Sweet Home Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

May 23, 2013 in Recipes, Tied Up | No comments

We’ve lived in Ohio for three years now. In some ways, we’ve acclimated. Baby Bee has developed an “Ohio accent”. We’ve stopped being used to traffic and get a little antsy when we’re stuck in it. It’s just not a part of our day to day lives anymore.

I can leave for school drop of at 8:28 and arrive and have the girls unloaded by 8:30. Driving the speed limit.

But, some thing we continue to miss about Chicagoland. Friends, of course. Family. I still miss my Mommy friends. And the food, I really miss the food. The food here isn’t the same. There’s not a hot dog shop on every corner where you can get an Italian beef or a Chicago style hot dog and the pizza? The pizza is NOT the same.

When we head out to Chicagoland to visit, we have Italian Beef. We have hot dogs. We have pizza. Sometimes, we bring home pizza, but, it’s just not really enough.

I love restaurant recipe knock offs. I derive a great amount of happiness from recreating something at home that we like to enjoy when we’re eating out and I realized that I could probably find a knock off recipe for deep dish CHicago style pizza.

And, boy did I.

 

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Sweet Home Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
Author: 
Recipe type: Pizza!
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 4
 

Ingredients
  • For Crust:
  • 1 c of warm water (110-115 degrees)
  • 1.5 tsp of yeast
  • 3.5 c of flour
  • .5 c cornmeal
  • .25 c oil (I used olive)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • For Pizza:
  • 1 lb sliced mozzarella cheese
  • pizza sauce of your choice
  • toppings of your choice

Instructions
  1. Pour warm water into a mixer bowl. Add the yeast and mix briefly to incorporate the yeast into the water
  2. Add 1 cup of flour, corn meal, oil and salt to mixer bowl. Mix until combined.
  3. Add flour .5 cup at a time until the dough pulls away from the bowl and is smooth and not sticky. I only needed three cups of flour, so add slowly and poke that dough.
  4. Turn out onto the counter and kneed by hand until soft (only a few minutes).
  5. Oil a large bowl. Toss dough in oil and cover. Let rise until doubled (this thing double CRAZY fast–FYI)
  6. Preheat oven to 500 degrees
  7. Roll out dough, reserving about ¼ for the top (this will make it a “stuffed” pizza). Press dough into the bottom and up the sides of your pan. I opted to use an 8″ cast iron skillet for my pizza making. Oil your pan generously to be sure your dough doesn’t stick. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
  8. Start by putting down a full layer of sliced mozzarella. Be sure the cover the whole bottom, the excess cheese is really what makes a Chicago style pizza.
  9. Layer on your toppings of choice. I did a plain sausage pizza and a pepperoni pizza. I’ll likely add vegetables the next go ’round, but was unsure of water content, so I left them out this time.
  10. Add another layer of cheese, one more layer of your topping of choice and end with a cheese layer.
  11. Roll out your reamaining dough and tuck it over the top of your pizza. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but I tried to make sure all my ingredients were sealed inside.
  12. Cover the top with pizza sauce.
  13. Bake at 500 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 400 degrees and bake for another 20-30 minutes (you’ll have to pull your pizza out and check your crust).
  14. Let cool, slice and enjoy!

 

It wasn’t perfect.

 

And, lots more homemade sauce would have made for a better product.  Any stuffed deep dish pizza lover will tell you that I was way too skimpy on the sauce.

But it really hit the spot.

 

Summer Planning: Places

May 22, 2013 in Tied Up | No comments

Last week, I outlined how I was planning to make sure we maximized our summer fun.  Over the past few years, I’ve liked to try and work in one outing a week.  Of course, we go to the library and the playground and we meet up with Auntie Awesome to go to the lake for swimming, but I like to try and make sure I’m fitting in at least one “special” outing a week.

This doesn’t have to be expensive!  I know that these little trips and admission fees can add up, but it doesn’t have to be pricey.  Here’s some of our tried, tested and girlie approved summer outings that will make their way into our “places” summer fun jar.

 

1) Bowling.  I cannot say enough about the Kids Bowl Free program.  NO gimmicks.  Your kids can bowl free.  Two games.  Every single weekday of the summer.  Our local lanes allow free bowling from April 15 to September 3 AND you can buy a shoe rental card that, for a few dollars, will cover the cost of your child’s shoe rental for the entire season.  Kiddos must be 15 and under, but it’s a lot of fun for the prices of shoes and a few snacks at the snack bar

2) The Zoo.  We bought a family membership to the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium last summer.  We’ll be renewing this year.  Thanks to free parking and a pretty strict souvenir policy and the ability to bring in our own drinks and snacks, trips to the zoo are a pretty affordable adventure for our family.  Being zoo members also allows us to visit other zoos for reduced fees as well, so we’re not only limited to our home zoo.  It’s a great way to save money on vacation fun, too.  Use your membership!  We got into the Milwaukee Zoo for free during a recent trip.

3) Chuck E. Cheese.  Okay, Moms, don’t boo me out of the room.  Hear me out.  We usually visit a few times a summer.  I’ve been there for weekend birthday parties too.  It’s insane, right?  But, on a Monday morning before lunch?  Chuck E Cheese is a ghost town.  We order snacks and drinks and the girls play for a couple hours.  It’s a great place to find respite from the summer heat and I like to play the games, too.

Oh, look at Baby Bee’s knobbly knees. I could just kiss them.

4) Indoor playgrounds.  We’re so lucky to have a great local one.  And, I admit, indoor playground time is one of my favorites.  At our local indoor playground, there’s a nice couch that faces the entire playground.  I can settle in with an iced coffee and watch the girls play without worrying about where they’re wandering.  To be honest, during some days and times things can get a bit crowded, but if you can tune out the little voices, this is a great activity.  I’ll give an honorable mention to indoor inflatable businesses as well. We do have one locally to us, but I don’t like them as much as our local indoor playground.  I like to be able to easily see the girls and the indoor playground fits the bill better.  For a less expensive alternative (read; free!) head to your local mall.  Most have small, indoor playsets with comfy seats and easy viewing so Mom and Dad can relax while the kiddos play.

5) Spray Parks.  We have to drive into Pittsburgh to find our closest one, but for me it’s worth the drive.   I get a little nervous trying to watch all three girls (no the Princess doesn’t need it, yes I still watch her like a hawk) at a pool.  We have a great pool in our city park, but without Big Daddy I”m just not comfortable. Spray parks give the girls the ability to play in the water and I can worry a LOT less.  We’ll combine ours with a trip to Trader Joe’s to make the drive more than worth while.

6) The Science Center and Children’s Museums.  Again, we’re members which drives our cost per visit down.  We’ve been members of the Carnegie Science Center (and I may re-up this year) and are currently members of Oh Wow! our local science center.

Got any great suggestions?  We’re always open to something fun!

 

What the Heck, Charlie Brown

May 21, 2013 in Tied Up | No comments

Baby Bee loves Charlie Brown. Over the past couple of years, I bought “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” from Amazon Video on Demand and Baby Bee watches them each at least once a week. I’m a lot more up close and personal with Charlie Brown than I ever thought I’d be. I’m almost tired of Linus’ Christmas speech.

Almost.

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But, the more I watch Charlie Brown the more disturbed I become. People are mean to Charlie Brown, yo. Seriously, heartbreakingly mean.

I know what you’re thinking. I’m over thinking this. It’s not that bad. Charlie Brown doesn’t have it so bad. I disagree, though. Until I was forced to watch watching the cartoons with so much frequency, I’d never noticed it either.

Charlie Brown is never invited to parties. When he is invited, he’s quickly told its a mistake. He was on the “do not invite” list. On Valentine’s Day, he doesn’t receive a single one. At Christmas time, he’s belittled so much over his choice of Christmas trees, he has no choice but to go home, depressed and dejected.

Charlie Brown admits to being afraid of anything. His head is drawn on with marker. He literally gets no candy from adults on Halloween.

Charlie Brown seems like a pretty nice kid, but no one ever sticks up for him in any meaningful way. Of course, I know this begs a question about whether or not it’s a mistake to not let our children experience small injustice like NOT being invited to a birthday party or not to require a Valentine be given to each child in class. I’m sure there are people who believe we are raising a generation of wimps but surely a better alternative isn’t to allow the exclusion of a little boy from the neighborhood Halloween party or Christmas play.

I know that Charlie Brown being unfortunate in a relatable way is the whole joke, but I’m having more and more trouble finding it funny.

Additionally, did you know Peppermint Patty considers herself hopelessly dumb? I mean, I always knew she was athletic, but holy cow, I never realized they embedded the “dumb jock” stereotype in Patty.

The Princess Takes a Big Trip AND the menu plan

May 20, 2013 in Menu Plans, Recipes | No comments

The Princess and Big Daddy are on their way to Toledo this morning to meet with the allergist to start our Oral Immunotherapy process. With the Princess’s permission, I’ll be blogging our experience so others can understand the process and perhaps use it to decide if it’s right for their allergic family member.

I’ll be waiting around with baited breath for Big Daddy to call me after the appointment. I’m so excited for what the summer may bring to the Princess.

A little more than a week ago, the Princess, Littlebit, Baby Bee, Big Daddy and me participated in our town’s annual “day of giving”. The town comes out and helps get some things into shape that need it. The playground is spruced up, the historic cemetery is weeded and cleaned. This year, we teamed up with the Princess and Littlebit’s girl scout troupe to ready the garden Baby Bee’s preschool maintains. Afterwards, Big Daddy and our two big girls helped unload food at a church food pantry.

The Princess has always been a helper. I’m happy appointment day is here so she can breathe a little easier.

We are down to just a handful of days of school. I’m looking forward to summer, but the next few weeks are going to be crazy as we manage events and other fun things. I’m looking for quick and easy dinners this week and plan to use my crock pot even if it is going to be warm.

 

Monday Slow Cooker Chicken and Rice (as an aside, I won’t be using cream of chicken soup. We’re trying to reduce the amount of processed food we consume, so I’ll be making my own cream of something soup)

Tuesday Slow Cooked Sweet Pork over cilantro lime rice.

Wednesday Cajun Chicken Pasta

Thursday Guiness Brats, corn on the cob and sweet potato fries

Friday Bubble up pizza

Saturday TBD

Sunday Big Daddy is smoking a brisket and I don’t have words for how delicious that is and if you haven’t eaten Big Daddy’s brisket, you should feel a little bit sad.

 

Summer Planning

May 18, 2013 in Crafts | No comments

I know this is going to sound a little crazy and a little Type-A (or maybe a lot crazy and lot Type-A). I have definitely had summers where I felt like we just didn’t DO anything.  I’m sure we did SOMETHING.  In fact, I KNOW we did something, but it felt like I missed a lot of opportunities.

I’ve tried to be loosey goosey with our summer plans and I’ve tried being more structured and neither of things seemed to work.  Being too loose with our plans leaves us with too many missed opportunities and being too structured makes the fun like work.  And, who wants that?  Not me.   This summer, I knew I needed to settle some place in the middle.  I needed a rough plan, but nothing too set in stone, especially considering the amount of time we’re hoping to spend on the road for the Princess’s Oral Immunotherapy.

Last year, I pinned an idea that I think will give me the best of both worlds; a plan without too much structure.  Just what I like.

I’ve decided to have 5 jars with the following labels: places, crafts, events, activities and extra. The extra jar will be carry over if we’re looking for something to do if we’ve pulled from each jar already that week and to cover some fun that doesn’t fit in any of the other categories. I’ll be sharing some ideas that I’ll be using to fill our jar over the next couple of weeks PLUS my summer daily routine (read: how to get the chores AND the fun in).

Only 8 more days of school.

Rain on a tin roof?

May 15, 2013 in Making it a Home | No comments

This winter, I noticed some black “smudges” on our garage ceiling.  I didn’t worry much about it because, well, it’s a garage and I figured that we, or the previous owners, had probably rubbed something against the ceiling while trying to maneuver it.  I mentioned it to Big Daddy and he agreed that there was something there, but didn’t know what.  He said he’d climb up and check it out.  He never got a chance.  A few days later, a huge strip of dry wall tape had released from the ceiling.  The black smudges? Mold.

Of course under further review, the previous owners must have had a water problem too.  They masked it by repainting the area the mold was growing in.  Thanks, Previous Owners!!

Anyhow, we had some people out.  We talked to them.  Our contractor pointed out where he thought the water was probably coming in but said, sadly, that the roof’s major problem was poor workmanship.

Great.

Thankfully, the insurance agreed that the problem causing the leak was weather related and they’re covering more than half of the replacement, which is great.

Big Daddy and I spent some time talking and decided that we were going to replace our traditional shingled roof with a metal roof.

We live in a neighborhood with traditional homes.  OUR home is a traditional home.  We spent weeks agonizing over the color, but decided for the price and the benefits, we couldn’t NOT go with a metal roof.

So, why metal roofs?   They’ve doubled in popularity over the past five years.  Here’s a few reasons why you might want to consider metal roof when it’s time to replace your roof.

Our roof is Energy Star compliant.   What does that mean?  The reflective coating of the roof will lower our cooling costs by 10-15%.  Energy Star roofs also qualify for a 10% tax credit up to $500 of material costs.

Metal roofs will “last a lifetime” and are virtually maintenance free.  We have a40 year guarantee on our roof.  That’s more than double the expected lifetime of a traditionally shingled roof.

Steel roofs are fire resistant, a big plus for those of you in dry, hot climates.

A metal roof could reduce your home insurance rates.  Statistically, metal roofs sustain less fire and wind damage than traditional asphalt roofs.

Metal roofs suffer less hail and wind damage than traditional roofs.

Another great benefit, is that many metal roofs are made from recycled materials and are superior at allowing for rain water collection, if you’re into that.

I’ll update you as to how much rain we’re lucky enough to hear.

 

 

Pillowcase Nightie: Version 2.0

May 14, 2013 in Crafts, Pinned There Done That | No comments

I’ve debated for some time how to address sewing on my blog. To be honest, I’m never going to be a pattern or tutorial maker. It’s just not where my talent lies. I can sew from patterns and tutorials, but I don’t think I’ll ever have the ability to make my own.   Since my mission is to make homemaking easier, I decided the best way to handle my sewing is link to tutorial and patterns I use, show you how they turn out and give them a bit of a review.

A few weeks ago, Littlebit made the startling announcement that she was out of pajamas.  I really didn’t think it was possible that she or Baby Bee could run out of anything in their dressers (they are two very well dressed little girls), but it was true.  Littlebit had grown some and she was down to just a few night things, far less than a week’s worth (and, really, I think you should always have at least a week’s worth of whatever because otherwise, you’re doing a lot of laundry in an emergent situation).

I sewed a top for Baby Bee (I’ll share that next week) and then it was Littlebit’s turn.  I asked her what she wanted me to sew; a top for her like Baby Bee’s or a new nightie.  She thought it over for a minute and said she thought she needed a new nightgown.  I, of course, had the exact tutorial I wanted to use, the pillowcase nightie from Everyday Chaos.  I pulled out some old fabric from my stash and sat down to sew.

First, let me be honest.  This nightie takes a LOT of fabric.  This isn’t a project for our treasured, hard to find fabric.  This is a project for the “why did I buy this?” or “this was cheap, but what will I do with it?” fabric.  Little bit’s nightie took two panels that were  the width of my knit fabirc (which I think was 60″ wide) by 25′ long.  It then took three bands of 60″x4″ for the ruffles and the tie.  This is no small fabric project.

I repeat, no small fabric project!

And it’s heavy.  REALLY heavy.  This is a lot of fabric, folks.  It’s a lot of heavy fabric.  It’s a heavy nightgown.

But, my word is it pretty.

The tutorial provided by Bridget at Everyday Chaos is really easy to follow. This really isn’t a hard nightie to sew.It’s very simple and mostly straight sewing and a good way to try your teeth on some knit fabric if you’ve never sewn with it before.  Sadly, my serger is out of order but it even came together nicely on my regular machine using a stretch stitch (but it would have been so nice had the serger worked.  Really).

Also, this came together in the time time it took Cinderella to go to the ball, to marry the Prince and for Hercules to become a full hero and fall in love with Meg..  About three hours from cutting out to string trimming, which is pretty quick.  It’s definitely a good nap time project.  I sewed a nightie for the Princess following and it went together even faster, having been through the pattern once.

In all honesty, ladies, if you’ve been debating on sewing something up for yourself, this nightie could be it.  Bridget suggests using panels that are 60″ wide giving you a total garment width of about 120″.  That’s going to fit, well, most people if not all of them.  I made one for the Princess (who is now probably 5’4″) using the same general formula as I did for Littlebit’s.  I used the width of my knit fabric to make two panels (this was another nice, wide knit) and cut it to 36″.  It comes just to under the Princess’s knees when I added the four inch ruffle.  The Princess declares it comfy and perfect for summer.

The one problem we’ve run into is that we’ve had trouble keeping Littlebit’s shoulder strap tied.  Of course, we have a lot of options to fix this and Littlebit has used her own ingenuity and simply double knotted it.

 

 

Menu Plan Monday

May 13, 2013 in Menu Plans, Recipes | No comments

I hope you all had a lovely Mother’s Day. I know it can be a difficult day. It is for me, sometimes. I’m so thankful and glad to be a mother, but the mothers in my life are missing and that’s not always easy. I know for some friends that the path to motherhood has been so hard or still not realized and it’s heartbreaking.

It’s cooled off here in Ohio. At least in our part. We’ve been hoovering near eighty degrees for the most part of the past few weeks and now we’re seeing 500 degree temperatures. What gives? That’s okay. It gives me a little room to eat up a few of those cold weather things I’ve been holding on to but haven’t felt like eating because it’s been warm. And, I have to move fast. It will be 80 again on Wednesday. I know my friends in the upper Midwest haven’t had a great spring, but ours has been fantastic.

Monday- Slow cooked corned beef brisket with potatoes and carrots and the dear, dear hope that they’ll be enough leftover for has on Tuesday morning. Because there is nothing NOTHING like making your own left over corned beef hash. NOTHING.

Tuesday- Chicken and Potatoes Oregano

Wednesday Grilled Chicken with lime and  cilantro with grilled veggies

Thursday  Chicken Stir Fry (a great way to use up LOTS of veggies with dinner!)

Friday Date night.  Oh, Auntie Awesome, how we LOVE date night

Saturday The Princess is having a sleep over.  I found a recipe for knock off deep dish Chicago pizza I may try.  There was just a school trip to Chicago (the Princess skipped due to her allergy, but not next time!) and I want to put our favorite pizza up against what they may have ate when they were there.

Sunday Everything permitting, I hope Big Daddy will smoke chicken.  Big Daddy’s smoked chicken is really the next best thing to heaven. I think anyone who has tasted it will agree.

 

Windex and Carpet Stains.

May 9, 2013 in Pinned There Done That | Permalink

I make no secret that I turn to Pinterest for a lot of things. For years, I used stumble upon and book marks for organizing all the great ideas I found on the web, but it really wasn’t efficient. Now, I use my categorized Pinterest boards. There’s never a lack of inspiration or ideas.

Sometimes, I’m a bit skeptical about a pin and I have been disappointed by recipes (and leave honest feedback when I repin them as to-done), but there have been a few cleaning ideas that I’ve been eying for a while with some obvious distrust. Could they really make that big of a difference? Could it be that easy?

Two years ago, we removed the carpet from our downstairs. It was a happy, happy day. However, the upstairs? Still carpeted. And, not only carpet, but carpeted in a very very light beige. I’m not going to kid you, the carpet looks gross. I have two different carpet cleaners (a spot bot and a hoover upright), but they only work okay and I can’t afford to dry clean the carpets as much as I would like them to be.

To make all this better, last week Baby Bee dumped a cup of Yoohoo! on my bedroom carpet. I didn’t catch it quickly and now I have a stain. I debated on pulling out the spot bot and letting it have at it, but I thought there wouldn’t be a better time to try a frequently repinned Pinterest tip; an iron and Windex.

The premise seems easy. Mix ammonia and water (OR simply use Windex in clear or yellow preferably). Saturate the carpet. Lay down a rag and iron the carpet at high cotton setting for ten second increments. Apparently, this will absorb the stain.

But would it?

Here are my shameful Yoohoo! stains.

Isn’t Baby Bee lucky she’s so cute?

I decided to try a test first.  I saturated the smaller spot with water.

And to my actual surprise, most the stain lifted out with just blotting.

Just a slight brown aura, don’t you think?  The other stain, however, was large, dark and in charge.  I opted to try just using Windex on it without the iron.

A lot of the stain lifted off.  Probably, the debris.  But, there was still a pretty large brown stain on the carpet, so I re-saturated the area with Windex, laid down my cloth and pulled out my iron.  While ironing, I wondered if it was smart to iron an ammonia solution, but I didn’t pass out so it’s at least safe enough to not asphyxiate you.  And the verdict?

Holy cats!  It worked!  Since I could see a blue haze around the stain from the windex, I opted to put some water on the carpet and mop it up.  Blue haze all gone.  Then I opted to try this on an older, fainter stain.

I am not punking you. There’s a stain there.

And, et voila! No stain!

So, armed with this handy knowledge, I gathered up my supplies and decided to tackle a mystery stain in the playroom.  I had a lot of options, but picked one close to a plug for the iron.

I cannot begin to even guess at what this may be. Besides gross, that is.

This was definitely something old on the carpet. After one application and ironing, there was still some stain left.

But, I reapplied the Windex and gave it another cycle with the iron and…

Holy cats!  The stain is gone!

Because I’m such a good blogger and I want to give you the REAL DEAL, I had one more stain mind.  It’s fruit punch.  In a nauseating shade of red.  I saved you the pain of scrolling.  The original stain is on the left.  The first application is top right and the bottom was when I gave up after four applications.

So, it’s no real miracle formula.  That fruit punch stain was quite old, however, and it lifted it off with much better results than I would have guessed.  Here’s the good new, Windex is a lot cheaper than Spot Shot and resolve and I think you’ll at least get similar results with less money and equal work.  Actually, in considering this fruit punch stain, I think it came out better than I would expect with the Spot Bot or the Hoover Upright cleaner and that took a lot less work and a lot less money.

Oh, and the blue Windex did leave a bit of a blue haze on the carpet around the stain.  I’m not bothered as I think it can be rinsed out (and it has rinsed out), but if you’re really paranoid about that (or if you’re in a rental OR if you want to preserve your carpets and not just clean them so you’re not embarrassed while waiting for new flooring to appear in the budget) be sure to buy the clear.  Happy cleaning and good luck!

Creamy Ranch Chicken Pasta

May 8, 2013 in Recipes | Permalink

Are things getting insane in your neck of the woods? It seems like the entire year of school activity is concentrated into May (and December. Christmas programs). We coast through so many month and then, all of a sudden, everything comes due. I try not to think too hard about our schedule because I’d probably cry.

Quick dinners are, once again, king.How quickly can we put dinner on the table and NOT serve sandwiches.

This recipe was born out of desperation. We had a six o’clock meeting at school and it was 5. I hadn’t been to the grocery store in a week, to further complicate finding a quick dinner in our pantry. I knew I had a couple of good staples :boneless chicken and whole wheat pasta, but then what? Well. This.

Creamy Ranch Chicken Pasta

serves 5 as a main course with a vegetable side

 

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken cut into chunks

1 box of rotini, penne or your pasta of choice

1-2 block of cream cheese

1 packet of Hidden Valley Ranch Dry Ranch Seasoning

1 cup shredded Italian cheese blend

 

1.  Start your water boiling for pasta.  If your chicken isn’t already diced, dice it up.  Add pasta to water when the water is boiling.

2.  Throw chicken into a pre-heated pan with your choice of cooking oils (I used a little butter, but olive oil or your choice or oil would be fine).  You can also season your chicken at this time, but I left mine plain, but only because I forgot to put anything on it.

3. Continue stirring your chicken to cook it.  When chicken is mostly cooked, season it with the ranch packet.  Stir your chicken around to distribute the seasoning.

4.  When chicken is cooked, drop the cream cheese on top and stir to melt.  One block is fine, in a pinch.  It does make a for a drier (but still tasty) pasta.  Two will be more creamy, but desperate times and all that.

5. Combine with your cooked pasta.

6.  At this point, you can serve as is.  I opted to drop mine in a casserole dish and melt some Italian blend cheese on top.  Your choice.  Skipping this option, dinner can be on the table in about 20 minutes.

It was even enjoyable al fresco.

Is there anything sweeter than tiny little shoulders?

 

 

 

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