Real Bread!

I MADE BREAD!

For my first loaf, I am saying it's good. It tasted good and made for a good sandwich. 

This is the recipe I used. I added a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of dried Italian herbs - it was perfect: http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/easy-french-bread/.

I can't wait to make more. Delicieux. 

Thick Crust Pizza

Nailed it!!

The dough rises for an hour. Then you punch it down and shape it. 

The heart wants what it wants. 

I made sauce again: drained crushed tomatoes, Italian seasoning, garlic, salt. 

SLAYING the homemade crust game. Saved us $30 AND we know exactly what's in our pizza. Economical AND "healthy"! 🤔😉

Homemade Pizza

All of my previous attempts to make dough have failed. Cinnamon rolls, bread. Pizza. Everything. 

But I was inspired by a simple thin crust recipe over at http://www.howsweeteats.com/ and figured I had to try one more time or face a life of convenient Pizza Hut delivery or frozen microwave pizza. Nashville abounds with delicious pizza (favorite: DeSano's, then Five Points, then House of Pizza) but it's not necessarily on the way home. And while Chef Boyardee will always remind me of childhood & home, it's not everyone's favorite. 

Just mix up lukewarm water, honey, and yeast, and let it sit (bloom?) for 10 minutes. The add flour and salt and mix until it comes together then knead a couple times then let it sit (proof?) for 5 minutes. So easy it was unreal. 

I made sauce with drained crushed tomatoes, garlic, and Italian seasoning. It was perfect. 

This is barbecue chicken, jalapeno, and pineapple pizza. It cooked for 15 minutes at 500 degrees and it couldn't have turned out better. I'm so glad I have a go-to pizza recipe. Maybe now I can try my hand at bread & be a little more confident using active yeast. But science has never been my strong suit!!

Homemade Pasta

I'll probably never buy pasta again.

Making homemade pasta took less than half an hour. It was a little stressful - I've never made it before. Trial and error though, cause I did learn a few things. 

                     Shiny new pasta maker from mom and dad. 

                     Flour, egg, and salt. Some water to bring it together.

Getting the dough to come together was super stressful. Dough hates me which is why I never make yeast breads or crust. But in the end it turned out. Then it rested for 15 minutes. 

You run it through starting with thickness level "7". Then decrease it to 6, 5, so on and so forth. I think I tried to go down in thickness too fast or ran too thick of a piece through cause sometimes it did this:

But if I increased the thickness and just folded it once it was fine again. 

                          The other side is for fettuccine and spaghetti.

I made fettuccine. 

             I really need one of those wooden thingamabobbers to dry it on. 

Cooked it for 4 minutes and it was perfect. I used enough salt, it was al dente, and covered in my favorite sauce: DelGrosso Sunday Marinara.

                                           Literally my favorite. 

I basically plan to make pasta forever always the rest of my life. 

Except macaroni cause who the hell knows how you make that.