunrise! The sky seemed to change every second, reflecting off the water and the sand.


That's it for my trip recap! If you'd like to see more pictures (or just be my friend), you can add me on Facebook! There's also a link on the right in the column to follow my blog on Facebook too!

Christina Marie

Create Your Badge

**I will now return to regularly schedule food blogging!**

Family Calzones

My mom and the kids had perused the blog and found a few recipes they were excited to try. The first was calzones.


First, I had to roll out the dough. I used the big ass rolling pin, not to be confused with the measly rolling pin!

For the filling we had home-made Italian sausage, sauteed mushrooms, onions, garlic, and peppers with mozzarella and ricotta cheese.

Everybody got to pick their own stuffings and I used a fork to press their first initial onto the top of the calzone before they went into the oven to bake.

While they baked I modeled my new (vintage, hand-sewn) apron and enjoyed a chilled glass of Prosecco.

There was minor exploding, but again they came out doughy and warm with a hard, not soggy, bottom!


Emma, Jordan, and Taylor receiving their respective calzones:

Homemade Calzones

I had some sausage leftover from the wontons I needed to use up. My first thought was pizza, but then I was feeling a little adventurous so decided to tackle a calzone!

To start, I made Biz's pizza dough recipe. I love that warm, yeasty smell!

While I was making that, Johnny browned up about 3/4 pound of Italian sausage in a skillet.

I cut up 1 small head of broccoli, 1 green pepper and half of an onion and cooked them off in a skillet with a small amount of olive oil.

To assemble the calzones, we rolled out the dough just as you would for a pizza - about 12" across and maybe 1/4" - 3/8" thick. First, I spread about 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese on half of the dough, then topped with half the veggies and some of the sausage, followed by another 1/4 cup mozzarella on top.

Then, I folded the dough over and creased, pressing with fork prongs. They baked in a 375° convect oven (which I believe is 400° normal) for about 30 minutes. In the future, I might go a little shorter because they were pretty crisp.

I was SO excited because the bottom came out crunchy, I thought it'd be a gooey, doughy mess!

Here's Johnny's, just out of the oven, cut in half to show you the inside. We dunked them in Prego and they far exceeded my expectations!

Announcement time!

If you haven't already, please vote for my brother. The extended deadline date (boo!) doubled the candidates, and he still needs to remain in the top 50 for another week!! He's held on strong thus far, I'd hate to see it slip away last minute!

And you seriously need to go check out Michelle's giant give-away at Lucky Taste Buds! An environmentally friendly lunch bag STUFFED with dozens of goodies! She's one generous lady!