Tag: Cheesy

  • Pizza Time!

    Who doesn’t like pizza? You would be hard pressed to find a pizza like mine with such a large amount of toppings. Both of these pizzas are eighteen inches. One is a pepperoni lover’s stuffed crust, and the other is a pepperoni and bacon lover’s. Both sit atop handmade Italian herb dough and are baked to perfection.

    The dough is a pretty basic dough with four cups of bread flour, one instant yeast packet, water, olive oil, and salt. I add garlic powder and Italian seasonings to it. There is not really a set amount to add, you just have to add to your taste. I usually use about a tablespoon of Italian seasoning, and about half that in garlic powder. The dough has to rise for an hour and a half and the cut into two equal parts and rolled out for whatever size pizzas you are making. If you are going to do stuffed crust, you have to add at least two to two and a half inches all the way around for a flap to wrap the cheese sticks. Once you have your dough ready to go, sprinkle your pizza pans with a little cornmeal, place your dough on the pans and then with a fork, poke a whole bunch of small holes in the crust.

    Now, preheat your oven to four hundred degrees and you are ready to start the topping. First thing, smear the dough with pizza sauce. Here, I ignore what the recipe calls for and just put the desired amount that I think it needs. Atop that is placed the mozzarella cheese. I usually use about a cup and a half at this point. This is your creation so you can make the toppings whatever you like. Sometimes I do a meat lover’s pizza that uses almost three pounds of meats. For this meal I just used pepperoni and bacon. I used an entire package of pepperoni on each and a pound of cottage bacon from Yoder Meats. After the meats I like to sprinkle the top with dried parsley to add that little extra something.

    Lastly, top each pizza with another cup and a half of mozzarella cheese, or as much as you like, place it in the oven for about twenty to twenty-five minutes until the crust turns golden brown, remove from the oven, slice, and serve. I usually also make bread-sticks too, but time has been limited for me lately so maybe next time. Enjoy!

  • Lasagna

    Lasagna

    Today on Ken Cooks, I made one of my wife’s favorite dishes. Yes, she does a happy dance when I make Lasagna. The absolute best thing I can tell you about Lasagna recipes is that you never want a recipe that tells you to use pre-made sauce from a jar. Always make your own sauce, you will thank me for that piece of advice.

    My Lasagna begins with one-pound hamburger, one-pound Italian sausage, onion, and garlic. I cook these together in my Dutch oven until nicely browned. The recipe calls for sweet Italian sausage, but you can use whatever fits your taste, I use mild.

    I then add crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and water followed by seasonings. Sugar, parsley, basil (I always use fresh herbs when possible.), salt, Italian seasoning, fennel seeds, and black pepper. This makes the best meat sauce. Let simmer, covered for one and a half hours, stirring occasionally.

    While the sauce is simmering, you can prepare your ricotta cheese mix and boil your noodles. In a separate bowl you mix your ricotta cheese with parsley and salt and boil your noodles according to package directions for al dente. Once the noodles are done, I like to coat them with olive oil and lay them out on a baking sheet to prevent sticking.

    Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and then you are ready to start layering. In a nine by thirteen baking dish, you begin with spreading two cups of meat sauce and covering them with five to six noodles overlapped. Follow with half the ricotta mix and one third of the mozzarella cheese slices (I always add extra mozzarella slices and some shredded.) Two more cups meat sauce on top of that followed by one quarter cup shredded Parmesan atop that (again, I add extra cause we like it cheesy.) Repeat the layers and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

    Cover the dish with aluminum foil making sure it doesn’t touch the cheeses and bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, remove the foil and bake for another 25 minutes until cheese is golden and bubbly. Let rest for fifteen minutes and serve. Delicious.

    If you would like the exact recipe, you can find it on the Ken Cooks page of my website: www.ken-wright-enterprises.com

  • Soup in a Pretzel Bread Bowl

    Today on Ken Cooks I have made a delicious dish of Cheesy Kielbasa Potato Soup in a Pretzel Bread Bowl. It is an excellent meal for a chilly day and would be much loved by your family and friends. The pretzel bowl may look hard to make but it is easier than you would think. It starts with an easy to make dough (even easier if you have a stand mixer but I mix by hand), then you let the dough rise for 45 minutes. After it has risen you divide it into four equal parts, then form them into balls, pinching the seam together on the bottom to make a seal. On a baking sheet with parchment paper, you let them rise another 30 minutes. Next, you brush them with egg wash, sprinkle them with coarse kosher salt, and slice an X in the top. Bake them at 450 degrees for 20 minutes until the tops are a golden brown. You can use any soup you like; you don’t have to use Cheesy Kielbasa Potato soup. However, if you wish to use the same soup, you can find the recipe for both the soup and the bread bowl on my Ken Cooks page of my website.