Beer Pizza?

I wonder if you can make pizza dough using beer instead of yeast. I've seen recipes for dough using beer with yeast, but I'm trying to think within the contents of my kitchen right now. I've never made pizza dough from scratch though. Maybe it's better to start with a simple recipe and then add to it. I'm thinking garlic baked into the crust would be pretty amazing. So that's my plan for tomorrow....tonight I'm sticking with taco salad.

oops

I guess the point of having a blog is to use it consistently. So, I apologize, for taking so much time to get back to it. I've actually been doing a bunch of cooking lately. My mom was in town, so we had some fun in the kitchen. I was eager to show off the lemon meringue. One thing I realized while she was making the graham cracker crust, was that I had been leaving out the cinnamon. And now, having tried it both ways, I am on the fence about which way I like it better. Suffice to say, both are quite good.

I recently found a recipe for biscuits online, and I like it a lot. It's called J.P.'s Big Daddy Biscuits. I must confess, I was sold on the name. It reminded of the biscuits and gravy I once had in some hole-in-the-wall restaurant with an open kitchen while my family was en route to our annual camping trip to Northern California. I remember they were so good and rich, and I couldn't possibly finish them, and they pretty much ruined me for biscuits and gravy. No other restaurant has ever come close.

Okay, but anyway....the recipe is simple, and since I don't own any shortening, I just used butter. It worked fine. They tasted great. So, one morning while my mom was here, I made them again, but this time I threw in a big handful of grated cheddar cheese. Can you say, yum?!?! They were awesome with scrambled eggs! We were all definitely into them.

The other thing I discovered, while we're on the subject of breakfast, was a simple recipe for pancake mix..just called Good Old Fashioned Pancakes. I am convinced I can't go wrong with this recipe. They fluff up, and can be a little heavy, but you can always add a little extra milk if you like them a bit flatter. But what I like is being able to control how much sugar and salt is in my pancakes. Like most people, I've always used pancake mix, and it's easy to disregard what's in it. But sometimes the mix is too sweet, and other times it seems a bit too salty. I did cut down on the salt a bit, but half a teaspoon was just fine. Anyway, next time I'll make them with blue berries....or better yet, chocolate chips!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Good-Old-Fashioned-Pancakes/Detail.aspx

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/jps-big-daddy-biscuits/detail.aspx

Rockin' the Crock?

That soup from yesterday turned out pretty great. I'm getting a little tired of chicken though....next time maybe I'll do it with spicy Italian sausage or something. Chorizo would be ideal, but I only eat pork occasionally, and Ashley doesn't like it at all.

As for doing it in a crock pot, I really didn't give myself enough time...so I ended up dumping the whole thing into a stew pot and heating it on the stove for the last half hour or so. I need to do more with the crock pot, so I can master it. One of my friends can really rock the crock pot. She definitely has it down to a science, and I am convinced she can do just about anything with it. Anyway, it's something to aspire too.

if you're afraid of garlic...maybe cooking isn't your thing

I'm making this crock pot chicken tortilla soup right now. I figure, why not, since it will soon be too hot for soups. Anyway, here is my beef with a lot of the cooks who post recipes online...they seem timid about using garlic. This recipe, for example, calls for one clove of garlic. One clove??? I just used two, but even that seems pretty chintzy.

See, I grew up in a household where garlic was used almost daily. I remember overhearing my cousin tell my mom that she thought it was sexy when guys had garlic breath. So, if my hands do not reek of garlic when I'm done, I'm afraid I haven't used enough.

Garlic, for those who want to know, is actually part of the onion family...and what a family it is. If food has something like a mafia that controls pretty much everything, it must be the Onion family.

And I know,I know...some kinds of food simply don't require my beloved garlic. Borscht, for example, is one of my favorite things in the world. But garlic does wonderful things for many recipes. So please, internet chefs, do not fear garlic...especially not fresh garlic. Something is lost when its minced and canned or jarred ahead of time...and that's not something you can get back.

On a side note, I once dated someone who refused to cook with onions. That was a year and a half of my life wasted on onion-less food. Makes me sad just thinking about it.