New York Pizza Crust

So we meet again…

So this recipe came from a site with a weird format that was not only hard to read as a recipe, it doesn't allow me to post a picture of the intended product. So let's all use our imaginations here and picture a really nice New York style (think thin, bubbly) pizza crust. Got it? Alright, let's go

Ok so, pretty simple ingredients. I was hopeful. Canada, apparently, produces different amounts of gluten in their flours than in the states and therefore different than the flour most recipes call for. This is frustrating. Mom convinced me that although Superstore didn't have bread flour (surprised?) I could just use an all purpose flour and it would be ok.

Ew.

I wasn't going to take a picture of mixing the dough until this happened. It almost broke the Kitchenaid it was so tough. Eventually, it reached up past the paddle and got oil in it. Gross. I took this part out, if you were concerned.

Packed in bags and ready to proof!

I refrigerated it for about an hour or more and then took it out to roll. It's pretty tricky to roll out dough so it's round and big enough for the stone. I still haven't figured out the trick.

Ta-da! This is after we par-baked it for about 10 minutes, put toppings on it and baked it for about 15 minutes more…. and then ate some because I forgot I needed a picture of the finished product.

ooo tasty!

So… I hate this recipe. I knew it wasn't going to go well after the Kitchenaid grease disaster and I just kept going. This looks nothing like the picture from the recipe website. Like.. not even a little. This wasn't bubbly or thin or even really that good at all. It tasted pretty bland and tough. I keep trying to find a good pizza dough recipe and failing miserably. I think this is a lost cause but I'm going to keep going. Don't follow down my path… just buy it from Trader Joe's and be done with it. 

Stuck to the script: 100% unless you consider not using bread flour a failure.. then… less...

One Pan Crispy Chicken and Brussel Sprouts

Is it obvious I love brussel sprouts yet?
I even remember loving them as a kid. I like the more now that I know about roasting and not just boiling the crap out of them.

Looks so good!!

Recipe here. Also apparently gluten-free and paleo! Who knew!

At the store, Mom informed me that she does not like chicken legs. It's in the recipe, MOM!

Anyway, we got bone-in chicken breast instead.

So I thought my mom had a cast iron pan but I was mistaken. This works too though. 

Mom was smart and instead of burning herself while cooking the chicken, she put this lid on it to keep out the splatters. I have literally never thought of doing this. 

Too many sprouts. Two things I never, ever measure: mushrooms and brussel sprouts.

Out of the oven!

I want to tell you a secret: I never actually eat a whole breast even though I take a picture of it on my plate. None of us ever make it through a whole breast so we just split two and usually have enough for leftovers. Surprise!

Another super easy recipe. And all in one pan! My dad was pretty pleased with this as he is the one who does all the dishes in the house (thanks, dad!) The chicken was surprisingly flavorful even though Mom forgot to season it, so that's pretty good. I feel like the brussel sprouts were a bit mushy (a la boiling) but they were still ok. I might make it with less broth next time. The chicken kind of makes its own broth as it cooks so maybe not super necessary to add so much or any at all. Once again, I felt it was too lemony, but no one else agreed. 

Stuck to the script: I did pretty badly this time. Maybe 75%. I think I'm allergic to coconut oil, unfortunately, so we didn't use it. Also we didn't use chicken legs and we forgot to season it. Womp womp. Still tasted good!

Portobello and Leek Carbonara

I have been waiting months to make a recipe with leeks.

I thought of this joke a while back and had to wait ages until I moved in and planned a recipe with leeks.

When I was getting the ingredients together for this dish, I grabbed the leeks and ran to the bathroom. Then I shouted to my dad that he'd better come quickly, the toilet had a "leek."

I. Love. Puns.

(no leeks were actually placed in the toilet)

So I'm pretty sure carbonara, by definition, has to include some sort of pork. So I had to modify the recipe a bit for me and the sis.

I was up late one night and stumbled across a random French man's cooking show where he showed me how to cut leeks properly. Pretty neat. They end up looking like this and you don't waste as much.

I couldn't find baby portobellos (or bagels for that matter) so I used regular ones. I don't think it matters too much...

Ta-da! Not much extra bits you missed, except for the RAW EGGS!

Also, Danielle made bread!! One of the reasons I love her. I can't, for the life of me, make a decent loaf. My sister, however, can make ten at a time with her eyes closed.

This was super easy to make. A bit of chopping, sautéing, boiling and you're done! I wish I would have cooked the leeks and the mushrooms separately because I think they require different cookings times and the leeks weren't quite done and Julia Child says you shouldn't crowd mushrooms. I was VERY concerned about the raw egg component of this cause it sounds kind of gross, but the egg actually cooks decently if you put it on the noodles in time while they're still very hot. Try it out with the bacon and let me know how it tastes!

Stuck to the script: I guess this depends on whether or not you think not adding bacon is a large sin or a small one. I think it's gross so I don't give it much weight, but I also added an extra leek cause I bought 3 instead of 2… so… 85%??

Crispy Parmesan Chicken

Oh hey there… I'm the worst.

Without further ado… Crispy Parmesan Chicken!

Doesn't that look good? Not sure why they're using a giant fork, but to each their own. Recipe here.

Luckily, my family is the kind that happens to have capers in the fridge. Weird.

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed smacking the hell out of this chicken. I think I will do this every time I make chicken from now on. Although, I learned later on a tv show that I smashed them poorly as I made several holes in each breast. Whateva

We found this weird egg separating technique on Pinterest. You basically just crack and egg onto a slotted spoon so the white falls down into a bowl. It was "cool" I guess but not the most efficient way to do this. I prefer the old-fashioned way.

I hate when recipes include a recipe in the title like it plays a big role or has a lot of it in the food when it doesn't. This should really be called "chicken with a little bit of parmesan and a lot of mustard and capers"

I have zero pictures of making the sauce. Basically when it comes to making more than one thing at once, I'm lucky if I get both to the table let alone documenting it.

Ta-da!

I actually really liked how this recipe turned out. I was super apprehensive about the capers and dijon because I'm not sure I like either, but it ended up being really good. I'm just going to say again how I plan on smashing every piece of chicken I cook from now on because it's super fun and makes cooking it a snap. No more burning the outside while the inside stays raw. Super bonus: you have leftovers because you trick yourself into thinking a smaller portion is big enough! Also super impressed with the sauce. I'm not sure which part I liked most about it, but I enjoyed its saltiness… so maybe the capers? Except I couldn't bring myself to eat one in real life. Mom and Dad really liked it and hoped we'd make it again. Mom agrees this shouldn't be parmesan chicken but maybe "Lemon Chicken Piccatta." That's basically what this is. 

Stuck to the script: I think we did pretty good… I'm going to be generous and say 100% because it's been so long I can't actually remember.

Sole Meuniere and Mushroom Risotto

Family dinner night!

After trying to avoid serving fish I ran out of satisfactory and new vegetarian ideas for family dinner and so this is what I settled on. It's been a while since I ate sole but I remembered it to be less gross than it's other fishy counterparts so it seemed a safe bet. Also, anything with a brown butter sauce can't be that bad.

Oh Katie Lee, why are you so pretty and an awesome chef? You make me jealous.

We used her recipe, found through Pinterest.

Our sole fillets were much smaller than Ms. Lee's but we got like 8 in a package so it evened out.

Dredged in flour, fried in butter. Yum! 

There is only one picture of this process because almost immediately after I started trying to flip them, they started to fall apart. Each fillet turned into like one large and four mini fillets. Super frustrating.

See? Ugh. At least it didn't smell like the bottom of the ocean.

Oh hey, risotto. 

When I showed my mom this recipe, she said, "isn't risotto hard?"

It's not, but it takes foreverrrrrrrr. I kind of forgot how tedious it is. Luckily for me, mom took a nap while I made it… thanks, Mom!

Danielle was early! Yay! I hate cleaning mushrooms.

This was basically my (or my sister's) view for the next 30 minutes. It's not so much that it's hard to add half a cup of broth every few minutes while stirring constantly, it's just that it's annoying and difficult to do this while flipping fish.

Success! 

I forgot where I was supposed to add the parsley to this recipe, so I just threw it on top once it was on the table. That's the same thing, right?

Nothing's burnt!

I also quickly threw together some green beans, roasted with olive oil, garlic, and lemon.

So while the sole wasn't as fishy tasting as most fish, it did leave the kitchen smelling fishy after and I couldn't eat it the next day as the fish smell got worse. Actually not a bad way to eat fish. I feel like this review is quite biased… Everyone else liked it so I guess try it!

The risotto was great. I can't imagine when I'd made it again, though. Maybe when you're doing some slow-cooker stuff? Now that I think about it, it would probably go really well with the garlic chicken. You shouldn't make this when making anything else at all. It was complicated to even check on the green beans or stir those so they wouldn't burn while simultaneously stirring the risotto. Helpers are great! (Thanks, Danielle!)

Stuck to the script: I think like 98% because I probably didn't fry the fish long enough or measure the butter to fry it in.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Lover's Granola

Yesssssssss

I stumbled across this through my cousin's tips to improve my granola just around the time I was trying with every ounce of my being to not eat the TWO peanut butter O'Henry bars in my room. I can't be going to the gym six days a week to lose it all to a chocolate bar… This recipe seemed my saving grace.

Oh yeahhh… I basically ran to the store to get the ingredients after reading this recipe. And you should too. Just stop reading this right now and go make this. I'm giving away the ending, but you'll thank me.

Also included: natural peanut butter. I have no idea why it was not included in this picture. It's a pretty integral part of this thing...

Peanuts: CHOPP'D! 

For some reason I felt they were quite large and so I chopped them down a bit before adding.

I really wish I took a picture of the wet ingredients before I added them because I definitely exploded them in the microwave. Actually that's probably why I didn't take a picture. I don't think I needed to melt the wet ingredients because I used natural peanut butter and it's generally more runny than Kraft stuff. OK, at this point in the baking process, it smelled super good. I already knew this was a winner.

Before...

After!!

And again!

So much delicious!

Everything about this recipe is a winner. Danielle tried to eat it the moment I took it out of the oven. She burnt her mouth. It is that delicious smelling. I really wanted to use this as cereal but that felt too indulgent due to the amount… so I just stood in the kitchen shoving handfuls of it into my mouth until someone caught me. Mom put it on her yogurt and then made me hide it so she wouldn't eat it all. Why are you even still reading this?! Go make it now!!

Stuck to the script: 100%