Pizza

My favorite crust recipe is from Better  Home & Gardens Biggest Book of Italian Recipes.  But, of course, I've modified it.  So here's my version:

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons honey or sugar
• 1 1/3 cup warm water
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
  
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  
• 6 ounces marinara sauce
• 8 ounces shredded mozzarella
• Various pizza toppings (we like pepperoni because it's easy to freeze)

Directions 

1. Put yeast, honey or sugar, water, and olive oil in a large mixing bowl and let it stand for five minutes. 
2. Stir in flour, salt, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning until combined.  Dough should be moderately stiff.
3. Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with a damp towel.  Let it rise in a warm place until nearly double (about an hour).
4. Place pizza pan in cold oven.  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
5. When oven and pan are preheated, pull the pan out of the oven and spray with non-stick spray.  Dump the dough ball onto the middle of the pan and use your fingers to spread the dough all the way to the edges.  
6. Bake crust for 20 minutes.
7. Stir 1 tsp garlic powder into melted butter.  Brush onto the edges of the crust.  Add marinara sauce, cheese, and toppings.  Bake for another 15 minutes. Check every five minutes to see if the cheese has started to brown and to make sure the crust isn't TOO brown.

Crockpot Creole Sausage

Original Recipe
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooker-Creole-Black-Beans-and-Sausage/Detail.aspx?prop24=etaf

Changes

• I only use one pound of sausage, or one package if that's what I have.
• Instead of 3 cans of beans, I use one bag of black beans from the freezer.  Anything more than that is too bean-y for me.
• I don't always have a can of tomato sauce on hand, but a can of diced tomatoes will work just fine.
• Substitute plain black pepper for the white pepper.  Who keeps that on hand?
• I typically only use one bay leaf because I don't want to fish two of them out before eating.  I'm lazy that way, and I'm okay with it.

Notes

• This one could easily be a frozen crockpot meal if you don't add the water until you are ready to cook.
• Serve over rice.

 Ingredients

• 1 pound smoked sausage, cut into 1 inch slices
• 1 package frozen black beans
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
• 1 1/2 cups chopped celery
• 1 1/2 cups chopped green pepper
• 1 cup water
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce OR 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 bay leaves

Directions

1. Place a large skillet over medium heat, and add sausage. Cook, stirring, until sausage is browned, about 5 minutes. Drain fat, and transfer sausage to slow cooker.
2. Stir the black beans, onion, celery, green pepper, water, tomato sauce, garlic, thyme, bullion granules, white pepper, cayenne pepper, and bay leaves into the sausage in the slow cooker. Cover, and cook on Low until vegetables are tender, about 6 hours. Remove bay leaves before serving.

Tasty Noms

It occurs to me that I should document the recipes that my family likes and are easy to make.  So I'll be posting some recipes and trying to link to the original.  Yes, you're going to see a lot of crockpot recipes.  Deal with it.