Dudley's Visit and French Onion Soup

This past weekend Dudley visited me in Ohio....I feel so special to have only lived here for 7 months and to have already had 3 sets of visitors...and Dudley said the bed was super comfy (it is my bed from Atlanta) so if anyone else wants to try it out......

We pretty much relaxed most of the weekend. We had Mexican Friday night and then did the outlet mall and watched our game and gave out candy (to the whole 10 kids that showed up) and then on Sunday I showed her downtown Dayton and we watched a couple movies. I didn't have much exciting planned but it was nice to just hang out and watch movies and relax. I feel like I have been going hard at work lately trying to make up for my senior being on maternity leave (though she still promises she is coming back) and I had been traveling a lot so it was some much needed rest.

Tonight I tried a new recipe and I really liked it. It was for homemade french onion soup and was really easy. I included it here for anyone that wanted to try it. I am still looking for crockpot ideas if anyone has any.

French Onion Soup - makes about 3 big bowls....maybe 4, will have to let you know after lunch tomorrow :-)

Ingredients:
3 onions
3-4 TB of butter (depending on how much you need, I used 4)
4 cups water
3 beef bouillon cubes (or three tsp of the beef bouillon powder)
(you can use 4 cups of store bought beef stock in place of the water and bouillon)
2 TB of flour
1 TB of Worecheshtire sauce
1 clove of garlic (optional and you can put more, I was testing)

Prep:
Chop up the onions and the garlic.
Sautee the onions and garlic in the butter until they are limp and start to become clear with a little browning on the edges.
While waiting for the onions to cook, mix up the bouillon and the water so it has time to dissolve, this makes your beef stock. You can also use already made beef stock and not have to add these two things together.
When the onions are done, add the flour and Worechestire sauce in and then the beef stock slowly, bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 mins.
While simmering I toasted a piece of sourdough bread (just the kind in a loaf for sandwiches) and put my provolone cheese slices out on the counter so they would melt easier.
When the soup is done simmering, pour it over the piece of sourdough bread (I tore it up in the bowl and poured the soup over it) and then put the slices of cheese on top (we used two cause it was small slices). They will melt.

It was SO GOOD and filling!! I will say that it is a little on the sweeter side compared to restaurants and isn't as salty but Craig and I both liked it (and Craig didn't know that the french onion soup in restaurants had onions...seriously, that boy has no idea what goes into food.)

If you have a good crockpot recipe, let me know.

Homemade Pizza-YUM!

In my quest to eat more natural foods, I decided to make pizza. Originally the plan was to use the breadmaker that Craig's mom gave him to make the dough and then I would just have to put it in the oven but when I left my apartment I forgot one of the parts so I had to do it by hand. I was a little nervous because you have to use yeast and let it rise and stuff but it turned out really good.

Here is the recipe in case anyone wants it (Carrie, if you want to make a recipe card :-), but I think that it might be too long) It sounds a little intense but it wasn't that bad and you could take more short cuts if you wanted. I put them in parenthesis when I could think of them.

Dough: This is enough to make 2-12 inch thin crusts or one thick crust.
1 Cup of warm water (80ºF)
2 TBL Oil (can be any kind of oil. I used olive oil).
1 TBL Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour (you can get this at Kroger, King Arthur is the brand I used and seems to be one of the most pure).
1.5 cups Bread Flour (also got this at Kroger and it was King Arthur)
1 tsp Active Dry Yeast (also from Kroger in the baking aisle. I bought a jar cause it is used for all bread but you can get little packets too).

Sauce:
6 oz can of tomato paste
Italian seasoning
6oz water
(or you can just buy the cans of spaghetti sauce).


Toppings:
Mozarella cheese ( I shredded a block because there are preservatives in the pre-shredded but here is another place you can quicken it up)
whatever else you want. We had turkey pepperoni, some ground beef, and Craig had mushrooms.

Prep:
Take the cup of warm water and dissolve the yeast in the water. Take a bowl and pour a little oil in it and spread it all around. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl (including water and yeast) with your hands, knead it until it forms a good dough. You should be able to pick up the whole ball of dough and walk around without it sticking to your hands or dripping at all. (I walked down the hall and into the computer room to show Craig and nothing happened). Knead it for a few minutes and then put it in the bowl with the oil spread around, turn the dough over so the other side also gets some on it. Cover with a towel and wait at least 30 mins. (The recipe says it should double, but I am not sure mine did. You can wait longer than 30 mins and I probably did closer to 40. Also, it didn't seem like it was rising and I didn't know what to expect so I turned the oven on to warm and stuck it in there for a few minutes to heat it up because a little heat will help the dough rise faster). Once your dough has double or gotten close, spread it into your pizza pan(s). I made two thin crusts so I had to divide the dough in half. You have to spread it pretty thin and it is a little elastic so it can be tough. I would hold it up and let the weight of the dough droop it a little but I imagine this is why people at the pizza shop spin it. I tried that but it didn't go too well. Once you get them spread on the pan(s), stick it in the oven while you mix the sauce (or about 5 mins if you are cheating on the sauce).

Mix the sauce ingredients (italian seasoning is just a pinch here and dash there but if I had to estimate I would say 2 tbl). Take the crusts out of the oven and spoon the sauce on and spread it, then add the ingredients. I did cheese first, then toppings and then more cheese. Stick it back in the oven for about 15 mins (check it and the crust will be getting crispy and the cheese will be bubbling).

Enjoy! If you want one with just bread flour, let me know and I can tell you the one from the same place I got this one, but I haven't tried it, so no gurantees.

I have to admit that I really liked making this recipe and the result was yummy. It was a lot less salty than normal pizza but it still tasted good. It did take a while to do it but I sort of enjoyed that part of it too. I realize that it might be a little harder with kiddos running around. Let me know if any of you try it cause I would love to know how they turn out!

I will let you know if I find any other good recipes that are from natural ingredients.