bbq chicken pizza

We had pizza on Saturday night and I wanted to share the recipe for the BBQ Chicken Pizza because I found it especially tasty for homemade pizza (mine always seems rather bland/unbalanced for some reason). I used one of the pizza crust recipes from Hot Providence to create a thin crust, and then I adapted this recipe to fit our needs/tastes. Here’s the recipe that we ended up with:

to make 2 crusts:

Mix 1 cup warm water and a scant tablespoon of dry yeast in a small bowl and set aside. In your Kitchen Aid mix together 2 3/4 cups of flour and one teaspoon of salt. Add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture along with 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil.

Mix for one minute, then switch to the dough hook and knead for 3 to 5 minutes, adding flour until it all sticks together on its own. Shape into two balls and let rise in a greased bowl under plastic wrap for about an hour at room temperature.

to make the pizza:

Preheat your oven to 475 and put your pizza stone in to get it all nice and toasty. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add a cup or two of cubed chicken and saute until golden brown. Remove from the heat and dice up into little bits. In a bowl, mix the chicken with 2-4 tablespoons of barbecue sauce (we used the Sweet Baby Ray’s or whatever it is – I got it at Wal-Mart). Set that aside.

On a floured surface, roll out one of the dough balls till it’s nice and thin. Pull your pizza stone out of the oven and sprinkle it with cornmeal. Carefully transfer the rolled out pizza dough to the pizza stone and do whatever reshaping necessary to get it to fit well. Put the pizza dough in the oven for a few minutes to get it started cooking. Pull the dough out of the oven and spread it with about a quarter of a cup of barbecue sauce and a quarter of a cup of tomato paste. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and spread a cup or two of shredded mozzarella and a half cup of shredded Italian cheese mix on top (enough to make a nice layer). Spread some very thinly sliced red onions on top of the cheese and then sprinkle the chicken all over the pizza. Bake until the cheese is bubbly and turning brown and the onions are starting to shrivel a bit. Remove from the oven and serve!

You can use the other ball of pizza dough to make something a little more traditional like pepperoni pizza just in case your family isn’t a fan of “chicken pizza”.

Caesar Salad

One of my favorite simple dinners is a nice big meaty Chicken Caesar Salad with lots of fresh grated parmesan. It’s easy to throw together and if you let people assemble their own, you can present it pretty nicely on the table. Add a loaf of tasty bread and you’re set!

PriceBook

We’re officially moved up to Spokane now and today is Andrew’s first day in school up here. I made the mistake earlier today of saying that today was his first day of school in 4 1/2 years, but then I remembered that 5 weeks ago he was in Seattle doing school. How could I forget that he was in Seattle? Probably the same way I could neglect to post anything here or on our family blog for the past month or so – we’ve been so busy! We moved 2 weeks ago and have been busy getting settled in and figuring out all the local places to go. B has been busy getting herself potty trained too, which has been fantastic. She’s late in getting it done, but it’s gone very quickly and very well and we’re pretty sure that the diapers can all be boxed up and put away for when Eva needs them now. Busy but exciting times in the Becker house!

Figuring out where to shop has been fun. There are many more shopping opportunities up here which calls for – and allows for – better management of our resources (especially when those resources are loaned to us by the government in the form of student loans…). I borrowed my mom’s copies of the Tightwad Gazette (books 1, 2, and 3) for some super money saving tips. One of Amy’s biggest tips for saving money on your groceries is to keep a price book that records the prices for all your staples at the different stores so that you can know when you’re getting a great deal. It’s especially useful when you go places like Costco and are wondering if that 10 lb bag of chocolate chips is a good deal or not.

But keeping a hand written price book organized can be a chore, and it’s just one extra thing to tote around. Andrew had to buy an iPod touch for school, so I got to thinking that there must be an application out there somewhere for the iPod that would work as a price book. After a few minutes of searching I found PriceBook, which is exactly what the name suggests. You put in the food item, the price, the quantity (lbs, oz, pints, each, etc), the store you found it at, and whether it was on sale or not. Then this handy dandy little app keeps track of what’s the best deal and where it is (and it turns out that the big bag of chocolate chips at Costco is cheaper than the bulk chocolate chips at WinCo, not to mention that they don’t turn the glaze on my chocolate pecan torte all grainy like the WinCo ones do). So if you love the thrill of hunting for the best deals around and happen to have an iPod or iPhone, I highly recommend spending the $1.99 on this schnazzy app. I’m betting it will pay for itself in your first shopping trip (probably even in the first 5 minutes!).

Honey Sesame Pork Chops

I made this shortly before Andrew left for Seattle, and am just now getting around to posting it. Here you go.

Honey Sesame Pork Chops

2 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tsp dry sherry
1 1/2 tbsp honey
1/8 tsp five-spice powder
1/4 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/4 tsp sesame seeds
8 pork chops

To prepare marinade, combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir thoroughly.

Place pork chops in a shallow dish and add the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350.

Place pork chops on a wire rack over a baking dish. Bake for about 35 minutes, brushing with marinade occasionally, or until tender (internal temperature should theoretically be 145, but mine never got that hot after nearly an hour).

Serve with grilled summer veggies.

Life at the Parents’

We’re all still alive over here, I swear. It’s just that Andrew has been in Seattle for the past six weeks for school and the girls and I have moved in with my parents for the time being, so cooking has been light and relaxing has been heavy. But I earn my keep by gardening, hanging curtains, making headboards, and cooking occasionally. Here’s dinner from a few weeks ago. Lemon Chicken with croutons, green beans with roasted veggies, and simple dinner rolls rolled in various seeds.

And this is of course all done while the littlest one does this:

(that was actually just an excuse to post a picture of her, but can you blame me?)

Happy Independence Day!

Just dropping in to say that we hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July! My husband is starting the day off with a rifle competition, then it will probably be an early afternoon nap, then we’re headed over to my parents’ house along with Andrew’s family for some barbecued ribs, potato salad, fruit salad, chocolate mousse, strawberry rhubarb pie, peach-riesling sangria, and much more. We’ll follow that up with a few little fireworks for the kids and then, as this is Andrew’s last night in town before he leaves for school in Seattle for 6 weeks, my parents are keeping B for the night and we’re taking Eva along with us on a little date. We hope you have a fun and happy 4th! Here’s last year’s pictures, again:

rum-raisin brandy-peach cobbler

I decided this past week that my post-baby vacation was over and it was time to get back into my regular duties with a little more enthusiasm. One of those duties that had been neglected was baking desserts, so I pulled out “In the Kitchen the Costco Way” because it was new and has pretty pictures. I found a recipe for raisin peach cobbler that looked simple enough and wonderful enough to be my first post-baby baking adventure. The original recipe called for more raisins and omitted the rum and brandy, but I think that this slightly tweaked version is a little more tasty and, shall we say, grown up?

rum-raisin brandy-peach cobbler

1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
generous 1 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 cups canned peaches, drained
3/4 cup raisins
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground alspice
1 tablespoon rum
1 tablespoon brandy

Heat oven to 350. Grease a 9″ square pan.

Soak the raisins in the rum and brandy (you can use White Christmas in place of the separate rum and brandy) and a little boiling water to really plump them up. Let sit for a half hour or so to absorb some of the moisture. Drain.

In a large bowl, combine 1 cup sugar, flour, baking powder and salt; mix well. Blend in milk and butter. Pour the batter into the greased pan.

Combine peaches, raisins, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice; toss to coat evenly. Spoon the peach mixture evenly over the batter.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Serve warm or at room temperature with a big ‘ol glass of whole milk. Ice cream might be good too. Makes 6 pretty decently sized servings.

baptism gowns

I had originally planned to use the baptism gown that I made for Bella for all of my girls. Then I pulled it out last week and was reminded how ridiculously huge it was, even though I made it in the 0-3 month size and followed all the correct seam allowances and everything. When I say huge, I mean she could probably wear it now at the age of 3 1/2 YEARS. Anyway. So I decided that Eva should have a better fitting one, and I also decided that it would be nice for each of my girls to have their own to use for their girls (I’m a big fan of family heirlooms like that). I used the same pattern for Eva’s, but I made it a size smaller (the xxs, up to 7 lbs size that is still too big, but at least it’s an improvement). I used a different trim and tried out some “decorative folding” along the bottom. If you have any idea what the real name for this decorative folding is, please let me know. Maybe it’s just called pleats, I don’t know.

Eva’s dress is in the foreground with Bella’s in the back.

Here is Bella’s collar…

And Eva’s collar…

And Eva’s skirt…

And the trim on each of the skirts…

I do not recommend waiting till the last few days to get something like this done. I was up till the early hours of Sunday morning hemming Eva’s dress so that she could wear it for her baptism yesterday. Unfortunately, we have no pictures of Eva in her dress yesterday because everyone forgot cameras, but here’s Bella in hers from a few years back and apparently I have no pictures of Bella in hers either. Maybe we’ll get our act together for the next one!

what I’ve been doing…

So this is what I’ve been enjoying lately.

Pretty much irresistible. Miss E will have her 2 week birthday tomorrow, and I’m happy to say that we’re pretty well settled into life with two now. She sleeps and eats like a champ, and I continually find myself thinking, “It’s not supposed to be this easy…”. She’s now 7 lbs 8 oz and growing nicely. She looks more and more like her big sister every day, and we’re carefully labeling pictures now because in a few years we won’t remember which is which (although digital cameras with date and time stamps do make it a bit easier). Life couldn’t get much better!

grilled pineapple salsa

We put this yummy yummy salsa on some grilled cod the other day and it was oh so tasty. The trick is to grill the pineapple first – slice your pineapple into one-inch-thick slabs and grill till it has those nice lines, then chop it up and mix it with some cilantro, red onion, lime juice, olive oil, rice vinegar, and salt and pepper. Very sweet and satisfying!

…and, stay tuned toward the end of the week for an update on our newest little addition-to-be!