Easy Pizza Sauce

Easy Pizza Sauce
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
4 teaspoons dried onion flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
2 cups water
Combine tomato paste, garlic, parsley flakes, onion, oregano, basil and water in 2 quart saucepan. Cook over medium high heat until mixture boils. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes. Cool a little and spread on your pizza crust and proceed with remainder of your toppings.
Makes 4 servings
Calories 80 Fat 0.5 Fiber 4.5
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This was really good on the pizza. I don't know about the serving size, but I can get at least 2 pizzas out of this one batch of sauce and maybe a third one.
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Note: This pizza sauce freezes really well too.

Basic Pizza Dough

This is a new pizza dough recipe that I thought I would try. I found this recipe on Mom Advice.

Basic Pizza Dough (from"How to Cook Everything,")

1 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus more as needed

2 teaspoons coarse kosher or sea slat, plus extra for sprinkling

1 to 1 1/4 cups water

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon olive oil

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To make this dough in food processor: Combine the yeast, flour, and 2 teaspoons salt in the container of a food processor. Turn the machine on and add 1 cup water and the 2 tablespoons of oil through the feed tube. Process for 30 seconds, adding more water, a little at a time, until the mixture forms a ball and is slightly sticky to the touch. If it is dry, add another tablespoon or two of water and process for another 10 seconds. Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and knead by hand a few seconds to form a smooth, round dough ball. Grease a bowl with the remaining olive oil, and place the dough in it. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp cloth and let it rise in a warm draft-free area until the dough doubles in size, 1 to 2 hours. You can cut this rising time short if you are in a hurry or you can let the dough rise more slowly in the refrigerator for six to eight hours.

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To make this dough by hand: Combine half the flour with the salt and yeast and stir to blend. Add 1 cup water and the 2 tablespoons olive oil; stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add remaining flour a bit at a time; when the mixture becomes too stiff to stir with a spoon, begin kneading, adding as little flour as possible- just enough to keep the dough from being a sticky mess. Knead until smooth but still quite moist, about ten minutes. Proceed as above.

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To make this dough with a standing mixer: The machine must be fairly powerful or it will stall. Combine half the flour with the salt, yeast, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and 1 cup water; blend with the machines paddle. With the machine on slow speed, add flour a little at a time until the mix has become a sticky ball that pulls away from the sides of the bowl (switch to the dough hook if necessary). Knead for a minute by hand, adding as little flour as possible, then proceed as above.

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To make this dough with the bread machine: Add ingredients as follows- warm water, olive oil, flour, salt, and then add yeast at the top. Turn machine on and select the dough setting. When the machine beeps, you can roll out the dough onto your pizza stone/pan.

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I made this dough in my bread machine. I watched it and it seemed really wet so I added some more flour to it. It was still a little sticky when I took it out of the machine so I added some more flour. This was really good and once I took care of the stickiness, it was easy. I added a sauce, cheese and other toppings and cooked for 15 minutes at 450 degrees. Some people like to pre-bake there crust before putting on toppings and you can do that too.

Getting Prepared for a Power Outage

I enjoy reading a lot of preparedness blogs. Preparedness Pro had and article last week called, "Thirty Minutes, Do you feel lucky today?" Basically, her article stated that stores only have enough stuff on hand for 30 minutes and then it would be all gone and would you have what you needed if that was the only amount of time you had in an emergency. That article got me thinking this weekend after we had several bad storms cutting our power off for most of the weekend starting on Friday morning. Late Friday afternoon, I noticed that we did not have much oil in our oil lamp and remembered that we only had 1 oil lamp now since my kids had broken one beyond repair. I decided to go to the Dollar General Store in the small town that I live. I felt good that I was going to be prepared with the stuff I needed for the evening to survive the dark. When we got to the store though, it was closed. Pretty much everything in our little town closed down due to no power. So, I wonder do we really have even 30 minutes? The storms and the lack of my preparedness made me know I had to get the stuff to be ready if we would have another outage like that. We went to Walmart in the next county and bought a new oil lamp and 2 bottles of oil and a flashlight. We have had trouble keeping a flashlight in our house because the kids like to play with them. The new flashlight has a home and I think it will be less likely to disappear. I know we need some more oil and maybe some more flashlights and batteries. For now though, it will have to go on a list until we get some more money. So, hopefully my little story will make you think about things you need to put on your list to be better prepared if you could not get to the store at all in an emergency.

April Food Storage Buys

This is my food storage for April. I know it's not a lot, but a lot of our money was spent on dry milk. We bought in bulk with our church and got a really good deal. I also found sugar on sale for 5 lb bags for $1.99 which is the lowest price I have found. My dh picked up the water when he heard about the flu scare. He said he would feel better with some water. lol. We need to work on water storage since our city water just barely passes the test.

Using Old Blinds as Plant Markers

If you have kids and blinds, you might know that blinds don't always stay as nice as you want them too. My kids like to look out our windows and pull back the blinds and they crease and fall off. We have a huge front window and after 10 years the blind had seen its better days, so we bought a new one. My husband put it up yesterday while I was napping our youngest one and he said to me that he did not know how he was going to get rid of the old one. I remembered seeing something on the web about using old blinds as plant markers. When I started my seeds, I wrote down a chart in my gardening journal so I'd know what each plant was and I actually looked at Walmart for some but they were like $3 a bag and I decided I could find a cheaper route. Wow! Did this new blind come at the right time! Here are the instructions for making your plant markers.