Back in the Christmas Spirit

Christmas music is streaming from my iphone in the kitchen, my parents visiting from Portugal and  my Mother in law is up from FL.   The kids are home; on the stove top, I have a simmer scent of water, cinnamon, orange peel and  vanilla that makes the house smell like one big Cinnabon.  Everything seems just perfect, except in the back of my mind I know I’m probably having hysterectomy surgery in a few weeks and a virtual slide show keeps playing in my head of those innocent little angels from the  Sandy Hook shooting.   So, before anything I want to offer my deepest condolences to the families who suffered such a tremendous lost on that day.  As for my imminent hysterectomy I hope it doesn’t hurt! 

 

Simmer scent of orange peel, cinnamon stick, vanilla and water  

 

 

Christmas is around the corner I wanted to stay in the Christmas spirit so what did I do?  I decided to bake Pizza...

 

Yesterday I made semi-homemade pizza.  I go through stages where I make pizza every week.  In a small pan I marinated garlic and olive oil, added one 12 oz. can of Hunts tomato sauce and added a little water. The sauce looks thick enough to look like Ketchup.   Next I added basil, oregano and sugar.  One tsp. each, and I usually “eye” this to pour what looks like would be 1 tsp. into the palm of my hand, then into the sauce.  The sauce was enough sauce for two pies. 

 

 

As the tomato sauce cooked, I added 2 lbs. ground beef to a skillet, used a spatula to break up the pieces, and let it cook until the meat turned brown. For the Pizza crust, I love the 12" Boboli crust.   It's so easy, just open the bag and add the sauce, cheese and toppings.   The meat topping for the second pie is Hormel Pepperoni.

 

 

 

For the Ricotta sauce, it's one cup of Polly-O Ricotta cheese for both pies, then I “eyed” about 1 tsp. each of McKormick basil,  oregano and sugar. Usually I add 1 egg, but I was out of eggs yesterday.  And the Ricotta sauce was just fine without it.

 



 "eyeing " 1 tsp. of basil

 

My daughter's hand helping me hold the Basil for the picture...I just Love her! 

 

 

 

 

Shop Rite Mozzarella cheese is half the price of brand names and it tastes great.

While the meat was cooking, I poured the sauce onto the pie crust, and, like they do in the movies, using the back of the spoon,  I moved it in a spiral out from the center of the crust until it reached about ½” edge of the crust.

 

 

Three spoonfulls of ricotta, then sprinkled the cheese, next the meat. After sprinkling another layer of  Mozzarella and a little more Ricotta, the Pizzas baked for approx 10 mints at 450. 

 

 

 

Today I baked Christmas cookies all day, maybe I'll post about it  next week.  But wanted to share with you how baking pizzas and being surrounded by my family, eating and laughing, and all the chaos that comes with having a house filled with people I love  was just what I needed to get back into the Christmas spirit.

Teresa xo