Born Again Pizza Piety

Yesterday I redid the Greek yogurt pizza recipe. This is an interesting recipe that originated on Pinterest and has been circulating the web. The crust recipe is easy enough to find and easier to make: self rising flour + plan Greek yogurt. That's all you need. I didn't have self rising flour so I did mine with regular flour, baking powder, and salt for the crust.

Last time I made this with my friend Karen and we screwed it up royally. It's like, the easiest crust recipe on earth but we made it too sticky and we didn't take time I knead it :-/

This time, I made my own sauce using tomato paste, and topped the pizza with black beans, mexican and parmesan cheeses, and cherry tomato halves. O so good! Definitely deserves a repeat. Next time I'll make it with my gluten intolerant friend and rice flour. Mmm.

xo, Kristin

One Skillet Wonder

A few months ago I started subscribing to Bon Appetit in the hope that somehow their cooking knowledge would somehow osmosis into my brain just by salivating over the wonderfully arranged food photography. Unfortunately that's not how things worked.

This month Bon Appetit actually had a few recipes for food ne sais pas people like me: one skillet wonders. Basically you throw all the ingredients into one skillet and cook it. That's what I like to hear!!

And it turned out well. Can't believe it.

xo, Kristin

Pumpkin Bread & Muffins

Since we had a snow day Wednesday, I didn't have to go into the high school to teach. To celebrate I made pumpkin pancakes, and then on Thursday decided to use the left over canned pumpkin to make pumpkin bread!

For a few months I've been meaning to make pumpkin bread. I used this recipe for both the bread and the mini-muffins. They turned out great! I devoured the bread yesterday with my family and we've been steadily working on the muffins. This is definitely a repeat recipe.

xo, Kristin

Pizza Piety

My two friends from undergrad, Inky and Karen were over this week for New Year's. We had a nice Baldwin House reunion and were finally able to hang out without the stress of schoolwork hanging over our heads, which meant that we had time to experiment a little in the kitchen.

So was birthed this pizza. We used whatever I had in the fridge and pantry. The dough is made from 3 ingredients: flour, baking powder, and plain greek yogurt (using a take on this recipe). On top is grated cheese, pasta sauce, corn, mixed greens, leftover ham, and some sliced up hard boiled eggs for the vegetarian half of the pizza. 

Once it was cooked, it was tasty but the dough wasn't very crispy. Next time we need to actually knead the pizza dough, and maybe spread it a little thinner for a crispier crust. This definitely calls for a repeat!

We finished off the meal by whipping together some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

xo, Kristin

Study Break Pancake!

Just as the title says. Mmmm chocolate chips <3

xo, Kristin

It's Chili in Here

It's almost winter. It's cold out. It's chili season!

Chili is so easy, I don't know why I haven't made it before. I used one of those McCormick's packets, a pound of beef, and then added in canned and fresh vegetables:

Chili isn't really a picture-friendly food, but although it may look gross, trust me--it was good. I made enough to have leftovers, and I'm looking forward to eating the rest tomorrow. Hopefully chili's like soup, and it'll be even better the second time around. 

Update (1/4) - Chili is not like soup.

xo, Kristin

Ginger Binger

Last weekend I went to NYC to visit a friend from study abroad and ended up eating ridiculous amounts of candied ginger. When I got home to Northampton, I decided that it would be fun and cheaper to try making my own.

The whole candying process went OK. I followed this recipe. In the end, my ginger was soft and VERY sweet. Too sweet even though I skipped the step where you roll it in sugar. I think I cooked the syrup too long, because it was really thick when I removed the ginger from the pot.

All that means is that there was a thick coating of sugar on the finished product. I really didn't like how sweet it was, so I ended up washing off the sugary coating and snacking on the semi-sweet ginger bits.

I think I'll try this again. It's something you definitely need to practice to get right, I think.

xo, Kristin