pizza Archives - Hamell.net

Vegan Pizza Dough Recipe

Pizza Dough: the condensed novel
From Vegan with a Vengeance

*Note: While this is technically vegan, this is pretty standard pizza dough recipe. The dough will be more bread like in it’s consistency.

1 cup warm water
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 (1/4 oz) packet of active dry yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
cornmeal for dusting

In a small bowl, proof the yeast for 10 minutes by stirring in into the cup of warm water. If your yeast doesn’t foam up within 10 minutes, it’s dead and you should start over. (Only if using home made yeast. Store bought yeast should be fine.)

In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients and whisk together. Add yeast water and oil, and mix up until a dough forms. It will form quickly, and if you have leftover flour at the bottom of the bowl, just set it aside. Knead for 10 minutes until dough is elastic and somewhat firm. If it’s too sticky, you can add in small amounts of flour. When finished kneading, form into a tight ball.
In another large, oiled bowl, place the ball and turn to coat the entire thing with a thin film of oil, then cover bowl with a damp cloth. Let rise for 1 hour, then punch down and knead for another minute, dusting with flour if necessary, until dough begins to feel less like a sponge and more like dough. Form into a ball again, place back in the bowl, and let it rest for AT LEAST 10 minutes, but really more like an hour or two. You can also freeze it and use it another time!

When it’s time to make pizza, cut the dough into equal sections and roll/stretch out into shape.

Preheat your oven to 500ºf, slide your pie onto a baking pan, and let it go until it’s done- 8-10 minutes.

Garden Views

Buying a house these days is not like the heady good old days of free ARM’s being given out to every one who asked without any type of references what so ever. The difficulties of house buying in this day and age are near infinite it seems. We finally closed after the Mortgage Officer had literally gone through six different companies. One wanted us to have slightly better credit. One wanted us to not buy in this neighborhood at all. One wanted a bigger down payment. One wanted us to carry more mortgage insurance with a bigger up front payment. Ironically, paying a few thousand MORE for the house got us to go with this last one AND a smaller down payment. This of course was all on top of the seller’s two lenders who had to approve the whole thing. It was literally down to the wire before foreclosure and only proof that we were interested in the house and had an offer in allowed the lenders to keep from doing so. Ironically, this has caused us to get two “letters” from companies seeking to refinance us on our “foreclosure” due to the time it takes all the public records to get updated.

So here is the old owner’s garden. In the middle of December when we first were browsing the market.

Here is the same view, last week. I’m letting the second bed go because I’m planning on starting a whole new one in another part of the yard so weeds are pretty bad. The front bed will go away in the fall after we’ve harvested everything. There are two brandywine tomato plants, a Japanese heirloom tomato who’s name escapes me, white sweet corn, Anaheim hot peppers, another heirloom tomato, and “pizza” peppers. This menagerie of plants were products of an impulse buy at Costco, who had six organic plants (Tomatoes and peppers,) for $15 or so.

Also in the picture are two Camas plants which are doing pretty well considering they’re still in the pots, a Chinese Tea Plant, and hidden way in the corner are four lonely strawberry plants that the squirrels ate before the berries even had a chance to get ripe.

Off picture is two potato stacks made of old truck tires and filled with red potatoes. Thanks to “Steve”, the previous owner for leaving them in the garage for me to “dispose” of, along with 40 plus gallons of used motor oil. The theory is to plant the potatoes in the first tire then when it’s 6-8 inches above the top, put another tire on and more dirt. Repeat until you’re four or five tires up. Then harvest in the fall and enjoy the bounty of fresh potatoes.

The eventual plan is to dedicate a large portion of the yard to vegetables and fruits. The good thing about the weeds and grass is that right now they’re providing plenty of foliage for the compost piles, which will of course make it’s way back into the raised beds next year. I might also have to add a green house for early starters to increase the growing season. On top of this all, I’m relearning everything I might have ever known about gardening.

Luckily it’s mostly common sense.