Perfect Pizza Dough

Hey guys! This is the new chefs who just joined. We made some really good pizza dough and then just got out a jar of spaghetti sauce and blended it up so the tomatoes and mushrooms were un-see-able.
Here's the recipe:
1 2/3 cups warm water
1 pack active dry yeast (one pack is 2 1/4 teaspoon)
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for the work space
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

1. Pour the water into a glass measuring cup and add the yeast. Let stand until the yeast dissolves and mixture froths, about 5 or so minutes.

2. Mix the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl.

3. Add the olive oil to the yeast mixture.

4. Slowly pour the yest mixture int the flour and stir with a fork. When it gets hard to stir with the fork, use your hands.

5. Squish the dough around to combine all the ingredients.

6. Try to form the dough into a ball. When it holds together in a ball shape, it is ready to knead.
(When you have the dough almost ready to knead, set the oven to 450.)
After that, just put some flour out on the work space and knead the dough until you think its ready to be shaped into a pizza.
Then just spoon some pizza sauce on and spread it. Then put what ever toppings you like on it. Cook for 10 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling. Oh, and you can save some dough and store it in the freezer up to 3 months.
This is my pizza right before it was put in the oven. And this is the pizza's after they're done. Don't they look good? Yum!!


This is me, eating my pizza. And this is my sister, who helped make it, eating her pizza.
It was a really good pizza. So as Chef Tess would say, there you go. ;)

Peanuts and Cracker Jacks! Make with an Adult.

We officially had our first Bakeroose cooking class today with all the kid chefs and moms. It was outstanding! I, Chef Tess, was exceptionally pleased with how much our Bakeroose have already learned! Measuring and kitchen math are coming along. We got in some science as well. Not bad for a quick one hour class, right? What a great way to kick off our grandest of grand adventures in kid cooking. Would you like to join us? Here's your chance...

Have you ever had Cracker Jacks from the store? They come in a box. We sing a song about them at baseball games. Did you ever think in a million years that you could make them at home with your mom or dad? This one has to be made with an adult who's responsible and won't let you get burned. Find one first before you start this recipe. I think you will have a lot of fun. The first thing all good chefs do is gather their ingredients all to one place so they don't forget anything when they are cooking. Get everything in it's place and measured before you cook, and you will have a lot more fun...since you won't forget a very important ingredient! We can't have that happen, right?
Cracker Jacks
you will need:
2o cups of popped popcorn (measure after popping should be 20 cups...use microwave popcorn or homemade)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
3 cups peanuts (unsalted)
equipment:
Measuring cups, spoons, large one gallon pot, 2 large cookie sheets with edges to hold the popcorn, 3 gallon size metal or heat proof mixing bowl, 1 large wooden spoon, 2 large paper grocery bags (unused) or 5-6 paper lunch bags.



Do you want to know a random fact? Popcorn explodes and becomes the fluffy stuff we like to eat when the small amount of moisture inside the seed kernel gets hot enough to explode out of the shell. I bet you didn't know you where eating exploded seeds when you ate popcorn.

Directions:
Have an adult Turn your oven on to 350 degrees.
If you are allowed to use the stove, carefully put the butter, sugar and molasses in the pot. Turn on the heat to medium and once the butter is melted and the stuff starts to boil, turn on a timer for 4 minutes. Do not stir it. While it cooks, get the popcorn in the 3 gallon mixing bowl.

When your timer goes off, add the condensed milk, vanilla and peanuts to the pot of cooked stuff. Stir just until combined. Set your timer for 2 minutes and keep cooking on medium heat. When the 2 minutes is up...have an adult pour the sugar peanut mixture over the cooked popcorn in a large bowl.

Mix well to coat.

Divide the popcorn onto the two cookie sheets...again, this is hot so let an adult do this part.

Have an adult put the cookie sheets in the oven. Set the timer for 7 minutes. When the timer goes off, have an adult stir the popcorn. Set the timer for 8 minutes. Close the oven. When the timer goes off, have an adult take the cookie sheets out of the oven.

When popcorn is still hot, have an adult scoop popcorn into the grocery bags or divide it between the lunch sacks. Let them sit for 3 minutes. Then...kids carefully fold over the top of the bag and begin to shake. Adults, make sure it is cool enough to touch the bags!! Shaking helps the cracker jacks from sticking together.

It is also really fun!

After you have shaken the bag for about 2 minutes, the popcorn should be cool enough to touch. Have an adult check for you to see if it's ready.

Try to run around the back yard a few times after you eat this to burn off all the sugar. Your mom will be glad you did.

There you go. Oh...and here's a little clip of what we did...not even a minute, but a good glimpse.

Homemade Lollie-pops (Adult Help Needed!)

Chef Tess here, and it seemed like a really good idea to have moms, dads, grandma's and caregivers be able to read about this here as well. So, I'm re-posting it. Hopefully it gives everyone a good idea of what they can do with the kids! Enjoy...

" Oooo-da-lollie, Oooo-da-loolie, gollie what a day." Does anyone else remember that song? It was on the old Robin Hood Disney movie and every time I ever think of lollies, that's the song that pops in my head. It then stays there for forty-seven days. It may be the sign of a very simple mind, or, I hope some unprecedented sign of unfathomable genius. I'm going with genius until further notice.

My grandma used to make hard candy suckers with her eight grandchildren in a cozy little kitchen in the seventies. We'd dawn gingham and flour sack homemade aprons and gather around her gas stove as she showed us how to boil the syrup. Last week when my sons where in a heated debate over the question, "Can you make candy at home?" I had to interject my know-it-all chefie attitude and tell them about my grandma. Aside from thinking I was just spouting off old stories, they got really quiet. Any chance to keep my prattle mouths quite is well received. So...we headed out to the craft store and quickly picked up a few items needed for homemade candy making. Not because I thought my kids needed more sugar, but because they had a hole in their "fabric of knowledge" when it came to all things foodie related. We most definitely can't have that!

I mentioned in my last post about the oil based flavors.( https://www.lorannoils.com/ ) These are what we use exclusively for hard candy making. I like a fire invoking cinnamon, but the kiddos prefer butterscotch, grape, apple, and English Toffee (to name a few).

Shameless product plug here...but I love it in frosting too. I can't live without it in fudge. My truffles...well, they are well acquainted. It doesn't change the consistency of a frosting, but adds a huge dimension of flavor, since it bonds with the fat. Same with fat in chocolate. I dare say the fat on my patootie probably has a nice infusion. Orson H. Gygi's in Utah has a huge display of them and I almost died when I visited my parents and saw my ol' favorite cooking store full of such a shocking display (in a good way...my patootie was not included on the display rack). Remember the name. Stock up. We use them all the time.

On the back of the package there was a nice little recipe for old fashioned hard candy. Do I really need to type it out or can y'all just read the box? Okay. I'll type it out.

You can find the recipe here:
https://www.lorannoils.com/p-8752-stove-top-hard-candy.aspx
(Using 1-dram (.125oz) bottles)
Ingredients:
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
¾ cup water
1 dram LorAnn flavoring oil (1tsp.*) (or as desired)
LorAnn liquid food coloring (as desired)
Powdered sugar (optional)
Sucker bags (optional)
Twist ties (optional)
Use of a candy thermometer is recommended

*Please note that LorAnn Cinnamon, Clove and Peppermint flavors are particularly potent. You may wish to reduce the amount used for these flavors. I like my cinnamon really hot. My kids go cross eyed and start to spray flame out their ears when they eat my cinnamon-berry pops. This is of course how I keep them from eating too much sugar.

Before you begin, I recommend reading LorAnn's suggestions on candy making found in the "Tips" section of Gourmet Recipes on their website. Hard candy making requires the use of very high cooking temperatures. Caution should be used at all times to avoid being burned. Don't let the kids pour the syrup or stir the pot. Be smart here. Really.

Directions:
Have all ingredients and tools assembled and within easy reach of the stove. The use of metal spoons and measuring utensils is recommended. Lightly spray cookie sheet* or the cavities of clean, dry candy molds with cooking spray (LorAnn recommend PAM). Insert sucker sticks. (If using two-piece plastic or aluminum molds, insert sticks after candy has been poured into molds.) If using molds, you may also want to spray a piece of aluminum foil with cooking spray. If after pouring the candy into the molds you have excess candy, you can pour it onto the foil. We do that almost every time...and end up putting some "free form" circles of candy on the foil and popping in some sticks for suckers without molds. They look really artsy and almost make me homesick.

In a 2-quart kettle or large saucepan, mix together sugar, corn syrup and water. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Insert candy thermometer if using, making certain it does not touch the bottom of the pan. Bring mixture to a boil, without stirring.

No stirring. I did maybe once, but that was it...and it was just at the beginning. NO stirring after that. Don't do it. You'll get really gritty grainy candy.

Clamp your candy thermometer onto the side of the pan, into the syrup but not touching the bottom of the pan. You want to read the syrup temperature, not the pan temperature, right?

Early in the cooking process, you can "wash down" any sugar crystals that form on the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush. I use a silicone brush so I don't get any loose hair in there too. Continue to cook the syrup until the temperature reaches 260º F; add color. Do not stir; boiling action will incorporate color into syrup.

Remove from heat precisely at 300° F (temperature will continue rising), or until drops of syrup form hard, brittle threads in cold water. After boiling action has ceased, add flavor and stir. USE CAUTION WHEN ADDING FLAVORING TO AVOID RISING STEAM.

Pour candy into prepared molds. I lightly spoon it into individual lollie molds. Do not refrigerate.

Cool completely. Remove from molds. Place in sucker bags and secure with twist ties.


There you go. Oooo-da-lollie!

We have some new chefs!

We've decided to add more kids cooking to the blog with some help from other little chefs. You will be seeing a lot more from these two gals. Both of them worked with mom at a cooking class and where really good at cooking so far.
Look for their upcoming post on how to make pizza from scratch! They sent me the pictures and they where awesome.

Here we go!

New garden

Our family made a new garden we put some onion, carrot, spinach, bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, zucchini, and peas. I think that will give us a lot to work with. Look at the shovels and the old wagon wheels.

We actually used these tools from the 50's. They're my grandpa's and my grandma's here in AZ.

mom got some cool seeds from
http://www.hometownseeds.com/

We hope it works.''good luck troops''

Preparing Wisely Food Storage Store

Troy Adair is the owner of Preparing Wisely Emergency Food Store.

We were comparing Hand Mills the white one won.

We got A 50lb bag of wheat from there store and we got awesome Magnesium fire starters.
.

http://www.preparingwisely.com/ They have a huge amount of canned food and barbecues.
They have water storage supplies, camping supplies, emergency panchos and sleeping bags.

You can get honey and such sweeteners. Thanks Troy and Tracey Adair. We're definitely going to shop there often.
I love their store!