What are You Cooking the Week of January 15, 2017?

[BakerAunt]

Here is the start of the new cooking thread. Feel free to write about what you are cooking during the week or to post a re-cap at the end of the week.

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[BevM]

I guess this could go under baking or cooking, but since it's savory, I'll put it here. I made pizza for the second time for my kids who come over each Sunday. This is the second time and I'm hoping, eventually, it will get better. I used KAF recipe for Easy Pizza dough and it is simple to make. It makes 3 decent sized pizzas. We did cheese and Pepperoni for one and for the other one, I made a white sauce to go on two of them with spinach and mushrooms (our version of a white pizza). Like I said, they weren't perfect, but were really tasty. I only have a regular gas oven and am sure it would make a difference to have one that baked hotter and faster.

[cwcdesign]

Yesterday I made crockpot Buffalo Shredded Chicken which has become an easy favorite. Today I made a batch of Cincinnati Chili which is another favorite. Anything to have leftovers for a couple of days 🙂

[Mike Nolan]

I made about 11 quarts of vegetable beef soup yesterday. I added lots of red, orange and yellow peppers but forgot the carrots and celery, but it's still pretty good.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BevM, I make pizzas almost weekly for my family. It's to the point where they do not want pizza out anymore (unless I order it shipped in from Chicago). Perfect circles don't matter and taste is everything. I'm to the point now where I can shape pizzas pretty well but I made some early ones for chef friends and they kindly told me the pizzas were "artisan" pizzas.

Not sure if the KAF recipe talks about it but pizza dough really needs a long, slow rise. Mine will sit in the refrigerator for about two days. I've gone as long as five but two is the sweet spot for my family. One day or less and they say the dough is flat. Three or more days and it is too fermented.

[KIDPIZZA]

Mike Nolan wrote:

I made about 11 quarts of vegetable beef soup yesterday. I added lots of red, orange and yellow peppers but forgot the carrots and celery, but it’s still pretty good.

Good afternoon Mike. Mike, do not feel terrible about forgetting ingredients in a recipe. Lately I have been doing a good job of it as well. My excuse is even though I do a good job of "Misen place" Due to my very resricated kitchen space I hide ingredients that I cannot see easily enough just to get them out of the way & I no longer have any memory left...... SOOOOOO!!!

Last week I made one of my own blueberry muffins recipes for my best lady friend Dr. Lauren, her favorite. Texas size. I authored this recipe few years back joining a regular yellow cake recipe and a chiffon type recipe & some imagination as well.. very soft texture like dough.
Well after I whipped up 2 whites I placed the bowl over the MR.Coffee brew machine to hold till needed. Well I didn't see it.... I forgot to employ the whites. The muffins tasted well just a little dry only.

This wed. I will be baking 50, oz worth of cream cheese for cheesecakes My oven holds 2 smaller pans so I am doing 5 pans this will take me about 5 to 6 hours Hopefully I will not forget anything this time. This is a expensive bake.

Enjoy the day Mike.

~CASS ~ KIDPIZZA

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by KIDPIZZA.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by KIDPIZZA.

[Italiancook]

Aaron, okay, I'm curious: From whom do you order Chicago pizzas to be delivered to your home? I assume they ship frozen -- correct? I'd love to have a real Chicago pizza. We're sick of the ones around here. But we've been gone from Chicago for decades and no longer know what's good there, except for the Italian goodies on Taylor Street.

KIDPIZZA, I'm rootin' for you to remember all your baking ingredients. I think it's just wonderful what you do in a smaller place with a smaller oven.

[BevM]

Aaron, thanks for the comments. I did allow the dough to rise in the fridge overnight (next time I'll try 2 nights in the fridge) and it was stretched into the round pan. I have to experiment with different temperatures and rack positions. As I said, they weren't perfect, but we enjoyed them. And it was FUN.

[RiversideLen]

Aaron, I agree with you about the pizza dough. A few years ago I saw an America's Test Kitchen do NY style pizza. The thing they talked about is the long slow rise as well as a minimal amount of yeast. They recommended 24 hour minimum and up to three days. They also used ice cold water in making the dough. I adopted some of those methods to my pizza and it makes a big difference.

Italiancook, I have an online friend in Baltimore who once sent me some fresh crab cakes so I wanted to return the favor, I sent him a deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati's. It was shipped frozen. I have a friend who moved to Arizona and when he gets a taste for Chicago he orders pizzas from Geno's East, again, it ships frozen.

Last night I did a one pan meal, a pork chop, small red potatoes and butternut squash, all on the same pan. I just had to cook broccoli stove top. By the time the pork was done, the potatoes and squash was just right.

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[Mike Nolan]

I think several of the 'Chicago-style' pizza places ship frozen pizzas. I'd avoid Uno's, they went 'commercial' some years ago (and even sell them in airports) and they're a mere shadow of what
they were in the 70's.

But one of the biggest challenges with buying frozen unbaked pizzas is you'll never be able to bake them in an oven that's as hot as the one in the pizzeria, their ovens will generally be set for 650 to 750, and some gas ovens can go as hot as 1000. Coal fired pizza ovens are the hottest, but I think there are only a half dozen or so of them left in the USA, most of those in NYC. Wood fired pizza ovens can get pretty hot, too.

[BakerAunt]

Today, I made a soup with mild Italian Sausage, garlic, onion, chopped carrot and chopped celery, red bell pepper, mushrooms, 1/2 cup of pearl barley, about 3 cups of white beans I'd cooked and frozen, and 4 cups of chicken stock from my freezer. I froze half of it (trying to get ahead for the semester) and had some for lunch. For dinner, I used the leftover pork chop from the dinner my husband cooked yesterday. Using the drippings saved from the pan, I sautéed celery, red bell pepper, and sliced mushrooms, then added the diced pork, a bit of grapeseed oil, and the broccoli. I mixed it with soba (buckwheat) noodles, and added about 1/2 cup of the noodle cooking water, then added sliced green onion and minced parsley

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt. Reason: spelling error

[RiversideLen]

I believe the pizzas they ship out are par baked so you're really just finishing them off.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Lou Malnati's and Giordano's are both par baked. However if you've ever had Malnati's in person the mail order ones will be unsatisfactory.

I never shipped Uno's but Geno's are horrible and not even from Chicago at this point. They are manufactured in Madison, WI (at least the last time we tried those).

Giordanos was pretty good the last time we ordered them but that was pre-bankruptcy reorganization so I cannot vouch for them now. They usually baked up pretty well in a standard oven. The last time we had them I'd monkeyed with my oven so it's max temp was about 700 specifically for pizza. Since we replaced that oven I have not tried that as this one is much more complex (actual screws to remove to get to the oven temp adjustment). I've looked up how to do it on the internet so maybe I'll try it. It runs a bit low (max temp is about 450-475) and the bottom shelf is always much cooler than the top two shelves. The people who installed it did not know what they were doing.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[KIDPIZZA]

BevM wrote:

Aaron, thanks for the comments. I did allow the dough to rise in the fridge overnight (next time I’ll try 2 nights in the fridge) and it was stretched into the round pan. I have to experiment with different temperatures and rack positions. As I said, they weren’t perfect, but we enjoyed them. And it was FUN.

BEV:
I did notice your thread about your concern for PIZZA BAKING. If after trying your ideas & your still not satisfied post back & I will discuss my knowledge & experiences with thin crust pizza baking. I only have given this information to 2 other members in the years past. One member liked it so much that kids used to say to her Mom make Kidpizza's pizza. I always enjoyed that when she related it to me.

Have a nice day Bev.

~CASS/KIDPIZZA.

[RiversideLen]

This is pizza week for me. I made enough dough on Sunday for three individual size pizzas. I had pizza yesterday, will have it today and tomorrow. I am using three cheeses, Mozzarella and Mexican Queso in equal amounts and then topped off with a little Parm. Queso is great on pizza, I highly recommend it.

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