This is a simple meal that tastes great every single time. You can vary the ingredients – making it spicy, if you like – and it still comes out great. And you can work on other activities for thirty minutes at a time and this meal still comes out great.

INGREDIENTS

• Approximately 3-4 lbs of chicken parts such as breasts and drumsticks. Rinse them off in cold water
• 3 tablespoons of oil (vegetable oil is fine)
• 5 tablespoons of soy sauce (I use low sodium Kikkomann Soy Sauce)
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
• 2/3 cup of water
• 2 tablespoons of chopped garlic
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch dissolved in water
• Optional: 1 tablespoon of hot chili sauce (I like to use Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce…warning…use sparingly)

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat up the oil in your wok. Add the sugar and stir until it turns into an almost syrupy consistency.
   

   This is a well-seasoned flat bottom wok which works well with my electric stove.

2. Stir in the soy sauce.
3. Using a pair of tongs, grab a piece of chicken, roll it around in the sauce and place it on one side of the wok. Do this with the remaining pieces so that they have a light brown color.
   

   Chicken parts in the wok. It may take a bit of work to arrange all the pieces so you can put on the cover.

4. Add the water and garlic. If you like, you can add that tablespoon of hot chili sauce.
5. Bring it to a boil and then turn it down to a simmer. Cover and forget.
6. Total cooking time is approximately 1 hour. At least once during the cooking process, move the pieces around in the wok so that they all get a chance to be immersed in the sauce.

NOTES

After about 45 minutes the meat will start to pull away from the drumsticks. That’s good! Keep it cooking…give it the full hour.

Take out the chicken parts and turn the heat back up so that the remaining sauce starts to boil. Let it boil at least 3 minutes. Then add the cornstarch/water mixture, stir till the sauce thickens and pour it over the chicken parts.

You might want to serve this with white rice so that you can pour that sauce all over the rice.

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- What’s back?

- Those piles.

I thought they were gone.

(Bows head. Long pause)

But now they’re back.

(Walks away…stares down at his feet…curses sotto voce.)

- Don’t walk away. Do something about it.

- I can’t. I’m paralyzed. I wanna fucking scream.

- You got rid of them before so maybe you need to…

(He stops. Turns. Erupts.)

- It’s relentless! More fucking papers! It’s a fucking cancer!

- I got a phone call in work from Dr. Goldman. He said we owe them $35.00 dollars.

(I fuckin’ hate when that happens. Makes me look like an idiot. A stupid $35.00 dollar invoice has been sitting around for months. What the fuck is my problem that I can’t pay a tiny little invoice?)

- Yeah. There’s a whole bunch of bills that I didn’t pay. Don’t worry. I’ll get around to it.

(Yeah…a round tuit. And I know the bill she’s talking about. It’s in the pile of other bills, that cancerous pile of bills and papers that has metastasized and taken over my clean desktop.

(“It’s cherry wood….right?” “I think so. Haven’t seen it in awhile.”)

(I know what you are thinking. Yes, you. The reader of this blog post. Just shut up, will ya? I can hear you from over here and I know what’s going through your head. “Why doesn’t he just read one of those self-help books on organizing your life?” I’ll tell you why I don’t read them…because I read all of them already. Okay? Happy now? I’ve been dere, dunned that. And I know what they say. I know exactly what they will say.

"To clean up the piles of shit on your desk, put the shit in a clear
plastic container that has a tight-fitting lid. Because it is clear
you will have a visual reminder of something that needs to be taken
care of and, because it has a tight fitting lid, you won't have to
smell the shit that's inside."

That’s the problem, ain’t it? The piles smell like shit. They’re repulsive. I don’t want to go near them so I don’t know how I’ll ever get them into a clear plastic container…or even a frickin’ garbage pail. … I know what to do. … I’ll pile more shit on top of the other shit in the hopes that the newer shit will make the older shit disappear…or at least mask the smell.

Yeah, I know that shit doesn’t work. It just turns into a bigger pile of shit.

Please…

…shoot me now.

I’ve had enough of this shit.)

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

I wish I was an idiot.

Really.

I do.

I don’t mean this in a pejorative, demeaning “holier than thou” sense.

What I mean is I wish I didn’t “understand” things. I wish I wasn’t “curious” about so many things. I wish I didn’t always try to “do it all.” Take last Tuesday, for example. It was my first attempt at making Italian bread and it was a failure. I added a cup of whole wheat flour…which made it too heavy. I rushed through the second rise…which meant there were practically no air holes. But if I was an idiot I wouldn’t try to “do it all” and I would just spend the frickin’ $2.00 dollars at the store and buy a frickin’ Italian bread.

I knew that the day after my bread failure was going to be a long day of programming and being tied to the computer. This would be a good day to tackle the bread…again. When I would get away from the computer for a mental health break I could go to the kitchen to work on my bread technique so…that’s what I did.

I had my results by late afternoon and I wasn’t happy. It seemed right…maybe…but the shape wasn’t quite right. I took a piece of bread to my neighbor. He’ll be able to help.

I knocked on his door, opened it and announced my reason for the visit.

- Joe, I need a bread consultation.

Joe is an amateur gourmet chef. He probably could have been a professional chef but life pushed him to becoming an architect. I’m not really sure if there is much of a difference, though, because when you have dinner at his house (and you NEVER pass up an opportunity for that) he seems to employ the same laws of balance and symmetry as those he uses when designing a structure.

- Come.

I followed him into his kitchen and stood by the edge of the counter. It juts out from the wall, separating the pink hues of the kitchen from the dark woods in the dining room.

He pulled over a stool, sat at the counter and broke off a piece of the bread.

- Nice crust.

- I didn’t get much of a vertical rise. It just flattened out.

He eats it, holding the remaining piece in his outstretched hand. He studies the texture…I know what he is going to say and I stare at his hands and listen for the lecture. I have a lot of respect for his culinary abilities. (What I practice is “cooking” but what he practices is the “culinary arts” and there’s a serious difference between the two. Hot dogs on a grill…that’s cooking. Homemade tapas or, perhaps, bouillabaisse with home baked baguettes…that’s the culinary arts.) I await Joe’s soliloquy.

Alas, poor bread! I knew it, Jeffrey: was this not to be a bread of infinite taste, of most excellent fancy yet, how abhorred it is. Where be your cookery now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of tasty merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own baking?

Jeff's Homemade Italian Bread (click to enlarge)

- This tastes good.

(Really? You’re not shitting me? How the hell did I do that?)

(I didn’t say a word.)

He ate some more.

- Don’t change it. You really got it. This is really good bread.

- Really? ‘Cause it was easy to do…real easy. The first time I did it it didn’t come out right. I kind of rushed through the rising.

- Dough follows its own schedule, not ours.

- True.

(Well…I didn’t really know it was true…until now.)

He reached for a worn loose-leaf binder that was on a kitchen shelf crowded with binders and cookbooks. The binder was filled with recipes that were carefully sliced from old cooking magazines and newspapers. Each recipe was glued onto typing paper that had holes punched along the edge and then classified according to the type of recipe.

- Read this.

“Crusty French Bread Rolls” by Lauren Groveman.

- I’ll photocopy this.

- Your bread is really good. Just thought you might find this interesting.

- Thanks so much. I really thought I fucked it up. I’ll get this back to you.

I walked back to my home, article in hand, wondering how the heck I made a bread that could impress Joe. I need to be careful. This could become another food obsession. When I started making pizza I became obsessed with it. I started with store-bought dough but eventually graduated to home made dough. I started with misshapen pizza but eventually got it to come out nice and round. And in the process of mastering “round” and home made dough, my family endured pizza on a weekly basis for several months. The results are hanging over my pants belt. I still haven’t lost the weight from all that broccoli pizza; ravioli pizza; spinach pizza; pizza with penne and vodka sauce; pizza with fresh mozzarella and plum tomatoes and plain ol’ cheese pizza. I’m sure I gained ten pounds. Probably more.

So I’m a bit worried about all this bread baking.

- I’m trying it again.

- I know. I smelled the bread from outside.

The dog skittered away as my daughter’s school backpack slid under the kitchen table.

- Take a look at this.

I opened the stove door so we could see how the bread was doing.

It looked wonderful.

It smelled wonderful…and it masked the smell of those damn piles.

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

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If there was ever an award to give out for the most pleasantly aromatic dish then Chicken Marsala would certainly deserve an award. While the Marsala wine lends a wonderful aroma and color to the chicken breast¹ it also adds a delicate flavor. I’m so impressed with the way it transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary that I’ve been adding it to many other dishes. However I’m still not convinced that Pancakes Marsala is going to be a hit anytime soon.

INGREDIENTS

• 6 thinly sliced (or pounded) chicken breasts
• 1 teaspoon of garlic salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• Olive oil (a few tablespoons)
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 cup of fresh sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 cup of Marsala wine

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix the flour, pepper and garlic salt.
2. Dredge each of the chicken breasts and place them on a platter. (Don’t stack the chicken breasts…you don’t want to accidentally remove the flour coating.)
3. Heat up a skillet with about 3 tablespoons of olive oil and the 2 tablespoons of butter. Keep in mind that you will probably need to add a bit more olive oil as you go along since it will get absorbed by the chicken.
   
4. Lightly brown only one side of the chicken breasts and then, when that is done, flip them over and start to lightly brown the other side.
5. Add the mushrooms and keep browning the chicken breasts.
6. When both sides have been browned, pour the wine over the chicken, cover the skillet and simmer for about 10-12 minutes.

NOTE

1. Since the chicken breast is very thin, it doesn’t take long to lightly brown. It’s a judgment call as to how long it takes to brown each side. If the skillet is fairly hot and the chicken breast is about 1/4 inch in thickness then it may not take more than two minutes to lightly brown each side. If you are concerned about undercooked chicken, keep in mind that you will be adding wine and cooking the chicken – at a simmer – for an additional ten minutes. (However, see Note 2 below.)

2. One way I judge when the simmering is done is by standing very close to the skillet, removing the cover and then breathing deeply. If I no longer smell the alcohol from the wine then I know it has simmered long enough.

3. I like to serve this dish with pasta and a nice Italian bread.²

VARIATIONS

1. Substitute veal cutlets for the chicken.
2. Add fresh spinach.

1. Or veal, if you decide to use that instead.
2. What’s a “nice Italian bread”? It is a bread that has a crust with a bit of a crunch but the bread is soft inside. The crust should not be mushy and squeezable.

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Eggplant Rollatini

Two years after I came out of the A.D.D. closet and began to earnestly grapple with that problem, I decided to take over the chore of the family dinner. I started with simple things like chicken fingers and french fries (turn on oven, put in stuff, take out 20 minutes later…tough, no?) then graduated to Swedish meatballs, chicken francese, various forms of pork tenderloin and then…one day…eggplant rollatini. I”m still not sure why I wanted to make that dish. I don”t like eggplant and cooking it required every cooking skill I had acquired (all seven of them ) and lots of patience. The first time it took two hours to do it and I was not thrilled with the results. But by the third time I made it, I had it down to an hour and decided that I did like eggplant…as long as I peeled off the skin and sliced it very thin.

INGREDIENTS

You will be able to get about 20-25 pieces using the quantities listed below.

• 3 cups of plain bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp of chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup of chopped fresh basil
• At least 2 cups of flour
• 4 eggs
• 32 oz of riccota cheese (you can purchase it in this size…so no measuring needed)
• 2 cloves of chopped garlic
• 2 quarts of tomato sauce (if not homemade, then you”ll need about 1 1/2 jars of sauce. I used Barilla marinara sauce and use 1 1/2 jars (26 oz jars))
• 1/3 lb thinly sliced prosciutto
• 1/2 lb mozzarella
• Olive oil
• 2 large eggplants (I used three small eggplants that came from my garden)

DIRECTIONS

1. Cut off the top of the eggplant. If you like, you can peel the eggplant (that’s my preference).
2. Cut thin slices 1/4 inch in thickness or less (I like it real thin). You want to get approximately 20-25 slices.



3. In a large bowl mix the bread crumbs, 1/4 cup of grated cheese, about 2 tbsp of chopped basil and some salt and pepper.
4. In a separate bowl put in the flour.
5. In another bowl put in the eggs and beat well. You may want to do two eggs at a time. When it runs out, add more eggs.
6. Heat up a skillet and add olive oil to a depth of about 1/4 inch or so. Temperature should be medium to high.
7. The procedure is:
   • Dredge the eggplant in the flour.
   • Dip the eggplant in the egg.
   • Dip the eggplant in the breadcrumb mixture.
   • Fry it up till it is just golden brown.
   • Place the fried pieces on a plate that has a paper towel to absorb some of the oil.

   

8. After completing all of the frying, combine the following ingredients in a large bowl: the riccota cheese, the 1/2 cup of grated cheese, 1/4 cup of chopped basil, 1/2 cup of tomato sauce, chopped garlic and 1/4 cup of olive oil. Mix well.



9. Take a baking tray and cover the bottom with a coating of tomato sauce.
10. Here”s the “rolling” procedure:
    • Take a heaping tablespoon of the mixture and place it on a piece of the fried eggplant.
    • Using the back of the spoon, smear it across the eggplant as if you were smearing a thick layer of peanut butter.
    • Place a slice of prosciutto on top.
    • Roll it towards you. Don”t press too hard or the cheese will get pushed out.
    • Place it in the tray with the seam (the point where the two ends of the eggplant meet) facing down.
11. Hang in there…we”re in the home stretch.
12. Slice the mozzarella into thin strips if it is fresh mozzarella or grate it if it is not fresh.
13. Take your tablespoon and run a line of tomato sauce across the top of the rollatini.
14. Place your mozzarella cheese across the top of the rollatini.



15. Bake in a 350 F degree oven for about 15 minutes.

SERVING SUGGESTIONS

1. Give it at least five minutes to cool down after baking. This allows the cheese to re-solidify a bit and not be too runny.
2. This needs some nice Italian bread.

‘

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Nice Pickles!

Making pickles is a great way to use up your surplus cucumbers and green tomatoes. (You never had a pickled tomato? Well, this is your time to try it.). Here’s what you need to get started (in addition to cucumbers and tomatoes).

Ingredients

— 2 quarts of water

—1 quart of vinegar

—1 cup of coarse salt (aka “Kosher” salt)

— 2 peeled garlic cloves per jar

— Optional: if you like things spicy, 2-3 dried red chili peppers per jar

Equipment

— Ball Jars (for the quantity of cucumbers/tomatoes shown below, you’ll need three quart-size jars)

— 4 quart size pot for the brine

— A soup ladle

— Oven mitts

Directions

1. Make the Brine: Put the water, vinegar and kosher salt into your four-quart pot. Bring it to a roiling boil. While that’s coming to a boil…you can go on to the next steps.

2. Wash the Vegetables: Thoroughly clean the vegetables using a dilute solution of water and vinegar. Rinse them off in cold water. Remove any little spikes (prickles on the pickles) that may be on your cucumbers. I do it simply by rubbing my hands on the outside of the cucumber until I’ve removed the spikes and can feel only the bumps.

Cucumber with prickles. Click on image to view an enlarged version.

3. Peel the Garlic: You need two large garlic cloves per jar. If you want a little bit of spice, put in two or three dried red chili peppers along with the garlic cloves. Put these ingredients in the jar before putting in your cucumbers and/or tomatoes.

4. Cut ‘Em and Stuff ‘Em: Here is where creativity pays off. When you have odd-shaped cucumbers such as the one shown below, you’ll want to cut it into spears. Tomatoes, if you decide to pickle them, should be left whole. I usually put in whole cucumbers (I may cut off both ends of the cucumber to get it to fit into the jar) followed by spears to fill in the spaces and then some tomatoes on top.

Cucumbers, tomatoes and Ball Jars

5. Adding the “Secret Sauce”: Bring the jars near the pot of brine. Keep the brine boiling. Ladle in enough brine to come near the top. You want to leave about a half-inch of space on top so the air has someplace to go. You will do this step and the next step one jar at a time. That is, you add the brine to one jar, you seal it, then go onto the next jar.

Leave space on top so the air can escape.

The video below shows the process of adding the “secret sauce.”

6. Seal ‘Em and Store ‘Em, Danno: The tops of Ball Mason Jars have two parts to them – a top lid (the round disk) and the band (the part you twist on). After you have a filled a jar with brine, place a lid on top of the jar and gently screw on one of the bands making it fingertip tight. This requires a gentle touch. You want to keep the lid on, you don’t want it to move around, but it should be tight enough that the jar can seal itself. Put the jar to the side (use your oven mitts if you find it to be too hot to touch) so it can cool down.

Band and lid. This is the underside of the lid. Click on image to enlarge.

Botulism and the Pop

The first time I pickled tomatoes and cucumbers I was terrified of the outcome. I was worried about botulism. However the acidity of the brine, the acidity of an adult’s stomach and the sealing process eliminates the possibility of botulism.

The jars will seal themselves as they cool down. This may take an hour or two. You see the beginnings of the process once you’ve filled the jar with brine (don’t forget that space on top!). The air bubbles will keep rising and, as they escape the jar, they will eventually form a vacuum. You will hear the lid make a popping sound. After two hours you can test the jars by pressing down on the middle of the lid with your thumb. If the lid flexes up and down, it has not sealed. Otherwise…it has sealed. You can then tighten up the band.

Once you have determined that the jar is sealed, place it in the refrigerator. This is where the pickling process really takes place.

Pickle Notes

If you pickled only cucumbers, you can eat the pickles after three days. Of course, the longer they pickle, the more they pick up the flavor of the garlic. I usually wait one week.

If you pickled only tomatoes, they need at least two weeks of pickling before eating. If you try one and they still taste like a tomato, give it an additional week.

If you pickled cucumbers AND tomatoes, you can eat the pickles (cucumbers) after several days or a week. Just ignore the tomatoes and let them sit in the jar for the two-week minimum.

If you added red chili peppers, wait at least one week before eating the pickles. The longer you wait, the spicier they get. I find that three weeks is about the right time.

If a jar doesn’t seal, you’ll need to reheat the brine. This time fill your four-quart pot with plain water, place the jar inside standing upright and bring the water to a boil. You’ll want the jar to sit in that boiling water for at least ten minutes. Use your oven mitts to take the jar out and let it cool again. Sometimes after it cools down you still don’t hear the pop. Push down on the center of the lid. Does it flex or does it stay down? If it stays down, consider it sealed and place in the refrigerator. As a general rule of thumb, if I can’t get it to seal by the third attempt I’ll discard the contents.

If your garlic cloves turn blue, that does not mean you are going to die. Garlic may turn blue or green when it is in an acid. That’s normal.

The "Dimple" that appears when the jar has sealed. I have altered the colors in the image to enhance visibility. You can click on the image to view a larger version.

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INGREDIENTS

* 3 eggs
* 2 cups white sugar
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 2 cups grated zucchini
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease two 9×5 inch loaf pans (PAM spray works fine…and lightly flouring the inside of the greased pan doesn’t hurt).
2. In a large bowl combine eggs, sugar, oil, grated zucchini and vanilla. Beat well. Stir in the flour (you might want to sift it in), baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Fold in the chocolate chips and then pour the batter into the greased loaf pans.
3. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes. Check doneness by inserting a toothpick which, when pulled out, should be clean. Since there is melted chocolate in there, you’ll need to poke the loaf in a few different places till you get only batter as opposed to chocolate.
4. When done let it cool for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes you’ll then be able to get it out of the loaf pan. Then let it thoroughly cool. When completed cooling you can wrap it in aluminum foil and place in the refrigerator.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Right after removing it from the loaf pan, it is still warm. This is the OPTIMAL time to cut a few slices for yourself just to make sure that you cooked it correctly.

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INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 2 cups chicken broth (Two small cans (14.5 oz) of College Inn Chicken Broth will do. Stay away from light/fat-free broths…they are as tasty as tap water.)
• Salt and pepper to taste.
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in some cold water. (You may find that you need another tablespoon of cornstarch.)

DIRECTIONS

1. Coat the chicken with flour, then the egg beat, then saute in oil (olive oil is fine) a large skillet until almost cooked through. Chicken should be a very light brown in color. “Doneness” is a function of how thin you sliced the chicken. Place cooked chicken in a large, deep platter.

2. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. (Don’t forget to remove anything you store in your oven BEFORE turning it on.)

3. In a medium saucepan (2-quart is about right) combine the wine, broth, salt and pepper to taste, butter or margarine and lemon juice over medium low heat. Stir together while heating slowly. When butter or margarine has melted, slowly stir in cornstarch until sauce thickens slightly.

A Cornstarch Trick: Always dissolve the cornstarch is in a small quantity of water and then pour that mixture into the saucepan. Doing it this way prevents lumps from forming.

4. Pour sauce on the chicken. (You placed it in that oven-safe deep dish…right?)

5. Bake at 300 degrees F for about 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

Options/Variations

Spinach: Fresh spinach is a great addition. Cover the chicken with as much spinach as you can get into your dish. Fresh spinach will tend to spring back up so push it down on the chicken to sort of flatten it out. Pour the sauce over it…then bake. The spinach will absorb a lot of that lemony flavor. Fish or Shrimp: You can substitute a mild fish – tilapia, catfish – or shrimp. The fish, of course, will require a gentle hand when turning over to saute. Be warned that if the fish is over baked it will tend to fall apart. Don’t use precooked shrimp.

Additional Comments

1. This tastes great reheated so save those leftovers.

2. This recipe scales well…I’ve cooked it for twenty people.

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Never Give Up, Never Surrender – Commander Peter Quincy Taggart

Some anecdotal data suggests that ADHDers may exhibit a pig-headed determination to never give up until they feel they have mastered a particular skill. Whether that is an ADHD trait or not, nonetheless, after a few months of pizza making and a minimum five pound weight gain, I’ve reached the “I’ve mastered it” point with my pizza making skills. I went from using baking sheets and parchment paper to using a baking stone. Now the crust is superb. I went from using a rolling pin and lots of cursing to stretching the dough just right. Now my pizza is round. I even got the total prep time for various toppings – grating cheese, cutting onions and tomatoes, pepperoni, etc. – down to about 40 minutes. (Disclaimer: This does not include the time required for the dough to rise.) Probably a few months from now I’ll make my own pizza dough but, heck, how much can one person do?

I hope the pictures and video inspire you to make your own pizza. Don’t be discouraged if your first few attempts look like some misshapen trapezoid. (Here’s an example of my trapezoid pizza.) It will still taste great.

Ingredients:

• Pizza Dough (I use store-bought dough)
• Tomato Sauce (I use Barilla Tomato & Basil)
• Mozzarella Cheese (I use PollyO whole milk)
• White flour (for dusting the dough and the work surface)
• Corn meal (for dusting the pizza peel)

Equipment:

• An oven. (duh!) But, see photos at the end of this post because you can also cook the pizza using your baking stone and a gas grill.
• Baking Stone
• Pizza Peel
• Pizza Cutter

Directions:

• If you are using store-bought dough, allow it to sit out for at least two hours. You want it to double in size before using it. (If you are using home-made dough…you’ll still want it to double in size.)
• If you are using a baking stone, place it in the oven while the oven is cold. Then set the oven temperature for 450 degrees F. This should be done when you are ready to stretch the dough. The time it takes to stretch it, add sauce, cheese and any toppings is usually enough time for the oven to heat up.
• Your work surface should have a small amount of white flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the work surface and your hands.
• Stretch the dough. (See the video) Stretching it is a combination of using your hands – at the beginning of the process – to get the dough to stretch. But after a minute or so the weight of the dough starts to do the work of stretching.
• When you have a circle about 14 inches in diameter, momentarily leave your dough on your work surface and then prep your pizza peel. Put a generous amount of corn meal on the pizza peel. Then place the dough on the peel and start the next part of the process.
• Create a crust around the pizza. In the video I pinch the dough between my hands (I mistakenly say in the video “between my fingers”). Use whatever technique you are most comfortable with. The crust keeps the sauce from running all over the place.
• Put about two heaping tablespoons of sauce on the dough and spread it out.
• Time for the cheese. I use about 8 ounces of mozzarella cheese for each pizza.
• Even if the oven is at the right temperature, wait another five minutes before putting in the pizza. This is to make sure that the stone is nice and hot.
• Slide the pizza off of the peel and onto the stone. (I’m assuming you opened the oven door.)  Set a timer for 15 minutes. After approximately five minutes, peek inside and look for bubbles. They may get quite large. Poke them with a knife to get them to deflate.
• When the pizza is ready I pull the pizza onto the peel. Use whatever technique is most comfortable for you.
• Allow the pizza to cool for five minutes before cutting it. Use a good pizza cutter. They are not expensive.

Tomatoes & Onions on the left - Pepperoni on the right

Close up - Tomatoes and Onions

Close up - Pepperoni

Cooking pizza on a grill. This grill has three burners. All are set to low. That puts the temperature at about 450-500 degrees F.

Pizza...fresh from the grill. Those tomatoes come straight from my garden. I used about five small plum tomatoes and half of a medium size onion.

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Chocolate chip pancakes are extraordinarily easy to make and healthy too. It’s the perfect food that combines the essential building blocks of life: pancakes, eggs, milk and chocolate.

I start with a box of Aunt Jemima® Original Pancake Mix and Nestle’s® Chocolate Chips. The quantities of milk, eggs, etc. is dependent on the number of pancakes you intend to make. Follow the instructions on the back of the box.

INGREDIENTS (See back of pancake box for exact quantities)

1 box of pancake mix
Milk (Whole milk or skim)
Eggs
Vegetable Oil
1 package of chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Heat up a griddle while mixing the batter according to the directions on the back of the box. Add one or two handfuls of the chips to the batter. Use a soup ladle to pour out the batter onto the griddle. Carefully note the texture of the just poured batter. When it starts to look a bit dry (there will also be bubbles in the pancake) it is time to turn it over. You can use a spatula to peak underneath to see if the pancake is golden brown and ready to be flipped over. When both sides are brown…that pancake is done.

Since it is more than likely that you can only cook a few pancakes at a time, you might want to stack them on a warm plate. To increase the health benefits of this breakfast I like to put additional chocolate chips between each pancake in the stack.

VARIATIONS

1. Add a mashed banana to the pancake batter. Remember: the riper the banana the sweeter the banana.
2. Serve with whipped cream on top of the pancakes.

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