Bar Cookies and Miss Sophie

Allow me to introduce to you my dear friends, Teri Bell! She is the owner of Miss Sophies restaurant, caterer, and a columnist to Savannah Morning News. She is so gracious to include my food photos along with her great weekly article and recipes to our local newspaper. So stay tuned for her weekly scrumptious write ups and my photos!

Here is Teri's last week's article, along with food photos by yours truly.....

Miss Sophie: New recipes raise the bar on pan-baked classics like brownies and lemon bars

Everybody has seen them, everybody loves them and there is an infinite number of recipes for them. They are the shining stars at church socials, family reunions and neighborhood picnics. Known simply as bar cookies, these small wonders can range from simple to complex, and they boast of a repertoire that includes such classic favorites as brownies, Rice Krispy treats and lemon bars. To continue.....click here.

Pizza Making Party with the Girl Scouts and Recipes

A few weeks ago, a fellow homeschooling mom and leader of the Savannah Girl Scouts troop (#30273) contacted me to see if I would be willing to give a tour of my church's kitchen to the girls. I was delighted for the opportunity!

Independent Presbyterian Church is located just across from the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of Girl Scout USA. It is a common sight on Bull Street to see troops paying a visit to their beloved founder's home year around.

Since it wouldn't take but several minutes to tour the IPC kitchen, I thought it would be fun to make some homemade pizzas and surprise the girls with a special dessert using their famous cookies.

Choose your favorite topping! (I told the girls the most interesting pizza I've eaten was topped with squid and garlic!) From plain cheese to pepperoni, roasted peppers and onions, we all had a great time talking and assembling our own personalized pizzas.

It's just something about cooking and sharing food together...memories are made and friendships forged. I've made more friendships through cooking in the kitchen than anywhere else!

After devouring our pizzas, we had our Girl Scout Cookie Cake Bars! Girl Scout Samosas and Tagalongs can be used as toppings for this recipe. Many thanks to Kevin and Amanda for this super easy and yummy recipe!

Girl Scout Tagalong (or Samosa) Cookie Cake Bar by Kevin and Amanda

For Recipe and beautiful step-by-step photos, Click Here

Homemade Pizzas

*I usually triple this recipe for my family of 6 so we have left overs. These pizzas are great re-heated in toaster oven!

Print This Recipe!

Simple Pizza Crust

Makes 1 large or 4-6" personalized pizza crusts

1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups bread flour, more for dusting
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F, lower the oven rack to bottom third

In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water, using your hand.

Stir in flour and salt and knead until smooth, 4-5 minutes. Dough should be supple and not sticky. Form it to a smooth ball, place it in a bowl greased with 2 tablespoon of olive oil.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double in size.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and stretch or roll into a round. If the dough is hard to stretch or roll, let rest for a minute. Resume stretching to the size to fit your pan or make personalized pizzas.

Place a sheet of parchment paper over a baking pan. Lay stretched dough discs on paper.

Spoon on marinara sauce (recipe below), spread with desired toppings and bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes (longer if making a large pizza) , or until golden brown. Let baked pizza cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Simple Marinara Sauce

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, grated
1/2 teaspoon dried organo
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried pepper flakes
1 (32-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
1 dried bay leaves

1/4 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

In a large casserole pot, heat the oil over a medium heat. Add the garlic, dried oregano, basil, pepper flakes and sauté garlic and herbs until just beginning to sizzle and heat. Add the crushed tomatoes, bay leaf and grated parmesan cheese, and simmer uncovered over low heat until the sauce thickens, about 45 minutes. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Season the sauce with more salt and pepper to taste.

Recipe can be doubled. Portion the sauce and freeze in quart-size bags for future use.

Eat Your Veggies

As a little girl in Korea, I ate lots of fresh vegetables, mostly because it was more abundant than meat or fish. The vegetable sides prepared Korean style are crunchy and flavorful, usually quickly blanched in hot water, cooled, then seasoned or sautéed. I remember the shock my young palate went through when I first tasted canned peas: soft and mushy, with a strange flavor that still lingers in my memory. Since my first unpleasant encounter with canned peas as a little girl, I carefully avoided eating and serving canned vegetables since then.

Though fresh vegetables are always preferred, when serving a large crowd on a low budget and a small kitchen staff, frozen vegetables are wonderful option .

Sautéed frozen peas with onions (or shallots if you want to get fancy).

Frozen whole green beans can be sautéed with canola oil on a hot griddle. Have a mixture of salt, pepper, and granulated garlic ready. Season to taste.

Frozen broccoli.

Quick stir frying is the key with all the frozen vegetables (coated with a bit of oil and seasoning). The inside of the veggies will be still cold, which is fine since you will finish heating in the oven.

Frozen broccoli exudes a lot of water. After a quick sauté, put broccoli in a large colander and let water let drain for 5 minutes before putting them in a steam pan.

Sautéed Frozen Vegetable Options

Green Beans

Peas

Broccoli

Optional: diced and sautéed onions or shallots add great flavor!

Equal part of salt, ground pepper, and granulated garlic

Canola oil for sautéing

Special Equipment: 4-burner griddle

Heat griddle high heat, until smoking point. Drizzle canola oil to coat lightly. Put frozen veggie of your choice, sprinkle salt/pepper/granulated garlic mixture to taste. Coat and quickly sauté veggies for 2-3 minutes so the edges of the vegetables are browned. Transfer into a full-size steam pan. Stir vegetables and season with more salt and pepper as needed. Cover with foil until ready to heat.

Preheat oven to 350 deg. F

1 hour before serving, heat the vegetables in oven. Depending on the amount of vegetables in the steam pan, 25-45 minutes until just heated through. Stir half way through cooking time. For colorful vegetable medley as pictured above, add sautéed onions and tri-color peppers at half way point and finish heating.

To serve vegetable medley for 300 (portioned and served)

28 lbs of frozen broccoli

12 lbs of frozen green beans

6 large white onions, julienne

18 tri-color peppers, cored & julienne

To add flavor, I added 2 cups of fresh chopped Thai Basil right before serving

Canola Oil

Equal parts of salt, pepper, granulated garlic (not garlic powder) to taste