The last time I made pizza dough, it came out rubbery. It baked up OK, but something obviously wasn’t right with the dough.
Today, I made some more dough. It’s soft and pillowy, and all is right with the world.
The difference? The flour I used last time expired in November. Of 2007.
I have never been a morning person. I’ve never had a job that required me to get up terribly early, but none of them have started at the time I’d ideally be up and at ’em. Say, 10 o’clock. So I’ve always been reliant on the alarm clock to wake me.
The problem with an alarm clock, though, is that it’s oh-so-easy to make it hush.
I discovered early on that I have a bad habit of hitting the snooze button until I’m perilously close to being late. Some people remedy this by marrying an early bird who won’t allow them to sleep in. My husband, though, is an even worse snooze-button offender than I am.
But we found a solution. We moved the alarm clock across the room, well out of arm’s reach. While it didn’t completely solve the problem, it definitely lessened the chance that we’d be late. It’s much harder to fall completely back asleep when you have to toss off your covers and stand up to hit snooze.
Now, I have to admit that the when we moved, someone put the clock right back on his nightstand. The rampant snoozery hasn’t been too bad so far. If it gets out of hand, though, I’ll know just what to do.
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Monday: Poppyseed chicken
I very clearly remember the first time I had poppyseed chicken. We were at Rockford’s sister’s house. The casserole was warm, creamy and delicious. I could’ve eaten the whole thing. This may be my ultimate comfort food.
Poppyseed Chicken
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cooked and shredded
1 can cream of mushroom soup
a cup or so of sour cream
1 tablespoon poppyseeds
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tube of Ritz crackers, crushedPreheat oven to 350 degrees.
Stir cracker crumbs and butter together in a small bowl. Blend poppyseeds, mushroom soup and sour cream together in a bigger bowl, then stir in shredded chicken. Spread chicken mixture into a casserole dish. Top chicken mixture with buttery cracker crumbs.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or so, until it’s heated through.
Tuesday: Mongolian beef
Mongolian beef is my fall-back menu item at Chinese restaurants, so I was excited to see this one pop up in a recipe-testing program I recently joined. The program in question is for a woman who’s working on a cookbook, and she’s asked that the testers don’t share the recipes. But if it’s good, I’ll definitely share the name of the cookbook once it’s published.
Wednesday: Chili
We’ve been having chili pretty much every week since the weather turned cold. I don’t see that changing in the foreseeable future.
Thursday: Chicken Satay Noodles
Poppy loves noodles, and she loves peanut butter. I’m hoping that’ll translate to her actually eating this meal.
Friday: Pizza
My dad and his girlfriend will be joining us for dinner Friday, which means our pizza will have Italian sausage on it. Because my dad believes Italian sausage is a food group of its own.