Basic Bread and PIZZA!

Tuesday, March 22, we made pizza.  And of course since it was me making the pizza, it was not your usual pizza.  My philosophy, I quote it a lot, comes from the old Monty Python show, "And now for something completely different"  First off, I made a basic bread dough.  From this, we made a few loaves of bread.  Then because it is for pizza, we added more whole wheat flour to the dough to give it some strength and stiffness.  Rolled out two deep dish ones and set them aside to rise awhile.  Then, I rolled out a thin crust pizza and placed it on my peel.  Yes, it's true, and an old joke, but I nicknamed my peel, Emma.  I had made some of my 20 minute marinara and we spooned on a big amount.  Lots of Mozzarella and then I sliced some Eichmann's smoked sausage into thin rounds and placed them onto the cheese.  Then I took 2 jalapenos, sliced off the top, cored them and sliced into slices.  These I put on top of each sausage slice.  Baked in the oven on a pizza stone until crisp, it was spectacular.  Onto one of the deep dish crusts, I spread out some medium salsa.  Then I spread on a layer of the very popular Mexican Style 3 Cheese Blend.  On top of that, I put a bunch of my carnitas that were left over from a previous class.  Then a bunch of thin sliced onions and red bell peppers. 

The last one was somewhat unique.  I made sure the edges of the crust were higher up the pan all the way around.  Then I beat 3 eggs and poured them on.  Spread them around and covered with Mozzarella.  Then added some chopped bacon, cooked potatoes, sort of a breakfast pizza.  This was my favorite. 

Fun at Basic Bread Making Class

Well we had some fun here at the store on Wednesday evening with this group.  I was teaching just basic bread class.  We made basic whole wheat bread that we made into little loaves for everyone, and then we took some of the dough and made stuffed rolls.  Some had a mixture of dried fruit, some had scallops, bacon and chives (leftovers from ravioli making) and then some we stuffed with my refritos from Tuesday nights class.  And then just to introduce all the new people to my stuff, I sauteed some celery, onions, red bells and jalapenos in a large skillet.  Then I cooked up a package of my number 2 selling pasta, Roasted Garlic and Jalapeno Linguine and tossed it with the veggies.  Served with some of the fresh baked bread and we all enjoyed the meal.  Thank you to all the wonderful young ladies that came to visit and talk food with me.  And thanks Victor for making sure I was not the only guy there. 

Mexican Pressure Cooking Class III

Tuesday March 8th was a tasty evening indeed.  Victor and Desiree came in and we talked about food a little, chopped some veggies and made three fabulous Mexican inspired dishes.  The one pictured is Pollo Frito Receta.  Sort of a thick stew made with onions, peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes and chicken.  I served this over a bed of my own personally made Smoky and Spicy Chipotle Linguine.  Garnished with avocados, scallions and cilantro.  It was yummy, although I have to admit that the chicken was a little tough, I was in conversation with my guests and forgot to turn the pressure cooker off that when the timer went off.  Oh well, who can blame me, Desiree is very nice to talk to.  Anyway, I then made some nice spicy pinto beans, and a favorite of mine is potatoes and eggs poached in the pressure cooker, in salsa.  Those were yummy.  Recipes will be added to the website probably tonight.  Well, after the basics about making Bread tonight at 6. 

Some rather unusual Lasagna,

Saturday, March 5 was Fab Lasagna class here at Austin Healthy Cooking.  We had 8 wonderful people here for the class and we made some rather, well, not your typical lasagnas.  I baked fresh bread for us to enjoy with the one lasagna that I was going to bake for us all to enjoy.  That one was a Cajun one.  We started out by making our own sausage.  Ground pork mixed with Cajun spices that I mix myself, then we browned that.  We chopped a mountain of onions and red peppers and sauteed them.  Then sliced a bunch of cooked smoked spicy jalapeno sausages to add, just as a textural component.  Then we made a spicy red sauce.  We assembled the lasagnas using my "Spicy Cajun Lasagna" noodles and added a ton of Ricotta mixed with eggs and lots of Thyme, Mozzarella, and the fantastic stuff above.  Everyone was amazed that the things weighed in at over 3 pounds each and that I charge so little for the class.  Some of the people there promised to email me some of the photos they took and as soon as they do, I will post them here.  And I will put the recipes in the recipe section of the website as well.  We also made a chocolate lasagna with raspberry jam, almonds, and cream cheese with a chocolaty Bechamel.  Then we made a fantastic mushroom and garlic lasagna with Gouda cheese.  Yummy