The Sweatshop of Lovers Blog

I talk about pizza a lot. I eat pizza a lot. I make pizza a lot. I love it. If there were a breakfast pizza option it would be the perfect food.

That is why it came as a shock to me that I have never put my pizza crust recipe on the blog. What gives, Allyson? I use this recipe so much it’s taped to the wall in my kitchen.

Seriously Well Used Pizza Crust Recipe

Makes 2 9″ round cake pan sized individual pizzas, or 1 regular pizza pan’s worth of pizza. It is easily double-able if you are planning on eating a ton of pizza.

Ingredients

1 1/2 tsp yeast

1/2 tsp salt

Pinch of sugar

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

Scant cup of nearly boiling water

1 cup white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup cornmeal

1. Heat water on the stove until warm but not boiling. Move to small bowl and dissolve yeast, salt, and sugar. Let sit until foamy, about 10 minutes.

2. Mix flours and cornmeal in large bowl. Make a well and pour in yeast mixture and olive oil. Make sure the water has cooled before you mix it up with your hands! Kneed until mixed.

3. Cover with damp towel and let rise for 30 minutes. Meanwhile mix up your sauce and cut your veggies! If after 30 minutes your dough doesn’t look any different don’t worry! It turns out great whether it rises or not.

4. Preheat oven to 425. Press out dough into whatever pan you are using. Dress pizza and cook for 15-25 minutes depending on how thin or thick it is, and how crispy you want it. Just keep an eye on it!

Enjoy!

Slouchy Beret, Try #2

Words can not describe how happy I am to be finished knitting this hat.

It probably has some ill will knit into it, along with the few kitty hairs, but it is done and cute, if I do say so myself.

It took three whole days to dry without the help of the radiator. I kept this little guy very far away from any heat after the disaster last time.

But, it is in the mail to Heather, completing my blog giveaway knitting and my holiday knitting at the same time!

No Burning!

I’m not frantically knitting at all hours of the night to finish anything. So, August 1st is a completely acceptable time to start your holiday knitting.

Maybe it is because all the snow that fell in Chicago last week has melted, and it is about 40 degrees out, but I am not reveling in this accomplishment because I don’t feel like Christmas is next week. I’m sitting about 2 feet away from my Christmas tree, sure, but that is the only evidence I’ve got that Christmas is looming.

Cookies!

Not even the baking I’m doing is triggering Christmasy feelings, since I kind of bake a lot.

Cookie Logs

You know when you see a recipe that combines two things you don’t think should go together, dismiss, but then can’t get out of your mind?

Ok, yes, that sounds a little extreme. But if I said that about a pair of shoes it might not sound so wacky. And cookie baking is a much less expensive thing to get obsessive about.

Ready to Bake!

I saw the recipe for Earl Grey Cookies on Food Loves Writing and Kate in the Kitchen before I was sold. I love cookies. I love Earl Grey. But together?

Together they work. These cookies are light and buttery. I followed the recipe almost exactly, too, which never happens. I traded oranges for tangerines, and I wish I would have given it a squeeze into the batter before I ate it because a little more citrus would be welcome.

Roasted Eggplant Pasta

I love to eat them after meals like this; roasted eggplant, broccoli, and carrot pasta with white wine sauce and Parmesan cheese.

Roast the veggies in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes, meanwhile cook the pasta as directed, heat garlic and seasonings in oil, add white wine, add drained pasta and veggies, toss. Cover in cheese. Eat.

How fancy do I sound? Following up a meal like that with Earl Grey cookies. This is one fancy girl over here. One with no more presents to knit and a whole house full of yarn.

Look out.

My only real goal this past weekend was to finish my second Slouchy Beret for the Heather, the second blog giveaway winner. I mailed the first one out Saturday morning, well ahead of schedule, so I was confident I could knock the other one out.

I got some Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick N Quick and knit it all afternoon. I blocked it on a plate, put it on the radiator so it would dry faster, and in the morning I had a cute pink hat!

Pink Slouchy Beret

Or, that was how it was supposed to go. Sunday morning I checked on it and about died.

BURNED!

It got torched on the radiator!

My Poor Hat!

I have put projects on the radiator to dry since the beginning of time and this has never happened before! I throw my wet mittens, socks, hats, and scarves on the radiator when I come in from a snow storm. So what the hell happened?!

I told my mom, who said, ‘Oh man, the woman you are sending it to is going to be so disappointed to see that.’

New Hat

Don’t think I didn’t think of it! But of course I can’t send someone a hat that looks like I used it to clean up cat puke. The second hat, however, is going a little slower. Once you finish a project it is hard to get the motivation to start the same exact thing over again.

Have you ever had a similar knitting disaster?

But I’ll finish it this afternoon, NOT block it on the radiator, and hopefully it will be dry by Thursday.

Breakfast Makes it Better

I always turn to pancakes when I’m feeling sad/sick/like I want to kill someone, and these pancakes with my mom’s apple  butter and potatoes made me feel better.

Homemade Tuna Helper

So does Homemade Tuna Helper. I don’t know what it is about shell shaped pasta. It just makes me feel so good. And I love when my food pictures have yarn in them.

Cabled Belt

The yarn next to dinner is from the Cabled Belt from the 2008 Winter issue of Vogue Knitting.

Picture in the Magazine

I have been lazily knitting it because I don’t plan on wearing it until New Years Eve. How fun is it to plan an outfit around a belt?!

The only people on Ravelry to knit it have used gold or grey yarn, but when I saw the picture I knew it had to be in a bright color. The cable pattern is very intuitive and it is knitting up quickly despite the size 5 needles I’m using.

And yes, I’m keeping this belt as far away from the radiator as I possibly can!

I’ve been slaving away every night cooking PT meals, so Tuesday night I put my foot down and told him he is making me dinner or else I was walking.

PT Checking His Recipe

For some reason he took me at my word and came home with bags of groceries! Delicious groceries. Perfect, amazing groceries.

PT Being PT

For some reason PT’s first instinct when I am about to take a picture is to give himself a beard or mustache. Today’s mustache is made of fennel fronds!

His menu? Herb and sesame scallops with fennel and orange salad with a side of roasted brussel sprouts. Holla!

Scallops A-Cookin'

This Dinner Called for Candles

It was amazing! The scallops were cooked perfectly, the brussel sprouts roasted while we made everything else. The fennel salad was great, and I’ve never even had fennel before.

So sure, I make Roasted Potatoes, Veggies, and Beans, and Homemade Tuna Helper, and he makes fancy scallops and fennel salad. He is always outdoing me! It would be annoying if I wasn’t reaping all the benefits.

That isn’t what my grandpa thought, though! I told him about the meal PT made me for dinner and, you guessed it,  he laughed, ‘Well, I’d leave that table hungry.’

What? Scallops and fennel aren’t for everyone?!

I also have to leave you with a couple Pudge Rodriguez pictures.

Pudge Under the Tree

Pudge loves hanging out under the tree. She also loves to eat the tree, and pull the ornaments off the tree and eat them.

Guess what is in that blue box!

Pudge in a Bag

Pudge wanted to come with me to knitting class! She was in one of my many bags I use to teach…

Doesn't Look Too Comfortable, Pudgey!

… for a really long time! Crazy kitty!

Ok enough about Pudge. She is just so cute it is hard not to take pictures of her!

I get some weird-o cravings, and the other night I got a mean one for some cheesy baked pasta and chili. At the same time. So I got a little creative and threw some black beans and kidney beans into my pasta sauce, threw it in the oven and out came a seriously amazing dinner PT and I both inhaled like there was no tomorrow.

The next night all I wanted to do was make that baked pasta with beans again. It was blinding! I couldn’t think of anything else.

‘PT, what are you thinking for dinner tonight?’ I called PT desperate for anything to get my mind off the pasta.

‘You know,’ PT said. ‘I kind of just want that baked pasta we had last night.’

Done! Only the second time I wrote down the recipe for y’all.

Bakes Shells in ‘Meat’ Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

Ingredients (for 2)

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, diced

4 oz whole wheat shells

2/3 cups beans – I used half kidney, have black

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 14 oz (or 1/2 a 28 oz can, like I used) tomatoes – diced, stewed, crushed, whatever!

Oregano, crushed black pepper, fennel seeds, or whatever spices you prefer, to taste

Cheese – I used Parmesan but would have loved to use mozzarella – as much or as little as you want

Directions

1. Cook pasta till al dente. Drain and set aside if it is finished cooking before you are ready for it.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in pan or wok. Saute onion till translucent, add garlic and continue to cook on low till fragrant; about three minutes.

Bringing it all to a boil

3. Preheat oven to 400. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, beans, 1/4 cup of water, and seasonings to the onions and garlic. Bring to a boil. Carefully stir in shells to coat.

4. Pour mixture into a 8×8 or 9×9 baking dish or pan and distribute evenly. Grate cheese over top.

Ready to go into the oven!

5. Bake for 10-14 minutes, or until cheese is browned and sauce is bubbling.

Seriously. Seriously?! Seriously.

I think I know what PT and I will be eating tonight!

I have just come around to squash soups. Actually, I’ve just come around to squash. They are kind of scary, right? But a combination of thriftiness and a need for more local eating has brought many of them into my life. Every Midwestern girl should know her way around a squash.

There are lots of recipes out there for some kind of squash and some kind of apple soup. They have weird ingredients, or a million ingredients! I based this recipe off this Keep it Simple Foods recipe for Butternut Squash and Apple Soup , but I’m here to tell you that you can use any kind of squash and any kind of apple. I’ve made this a few times now, each time with a different squash, and it always turns out well.

Squash and Apple Soup Recipe

Ingredients (makes 2-4 servings, depending on size of squash)

1 Squash

1 Apple

1 Small Onion

1 tbsp Oil (any kind)

1 Garlic Clove

3 cups Stock

Seasonings: Black Pepper and Cinnamon, to taste

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut squash in half and place both halves face down in a pan with about 1 inch of water. If you are using an acorn squash or other small squash, bake for 45 minutes. If you are using a butternut squash or other larger squash, bake for 60 minutes.

2. After squash is cool, skin and cut into chunks.

3. Heat oil in large pot. Cook diced onion until translucent. Add garlic, diced apple, and squash chunks and saute until apple is soft, about 5 minutes.

4. Add stock and bring to a boil. Your soup will look like this!

Chunky Soup

5. If you don’t have an emulsion blender you can use a potato masher to mash the crap out of the soup. Just keep it simmering, mash it down, let it simmer, mash it down, until you have the soup consistency you like.

PT, Armed and Ready

If you DO have an emulsion blender, blend till your heart is content!

6. Mix in seasonings to taste and serve!

Yummy Soup!

Holy Grocery Shopping!

Upon arriving back in Chicago from my week long Michigan hiatus, it appeared to me that I had bought out the entirety of West Michigan. PT and I buy all of our groceries at one time, having no car, but the state of our kitchen table yesterday was out of control.

$24 Microwave!

In addition to the beets I picked up Black Friday, I also snagged this handsome microwave that tells the time even when you use the timer! Holy technology!

$13 Sheets!

AND I got these flannel sheets for crazy cheap, too. Velma and Pudge Rodriguez approved and made it very hard to make the bed at the same time.

Banana Pepper, Caramelized Onion, and Pineapple Pizza

Sunday also reprized Pizza Sunday! Despite all the groceries we bought we are seriously lacking some fresh vegetables, so we had to dig around the pantry for pizza toppings.

Mark and PT are PUMPED

Mark and PT were in football/pizza heaven, with a Minnesota Vikings victory over the Bears and amazing, bacon topped pizzas.

Mark+Pudge=LOVE

Then Pudge snuggled up! Pudge is in love with Mark, who is a little allergic to kitty lovin’. So tragic!

Naturally as soon as I had a moment to let all that lack of sleeping and eating only pie catch up to me I was down for the count! My body rejected movement of any kind yesterday and I’m pretty sure I slept 18 of the last 24 hours. Just sitting up at my desk right now is taking a lot out of me! Coming back from that Eastern time zone is sure rough.

Target!

You know something is wrong when it is 12:30pm and you’ve been awake for 9 hours.

6AM!

Or something is amazingly RIGHT! I can’t really see the keyboard right now and I’ve lost track of how many cups of coffee I’ve had (Biggby!), but I totally snagged $1.50 towels, a $25 microwave, and $14 flannel sheets this morning.

Don’t judge. Black Friday is awesome. When I’m wearing my $4 tights I’ll be thinking of you sleeping, and me WINNING!

Meijer at 5AM

The only time I felt a little silly was when we got to Meijer and people are standing in line for TVs and PS3s and I make a beeline for…

Beets in Bulk!

I’m pretty sure I’m the only person to buy beets on Black Friday. My mom needs her beet risotto!

The best thing about working from home?

Pasta Lunch

All I could think about all morning was a mushroom and broccoli pasta lunch. So I made it! And am eating it right now.

I don’t know if it was the amazing weather we had here in Chicago this weekend or if I was just a girl on a mission, but I rocked this weekend so hard.

Costa Rican Fiest

It all started when PT and I couldn’t stop talking about Irazu. For some reason our solution was not to just go to Irazu but to try to replicate Costa Rican food at home.

The problem is that we think the burritos we make are way better than any burrito out there. That is funny, I know, living in Logan Square where there is a dude on every corner making burritos from his family recipe.

(Note to self: Write up burrito recipe to post on blog.)

So we started with a regular burrito I always make and set out to make some Gallo Pinto and Cabbage Salad.

Gallo Pinto and Cabbage Salad

This recipe for the Cabbage Salad is dead on. It is exactly like Irazu’s amazing salad! We halved the recipe and we still had salad left over for Saturday. This recipe for the Gallo Pinto is close, and I think with a little tweaking we could get it. We made about a third of the recipe, it still made a ton. And there is a critical flavor missing from this recipe that Irazu’s rice has and I’m determined to figure it out.

Amazing!

We had to have fried plantains, too, naturally. My favorite part of this meal was plating it! I love when there are many aspects to a meal that you can chose from. I’ve got a dinner party in the works for Friday, so stay tuned for try #2.

Sunday Pizza

Mushroom, Artichoke Heart, Caramelized Onions

And our Sunday pizzas were amazing! Mine was fresh mushrooms from the Logan Square Farmers Market, artichoke hearts, and caramelized onions.

PT's Pizza, with Bacon

Bacon-licious

PT’s pizza was the same as mine, only with bacon.

I was productive on the knitting front, too! I knit the two (Eric) Man-Hats, wrote the pattern up for them and posted it on Ravelry. I knit two elephant bodies and finished knitting PT’s Christmas Present (pics later). I know I haven’t done a Christmas Present Update for PT in a long time because, while I was working on it, it was painfully boring. I didn’t want to subject myself to it, much less you.

The Black Tape!

OMG!

And I managed to leave the house! We went to see The Black Tape Saturday night. I’m going to be writing their press kit so we had to go get the live experience. I’m an old lady and didn’t even realize it was possible to start doing anything at 12:30am, but I made it somehow!

I think I earned a little time to relax, but I’ve got some elephants to finish and some seeming to do. (And probably a trip to the gym to make!)

Tuna Goodness

When I was little my mom always had to work late on Thursday nights, so my dad was in charge of dinner. He always said we could have anything under the sun. Sometimes we took advantage of his declaration and went to our favorite restaurant Sam’s Joint, a small chain of restaurants in West Michigan that apparently doesn’t have a website. But a lot of the time we just wanted Tuna Helper.

I did a little googling and they have like 12 different verities of Tuna Helper now! Different cheeses and seasoning flavors. I’m pretty sure we had one choice in the early ’90s, and that was Fatty Mc’Fat.

(A 12 pack of Fatty Mc’Fat on Amazon!)

So last March I got a weird craving for Tuna Helper and made some without the box, which has pretty much everything you need to make Tuna Helper but some milk, butter, and a can of tuna. Since then I’ve made it for PT and even dinner guests. And now you, too, can make Tuna Helper without the RIDICULOUS sodium, saturated fat, and cholesterol content. Yay!

Ingredients

Ingredients (for 2)

4 oz Whole Wheat Pasta, any shape

2 oz shredded cheese, cheddar or pepper jack are great

1/4 – 1/2 cup milk

1 tbsp margarine or butter substitute

About 2 cups of broccoli

1 can of tuna, drained

Sprinkle of cheesy popcorn seasoning

Fresh cracked pepper to taste

1. Get your pasta cooking as directed but set timer to go off three minutes before pasta will be done.

2. Chop your broccoli, grate your cheese, open and drain your tuna into the cat’s bowl while the pasta is cooking.

Tuna Helper Makes Happy Cats!

Pudge Rodriguez likes the tuna water and Velma likes the tuna, so while Pudge is chowing down I slip Velma a few tuna flakes.

3. Add the chopped broccoli to the boiling pasta when there is three minutes left of cooking time.

4. When the pasta is cooked turn off the heat, drain the pasta and broccoli, and return to pan. Add 1/4 cup milk, butter substitute or margarine, grated cheese, tuna, and, that is right, a sprinkle of cheesy popcorn seasoning.

Popcorn Seasoning

You still need a tiny fake cheese taste! When I first started making it I stole fake cheese packages out of packaged cheesy potatoes or something, but when I stumbled upon this popcorn shaker I knew it would be perfect! You obviously don’t use a lot, this stuff is a heart attack in a bottle, but a 1/2 tablespoon goes a long way.

Ready to Rock

The heat from the pan, pasta, and broccoli melts the cheese as you stir. Add more milk if you want it a little creamier.

Serve and LOVE!

Dish it out, crack some pepper over it, and you are done!

I can’t help it. I love this stuff. This version is a ton healthier than using real Tuna Helper, with the whole wheat pasta and the broccoli and the (mostly) real cheese. It is quick and simple and you can do the dishes while you are cooking it! Which is something I always look for in a recipe: small amounts of down time that forces me to clean my kitchen.