Authentic Italian Bread/Pizza Dough

Contributor: Victoria Blanchard
Source: Brother Metzger, Schenectady Ward, who learned it from his Italian grandmother

Makes 2 large loaves or two large pizzas

Ingredients
Flour (probably 4-8 cups, I'm really not sure)
2 cups warm water
1 Tbs yeast (regular kind)
1 Tbs salt
A little olive oil

In a large bowl, add 2 cups warm water to 1 Tbs yeast. Begin stirring immediately with a whisk and add in 1 cup of flour till smooth (you should see the yeast start to activate). Stir in another cup of flour before adding the salt. (I don't know if it's true, but I heard salt can kill yeast.) Keep adding flour one cup at a time until it is too hard to stir (after the second cup or so you'll want to switch from a whisk to a wooden spoon).

Dump the dough onto a well-floured surface. As you knead for the next 10-15 minutes, keep incorporating enough flour until the dough is no longer sticking to your hands or the counter. When the dough is smooth, wash your hands and the bowl.

Put a little olive oil in the bowl, put the dough back in, and turn in upside down so that the dough has a light coating of olive oil (this keeps it from drying out). Cover with a cloth (you can dampen it slightly if you live in a dry area) and let rise for 1.5 hour or until the dough has doubled in size (apparently you can skip the rise if you're doing pizza dough, but I haven't tried this yet) .

Next, punch down the dough and then dump it onto a floured surface. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough in half (don't pull it in half).

If making bread, gently shape it into two elongated loaves. Let rise another 45 minutes. Then cook at 400 for 50 minutes. If you want, you can make a ball, pinch a hole though the middle, and then twist the loop over a few times to make a pretty twisted loaf.

If making pizza, gently shape into balls and then roll out and put on pans coated with cornmeal (or greased). Add sauce and toppings and cook for 15 minutes at 450. You can cover with foil and refridgerate your pizza before cooking, but I usually don't do it for more than a few hours. If you wait a whole day to cook it, there is a definite decrease in yumminess. Apparently, if you skip the rise, you can cook the dough by itself and then freeze it for later use (I'm going to try this one of these days). But don't let it rise and then cook it without toppings because it will get all puffy in the oven (that was disappointing).

Note: You can double the recipe if you want twice as much, but that's a lot of bread/pizza for a small family, especially since it dries out fairly quickly, even if you freeze it. It's best to consume it all in a day or two unless you're going to make bruschetta with it, in which case if you use enough oil, you'll be fine. Apparently this type of bread differs from many because you want to incorporate as much flour as the dough will accept. Traditionally, women would make the dough right in their flour bins, and the dough would naturally pick up whatever flour it needed as it was stirred around. Also, as you may guess from the ingredient list, this bread is pretty bland, which is fine if you're using it for pizza or bruschetta. Apparently you can add herbs or spices to give it flavor, which I think would be fun, but I haven't experimented with that yet. Also, I was really intimidated about making a rising bread, but this is a great recipe to start with because it's very forgiving. I started making it once a week, and within a month I had the recipe and procedure memorized and felt very comfortable with it. So stick with it!

Parmesan Sausage Zucchini Boats

Source: Zucchini Houdini by Brenda Stanley


Serves 8

Ingredients:

4 medium zucchini
1 pound bulk sausage
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
⅔ cup seasoned breadcrumbs
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg, beaten (or ¼ cup egg substitute)
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup water

Directions:

Cut zucchini lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and discard them. Scoop out the pulp, leaving a ¼-inch shell. Chop the pulp. In a large skillet, brown the sausage. Add the onion, garlic, and chopped zucchini pulp. Sauté for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add breadcrumbs, ½ cup Parmesan cheese, and egg. Mix well. Sprinkle salt in each zucchini shell. Fill evenly with meat and zucchini mixture. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese. Place shells in ungreased baking dishes. Pour ½ cup of water into the bottom of each dish. Cover with foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake another 15 minutes or until zucchini is tender.

Comments: Another stuffed zucchini recipe, but with different ingredients than Laurel's. Incredible. . .these things got inhaled! Finally, after this recipe and the zucchini artichoke quiche, we've used up our zucchini (well, this week's anyway). Two fantastic new recipes to add to our regulars!

Fruited Chicken Pasta Salad

Source: My cousin, Charilyn Peterson Wright


Ingredients:

• 2 16-oz. rotini pasta (cooked and drained)
• 1 20-oz. cans pineapple tidbits (drained)
• 6 green onions (chopped small)
• 4-5 c. celery (about 1 pkg., chopped small)
• 6 chicken breasts (cooked in CrockPot, shredded, and cooled)
• 1 6-oz. pkg. dried cranberries
• 2 c. cashews

Mix all of the above.

Add:

• 2 c. mayo
• 2 16-oz. bottles coleslaw dressing (Kraft or Litehouse)

Comments:

This was the chicken salad recipe that all the Wihongi family made for Charbri's very Polynesian (Maori & Samoan) wedding reception in July. It's a lot like the other chicken pasta salad I posted on here when the Bistro was first "founded," but a bit more "fruity" with the pineapple and cranberries. (I personally prefer it without the cashews. . .just not wild about nuts in my chicken salads.) A huge hit!

Artichoke Zucchini Quiche

Source: Zucchini Houdini by Brenda Stanley


Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs, beaten (or 1 cup egg substitute)


• ½ cup oil


• 3 cups grated zucchini


• 2 cloves garlic, crushed


• 1 (15-ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped


• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese


• 1 cup biscuit mix


• ½ teaspoon salt


• ½ teaspoon pepper


• ½ teaspoon oregano

Directions:

1. Mix together eggs, oil, zucchini, garlic and artichoke hearts.


2. In a separate bowl mix together cheese, biscuit mix and spices. Add to zucchini mixture and blend well.


3. Pour into a greased 9-inch pie plate.


4. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until knife comes out clean. Serve warm.

Comments:

This crust-less quiche was so good! For some reason, when I made this, the amount was enough to fill two 9-inch pie plates. . .not that I'm complaining about more quiche. A fun, delicious, light recipe. . .and yet another way to get rid of the surplus zucchini!

Rolo Cookies

Source (via pinterest)

Ingredients:

1 package of Rolos, unwrapped

1 box Devils Food cake mix

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

Directions:

1. Mix cake mix, oil, and eggs. 

2. Take a small ball of dough and form a ball around the rolo. (Only use enough dough to cover the rolo so it can spread through the cookie.)

3. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 F for 7-8 minutes. 

4. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired. Yields about 3 dozen. 

Meatball Stroganoff

Source: based on this, adapted by me

Ingredients:
1 8-oz. carton sour cream
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 cup water
2 tsp. beef bouillon granules or base
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 large onion, diced
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons butter, margarine, or olive oil
1 bag of frozen meatballs (I like turkey homestyle meatballs)
3-4 cups cooked rice

Directions:
1. Cook meatballs in oven, according to package directions.
2. In a small bowl stir together sour cream and flour. Stir in water, bouillon, and pepper; set aside.
3. In a large skillet, saute the onion and garlic in hot butter/oil for 3-5 minutes, then add mushrooms and continue to cook until desired doneness.
4. Stir sour cream mixture into skillet. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Add cooked meatballs. Cook and stir for 5 more minutes.
5. Serve over rice.

Notes: I love stroganoff, Bret does not. For the 5 years of our marriage, I've been trying to convince him to let me try making a version that will change his mind. On Sunday he finally gave in and I created this masterpiece. To say the least, he changed his mind. :) This really is incredible, if I do say so myself.

Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Tortilla Chips

Source: Allrecipes.com, with modifications by my co-worker, Sue Taggart




Serves 10

Ingredients:

Salsa:
• 2 kiwi fruit, peeled and diced
• 2 Fuji apples, peeled, cored and diced small
• 1 bag (16 oz.) frozen peaches, diced
• 8 ounces raspberries
• 1 pound strawberries, hulled and sliced
• ¼ C fruit preserves, any flavor (I’ve used strawberry and peach - orange marmalade sounds good too)

Tortilla Chips:
• 20 small flour tortillas (6 inch if you can find them)
• butter-flavored cooking spray
• 2 cups cinnamon sugar (1 c sugar to 1 t cinnamon)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix cut fruit and fruit preserves. Add Fuji apples last and stir well (need to cover completely with preserves to eliminate apples from browning). Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 15 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Coat both sides of each flour tortilla with butter flavored cooking spray, stacking 5 at a time as you go. Cut into 8 wedges. Put pre-mixed cinnamon sugar in a plastic bag. Drop 2 or 3 sectioned stacks of tortilla into bag and shake to coat thoroughly. Arrange in a single layer on a large baking sheet.
4. Bake in the preheated oven 8 to 10 minutes (tap a couple of chips, if they feel a little crispy and are golden brown, they are done). Repeat with remaining tortilla wedges. Allow to cool approximately 15 minutes. Serve with chilled fruit mixture.

Comments:

This salsa is incredible, but it gets eaten too fast before I can take a photo! (The photo I used was the closest I could find.) My friend Sue entered this salsa in our school's annual salsa competition last year, and won the non-traditional category. Refreshing, sweet, tart. . .it's the best appetizer/light dessert, especially in hot weather. I like using raspberry jam, but I used some leftover Kneaders Strawberry-Peach jam once, and that was amazing. Depending on the tartness of the fruit, adding a little sugar or extra jam might be needed as well. Enjoy!