Crazy May.

May has been a wildly busy month in our house. I finally have a week where I'm not supposed to be in three places at once everyday, so I'm hoping to get some of the recipes from the last couple weeks up in the next few days. Thanks for being patience and more is coming soon.

Weekly Menu

Monday: Salmon
Tuesday: Pasta & Meatballs
Wednesday: Tacos
Thursday: Cinnamon chicken
Friday, Saturday, Sunday: Up to Daddy (mommy will not be home). Should be fun for the kiddos.

Weekly Menu

We ended up visiting family last week and had some other things come up, so some meals got pushed to this week.

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Sausage with onion sauce

Wednesday: Greek Cinnamon Chicken

Thursday: Chicken pockets

Friday: Homemade pizza

Saturday: Macaroni Shepherds Pie

Churros

I found a recipe for these online and wanted to try them. I love churros. They remind me of spending time in Mexico when I was young. These are a pretty good approximation of the originals.

Recipe

From Rockin' Robin's Cooking Mexican Recipes

1 cup water
2 Tbs brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup butter
1 cup white flour
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 to 1 tsp. ground cinnamon, depending on taste

Tips
Make sure your oil is hot, otherwise you may end up with soggy churros. The easiest way to squeeze the churros is to use one of the frosting decorator tools. Use the biggest star tip you have. They make your churros look like the kind you buy.

Directions

Preheat 1 1/2 to 2 inches of vegetable oil in a 10 to 12 inch frying pan to 375 degrees F. In a separate dish mix the 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon and set aside.

In a 3 qt. sauce pan add the water, brown sugar, salt, and butter and heat to a good boil. Remove from the heat and add the flour. Stirring in the flour will take some muscle. Mix it in until well blended.

In a separate bowl, mix the eggs and vanilla together and then add this mixture to the flour mixture. Stir until well blended and all the egg is completely mixed in.

Fill your decorating tool with the churro recipe dough and attach the largest star tip you have.

Test your oil by placing a small amount of dough in it. The dough should bubble up right away or that means the oil is not hot enough and a soggy churro is on the way.

Once the oil is hot enough, squeeze some dough (with decorator) into the oil about 4 inches long. I used my finger to release the dough from the decorator. Careful not to burn yourself. You should be able to cook 4 or 5 churros at a time. Cook them about 1 minute and turn them over with a slotted spoon. Cook an additional minute or two. You're looking for that nice golden brown color.

Remove the churros with the slotted spoon and place them on a paper towel-covered plate to absorb excess grease. While still warm, roll each churro into the dish with the sugar and cinnamon until coated.

Weekly Menu

Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Tacos with Mexican ceaser salad (Happy Cinco de Mayo)
Wednsday: Curry chicken
Thursday: Sausage with onion sauce, broccoli
Friday: Chicken clouds, roasted zucchini
Saturday: Homemade pizza (requested again by all the boys), salad
Sunday: Mom's Day dinner at in-law

Homemade Pizza.

It's a yummy dinner and a fun family activity - making your own pizza. You can pick whatever toppings you like, or experiment with new ones. This week the boys wanted traditional pizzas with sausage and pepperoni. I wanted something more eclectic so I tried to recreate one of my favorites - the Pear & Gorganzola from CPK. All the pizzas turned out yummy. Here are the pizzas we made. (And you can see my post of Homemade wheat pizza dough for the recipe)

The Ingredients:

Cooked italian sausage, pepperoni, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese.

Sliced pears, gorganzola cheese, baby greens, pear & gorganzola salad dressing, mozzarella cheese and caramelized shallots.

Putting them together.

For this one I put down a layer of mozzarella, then a layer of sliced pears and shallots and added a little gorganzola on top.

The final products:

After the pizza is cooked, toss the baby greens in the dressing and top the pizza with them. Then slice and serve.

Homemade wheat pizza dough.

What goes better with homemade pizza than a homemade dough (although you can find and use some from the grocery store if you need to - I like the bags of dough at Trader Joe's). For ideas about what do put on your pizza, see my post about Homemade pizzas.

Recipe
Adapted from Curtis Stone on Oprah

This makes 3 balls of dough, about 8 ounces each (personal pizza sized)
1/4 ounce dry or fresh yeast
1 tsp. honey
1 cup warm water (110 to 115°)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup wheat flour , plus more for dusting
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil , plus more for brushing

Directions

In a small mixing bowl, combine yeast, honey and warm water and mix to dissolve. Allow mixture to sit at room temperature for 5 minutes.

In a stand mixer mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, oil and yeast mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon until all ingredients are fully incorporated. Attach dough hook to mixer and knead for 5 to 8 minutes or until the dough is smooth but firm. Remove dough hook and cover bowl with a warm, damp cloth and set in a warm spot for 30 to 40 minutes (or in a warmed oven) or until dough has risen to almost 1 1/2 times its size.

Divide the dough into 3 evenly sized balls (about 8 ounces each), and pull the sides of each ball down and tuck into the bottom of itself. Then, roll the dough under your hand until the top is smooth and has regained slight firmness.

Place the balls of dough back into the same bowl, rub lightly with oil and cover with a warm, damp cloth, and let rise for an additional 15 to 20 minutes in a warm spot.

Pound the dough on a floured work surface and reform into balls. You can roll out into pizza crusts immediately, or brush with a little olive oil and refrigerate covered until ready to use for up to 2 days. Dough will also keep in freezer for up to 2 months if tightly wrapped in plastic wrap.

Fried Potato Salad

We started a new activity at church called a Sup-N-Swap where we all bring a dish to try and exchange the recipes. This month our theme was salads. I ended up with a yummy plate of food and a stack of recipes to try. The dish I decided to bring was one that looked so yummy. Thanks Jenni for the great idea. It was delicious. You can follow the link to the recipe.

http://atasteofjennskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/03/fried-potato-salad.html