Fresh Basil & Mozzarella Pizza

I love to drink wine while cooking. It really helps me relax and experiment with my cooking. We love Betty Crocker instant pizza dough and with the hot Sacramento weather were craving something fresh. I used some left over Todd Taylor Sangiovese to flavor the tomato paste, which gave the pizza a strong, slightly bitter flavor. I cut generous portions of mozzarella, fresh tomatoes from the garden and topped it off with plenty of fresh basil. Lots of kosher salt and cracked pepper too!

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1, Class 4

Tonight's class was roses, sweet peas, leaves and ribbons. Four hours later, I want to rip my hair out over those damn roses. My buttercream was either not stiff enough or too warm. The rose would come out decent and then melt on the cake. I scraped more crap off this cake then you want to know; then busted out that mess in about 30 seconds of rage. But it turned out decent. Decent for a 14-year-old, but I am impressed with my wavy lines. Those rock. I do know how to make awesome leaves and even better sweet peas, but my temper got the best of me tonight. I will master roses, ones that keep their shape after 10 minutes of Sacramento heat. Think of it as something to look forward to.

By request and a little bit of a challenge, this week's cake is carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. All homemade, all one big pain in the ass.

Lastly, being the masochist that I am, I signed up for Class 2, Royal Icing. The good news? You only make one cake.

Oh yeah, I got these: A certificate of merit and Wilton Yearbook. Yippee!

Soft Baked Pretzels

These Soft Baked Pretzels were wonderful. I didn't have bread flour, but all-purpose flour turned out just fine. We sauteed garlic and rosemary in some butter and then dipped the pretzel. Delicious. We also made honey-butter pretzels and cinnamon sugar pretzels. This recipe would also work nicely for dinner rolls, twists or knots.

Soft Baked Pretzels
From That's My Home

1 package (.25 oz.) active dry yeast
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup bread flour
2 cups warm water
2 tbsp baking soda
2 tbsp butter, melted
1-2 tbsp coarse kosher salt or cinnamon sugar

Makes 12 servings.

In a large mixing bowl, add yeast, brown sugar and salt. Test water
temperature with thermometer. When it reads 110 degrees, add to bowl.
Stir to dissolve. Add both types of flour and stir well.
Place dough on floured surface. Knead dough until smooth and elastic,
about 8 minutes. (To knead dough, press down on dough with your palm,
fold the dough over and rotate 1/4 turn, repeat until dough is ready.)
Grease a large bowl. Place dough in bowl then turn dough upside down
to coat the surface. Cover with a towel and let rise for one hour in a
warm spot.
Combine 2 cups warm water (test again for 110 degrees) and baking soda
in an 8-inch square pan. After the dough has risen, divide it into 12
pieces.
Roll each piece into a 1 1/2-foot rope, 1/2-inch wide. Twist into a
pretzel shape, and dip into the baking soda solution. Place on cookie
sheets and let rise 15 to 20 minutes.
Bake at 450°F. for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush with
melted butter, and then sprinkle with coarse salt or cinnamon sugar.

White Chocolate Brownies

A favorite recipe of mine. I like these better than blondies or chocolate based brownies. Super easy and you can experiment with variations of chocolate chips.

White Chocolate Brownies:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 ounces white chocolate
2 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.Grease and flour an 8 inch square baking pan, or line with foil. Melt butter and 4 oz of white chocolate together in top of doubleboiler over hot water. When melted remove from heat and add the remaining white chocolate. Stir to blend well. Set aside. Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and thick. Add white chocolate and butter mixture, vanilla and flour. Beat just until smooth. Add chocolate chunks and mix in by hand, being careful not to overmix. Pour into prepared pan and bake 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Cut into squares or bars.

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1, Class 3

Class 3 is shells, large dots, star flowers, twist flowers and clowns. The clowns are actually pretty awesome, but they didn't mesh with the look of my cake. We also learned to stripe the buttercream. I made both a peach and yellow batch of buttercream. Then I painted the inside of a pastry bag with yellow and filled the remainder with peach. That is how I got the two-toned flowers to be so beautiful. For the shell border, I painted a bag with white buttercream and used a yellow filler.

For round two, I decided to get fancy with the inside of the cake. I used fresh-picked peaches from Rob's sister's tree. I blended some peaches and then strained them through a coffee filter. I brushed the peach juice on the layers of the cake and added about 1/4 cup of juice to the swiss buttercream recipe. A layer of fresh peaches and swiss buttercream held the two layers together.

I got rave reviews on this cake. We're talking screams of delight from everyone who had the pleasure of tasting it. I thought it could use even more peaches, so I would suggest torting the cake and having multiple layers. Also, because of the peaches, this cake should be refrigerated and let come to room temperature before serving.

Wilton Cake Decorating: Course 1, Class 2

Course 1, Class 2 is stars, wavy lines, dots, writing and piping stars into a shape. Ta-dah!

Note: Funfetti is quite the crowd pleaser. The key is to follow the box instructions and beat on low for 2 minutes. Soft beating produces a moist delicious cake that rivals any homemade concoction. Plus, its got confetti in the cake!

Fresh Cherry Apple Pie (Part 2)

Rob was lucky enough to find a Cherry Stoner at Raleys. Better and faster than a pitter, he was able to pit 2 pounds of cherries in no time. Using fresh cherries and apples from the Farmer's Market turned out great and it was a wonderful Fourth of July dessert. The one thing I take away from this pie is that my Emile Henry pie dish is huge and I could have used another half pound of cherries. Yup, that would be 2 1/2 pounds of fresh cherries plus two apples. And, because I had so much fun making this pie, more pics to follow.