Homeschool Helper » Cooking from Scratch

Homemade Mini Frozen Pizzas

amy — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:17:05 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I doubled the crust recipe when making our traditional Sunday night pizza. I wanted to see if we could make mini pizzas and freeze them. We finally tried them today for lunch, and they were quite good!

Homemade Pizza Dough
2 Tablespoons yeast
2 Cups warm water
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 teaspoon salt
5 1/2 to 6 cups flour
3 cloves crushed garlic
Dissolve yeast in water and add sugar. Wait a few minutes. Add oil, salt and garlic. Add in 3 c ups of flour, mix. Add remaining flour and mix with dough hook or by hand. Knead until smooth. Allow to rise in the bowl. Punch down. Let rise again. Put on baking stones or sheets. Let rise slightly and top. Bake at 425 for about 20 minutes.
This makes enough for 2 pizzas – some to eat and some to freeze.
I made this recipe like normal. I divided half of the dough into four mini pizzas.

I topped it with our homemade pizza sauce, some pepperoni and cheese.

I put them into the freezer overnight. The next day, I took them off the baking sheet and into a freezer ziploc bag.
I baked them at 450 for 15-20 minutes.

Apple Pie Filling

amy — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:45:47 +0000

We had a lot of cooking apples in our orchard this year, so I canned some apple pie filling. My brother-in-law loves apple pies, so this will make a nice Christmas gift for him. I used the recipe from the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning.

Homemade Pizza Sauce

amy — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:24:02 +0000

We like to have homemade pizza at our house every Sunday night. So, we make use of some of the extra tomatoes in the summer time and cook up some homemade pizza sauce to freeze.

I use the squeezo to get the tomato juice, then cook it up and freeze it into ice cube trays. We use two cubes per pizza, but we don’t like a very saucy pizza.
Here’s the recipe if you want to make some.

Pizza Sauce
3 quarts tomato juice
bit of parsley
1/8 cup salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 cup clear jel – this is a thickening agent
1 medium onion (chopped in the food processor)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon paprika
3/4 teaspoon chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoon oregano
Put all ingredients in big pot. Boil until slightly thickened. Cool and freeze.

Homemade Enchilada Sauce

amy — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:30:23 +0000

I wanted to make and can enchilada sauce this year with our extra tomatoes, but I couldn’t find any recipe that sounded suitable. So, I decided to just can tomato sauce. It is much more versatile anyway. Now, I can make anything I want out of it.

Here’s how I made some enchilada sauce with one of the jars. Since I had a quart of sauce, I multiplied this recipe by four. I am leaving it smaller in case you don’t have home canned tomato sauce to use.

Enchilada Sauce

3 Tablespoons chili powder
3 Tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon oregano
3 cups water
1 – 8oz can tomato sauce
Put all ingredients into saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens.

When I quadrupled this recipe, it made enough for us to have enchiladas 12 times. I put the extras into freezer bags in the freezer.

Freezer Spaghetti Sauce

amy — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:08:40 +0000

Every summer, I cook up our fresh tomatoes, peppers and onions into a delicious, versatile spaghetti sauce and freeze it for winter. It makes preparing spaghetti, lasagna, or any recipe calling for a jar of spaghetti sauce a snap. I also love it because I know how much better it is for us than any of the store varieties.

Frozen Spaghetti Sauce

20 cups tomatoes – peeled and chopped
3 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped green pepper
5 cups water
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoon oregano
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon pepper
3 Tablespoons canning salt

Mix all ingredients and simmer for 2 hours, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add 4 – 12 oz cans tomato paste. Stir well. Cool and freeze in ziploc bags.
.

To peel the tomatoes easily, just pour boiling water over them and let them stand for a few minutes. The skin will just slip right off.

I put the onions and peppers through the food processor until they are small enough that nobody can pick out any parts they think they don’t like.

The tomato paste really thickens it up nicely. This year, I got a great big can from Costco. It was a little cheaper than buying the four cans and I had enough paste to make several batches of spaghetti sauce.

It helps to lay the bags on a cookie sheet in the freezer until they are frozen. That way, they stay flat.

Recipe: Peanut Butter Frozen Dessert

amy — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:13:51 +0000

This is one of my favorite summertime recipes. Unfortunately, it is also the dessert that led us to discover our daughter has a peanut allergy.

1 package chocolate wafer cookies (crushed)
1 stick butter
3/4 cup peanut better
8 oz cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup milk
2 – 8 oz cartons cool whip

Melt butter and combine with crushed wafers. Press into 9×13″ pan to form crust.

Blend peanut butter and cream cheese, then add powdered sugar and milk. Blend until smooth. Add cool whip and blend. Pour over crust. Drizzle chocolate syrup over top. Store in freezer until ready to use.

Banana Cream Pie

amy — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:06:06 +0000

It was a rainy day here yesterday and we had a couple of very ripe bananas sitting around, so I decided to make banana cream pie. (My husband really likes banana cream pie.) I used the recipe out of my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. I think it turned out pretty excellent. However, it seems that I need to make cream pies more often. My kids had never had meringue before and my husband said I had never made him a banana cream pie despite the fact that I had previously written “Good” next to the recipe. I think the notation in the cookbook is positive proof I must have made it at least once in our marriage. (I got the cookbook as a wedding gift.) Don’t you agree!?!

Making Turkish Delight

amy — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:06:12 +0000

We are studying the country of Turkey this month in our co-op. Along with a few other Turkish recipes, I made Turkish Delight for the kids to try. In The Chronicles of Narnia, Edmund eats Turkish Delight that was prepared by the White Witch. It was unlike any candy recipe I’ve ever made. It has to simmer for an hour, then set overnight before cutting the jelly like candy into squares. They are then rolled in a powdered sugar and cornstarch mixture. I coudn’t find the rose water called for in the recipe, so I used some lemon extract. I can see why Edmund was tempted to try it. It is pretty good!

Homemade Waffles with our Free Waffle Maker

amy — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:02:55 +0000

This morning we made waffles with our new waffle maker. We got it free using Swag Bucks we earned while doing regular web searching. If you aren’t familiar with Swag Bucks, you simply use it like you would any search engine. Occasionally, you win Swag Bucks. I usually win several each day. When you accumulate enough Swag Bucks, you can redeem them for gift certificates or other prizes. I redeemed mine for Amazon.com gift certificates. When I built up enough gift certificates, I ordered this waffle maker.

I used this recipe for Whole Wheat Waffles. I really like this recipe because it doesn’t leave you feeling hungry an hour later like some waffles do. Yummy!

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

amy — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:12:46 +0000

These cupcakes are one of my favorites. They taste like chocolate chip cookies!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup loosely packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Combine until creamy.

Spoon into paper lined muffin cups about half full. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

Filling

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
Combine and add:

1 cup chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla

Remove cupcakes from oven. Increase oven temperature to 375. Spoon topping over each cupcake and return to oven for additional 12 minutes. Makes 18.