My First Five Favorites

I've never done a link-up before! How exciting!

In the spirit of Wednesdays in this house (I make pizza and we invite our siblings so the kids get aunt/uncle time), my list theme is Favorite Foods/Drinks to Make. Om nom nom.

1. Pizza

I've been tweaking my mom's recipe for pizza dough and I think I've come up with a good ratio of butter:olive oil for a crispier exterior with a soft interior. Plus, I can put whatever I want on it! Bacon and green peppers is my personal go-to, but tomatoes and spinach is tasty, too, as well as a supreme-style pepperoni, sausage, bacon, green peppers, and mushrooms. Mmm.

My sister claims that making pizza is more work than making lasagna. I heartily disagree.

2. Fresh Bread

French bread, cinnamon wheat swirl, beer bread - I don't care. I have a recipe jar for pumpkin bread that I plan on making up and I don't even like pumpkin. I love making bread, I love smelling fresh baked bread, and I love kneading dough. It's just as effective and probably less scary than punching things.

3. Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been making them so frequently I have the recipe memorized. I'm currently also experimenting with the cookies with my SIL - they turned out SO differently when I made them in my MIL's food processor and her oven than when I made them in my stand mixer and oven. I need to see what happens when I make them in my mixer and her oven or in her processor and my oven.

4. Experimental Alcoholic Beverages

This is probably one of the things I miss the most when I'm pregnant. It's always fun mixing drinks and finding out what happens. One of the tastiest creations was with a friend who mixed mango nectar, rum, Sprite, and Pama (pomegranate liqueur). I'd have to experiment again to get the proper ratio. Research. Darn.

5. Chicken and Bacon Gougère

I got a French cookbook for about 3 bucks in a bargain bin at Barnes and Noble (try saying that 5 times fast) about 4 or 5 years ago. One of the recipes is for this dish, which is chicken and other awesomeness in a creamy sauce with pastry around the edges. It gets baked in a quiche or pie dish and it looks super fancy, but it's not that hard to make and is pretty delicious. I should probably make it again soon - I don't think I've made it since Rosie was born.

That's probably a secondary theme to this list - Things I've Missed Making Since Having Kids. I think I've baked more in the past few months since Freddy's birth than I did the entire 14 months I only had Rosie. I've definitely gone through at least one 25 lb bag of flour in the last 3 months, and I finally had to replace the giant vacuum-sealed brick of yeast as well as my giant bottle of vanilla (tertiary theme - an ode to Costco).

So there we are - my first link up! And here's the lovely MoxieWife who hosted!

http://moxiewife.com/2013/10/five-favorites-vol-33/.html