Pizza and News

So, it seems the word has not quite traveled through all branches of my family that I am alive and well, and have a place to live. My cousin Tod's Uncle Steve is renting Tyler and I a room in his very nice house. So far we are getting along very well with him and our other housemates, Sidney and Astara.
For the first week our room was completely unfurnished, we were living out of our luggage and sleeping on the hideously uncomfortable mattress from a couch bed, but in the last few days we managed to get ahold of some free dressers off craigslist and a very inexpensive but comfy mattress from goodwill. We are still looking for a couple desks, some tables, and some hippy wall hangings to decorate the very white room with, but it's starting to feel like home, and our house mates are starting to feel like family.
The past week has been great, one of the highlights was when Steve and I got excited about having chickens and started running around in the back yard figuring out where to keep them. There is already a structure that with very little improvement will make a great coop for 3-4 hens. I am so excited!
This being primarily a food and craft blog, I should share a recipe. Last night I made Pizza for everyone, and everyone loved it, so I thought I would share that!

Pizza Crust
3/4 cup water
1 tsp yeast
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
olive oil

Mix the room temperature water and yeast together in a bowl. Mix in the flour and salt and knead gently, it will be a slightly sticky dough. Round it into a ball and pour about 1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil on top. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for at least one hour and up to 6 hours.
When you are ready to make your pizza, preheat the oven to 450*. Dump the dough out onto a cookie sheet and press out with your fingers until it covers the sheet. It will be quite thin. If it fights you, let it rest for 5 minutes then come back to it.
Bake the undecorated pizza crust for five minutes, then remove from the oven. Top with the sauce of your choice (my favorites are pesto and home made tomato), the vegies of your choice, (I like zucchini, onions, mushrooms, all lightly sauteed), fully cooked meat of your choice, and a generous layer of mozzarella cheese. Bake another 5-10 minutes, depending on your oven, until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
Cut into portions and enjoy immediately.

And here, a picture of the leftovers.

Accidental Honey Graham Crackers

Could I get in trouble for using that name in the title? Hmm.. I'm going to guess I'm too small a fish to be bothered with, I'll risk it.
So, I wrote this blog entry several months ago in the beginning of my non-internet-having days. It has taken me a long time to get around to posting it. I'm a very bad blogger.

I don't eat refined sugar, but sometimes I find myself craving sugar
cookies, plain old sugar cookies like I used to make with my younger
siblings when I was babysitting. One night I was laying in bed being
drowsy, and I had an idea. Most ideas I have at that time of day are
pretty bad when I remember them later, but this one was good.

I used the recipe for old fashioned ginger snaps from the Fanny Farmer
cookbook, replaced the ginger with vanilla, and the molasses with
honey and rolled them a little thick, it should come out something
like a sugar cookie.

So I made up a batch, and they smelled awesome, and they came out of the
oven all lightly browned and fragrant, and I bit into one.... and I
was a graham cracker! We ate them with milk... they didn't last long!

Graham Crackers

½ cup mild flavored honey

¼ cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

½ cup all purpose flour

¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

Preheat your oven to 350*. Heat the honey and butter to the boiling point in
a medium sized saucepan. Remove from heat. Mix the dry ingredients
together and add to the warm honey along with the vanilla. Blend
well. Roll out the dough on a clean unfloured surface until they are
about 1/8 inch thick. Cut into squares with a knife or pizza roller,
or into rounds with a cookie cutter or the edge of a glass. ( I would
recommend squares, re-rolling the dough as it cools can be difficult)

Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for about 5 minutes until they are
lightly browned on the bottom.

Eat with milk. (or melted chocolate and marshmallows!) or crumble up to
make graham cracker crumbs to use as the bottom of a cheesecake. (I
should write a recipe for cheesecake. Mmm.)

Graham Crackers

Recipes I might blog in the future...

Rice Pudding
Biscuits
Ginger Snaps
Bread Pudding Check!
Sweet Sesame Chicken Wings Check!
Radish Salad
Pan-Fried Tilapia
Vegifull Lasagna of your Doom
The Infamous Wild Grape Meringue Pie
Quail Egg Adventures

...and other nonsense.
Of course, I will soon be moving somewhere where I don't have internet, so this may be the last post for over a year again. Who knows?

Dark Chocolate Mousse

not bear poop

No longer will this chocolate addict be denied Chocolate Mousse with Raspberry sauce, for I have created one with no refined sugar!

Muahahahaha! The world will now be mine!

Dark Chocolate Mousse

-mousse
1 medium egg yolk
1 T butter
2 medium egg whites
1-3 T real maple syrup or honey
1/2 cup heavy cream
6 oz Dark, Semisweet, or Unsweetened Baker's chocolate.

-sauce
1/4 cup real maple syrup
2/3 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
lemon juice
extra raspberries to garnish (optional)

Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler. beat in the egg yolk and 3 T of the cream.
In a large bowl, beat the remainder of the cream until it holds it's own shape. Fold carefully into the chocolate.

In a separate very clean bowl with a very clean whisk, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gradually whisk in 1 T of the maple and continue whisking until stiff but not dry. Gently fork the egg whites a little at a time into the chocolate until well combined. Taste the mousse, depending on the darkness of the chocolate used, add 1-2 more T of maple, folding in gently, if needed. Cover and refrigerate.

-sauce
Combine maple and raspberries in a small pot. heat until almost boiling and simmer stirring occasionally for 3 minutes. Puree in a blender then rub through a sieve to remove most of the seeds. Add lemon to taste. To serve, spoon a small amount of mousse into a small serving bowl. pour a little raspberry sauce over top. garnish with a few fresh raspberries and eat with a spoon.