Home › Forums › Cooking — (other than baking) › What are you Cooking the Week of April 26, 2026?
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Joan Simpson.
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April 26, 2026 at 1:25 pm #49099April 26, 2026 at 8:12 pm #49102
I had hamburgers at my friends today.
BakerAunt I hope you and Scott enjoy your trip and have safe travels back home.
April 26, 2026 at 9:50 pm #49104I made pizza and salad. The pizza had Italian sausage, red onion, bell pepper and mushrooms. I thought about putting eggplant on it too, but then I thought I had enough veggies.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.April 26, 2026 at 10:11 pm #49107Len your pizza looks awesome!
April 27, 2026 at 12:56 pm #49108We had a super chicken salad. I baked a bbq sauced chicken breast. I purchased one of those sunflower mixed salads . I added sugar snap peas, diced radishes, tomato slices, fresh basil and the sunflower seeds included in package, diced chicken and noodles for heft. A+
April 27, 2026 at 9:51 pm #49110Len, your pizzas always look picture-perfect and oh so delicious! I enjoy watching your innovations, especially your eggplant pizza. I have questions about when you freeze pizza dough for future use:
At what stage do you freeze it? After the first rise? After the second rise? Do you thaw it overnight in the refrigerator? Do you bring it to room temp before you use it?
I have a large supply of Sam's mozzarella portioned out in the freezer. I need to use it up. I'd like to spend a few hours just making pizza dough for the freezer. Then, I can use the mozzarella with different types of dough over a reasonable time without having to make fresh dough every time.
Thanks for your help.
April 27, 2026 at 10:00 pm #49111No cooking here tonight I was out with friends and my sister in law, all classmates and we ate at Olive Garden, salad was good food not so much but the friends one I'd not seen in 50 plus years and all the talking and laughing was good for the soul!
April 28, 2026 at 5:09 pm #49112Repeating the leftovers from Olive Garden.
April 28, 2026 at 5:47 pm #49113ItalianCook, thanks for the compliment!
I freeze the dough after the first rise. I measure it by weight, form into a ball, put the ball in between a sheet of lightly oiled parchment paper, then I press down on it with a lightweight cutting board (a skillet or fry pan would work just as good) to form it into a hockey puck style disc. You could freeze it as a ball, but the disc will thaw faster. Then I tuck the overhanging parchment under and place it in a freezer bag. Sometimes I thaw it overnight in the fridge, sometimes I just pull it out and put it on a counter the day I bake it. Once thawed, I'll put it in between 2 sheets of lightly oiled parchment paper, press it out some more (that's one of the ways I get it to be round) and then roll it out to the desired size. It doesn't matter too much if it's cold or room temp although room temp will be a little easier. After it's rolled out, I keep it covered on the counter until I'm ready for it. Before I sauce it, if I remember, I dock it to prevent the crust from bubbling.
I hope this helps.
April 28, 2026 at 6:56 pm #49114We had BLT's using some tomatoes from the hydroponic garden (photo attached), I had mine on some multigrain bread from Aldi that is much better toasted and made into a BLT than untoasted with peanut butter.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.April 28, 2026 at 10:18 pm #49120Nice looking tomatoes, Mike.
Tonight I had a hamburger, baked potato and a salad.
April 28, 2026 at 10:32 pm #49121Thanks, Len, for your detailed pizza dough/freezer instructions. I've put them in a Word document, and that will be my guide on my dough-making days next week. I'm thinking I have enough frozen mozzarella to spend two days making pizza dough for the freezer. I've always admired how round you make your pizzas. My dad could do that, but I didn't inherit his ability. My pizzas are always rectangular. With your instructions, I think I can achieve round pizzas. Thanks!
Mike, your tomatoes look delicious!
April 28, 2026 at 10:53 pm #49124They're small, but tasty, and far better than ones in the store that are picked green and ripened chemically. And it's nice to have fresh tomatoes in April in Nebraska. I don't expect to get any out of the garden until some time in July.
And even the tiny ones are good on a salad.
April 29, 2026 at 1:08 pm #49126More Olive garden pasta.
Mike your tomatoes look great!
April 29, 2026 at 3:42 pm #49127I did "Cornish Meat Pie" from the Gardner Museum Cafe Cookbook. I've done this before as one large meat pie with hamburger following the directions. This is a very good meat pie and very tasty but its not very like a Cornish Pasty. Its made with hamburger as the main ingredient not potatoes, and the hamburger, carrots, onions and potatoes are cooked before being put into the pie crust where a true Cornish Pasty is made with raw meat and vegetables.
However I changed this by using 2 1/5 lb of ground lamb instead of hamburger. I also took most of the abundant lamb fat and used it in the gravy and the pie crust. The directions called for covering the hamburger with water and cooking it and then draining the liquid. I found that the liquid produced a lot of very white, very hard fat. The seasoning was change to use American Lamb Spice mix instead of the herbs called for in the recipe.
I was trying for the first time the KAF Hot Water Pie crust, but since I was experimenting i only used 1 cup of flour and 2 tablespoons of lamb fat for the crust. It made a very easily handled crust and I was able to roll it very thin and handle it without problems. My normal oil crust crumbles easily and needs to be rolled between wax paper. I made two small 5 inch pies for this experiment and I liked them except there wasn't enough crust. I like pie crust to be much thicker. I'd probably have done better with twice as much crust. I have enough pie filling for 2 or 3 small pies or one medium pie. -
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