Pizza Dough

2 1/2-3 cups flour

2 tablespoons sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons fast rising yeast (or fast rise, 1 envelope)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup very warm water (120 to 130 degrees)

2 tablespoons oil

1. In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, undissolved yeast, and salt; blend well.

2. Gradually add water and oil to mixture. Blend at low speed until moistened, then beat for 2 minutes at medium speed. By hand, add 1 1/2 to 2 cups flour until dough pulls away from sides of bowl (I did all of this in my Kitchenaid.)

3. On floured surface, knead in 1/4 to 1/2 cup flour until dough is smooth and elastic. Cover loosely with plastic and let rest in a warm place for about 15 minutes.

4. Press out dough onto (2) 12-inch pizza pans. Prick randomly with a fork. Let rest again in a warm place for 10-15 minutes.

5. Brush crusts lightly with oil then prebake them in a 450 degree oven for 5 minutes.

6. Top as desired, then bake again in 450 degree oven for 4-5 minutes, or until desired doneness.

This is the first time I have ever used this recipe and we really liked it. We normally just put random ingredients on top of our pizza (whatever we happen to have.) This particular time we did a BBQ chicken pizza (BBQ sauce, chicken, and bacon) and a chicken pesto pizza (pesto sauce, artichoke hearts, chicken, and bacon.) Both were delicious. If I had had tomatoes on hand I would have put them on the pesto pizza.

Marshmallow Brownies

Mix:
2 cubes margarine
1/3 cup cocoa
Add: 2 cups sugar
Add: 4 eggs – beat after each addition
Add: 1 ½ cups flour
1 ½ cups nuts
2 tsp. vanilla

Spread on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove from oven. Spread 1 1b. pkg. of miniature marshmallows over the top. (I just put on marshmallows until covered.) Return to oven for 3 minutes or until marshmallows are just melted, but not toasted. Cool and frost.

Frosting:
¾ cup butter
1/3 cup cocoa
2 ½ cups powdered sugar
½ cup canned milk

Spread over brownie mixture.

(I do the frosting differently. If you follow this frosting recipe, you need more powdered sugar to make it the right consistency and it turns out less chocolatey than I like it.

Alice's Chocolate Chip Cookies

David sent me this recipe for posting with the following explanation:

"I've been on a quest to find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe and I think I've found my favorite and wanted to share it on the recipe site. Two thoughts as I've made this a few times 1) follow the directions as closely as possible. It makes a huge difference what order the ingredients are put in and how. 2) refrigerate the dough. The difference is amazing when you do this."

Makes approx. 45-48 cookies using a sm-med 2tbl. cookie scoop

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour *If at all possible, please weigh the flour
3/4 tsp. smallish-medium coarse sea salt. *Please do not use table salt, the sea salt gives the cookies a nice flavor and hints of texture. If you only have table salt, use 1/2 tsp. *When using sea salt, you will get small crunchy flecks of salt when you bite into the cookie. If you do not like this taste, go with 1/2 teaspoon of table salt.
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips. *I realized grocery stores sell bags of chocolate chips in 12 oz bags but this recipe really needs every last chip. Otherwise you’ll get cookies with only a few chips in each one and this recipe requires lots of chocolate to bulk the cookie up. You’ll need about 1 1/2 bags.

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (approx. 3 minutes on medium-high speed on a K-5). Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated. Finally add chocolate chips until well distributed. The cookie batter should be somewhat thick. Drop about 2 tablespoons of dough or use a medium cookie scoop and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove from heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes. Pick up the parchment paper with the cookies still on top and transfer to a cool non-porous surface. Allow the cookies to cool on the paper for at least 3 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

*Troubleshooting*

-If your cookies are coming out flat and not like the pictures there are probably 3 reasons for this.

#1) Baking powder and Baking soda is old. If your baking powder and soda is older than 1 year and has not been in a sealed (preferably air tight) container, it has lost some of it rising qualities.

#2) Creaming. It is not enough to just cream the butter and sugars until it has come together. This recipe requires you to beat it with a mixer for 3 minutes until the texture of the butter and sugar turns to light and fluffy-just like the picture.

#3) Flour. Flour should be weighed. This can make or break the recipe because just scooping flour into a measuring cup will never yield ideal or consistent results.

Apple Crisp Pie

Ingredients:

Pastry for single crust pie - unbaked
6 cups thinly sliced, peeled baking apples
1 tablespoon lime juice
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 -1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, toss apples with lime juice
2. Combine dry ingredients, add to the apples, and toss lightly
3. Place bottom pastry in a 9 inch pie plate, flute edges.
4. Fill with apple mixture and top with topping
5. Topping:
    3/4 cup packed brown sugar
    1/2 cup flour
    3/4 cup rolled oats
    1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
    1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
    1/2 cup cold butter
    Combine dry ingredients, cut in cold butter
6. Bake pie at 400° F for 40 - 45 minutes until crust is golden brown

Spicy Roast Chicken w/ Tomatoes & Marjoram

24 oz (about 4 cups) cherry tomatoes
1/4 c. olive oil
5 cloves garlic, pressed
1-1/4 tsp. dried crushed red pepper
2 Tbsp. fresh marjoram, chapped
4 chicken breast halves w/ ribs, skinned

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Toss tomatoes, oil, garlic, red pepper and 1 tablespoon marjoram in large bowl. Place chicken on rimmed baking sheet. Pour tomato mixture over chicken, arranging tomatoes in a single layer on sheet around chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast chicken until cooked through and tomatoes are blistered, about 35 minutes. Transfer chicken to plates and spoon tomatoes and juices over. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon marjoram and serve.

Mom's Banana Cream Pie

Pre-bake a pie shell. Set aside to cool.

Combine in a medium bowl and set aside:

3/4 c. sugar
1/3 c. flour
1/8 tsp. salt

In a saucepan, combine the following, stirring constantly:

2 cups scalded milk
2 eggs, beaten
2 T. butter

Add dry ingredient mixture slowly, stirring vigorously during addition.

Cook on low heat until thick and smooth. Remove from heat and add vanilla.

Slice 2-3 bananas into the pie shell. Pour pudding mixture over the bananas in the pie shell. Chill.

Banana Nut Bread

Mash 3 bananas
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
2 T. melted butter
3 T. milk
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c. nuts

Mix together and bake in oven at 325 degrees for 1 hour.