Picture Perfect Cooking

Here is one of my own concoctions…pizza baked in a cast iron skillet.  We like our pizza pretty simple, so I just use tomato-basil sauce and lots of cheese, but you can add whatever toppings you desire.  By making it in the skillet, the crust can be pressed up the sides to accommodate all kinds of things.  Take it and run with it! Now, I just have to learn to make my own pizza crust dough!

1 package pizza crust mix

1/2 cup water

1 tsp olive oil

3/4 cup tomato basil sauce

3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

I also used 3 slices of provolone cheese on this one.  Go crazy with the toppings.  Use whatever you like!

Preheat oven to 450.  Spray a seasoned cast-iron skillet with non-stick spray.  Pour the water in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 25 seconds on high.  Pour the crust mix in the water and stir to combine.  Form the dough into a ball (it will be sticky).  Pour the olive oil into your clean hand and rub the dough ball all over with the oil.  Place the dough back in the bowl, cover, and let rest for 5-6 minutes.

Next, spread the dough in the bottom of the skillet and up the sides about an inch.  Bake in the oven for 6 minutes and remove.  Now is the time to add your toppings, which for us, was sauce and cheese.  Put back in the oven and bake for an additional 6-8 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

The easiest way to slice this pizza is to slide it out onto a plate.  If you have a well seasoned skillet and you used a little non-stick spray, it should slide right out.

This recipe has been around for a long time!  My mom used to make these regularly when I was a kid and I think they were even served in the school lunchrooms.  (My mom’s were better.)  They are a quick and easy treat, so give them a try.

1/2 cup butter

2 cups granulated sugar

1/8 cup cocoa

1/2 cup milk

1 tbsp vanilla

1 cup creamy peanut butter

3 cups quick-cooking oats

Line two cookie sheets with wax paper and set aside.  I used a spring-handled scoop to dip the cookies, but more on that later.

Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa and milk in a saucepan over medium heat.  Bring to a boil and boil for one minute.

While this is cooking, ready the rest of your ingredients.

After the mixture has boiled for one minute, remove from the heat and add the vanilla, peanut butter and oats.  Stir to combine.

Dip out about a tablespoon of the mixture for each cookie.  This is where I used the scoop.  It helped a lot.  Allow the cookies to cool and set up.  Try to keep from eating them while they are soft, but it’s hard to do!!!

This recipe was passed on to me by my mother-in-law, J.  Thanks, J!  It is one of my husband’s favorites and one of us makes it often.  Enjoy this at breakfast, brunch or supper!  Since it already has the meat, bread, and cheese, I like to serve it with either a salad or fresh fruit as I have done in these photos.

The original recipe makes enough for a 9×13” baking dish.  For just the two of us, an 8” square dish is the perfect size and I have leftovers for breakfast.  Usually 1/2 pound of cooked sausage is enough, but this time I wanted it with a lot of flavor so I used a whole pound.

1/2 lb pork sausage, cooked, drained and blotted with paper towels

1 can crescent roll dough

1 1/4 cup shredded cheese of your choice (I usually use the pizza blend.)

Cook the sausage over medium heat until it is no longer pink. Drain on paper towels and let it cool.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray an 8” baking dish with non-stick spray.

Take 1/2 of the dough and roll it into the bottom of the dish, completely covering it.

Next, spread the cooked sausage over the dough and top with the shredded cheese.  Lay the other half of the dough over the cheese layer, leaving areas open to vent the steam while it cooks.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the top dough is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly.  Serve hot and enjoy!

If you wish to make the full recipe, just use 2 packages of crescent roll dough (1 package for the bottom crust and 1 package for the top), 1 lb cooked sausage and 2 cups shredded cheese in a 9×13 pan.

This makes a great side to brownies, cookies or a cake.  The sweet, creamy dressing works well with the grapes, especially if they are little tart.  The recipe calls for four pounds of grapes.  I really can’t tell you how much I used.  I bought one bag of green grapes and one bag of red and used almost all of both.

4 lbs grapes (I mix green and red.)

1 cup granulated sugar

8oz pkg cream cheese

8oz (1 cup) sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup brown sugar

Wash and dry the grapes.  Mix together cream cheese and sugar until smooth.

Add the sour cream and vanilla.  Mix to combine thoroughly.  Add the grapes and coat with the dressing.  Sprinkle the top with brown sugar.

I had grand plans for my Christmas Eve food contribution last December.  I had a recipe for bread machine rolls that I had been wanting to try for months and thought this would be the perfect time.  It would have been if I had put the bowl in the machine the right way.  The dough cycle ran for two hours and the timer sounded.  I happily went to remove the dough and finish the rolls, and what did my eyes see?  All of the ingredients in the bowl just like I left it.  It had not mixed at all.  So, it was time to improvise.  I needed rolls, and I needed them fast.  Mayo rolls to the rescue! 

This recipe was originally published in “Taste of Home” magazine several, several years ago.  The rolls are as delicious as the recipe is easy.

1 1/2 cups self rising flour

3/4 cup milk (I usually use 2%, but I had whole milk that day.)

3 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tbsp mayonnaise

Preheat oven to 375.  Spray a muffin pan with non-stick spray or use liners.  Stir all ingredients together until well combined.  Fill muffin cups 1/2 full.  Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Most cooks from the south have their favorite recipe for cornbread.  This is mine!  It always turns out light and fluffy with a wonderful buttery flavor.  I found this recipe back in 1999 when it was aired on the “Martha Stewart Living” tv show.  You bake it in a pre-heated cast iron skillet which gives it a great crunchy crust with a soft interior.  Try it and I know it will be one of your favorites, too.

1 cup yellow cornmeal (not self-rising)

2/3 cup all purpose flour

3 tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

1/2 cup butter, melted & cooled

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Put a cast iron skillet in the oven while it is preheating so the pan will be hot as well.  Mix dry ingredients together.  Beat egg with buttermilk and melted butter. NOTE: Save about 1 tbsp of the melted butter to coat the skillet.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine.

Coat the preheated pan with the reserved butter.  Pour the batter into the skillet and bake for about 20 minutes or until there is a lightly brown crust around the edge and the center is springy.

“Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Kerrygold.”

One of my favorite cooking blogs is www.eatathomecooks.com. She always has recipes that look delicious for one, but also simple and crowd-pleasing.  This is one that I really wanted to try.  The original recipe called for cream of chicken soup, and since I am deathly allergic to chicken and turkey, I asked her if a substitution could be made.  She let me know that cream of celery or cream of mushroom should work just fine and she was right.  I used cream of celery in mine, but you might want to try the cream of mushroom as well.  The only other change I made was to add a little black pepper to the breading mixture.

6 pork chops (I used bone-in.)

1/2 cup flour

2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp ground mustard

1/2 tsp garlic powder

freshly ground black pepper to taste

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 can cream of celery soup

1/3 cup water

Mix the flour, salt, ground mustard, garlic powder, and pepper together.  Dredge the chops in the flour mixture and fry in a skillet.  Don’t cook them all the way, just brown them.

Put the chops in a slow cooker.  Mix the soup and water together.  Pour this into the hot skillet, stirring to pick up all of the little crispy bits on the bottom of the pan.  Pour the gravy over the chops and cook on low for 6-8 hours.  By the time I took these out to serve, they were so tender that the meat was falling off the bone.