Recipe: The Cornbread...

The Cornbread, because in my mind, there will be no other!  This is not healthy.  It has an unreal amount of calories in every bite, but it is sooo worth it.  My friend Sarah gave me this recipe I think.

2 c sugar
2 c yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 c wheat flour
1 1/2 c white flour
4 t baking powder
1 t salt

-Mix these dry ingredients in a big bowl.
-Spray a 9x13 pan and put 1/3 c butter (from ingredients listed below) in it.  Stick it in the oven so it gets all melted.

1 c butter (divided into 1/3 and 2/3 of a cup)
4 eggs
3 c milk

-Beat eggs in a medium bowl.  Add milk.
-Melt 2/3 c butter in a small bowl, add to other wet ingredients.
-Add liquids to drys and stir, but not too much.
-When butter in the pan is melted, take the pan out of the hot oven and pour the batter in.  The melted butter will come up over the edges and sort of fry the corn bread (yum!).
-Bake at 375 for about 35 ish minutes.  Check often.  The middle should not be jiggly, but barely golden brown.

Recipe: Thin Pizza Dough...

This is from The King of Grilling, Stephen Raichlen.  Except I think I triple his or something.  This makes a lot...  We usually make these as personal size pizzas.

3 c hot water
3 T yeast
3 t sugar
2 T sea salt
1/2 c white cornmeal
1/2 c wheat flour
3 T olive oil
8 c white flour

-Mix.  Preferably in a kitchen aid.
-Pour more olive oil around the dough in the bowl (so nothing sticks to the bowl).  Let rise.  Punch down and roll out thin.  You'll need a floured surface, and more flour on the dough as you roll.
-Grill or bake!  Do them for a few minutes, then top and finish off.

Recipe: Thick Pizza Dough

This is my Mom's pizza dough recipe, and I usually double it.  Without doubling it makes a normal cookie sheet sized pizza.

1 T dry yeast *
 1 t warm water **
 1 t sugar
1 t salt
2 T vegetable oil
2 1/2 c flour
-Put yeast, sugar, salt, and oil in a bowl, then add hot water.  Stir it up, then let it sit a minute until the yeast starts to get fluffy.
-Add flour and mix until combined.
-Spray a cookie sheet in the middle, I usually leave it unsprayed around the edge so the dough sticks to the side of the pan.
-Let rise, then pick it up (you may need to sprinkle it and your hands with flour to keep everything from getting sticky), and put it on a cookie sheet.  Squish it around until it covers the cookie sheet.
-Heat oven to 350, then bake the naked crust for five minutes.
-Top with whatever, then bake about 12-17 minutes more.

* I, following my Mom's example, always keep my yeast in a jar in the freezer, and I've never had any problems having it not rise.
**  The water should be hot enough to still touch but too hot to comfortably wash your hands in.

Douglas Family Vocabulary: Rasters...

Friends and acquaintances of our family may be perplexed by our use of certain words...  For many reasons (one of which is my upbringing by a somewhat taciturn and emotionally stifled mother- sorry Mom, but it's true) any words referring to ANY parts of anatomy covered by a swimsuit or suggestive of having to do with the forbidden "s_ _" word were simply NOT MENTIONED!  I don't agree with this at all.  But let's face it; decades of brainwashing are very hard to overcome!  So, it comes down to this- I have a hard time saying the words "butt," "bottom," or anything of the kind.  Sooo...

When I was pregnant with Miss A, our first, I was working full time as a gardener.  I attended a landscape conference with a co-worker, Eric.  I attended all the fun classes about ornamental flowers and grasses, and he got to go to all the boring stuff about turf.  Afterwards, I had him brief me on the classes he attended.  Our conversation went something like this:

Eric:  Well, I learned that we can identify Japanese beetles by their raster markings.
Me:  What did you just say?
Eric:  We can tell if we have Japanese beetles by looking at their raster markings.
Me:  You totally just made that word up.
Eric:  No!  I didn't!  Look.

He then showed me an illustration similar to this:

And it's true, you can tell what kind of beetle you're in for by looking at the nasty white grubs' little slimy backsides.

So when little Miss A was born, a few weeks early (pre-eclampsia), and only weighing 5 pounds 14 ounces, her little hind end was so pointy and skinny that the term "raster" just seemed the only way to describe it!  (Although, thankfully, without any hair...)  And the word has stuck.  So, if you're ever at a playground and hear Miss R (age 2) fall down and cry out "I hurt mine raster!," you'll know what she's talking about...