Place in an Empty Dishwasher....

Yesterday I was in a busy mood.  Does that happen to you?  Days when you can NOT sit still?  Well, that happens to me.  I usually say there are a few days a month where I feel as if I can lift up my house, sweep and mop underneath, and set it back down on it's foundation.  And then there are the days when I'm so tired I barely have the energy to open my eyes.

Yesterday was a busy day.  I felt ambitious and energized.  Having a 3-day weekend is a good thing.

I cleaned, I laundered, I windexed and I COOKED!  WOO HOO

PROOF:

That's right.  Pizza from Scratch.  VEGAN PIZZA.

I've attempted to make pizza dough in the past and failed miserably.  It was either too tough or too "doughy" or just plain tasteless.  But like I said, I had energy and was feeling adventurous.

Let's get this party started.  I followed the recipe in my recently discovered cookbook  purchased with a gift card.  Woop Woop for gift cards!

Organic all purpose flour

Organic whole wheat flour

organic sugar

yeast

olive oil

kosher salt

Proof the yeast.  This is the sticky part for me.  I feel as if this is the step that I've failed to perform properly in the past.  So I was holding my breath, standing on one leg, and facing north as I did this.

Just so you know.

On to the next step.  I got out my handy dandy trustworthy kitchen aide mixer.  

Mixed the flours, salt, poured in the proofed yeast mixture, olive oil............ and yes it began to form dough.  The recipe said to knead with the dough hook for 5 minutes so I set the oven timer.  Five minutes is a long, long time when you are just standing there watching something spin.

YIPPEE!  It formed dough!  I was feeling confident now.  The dough was not sticky, not dry, not rubbery.  It was perfect.  I wanted to taste it. But raw pizza crust dough?  Uh, no.  It probably wouldn't be a good test of the finished product.  

Now here's the funny part.  The recipe said to place this dough into a gallon sized ziploc bag and set in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours.  The chef/author states that "I always place mine inside an empty dishwasher"  

Empty dishwasher?  What is that?  I NEVER have an empty dishwasher.  EVER.   He is a funny, funny guy. 

I placed mine on a rack in the top oven.  The bottom oven was on for my peach dessert (more about that to come ) 

Onward, ho.

I cut the dough into 3 chunks.  Rolled them each out.  Picked out some toppings and baked them.  My entire house smelled delicious.  People came from miles around.  Okay, people came from bedrooms, game rooms and garages to see what was cooking that smelled so delicious.  

Pizza #1:  Store bought sauce, vegan cheese and a few pineapple chunks because The Engineer enjoys pineapple on his pizza.  

Pizza #2:  Just a little of the sauce, red onion, celery and black olive

Pizza #3 and my favorite:  No sauce.  Thinly slice tomatoes, red onion and a sprinkle of olive oil  Everyone agreed this one was the best.  

And just like that the pizzas were all gone.  Poof!

Ironman had brought home a couple of pounds of fresh peaches a day or so ago and I knew I needed to use them before they turned that sad brown color.  So I found a recipe in my new favorite cookbook for peach crisp.  Why not?  

I did not even have time to take a photo.  Look what happened to my recipe:

 Spoons came from out of nowhere and I heard things like "I want to taste it"  "Wow this smells good"  "What's in this?"  And before you knew it, POOF this dessert was gone.  

SCORE!  

When is the last time you've tried a new recipe?  I'm so glad I did.