I made a thin crust pizza here for the first time. This crust is also probably the best crust I've ever made. There is still room for improvement, but the taste was great.

For the dough:
4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 Tspn salt

I mixed the warm water and yeast and whisked it together. (This might have benefited from sitting for longer to get the yeast moving). I think sifted in the flour and salt. I began to knead and didn't need any extra flour or water to get it to the right consistency. I kept turning and kneading the dough for about 10 minutes to let it get really stretchy. I even let this sit for 20 minutes before kneading again for a minute or two before dividing this into four balls and placing in the fridge overnight.

To cook, I pulled out a ball, let it sit for 30 minutes to warm, and then rolled it out until it was 1/8 of an inch thick. 1/4 of this mix rolled out to just about 12 inches. Pretty thin. I then placed it on a baking sheet that I sprinkled with corn grits. I baked the pizza for 10-15 minutes at 500 degrees.

The edges were really crispy and perfect, with a good roasted flavor. The center was thin and stiff, but not super crunchy. I'm still looking for a dough that crisps up perfectly on the edges and surface, but has a good french bread flavor in the thin interior.

For the toppings:
1/2 pound shelled pistachios
1 red onion, sliced thin
1 pound mushrooms, sauteed prior with oil and salt until brown

The mushrooms and onion were great and the pistachio had a great flavor, but like when roasting most nuts, the pistachios became a little soft. If I were to do this again, I'd bake everything else together and then top with the pistachios to preserve their crisp.


For the sauce
28oz crushed tomato
1/2 cup red wine
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 Tbsn cayenne
1 tspn each, rosemary, thyme, parsley, oregano and pepper.
1 cup ricotta cheese (exclude and this recipe would be vegan, but with it, the sauce is very creamy).

I simmered all these, except the ricotta, for 30 minutes. I took it off the heat and added the ricotta and mixed until smooth.

All together, this recipe makes 4 thin crust pizzas.

This is most definitely the best thing I've made in recent months. It also doesn't hurt that it is one of the better food photos I've taken as well.

Soup:
1 whole head of celery, leaves and all, finely chopped

Do you ever have an ingredient that just needs to be used, but there are few options? So it sits around and eventually you pull some other random things together and make some absurd concoction? Do you find that often results in a fail?
Well this time, I nailed it.

1 stick butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup bourbon
1 1/2 cups pecans

1 package Krustez Oat Bran muffin mix
1 cup warm water
1 self serve package instant coffee mix
2 vanilla beans

I started by melting the butter in a pan, and added the brown sugar. I didn't actually measure the sugar or bourbon or pecans, but instead just eyeballed it. When the butter was melted and bubbling, I added the bourbon. When it started to boil again, I lit the fumes on fire and let it cook down. I don't know if lighting the bourbon on fire did anything to the flavor, making a flambe as it were, but it was fun. I let this cook for a while. Mostly I was looking for a nice caramelly sauce that was decently thick, but not taffy.

In measuring cup, I mixed the water and coffee mix. I had a little package sitting around. The stuff tastes terrible on its own, but it did add a nice richness to the bread. I choose the Oat Bran muffin mix because I wanted something that was simple and maybe thick to support the decadence of the pecan caramel mixture. This stuff did just fine, and as per the instructions, required nothing but water and the mix. I also had two Madagascar vanilla beans sitting around that I needed to use so I seeded them and added the seeds to the bread mix. I pods I tossed into the caramel mix to extract the last of its goodness. I bet vanilla extract would be fine here, but the fresh stuff did make my kitchen smell like vanilla for a couple days. Amazing.

In a large baking dish, greased, I poured in the oat bran mix. Into the caramel mix, I added the pecan and stirred until coated. I let this cook down for a bit longer until it was a good consistency. I didn't want the liquid from the pecan mixture to disturb the oat bran mix and prevent it from cooking. (Also, this only went up about 2/3rds the side of the baking dish. Any more and it would have overflowed during the baking). I then added the pecans and caramel to the top of the oat mix and got it ready to bake.

In a 350 oven, I baked the stuff for about 55 minutes. During the baking, the pecan roasted up perfectly and got to a sweet lightly crunchy state. The buttery, bourbony, caramel soaked into the top of the oat mix, but mostly got crispy and stuck the pecans together. Wonderful texture.

After it was done, I tried to cut a slice at it crumbled to bits. That is the picture I took because I wasn't patient. I have since had it a second day, after it was allowed to cool, and the bread has become a lot more solid. It is so very good. And aside from the pecans, (and the price of bourbon which I didn't buy) it was pretty cheap.

I still have a cup or more of bourbon, so unless people can recommend other bourbon recipes, I'll have to make this 8 more times.