1 forward, 10 back

So today is not a food post, sorry guys.

I'm having a really bad day and I should have expected it because Friday was a good one. So many bad ones follow the good ones. I'm just really sad and don't know how to get out of this funk. Can't wait for my son to get home in a few hours. He's been with his dad since last Wednesday. 

Don't understand how people can be so hurtful to others and just not care. 

Homemade pizza using a cast iron skillet.

So, being a mom, one of my biggest goals is to make sure when my son leaves this home, he knows how to cook. My entire extended family is passionate about cooking, and even before I was born my parents owned a diner. Food is in my DNA and I've always believed that a person's love is in every meal that they make. I was fourteen when my mom died, but luckily she had taught me a few things. I wished that I'd learned more of her recipes, she didn't write anything down. But I knew a few and over the years the tastes and memories of some of my favorite dishes have stayed with me. I've been able to finally recreate some of those dishes for my own child. Starting with a base recipe and then altering it until I got it as close to what I could remember as possible. My father was also pretty great in the kitchen.

I want my son to learn as much from me as possible and hopefully love it just as much as I do. So for lunch yesterday I had him help me cook one of his favorites-pizza.

We made the dough from scratch using the recipe from the link below. (Use 2 teaspoons of sugar, not tablespoons).

www.marthastewart.com/332275/basic-pizza-dough

Here's the link to my Pinterest recipe board as well:

www.pinterest.com/jkindle05/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner/

        

                                

After making the dough, we made 2 pizzas. I've found that using a cast iron skillet is very easy for this. 

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. 

Oil a cast iron skillet with olive oil

Take some of your dough and spread it out in your pan. I prefer a thinner crust and the dough recipe yields enough for 5. Separate your dough, wrap in plastic wrap, then put into a ziplock to freeze. 

For his pizza we used Rago pizza sauce (surely not the best out there, use your favorite sauce) 

Shredded mozzarella

Then pepperoni.

Bake for 15 minutes.

For crisper crust, put the skillet on the stove top over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. 

I love Alfredo pizza. First steps are the same.

I really like Classico brand five cheese sauce. 

Saute 2 cups of fresh spinach with one clove of garlic chopped in a hot pan with olive oil.

Spread out the sauce over the pizza dough.

Top with shredded mozzarella

Put about 1/4 of the amount of shredded parmesan on top of the mozzarella.

Then spread the sauteed spinach and garlic evenly over the pizza. 

Optional: cooked chicken and other veggies. 

Bake 15 minutes.

Crisp crust on the stove top.

This picture is before I baked the pizza, I forgot to take one after. I had red bell peppers on here but I actually like this recipe better without them. Would love to try mushrooms on here the next time. 

Making your favorite hot wings at home

So, I tried something new yesterday, and I think the wings come out way better doing them this way.

What you'll need:

• Chicken winglettes, drumsticks, or wing tips (I bought a package of wing tips for $3.58!!)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Your favorite wing sauce (On these I just tried out Kroger brand hot wing sauce)
• Cookie sheet
• Aluminum foil or parchment paper (both optional)
• Optional additions: your favorite pepper chopped or minced garlic

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

Cover your baking sheet with foil or parchment paper if you'll be using. Makes cleaning up so much easier.

Lay out your wings and season (be easy with the salt because of your sauce) Turn them and season the other side

Bake for 30-40 minutes (depends on how crispy you like them)

If you're using a sauce that requires you to add butter, such as Frank's Red Hot, you'll need to warm that on the stove while your wings bake.
You'd add your peppers or garlic in this step

Pour your sauce into a bowl
Take your wings and coat them in the sauce

Transfer them back to the cookie sheet

Bake for another 30 minutes
Then broil for 3-4 minutes

Enjoy with your favorite dip

I made these 15 wings at home for the total cost of about 5 bucks!! Just can't beat it!!

**** I rewarmed the leftovers in the oven at 450 degrees for 10 minutes for lunch today. Make sure you use parchment paper or cooking spray.

New addition to the kitchen

Finally brought myself a food processor. The blender doesn't always work when I'm trying new recipes. I'm really excited to use it soon.

Thai Red Curry

Decided to make curry for lunch today. I've had a curry soup at a place I used to eat lunch at sometimes when I was working. Actually made the paste from scratch & then made my soup. Made rice noodles to eat with it. Making this reminded me that I'm really not a big fan of curry...but I'm still glad I tried. Tasted pretty close to what I'd had at the restaurant. Link to the blog I got the recipe from is below. I did add soy sauce when I ate it.

http://www.connoisseurusveg.com/2014/08/eggplant-tofu-red-curry.html

If you do enjoy curry, this wasn't difficult to make. The curry paste recipe link is within the one above for the soup.

Eminem's "Lose Yourself" in American Sign Language

Nothing short of amazing:

https://youtu.be/fnAofkVHZOQ

Dinner

Attempted scallops for the first time. Look better than they tasted. But overall dinner was a success. Scallops, shrimp, rib eye steak, sauteed mushrooms, mashed potatoes & roasted asparagus. I was pretty happy with the way things turned out.

Today

So today I had a mission. Buy a cast iron skillet. And I'm happy to say I succeeded. Went to Costco first and they didn't have them BUT they did have a cast iron grill. GRILL!!! I'm so excited to use it tonight. I can put it on the stove which is so awesome when I'm not making big quantities of something, I won't have to use my outdoor grill.

And I found the skillet at Walmart. It's only 10.50", I really wanted a 12" one but this will do for now.

I have an awesome meal planned for tonight. Also going to practice my plating so stay tuned for the next blog and pics. 

Mumbling

It is 10:36 a.m. and I'm just sitting here on the couch watching old episodes of Grey's Anatomy. Sad, I know. I was laid off from my job a few weeks ago and even though I absolutely hated what that place had become, I had a purpose. It filled my day and for 9 hours, I had purpose.

I don't know what to do with my days.

At first, I filled the time with housework and yard work, tended to my vegetable garden and cleaned. I usually love to cook so I've tried new recipes, some good, some not so much. Even that is becoming hard to do because I have no one around to share it with or to enjoy it.

There's only so much of that you can do.

I suffer from depression and anxiety and it's been very hard to get motivated to find a job and not having one keeps me stuck in a dark place. How do you win?

I have a son, and I love him tremendously. But I still have a void that lingers.

I don't talk to many people, and the ones I do speak to don't understand. I can't share and get everything out of my head. There's a lot of judgement but not much understanding.

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