I'm Not Eating That!

Almost every Saturday night I make

homemade pizza from scratch for dinner.

I've been doing this for years.

I love making pizza from scratch.
I like knowing exactly what is going into our food.

No artificial or chemical ingredients added.

Nothing but wholesome goodness.

I start by making the dough with 

stone ground white whole wheat flour,

unbleached bread flour, yeast, raw honey,

salt, extra virgin olive oil and water.

While the pizza dough is rising,
I'll mix up a batch of pizza sauce.

I've been making the same recipe for pizza

sauce for years, which we love. But I also like to

try new recipes that happen to catch my attention.

I informed Hubby that I was going to try a new recipe

for pizza sauce this week.

When I told him what was in it he stated,

 "I'm not eating that".

I don't know, it looks pretty darn good to me.

What do you think?

Why didn't Hubby want to eat this yummy

looking pizza sauce?

Because it has anchovies in it.

Yep, anchovies.

Granted, I'm not an anchovy eater either,

or so I thought.

It wasn't until I started doing a little bit of research

on anchovies that I found out they totally dissolve

when you cook with them.

Think you don't like anchovies?

Do you eat Caesar Salad,

or add steak sauce or 

Worcestershire sauce to your steaks?

How about the many beloved Italian pasta dishes?

Do you eat any of those?

Well, if you eat any of these then you

like the distinctive flavor of anchovies

because every one of these has anchovies in them.

Who knew?

Even though Hubby informed me he wasn't

going to eat the new pizza sauce I went ahead

and made a batch anyway. I would just make

up 2 pizzas instead of one. Hubby could have

his pizza with our tried and true sauce and I

could have my own pizza with the new sauce.

Once the new sauce was made and had cooled

down some I did a taste test.

I really liked the flavor and coaxed Hubby

into trying it also.
He was pleasantly surprised
that there was no fishy taste to the sauce.

He was willing to have it added to his pizza.

I added his favorite toppings and it was ready for the oven.

After eating a couple slices of pizza

Hubby informed me this pizza sauce
needed to be added to our "Keeper Recipes" file.

"It's a good one".

Hubby is proof that it just goes to show,

Don't knock it until you try it.

HOMEMADE PIZZA SAUCE

INGREDIENTS:

2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 Anchovy fillets

3 cloves Garlic, minced

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Oregano leaves

1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper flakes (optional, add if you like a little bite to your sauce)

1/2 teaspoon dried Oregano

1 (28 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed

Salt to taste

1/2 teaspoon White Sugar

1 pinch Ground Black Pepper

1 small pinch Baking Soda (helps reduce acidity)

DIRECTIONS:

Heat olive oil over medium-low heat in a saucepan; stir anchovy fillets into olive oil; stirring often

until fillets begin to sizzle and dissolve. Mix in garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add fresh oregano and

reduce heat to low; cook until oregano is wilted.

Mix red pepper flakes, dried oregano, and tomatoes into olive oil mixture. Bring sauce to a simmer

and season with salt, sugar, and black pepper. Turn heat to low; simmer sauce until thickened and oil

rises to the top, 35-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir baking soda into pizza sauce, mixing until thoroughly combined.

Recipe adapted from: Chef John

That's it for this week.

Until Next Time,

Veronica

In Motion

We finally met with the electrician/contractor

and interior designer to discuss the changes

we would like to make to our kitchen.

Even though we won't be doing a complete

makeover the changes that will be 

made will definitely be noticeable.

We spent roughly 1 1/2 hours with them.

They were both very helpful and actually

pointed out a few things that we hadn't

even thought about but made

sense once they pointed them out.

Now we wait for the quote as to how

much all the changes are going to cost us.

GULP.

I've been so focused lately with our kitchen

design that I haven't had much time for anything else.

I'm excited about having our kitchen remodeled

but scared about the cost of it happening.

At least we finally have things in motion

and before you know it I'll be cooking

and baking again.

Speaking of getting things "in motion",

I've been playing around with my

camera lately trying to learn new techniques.

I wanted to see if I could capture things in motion.

So I set up a very simple stage on our

dining room table to see if I could capture

something in motion.

How cool is this?

I swapped out the black background for a white one

to show the first drop of the maple syrup better.

It's addictive doing this!

I actually started with water first.

I can't wait to apply this to my food photography.

That's it for this week.

Until Next Time,

Veronica