[Italiancook]

I'm pleased to report that the lunch pizza I made was delicious! It was KAF's Thin Crust Pizza, but with mozzarella and only a tiny sprinkling of Parm. The Parm was for my husband. I was uncertain about rolling out the dough. KAF says to roll it between 2 oiled pieces of parchment. I was afraid the paper would slide around on my marble pastry board, but it did not -- at least not enough for me to notice. The problem was the olive oil on the top parchment made it difficult to see how thick I was rolling. I ended up with uneven thickness, but it didn't detract from the pizza.

I'm also happy to report that I may have climbed up the pizza learning curve. From the time I put the sauce on the stove to heat until the pizza was ready to cut, it took 1 hour. That's the shortest time I've had making pizza. It was worth the time. My husband and I both agreed it was much better than any of the pizzerias around us. So, yes, I'll keep climbing the learning curve.

[Italiancook]

Have any of you ever calculated to materials cost of a homemade pizza vs. a delivered pizza? As I was portioning out 2 lbs. of mozzarella this morning, I wondered if it's cheaper to make a pizza or, if it's cheaper to buy one delivered. I think making pizza is labor-intensive, but that may be because I'm climbing up the learning curve. So I'm not curious about materials plus labor, just the ingredients that go into the crust and on the pizza.

I think most food is less expensive to make at home as compared to restaurants, but I'm unsure about pizza.

[Italiancook]

I don't know whether this will work, but I made the dough for KAF Thin Crust Pizza this morning. I put half the dough in the freezer and half in the fridge. I'm making the pizza for lunch. I knew the pizza wouldn't be made unless I did the dough early. The recipe is doesn't call for a rise unless you want a thicker crust, which I don't. So I'm hoping the dough in the fridge won't rise in the next 4 hours. Unsure what to do if it does. I guess punch it down.

KAF's recipe says to use tomato sauce and parmesan only. I don't like parm on pizza, so I'm going to use mozzarella and hope the weight of it will work with a thin crust pizza.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

Mike, most of the recipes I've tried from the book use garlic. Some of them pull the garlic out after a short time, but it's still garlic. Regrettably, the cookbook wouldn't work for your wife.

[Italiancook]

For breakfast, I made "Simple Banana Coffee Cake" from allrecipes.com

[Italiancook]

chocomouse, the Cauliflower and Pasta Soup recipe I make comes from "Italian Family Recipes from The Romagnoli's Table." I hesitate to post the recipe because of copyright. Sorry. I spent a long time looking online for the recipe for you. I didn't find the exact one, but the link below is almost like it with the following exception:

Romagnoli's used water, not chicken broth, but chicken broth would work fine.

https://www.cookiesfromitaly.com/recipes/pasta_cauliflower_soup.htm

"Italian Family Recipes from The Romagnoli's Table" is my best Italian cookbook. Amazon has some used copies of it for reasonable prices. Other booksellers might also carry it -- I don't know.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by Italiancook.

[Italiancook]

I made Cauliflower-Pasta Soup for the freezer and a couple of upcoming meals.

[Italiancook]

I made Sugo di Aspergi (asparagus sauce) from "Classic Techniques of Italian Cooking." It's for a pasta lunch tomorrow. The recipe goes with homemade pasta, but I'm going to serve it with dry pasta and see if it works. It's a delicate sauce.

[Italiancook]

SWirth, I appreciate you taking the time to find and post the blueberry bread recipe. Unfortunately, for health reasons, I can't eat whole wheat flour. It's too high in phosphorus. I'm thinking I could not substitute all white flour. What do you think?

[Italiancook]

Swirth, I understand your aversion to modern butter. I grew up on an orchard and have never found any grocery store fruit that tastes like the "real thing" I remember from childhood.

[Italiancook]

For lunch, I made skillet French Toast with leftover Cuban Bread. It took so long that I decided it was my last time making French Toast in a skillet. I'm going to start searching the web for a Baked French Toast recipe. I've seen this done on TV, but I think they started with challah. I want a recipe that uses whatever leftover bread I happen to have on hand.

For dinner, I baked chicken pieces and served with cooked and raw veggies.

[Italiancook]

S_Wirth, now that you've mentioned baking with baby food carrots, I'm reminded that Kelsey Nixon (Cooking Channel) has a recipe for Carrot Cookies that use baby food carrots.

Thanks for the link to the recipes. Carrot cake is my favorite, but I've never made one. I find grating all those carrots daunting. I always balk at grating but do it occasionally. I'm definitely going to check the baby aisle of the grocery store and get on-board with this cake recipe -- the 9x13 one. I don't own 2 springform pans.

[Italiancook]

I baked a Carrot Pie. Found this WWII recipe in the cookbook, "Grandma's Wartime Kitchen." The blurb to the recipe says canned pumpkin was unavailable during the war, so cooks improvised with carrot puree. I don't know if the stores back then sold carrot puree, and I don't know if they sell it now. I figured they don't, so I made a poor attempt at making carrot puree. The pie tasted good, but my version begs for real carrot puree for moisture. If I find carrot puree in the store, I'll make this again.

[Italiancook]

I made 2 boules of Cuban Bread before breakfast. My oven temp is haywire so the tops were black, but not so burnt I can't use the bread. My husband didn't notice the discoloration, but it's there. I pulled tomato sauce from the freezer, so we'll have the bread with pasta. The other boule is for the freezer.

[Italiancook]

What I'm waiting for is an affordable robot that's programmed to load the dishwasher and put the dishes away. If it also wipes the counters clean, that's a bonus. It probably won't be able to do the pans that have to be washed by hand, but if it can, wow!

[Author]

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