Sigh...

So I still haven't gotten to do much crafting, but I have been able to do some cooking. I haven't even talked about the fantastic pizza crust recipe I tried out! I had found the recipe a while ago, and finally decided to try it, and I think it will now be a Friday night tradition. The King Arthur Flour pizza crust recipe really is fantastic! I love King Arthur flour, especially since they are fully employee-owned and from Vermont! They have excellent recipes, various products, and, of course, flours! But back to the pizza! The recipe suggests letting the dough rest in the refrigerator for a few hours, which I did, and I used a preheated pizza stone in the oven with the crust on a sheet of parchment paper to let it go into and out of the oven easily. I got two nicely thin and crispy crusts out of the recipe, the second of which I froze as dough. They also give tips on freezing a pre-baked crust, but the ball of dough just fit better! It turned out great, too, though! So after I pre-baked the first crust, I took it back out, spread out some roasted red pepper tomato sauce (yes, from a jar), covered it with an Italian blend of cheeses, then covered it with some mild Italian sausage broken up into bits, peppers and almost-caramelized onions I had cooked down earlier. It was so delicious! The second crust I topped with cheese, sausage, genoa salami, fresh mozzarella and a little more cheese. The boys loved it!

Last night, I made a "Tess Creation" that turned out really well! I had frozen ravioli (one package of mushroom medley, one of butternut squash) to cook, and didn't think that tomato sauce was necessarily the best topping. So I melted some butter in a skillet over really low heat, added some chopped garlic with a little salt and let it soften, then some walnuts so they could toast a little. Lastly I added some frozen petite peas, let them heat up, then poured it all into the food processor to make the sauce. I pulsed it until it was almost smooth, adding a little olive oil, but still had some texture. I mixed with the drained ravioli and served. I forgot to add the parmesan cheese, I had, but it was still fantastic! Dex's two friends who came over both really liked it, and one even said it was the best vegetarian meal he'd had! I didn't really mean for it to be vegetarian, it's just how it turned out. I bet some prosciutto would be delicious with it, too... hmm... this is definitely a creation that is sticking in the repertoire and will be tried with variations... yum! Oh, and I made apple crisp last night, too! One of my favorite fall desserts! The recipe my mother has always used is my favorite, of course. It doesn't have any oats in the topping, just flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, little bit of salt and lots of butter... it's sooooooo good! I made two pans, the second of which is being baked to bring along to my first Modern Quilt Guild meeting! I'm really excited for that, too! I may even try to finish up that quilt top to bring along... we'll see!