Faith, Folklore, and Friends

Making pizza..... Roll out the pizza crust to desired shape and thickness.  We like thin crust.  I have nothing against round pizza, but I like to do things 'out of the box' some days.  In other words, I couldn't find my round pizza pan. Spread with pizza sauce.  Mine is tomato paste with some Italian seasoning mixed in. Eight ounces of fresh mozzarella cheese , cut in thin slices. Cover the cheese with sauteed onion slices. Add some cooked country sausage and mushrooms. Add lots of black olives. . . and some smoked sausage. Of course, the joy of pizza is that you can put anything you want on it.  Except for the crust, I have never made the same recipe twice. Bake at 400 degrees until done...about 12-15 minutes. Yummy.  It is even better warmed up the next day.

I love this book by Barbara Kingsolver.  In it, she tells how she and her family lived for a year on things they grew and raised on their farm.  Everyone needs to read it.  The book contains many of the recipes they used, including one for mozzarella cheese.  I had never made cheese, and wanted to give it a try. You need one gallon of pasteurized whole milk in a stainless steel pot and a cooking thermometer. Gently heat the milk to 55 degrees. Mix 1 1/2 level teaspoons citric acid dissolved in 1/4 cup cool unchlorinated water. Add to the milk when it reaches 55 degrees. Dissolve 1/4 teaspoon liquid rennet in 1/4 cup cool unchlorinated water.  Add to milk when it has reached 88 degrees.  Stir gently.  The milk curdles very quickly. When milk reaches just over 100 degrees, remove from heat.  The curds should be pulling away from the sides of the pot. Using a slotted utensil, remove the curds from the liquid, or whe...

When we went on our vegetable buying spree last week,  we bought two eggplants.  I had not cooked any eggplant in years, so first I googled eggplant recipes.  Although I had eaten it before, I had never made Eggplant Parmesan. I figured it was time to give it a try. Here we go: Cut the ends off and peel two medium-sized eggplants. Slice them lengthwise. Put salt in the bottom of a half-sheet pan.  Place eggplant slices on top of the salt, then cover the top of them with salt.  Let them sit for about thirty minutes.  The salt will draw the moisture and bitterness out of the eggplant. Rinse thoroughly, then drain on paper towels. In a bowl, beat an egg and about 1/2 cup of milk. In a separate bowl, add at least two cups of bread crumbs.  I used the Italian bread crumbs that are already seasoned. Dip each slice in the egg mixture, then coat with bread crumbs.  Hub attempted to make pictures of these steps, but there were ...