Sunday, September 14, 2008

Pizza Dough

1 cup 2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
3 cups better for bread flour, or any white flour
1 teaspoon sugar (maybe a couple extra)
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons regular active dry yeast or 2 1/2 teaspoons
bread machine yeast or 2 1/2 quick active acting dry yeast

1. Heat water to luke warm. Place all ingredients in the bread pan in the order listed.
2. Select white dough cycle. Move oven rack to lowest position. Preheat to 400 degrees.
3. Grease two cookie sheets.
4. Divide dough in half. Pat each half in 12 inch circle on cookie sheets with floured fingers.
5. Spread with favorite toppings.
6. Bake 18-20 minutes or until crust is light brown.

Herb cheese pizza crust: add 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese and 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil, oregano, thyme, or Italian seasoning with the flour.

Whole wheat: decrease bread flour to 1.5 cups and add 1.5 cups Gold medal Whole wheat flour. Select whole what dough cycle.

Beef Stroganoff

Alright, so I took a sabbatical from Martin Meals for a moment, but we're back at it now. Growing up one of the favorites was beef stroganoff. There are a lot of ways to do this one, but they are mostly variations of this recipe. One good substitution might be using beef strips rather than ground beef, for example.

4 ounces mushrooms, drained
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion (optional)
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
10 3/4 ounce can of cream of mushroom soup
3/4 cup sour cream or yogurt
4 cups rice or noodles

1. As a personal preference, I usually serve this meal over rice. So since rice takes longer to cook, I would start the rice cooker now, adding the rice, water, salt, and some olive oil. However, if you're serving over noodles, then you can wait another 10 or 15 minutes before starting the noodles.
2. Sautee the mushrooms and onion in butter (or extra virgin olive oil) with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
3. In a skillet brown 1 pound of meat and drain.
4. Add garlic salt, pepper, cream of mushroom soup, mushrooms, and onion. If you like you can use two cans of cream of mushroom soup so that it will go further.
5. Simmer for 15 minutes.
6. Stir in sour cream and heat thoroughly.
7. Serve over rice or noodles and enjoy!

Note: this recipe comes from cooks.com