Kitchen Tips...

As I am trying to learn to be a good wife (which I will be in 5 months and 3 weeks!) One of the important things that I want to pursue (by all means not the most important) is learning to be a better cook. The journey getting there has been a bit discouraging at times as I am finding out cooking is just not that easy! But I am determined to learn from my mistakes and press on!

So I will begin my "Kitchen tips of the week". My goal is to try a new recipe every week and if it's good I will post it, if it's not then I will just tell you about it. I also will tell you what I find out on the way so those of you "experienced chefs" can just laugh at my ignorance, and those of you who are like myself can learn from my mistakes. For example, last week I learned that:

1) When cooking garlic if it burns even a little bit it's pretty much ruined so you need to start over before you add it in with the other ingredients. Trust me on this one, when I didn't follow this advice my lasagna ended up tasting like a big Italian cigar!

2) When making brownies from scratch if you want a "healthier alternative" you cannot just substitute all the sugar for splenda you have to do 1/2 sugar and 1/2 splenda. Or else you will find like I found they come out pretty flat..pretty dry..and really not very sweet at all!

One of our favorite recipe's lately that is very simple is
Hummus Pizza
Ingredients:
Can of Pillsbury pizza dough (sometimes we make our own crust it just depends)
About 3/4 cup of hummus (My favorite brand is Cedar's I think it has the best flavor)
2 Tbs. yellow corn meal (this is optional- it makes the crust crunchy
1 Teas. Garlic powder
3/4 Teas Oregano
2 cups chedder mixed with mozzarella (you can do just mozzarella but the chedder tastes yummy with the hummus)
We usually add tomato (I like to let the tomato drain on a paper towel a little after I slice it so it doesn't make the pizza soggy) and a mixture of peppers (green, yellow, red, orange) and onion. But it tastes yummy with any kind of topping you you can just add what you like

Directions:
Preheat oven 400
Grease pan and spread cornmeal over bottom of pan then add dough
Bake crust for 8-10 minutes (or according to package instructions)
Smooth hummus evenly over crust with spoon/spatula
Sprinkle oregano and garlic powder over hummus
Spread sliced tomato over hummus
Add half of cheese over tomato
Add other toppings of choice
Sprinkle remaining cheese over final toppings
Bake for 5-11 minutes or until crust slightly brown and cheese melted

One thing we have found with this recipe is dont overdo it with the hummus. If you add too much the flavor can be overwhelming and the dough can get a little soggy. So you should just have a thin layer of hummus on the dough.

So that's all for now....until next time!